Tikona Fort - 28~29th July

Tikona

One more week one more trek. Gosh life was never so good! I owe this one to Rahul who pulled through on special request from me to have a trek which was never planned to begin with. However I do admit after the fun I had in Rajmachi and Naneghat/Jeevdhan trip, I was a bit apprehensive about how great this one would be. Rahul had said its an easy trek and the group was smaller with most of the regulars not present. Now I know I shouldn’t have had an iota doubt that with a group like Moronz there could ever be a dull trip.. It was fun/games and adventure all the way.

Start:

Meetup at Dadar, soon made apparent that this time atleast the crowd was much smaller. Around 12 of us, Amol, Saurabh, Sunil, Kajal, Raksha, Kern, Bertram, Niel, Prema, Pam, Rahul and myself metup at dadar, to get the ‘slowest train in the world’ – Pandharpur ‘fast’ passenger. Kajal a hobby Skier who’s been to Himalayas and Gulmarg for Skiing trips was very amused that Rahul had told her on the phone, to ‘not carry her handbag’ (I assume to mean her vanity kit ;-) ) She was quick to point out, that Rahul missed telling her not to wear high heel sandals! With Kerns wallet lost and soon found, my much awaited upgrade to Lamp post category complete we finally caught the train.

Train Ride:

Thanks to people sleeping at every occupied portion of the floor and seats, our climbing practice started immediately in simply trying to meander our way around the train and to reach the upper rack and settle ourselves-in albeit with due protests from my bums, on wooden racks. However the journey was sans songs this time, since Rahul didn’t have much company amongst us for singing. Mallik / Kalpesh and the rest of moronic warbler’s presence was sourly missed. Even Jhanki’s sad song radio would have been warmly welcomed in this situation J . However Rahul did have some tales that sent chill up our spine. Rest of you guys should remind him to tell you about some of the supernatural encounters he’s had. Also his work in rescue team and number of accidents he’s witnessed was a subduing thought. Caution guys, we go for treks to have fun, hope Moronz don’t ever entertain any show off / over confident behavior!

My first and last Rajakhaini-

Amol was explaining Tobacco Masala pudi with lime that someone had hung on the fan. My curiosity piqued, when later I was alone sitting at the door of the train, a guy came asking me about whether Karjat, had passed or not. Having satisfied his query, I started up conversation in my broken down, almost non-existent Marathi with him Soon out came his Rajakhaini and Lime and he started mixing it with typical thumb on palm motion. How was I to pass off such glorious opportunity. I immediately asked for a fix myself. Learning how to mix Lime paste and Rajakhaini ( should be 1:2 proportion, I made a mistake of making it 1:1) I soon had what seemed lime mouthful logged between my cheek and teeth. YUCKS! The taste was too strong. The tobacco very very bitter. Within no time I was hiccupping like crazy. Not to lose face and seem like a novice I tried to continue chewing away while chatting with him like nothing was wrong. But my face must have made the story very clear, because that guy was soon telling me “thukun taka” spit it out, in Marathi. I gladly complied, but already was feeling completely light headed, with stomach performing acrobatics that I’m sure its not supposed to. I do wonder at all the glorious gutka chewing generations in India. Wonder how they manage it!

5 star accommodation:

Khamset arrival was finally at around 3~3:30 in morning, exactly as Rahul had predicted. You gotta hand it out to him for knowing his business, about timing he’s more often than not on the dot. Soon he pointed out our five star accommodation on the platform. Nice benches laid out to serve as our beds. Of course we had Bats and occasional high speed trains making all the rukus in the world as company. Soon settled down I decided to introduce our 20 questions game to Amol, Kajal, Pam, Saurabh, Sunil and Rahul. It helped us while away time what with PAM coming up with interesting answers to our questions. She’d thought of Tinkerbell as a challenge. Having said yes to my query about whether it was an animal she’d thought of, I asked her if it was a mamal and she said yes. Than we asked her whether it could be domesticated and again a MAYBE!!! Having set us on such an interesting tangent to her challenge, she proceeded to demand a cracker from each of us if we don’t get the answer. Finally after much fighting and amusement at her answers, we disqualified her clue. Demands to disqualify the challenges and the answers due to varying reasons soon became very much part of the game as we played it.

