CHANDRAGAD – ARTHUR’S SEAT TREK

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Pune, Maharashtra, India, Republic of (Free-Press-Release.com) October 27, 2010 -- CHANDRAGAD – ARTHUR’S SEAT TREK

-Zeenat Sikilkar

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, as the clock struck One on the 2nd of October, I was busy watching television at home when I suddenly heard my mobile ring. It was my trek mate Priti, who was curious to know if I’d be game enough for an impromptu trek. Considering that I was already quite bored sitting at home, I agreed at once without even sparing a thought about our destination and without wanting to know who else would be accompanying us on this adventure. She did leave me with two options to choose from-A moderate trek or a tough one. Well, as Saturday was almost over and since I had to get in early to work on Monday morning (for my E-Cell meet); I thought that devoting a Sunday to a moderate trek would do me good. However, a quick poll that afternoon revealed that the majority preferred a Tough trek instead, which was okay for me too, for when it comes to trekking, I’m always ready to play-“Kuch bhi , Kaise bhi, Kabhi bhi”!

So we quickly drew up a plan and booked our vehicle by Six O’clock that evening. Our plan required us to travel by a private vehicle from Dadar at 10:30pm and as I stay in Lonavala and Vishal & Kedar were accompanying us on the adventure from Pune, it was decided that we three would rendezvous in Panvel instead. The alternative was to go directly to Dhawale (the base village from Pune) but rather than dividing the group in two, we planned to join the others in Panvel instead and move together towards Mahableshwar by taking the NH17 route. The adventure demanded that we go to Arthur’s Seat-A point in Mahableshwar well known as Suicide Point, then descend to Shelarwadi and if time permits, we would also trek Chandragad and descend to the base village Dhawale before finally returning to Dadar.

So Priti and Kedar(this one from Mumbai, who just happens to share his first name with our trek mate from Pune, not to mention his passion for trekking and adventure!) accompanied Kishor and Saurabh, as they all started from Dadar at Ten-Thirty that evening and did rendezvous with us at Panvel at about 11.45pm .

It was then that Priti called for a change in plans, highlighting the challenges in hiring a guide for the trail starting from Arthur’ss Seat-The services of a Guide were essential as the team had only one day (Sunday) to navigate through the long and arduous route covered in a maze of dense forests and maneuvering through the thick vegetation post monsoons made it even more challenging, as the possibilities of getting lost in the woods were plenty! And so we did modify our plans to suit the need of the hour for our plan now was to travel first to Dhawale instead and then trek along Chandragad before completing the trek by ascending to Arthur’s seat, a.k.a. the Suicide point. And so the magnificent Seven proceeded to Dhawale with the driver, who, by the way, had no idea of what we were up to!

We traveled to the base village, Shelarwadi which was a few kilometers away from the diversion on the Poladpur – Mahableshwar highway-A wretched road where even the State Transport buses don’t dare to venture, for they only travel till Dhawale and one would then need to walk for about 20 minutes to reach Shelarwadi.

Thanks to the efficient signboards and the very useful milestones along the way, we managed to reach Dhawale at around 5am on beautiful Sunday morning. After a quick One hour rest followed by some interesting and tactful negotiations with the locals from Shelarwadi, we finally managed to hire a guide for Rs. 600/- to guide us to Chandragad and up to Ghumti which is approximately an hour and a half hrs before Arthur’s Seat (a.k.a. the Suicide point). He declined to accompany us any further because then it would be too late in the evening for him to trek back home.

We started our trek to Chandragad which looked impressive, although the climb was a fair one-It was steep and slippery with many rock patches. A point came when we all found ourselves completely drained and so we decided to rest for a while and take some photographs instead-Trekmates style. And, me being my usual self, climbed on to a rock and upon a small tree and rested in its shade. I then happened to look below, keeping a keen eye out for a perfect photo-opportunity and to my amazement; I was shocked to find that the location from where I had climbed up was almost a vertical valley! Ahead lay an entire vertical rock of approximately 10feet in height and it looked more like a watch-tower than a Fort!

More visit : http://zeesaya.wordpress.com/2010/10/27/chandragad-–-a…ur’s-seat-trek/