Escape to Matheran!

I had already drafted a somewhat melancholy poem(which reflected my mood the past 2 weeks)and was searching for words, when my friend, Santhanu, and myself decided to go for trekking to Matheran(at an altitude of 800m), about 120 kms from Pune, the past weekend.The best thing about Pune is that there are so many numerous places around here where you can escape to, away from the maddening urban crowd.With Lonavala, Khandala and Mahabaleshwar being places where peace and quiet is a rare commodity,we rounded up on Matheran (meaning head covered with trees).Also, with motor vehicles not allowed within the town,we would also not have to worry about blaring music, screeching wheels, irritating horns, polluted air... and like stuff(Hmmmm....some of you maybe wondering...these guys wanna become monks or something!!).

So we set out at 3:30 on a Saturday by a local train, changed trains twice(must tell you, the train journey from Lonavala to Karjath is amazing!!What with tunnels and waterfalls and the stuff!!), caught a taxi and reached Matheran at 8 in the night!!As we got out of our taxi, we were hounded by cottage owners...well for one thing, a cottage here (most of them!!)is not a colonial bungalow, with a garden and on the edge of a cliff!!No..no..no!!!Ours was a single bedroom witha toilet with a commode which is neither Western nor Indian, but a mixture of both without a seat(called locally as Anglo-Indian!!)Let me warn you that precise balance is required for doing your stuff!Anyway we followed one of these owners to his "cottage".

Before reaching our dreary lodgings, we had to walk through an abandoned mountain railway track!!This was supposed to be a short cut, but with the thick fog(which engulfs the city and leaves a visibility of les than 10 feet) and only 2 torch lights (Thank heavens we bought a torch) and a slippery, muddy ground, travelling wasn't too easy!!However, The shock we got was on the next day, when while travelling by the same route, we realized that to one side of the track were places where there was a sheer drop of 50 feet and more and a thick jungle on the other side, which our guide book mentioned was frequented by serpents, wild cats and panthers!!Also at night, the ground and also the walls of shops are filled with tiny frogs, who seem to have only one aim in life..to hop from one point to another and back!!

Next day saw us getting up at 6:30(unseen time for a long while!!) and start trekking to Sunrise point.We reached the point at 8:15...it was great with one side of the mountain emblazed in sunlight, and the other side clouded in mist.There was also this fountain(of course it was not working!!) with the sculpture of a small child in the middle!!In front was a craggy, peak which we promptly named as Hogwarts(the distant peak in the pic). With its head hidden in the clouds,this peak can be viewed from most of the points in Matheran and has a mysterious aura round it.Hope I can scale that peak someday!!!

We travelled to more than 6 points with colourful names like--Coronation point, Louisa point(it's me in the last pic in the blog),Mount Barry etc.We rounded up our trek at Lake Charlotte, which provides water to the whole city!!On the way we met lots of monkey, with my friend attacking or actually getting attacked by one at Monkey Point, cause it had suddenly taken a liking for our bag..it was a great fight, with the result being a tie!!After this, don't think any monkeys will be visiting Monkey point for some time!!We trekked around 20+ kms and the last leg of the journey was completed on horse back..I managed to do a 360 degrees turn on my horse, called Superior, which made me feel really inferior as I had no control on it ..it took me wherever it felt it should!!

Reached back Pune at 8 in the evening,but not before the long trek and lack of food caught up with me and left me retching and nauseous!!However a dinner of idlies, was enough to get me back into the right spirits!!The guide book says that when the rains start, tourists start leaving Matheran ASAP....think I will go then!!

You got to make your own tracks, you see!!!