To Tikona:

Early morn 5 o’clock we setoff for point in Khamset where we were to get the Jeep. By around 6:00 one of the shops opened and just as we had ordered the breakfast, jeep arrived. We had to cancel the breakfast, and Rahul promised us that on the way to Tikona we’d have it. Indeed after some time we had halted at last rest stop I think it was Kale Colony, on the way to Tikona. Initially it seemed that none of the cafeteria could serve us anything this early in morning. However luckily we managed to find one who made fresh Gol Bhajiya for us and than potato Wadas with fresh pav, dry red chatni and freshly fried green chillies… yumm!. Although the place was swarming with mosquitoes we stayed on for sake of the breakfast. Interestingly gals were unsuccessful in finding a suitable Loo and it seemed the need was dire. I managed to bribe one boy in a shop with attached house and a dish tv dish with 10 rs. to let them use the bathroom. Initially even this guy said they didn’t have a toilet, but an old man who’d been sitting in his shop had already let the cat out of the bag. Money may not be everything, but it does open doors to many a Loo was my lesson for the day!

Tikona-

Back to the jeep and soon by 9:30 I think we were at start point. The dirt track leading to the base of the mountain was heavily muddy and reminded me of much deeper muck we faced at night on the way to Rajmachi. Climb to Tikona was surprisingly smooth and fast, although on last patch it’s a bit of an effort. In this climate the underbrush was thick and brimming with vegetation. Sort of reminded me of discovery channel shots of Amazonian expeditions. Kajal mentioned leeches, than said Tikona is not supposed to be Leech territory like Matheran. Like Matheran! I was wondering to myself. Next time I’d better be careful when I go to Matheran. Initially just the height seemed daunting but it’s a straight vertical climb all the way through thick underbrush. By the time you emerge out in light in about half an hour you are way high and wondering how you reached there. The view was glorious. Clouds drifting around the peak heads all around us, it was that fulfilling and enriching part of the climb that makes all the effort, travelling and climbing really worth it. Soon we were at the cave that Rahul had originally mentioned in one of his stories. Now part of it has been converted into a temple by an enterprising old priest, who started doing pooja, and setting up fire outside in havan etc, obviously for our benefit. The break gave Rahul a chance to open his Chai ki tapdi. We had great tea, and so did some of the other trekers who chanced upon us and partook of Rahul’s generosity. Again we started climbing, and were startled to realize that the fort that we had thought we’d already reached was just an embankment. The real top was much much higher up.

On the way up, we reached one of those slippery set of, seemingly of a questionable value steps that seem to crop up everywhere in these forts. One terrifying incident had my heart thumping. As we were climbing there was a bit of shouting and a huge thud and a ‘lookout’ cry from higher up. We were on the stairs, and Kern etc were leading. There was much back and forth are you okey’s before we realized that a big stone at edge was dislodged when Kern must have tried to lean or step on it to see the view down. Luckily no one was directly below the stone’s path, although Rahul and Saurabh had not yet begun climbing and given a slightly different landscape would have been in huge potential danger. Moral of the story “Loose stone pose huge danger to rest of the group following you on way up, or guys ahead of you on the way down. It is not only for own personal safety, but also as a responsibility towards the rest of the group that we ought to be careful to the point of being paranoid. Rather safe than sorry guys, things happen in flicker of a second and that loud thud and shouts were not pleasant at all to hear”

Tikona around 3580 ft high, seems to have 2 layer fort on top. First one is the cave and some embankments. The cave has a small pond near it, which the priest says is for his drinking water, so although we can have water for drinking, he’d rather not, that we use it for washing and stuff. The higher part is through some high steps and the peak has nice plateau with view of Tung a magnificent peak just across the Lake, and Lohgad and Visapur towads the north. There are also around 2~3 gates and a Shiva temple on top. Rahul said there are some snakes in a pond near Shiva temple, but at that time we couldn’t find any. Infact he even went searching for snakes at Khamset station but luckily for us, we didn’t come across any.

Dangerous Down –

We started back at around 10:30 since Our jeep was going to come and pick us up at 12:30 at the base. We had taken circuitous route up from the other side of the mountain. Way down Rahul decided to take us through a more direct incline, which would take us directly to the base point. However he’d warned us to be extremely careful. The downwards journey was a bit of a problem since it was drizzling on and off and route was extremely slippery. The steps itself were a challenge for some of us, Rahul asked the gals to follow him first. At the risk of preaching and without naming names, I’d like to point out that there were some in the group who simply wouldn’t listen to him. Firstly they weren’t able to climb down and were slipping too much posing a grave danger to themselves. Than they refused to take position as per Rahul’s instructions and insisted on following way behind. Since I was asked to bringup the middle and Amol the rear, we both indicated to him that it wasn’t possible for us to do, if someone simply wanted to lag behind and follow on their own. He was quite pissed and even said that he will have to make it a point in future to not allow such attitude, since he was responsible for everyone’s safety. Infact early on we had one more huge shock. We were climbing down, when Prema suddenly missed a step and fell forward. It happened right below in full view of us all and danger was apparent for all of us to see.. Luckily there was enough space for her to right herself, but we were on a climb down and that fall was a dangerous one. Initially we thought , she may have sprained her ankle, luckily it was not so. But that was again a very very disturbing incident. Guys trekking is fun, but falling would NEVER be fun. Lots of people take slipping for granted. My take on it is, I never intend to slip if I can help it, and falling is not an option.

A bit of a way down back near the temple, we came across a group who’d just come up the way we were planning to go down. Seemingly newbies, they were extremely critical of our decision to go down that way. They said its not possible to negotiate it in the rain. Ofcourse we put our faith in Rahuls ability and knowledge of terrain, and at retrospect, I can safely say, hike would not have been half as fun if we’d taken the safer path.

As Robert Frost said it so eloquently

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference


Or as I would like to put it in my not as eloquent and profound words:

The journey of life begins now,
The path we take defines how,
Better live it to the fullest we can,
For, better or worse, it’s soon gonna end.

Anyway the path was sufficiently steep to merit Rahul, to go ahead first with Kajal and Pam since, Prema was still following behind. He made us wait, until he first reached Kajal and Pam to a safer spot and left his bag there and was aback to escort Prema and Raksha ( who I certainly don’t think needed any guidance. She’s more nimble than many of us). Soon we guys were following, and with Niel also slipping multiple times and Prema having similar problems the route was indeed a challenge for us. But again as a group we all pulled through. The hold that Jet group treker had shown Sneha ( I’d observed), while climbing Jeevdhan, which was palm wrapped against the wrist to wrist hand hold rather than palm to palm came in quite handy when I was guiding Prema down across some of the more slippery parts. The route was a mix between slippery slopes of Rajmachi, and rocky climb down Jeevdhan. There were rock patches to be negotiated with a bit of rock climbing too. Not as bad as Jeevdhan but challenging nevertheless, specially since it had been drizzling throughout the day, although it didn’t begin to rain till we reached down.

When we finally made it to the ridge we were elated. Rahul kept asking us whether we could see the flag on Tikona. I looked back and couldn’t see.. It was after a while we realized that what we were looking at was infact just one plateau on the way top to Tikona. And that the fort was actually way up somewhere… There were cries of sheer amazement and disbelief at this realization. We couldn’t believe it, how much we’d climbed down. I was surprised to know that it was already around 11:50 and we’d taken almost 1:30 hours to get down. The time passed so fast, in all the excitement, it really felt like just half an hour.

Beyond the ridge again there was challenging route through really sleeky slippery mud of around 15~20 mins till we reached the flat track back to jeep. Kajal’s shoes seemed to have mind of their own on the muddy slipper part and we had an amusing and exciting way back. My new Action floaters were blessing and a bane throughout the trek. Although they were giving me nice grip on the ground, Sole of my feet simply would slide towards the front at every step due to sleeky mud that would coat the inside part of the floaters. So although they were allowing me a grip on the ground, the grip of the floaters itself was too big a challenge and I probably would advice anyone buying floaters to buy ones with ridges on top side also. Also my experiment with a big umbrella instead of windcheeter has a mixed bag reaction. Although carrying around a huge umbrella is fun in the beginning while negotiating rocky parts it becomes quite a pain since it tiesup one of your hand. Also during rain its usefulness is questionable because on slopes etc you can’t open it, while on the trek after some time of opening it your hands get tired. All in all for an easy trek like Tikona, an umbrella wasn’t so bad, but on more difficult ones, I’d prefer to have a windcheeter handy, and if at all umbrella is needed, a smaller one, able to fit into the bag would be better. Problem with windcheeter is that even with it you tend to get quite wet and if you’re not going to get a chance to change clothes like it happened in rajmachi and naneghat to me, being wet and cold throughout the night is a nightmare.

Back to Mumbai-

We had nice lunch at Rangoli on the highway. We ordered Paneer Masala, Veg Kohlapuri, Dal Tadka and Mutter masala. And while the waiting for food, finished off plates of Onions, papad, and I was down to licking salt, while Amol was sucking Limbus, when food arrived. But after the trek food seemed heaven sent and we tucked in with Gusto.

Although initial plan had been to take a local train back to lonavala and than an Asiad back to Mumbai, luckily Rahul had a much better idea. Knowing that both Local and Asiad would be crowded, he decided to try our luck at highway with a Tempo or a bus etc. Soon enough the moment we went onto the highway we got a nice tempo which gave us a very comfortable ride back home.

‘Teen tigdi, Kam bigdi’
Tikona did indeed round off nicely my third weekend with Moronz and three treks. Hence I think there is indeed some rich symbolism in the name of the chosen destination for the last trek, Tikona meaning 3 sides, since the peak is triangular, and my going for this one almost seems like a Destiny.
Ofcourse these treks have ignited a passion for trekking in me, and I hope to be able to keep coming back for more and more treks with the Moronz. Meanwhile I’ll be missing all my Moronic friends and following all the latest updates on the site.