This is one of the few occasions when i desperately want to pen down clutter in my head but i have no strength. Rest of the time it’s my head which is boneless. It took me 48 hours to start using my fingers again after the rock climbing on irshalgad.
It began Saturday 11.28 pm VT. All the trek members were getting in to the train at various stations from VT to kalyan. By the time we reached karjat it was quite a mix of crowd from seasoned climbers to people with "iam_actually_a_newyorker" expression.
It was 2.30 am and we taken a halt at Mr. Pardesi's porch for the night. I later came to know, he charged 10 rs per person for stay and breakfast. It reassured my belief about gujrati's competitive businessmanship. Its too tempting to write further on Mr. Pardesi and his services but i will preserve him for another post.
Bus stops at "chowk fata", birth place of shivaji's warrior netaji palkar, and we all got down looking fresh and ready for the mission. As bus moved ahead, frame in front of us was replaced with full scale landscape of mountains, and you could distinctly figure out crown shape irshalgad standing tall among them. "That’s where we are heading", the leader shouted and we started marching.
It was about an hour we were walking now. As you keep moving on the tar road, into the farms, over the tracks you realize the difference between searching "A-145, Dickson tower, Tommy lane" and heading to some thing that have only huge rocks to their identity.
We reached another small village probably section of the same village "chowk" known as "Irshalwadi". We drank water, ate carrots and refilled our bottles with water from village. We fetched around 15 bottles in 20 Rs. thats little more then what you pay for distilled mineral water, Mr Pardesi scores here.
As you move ahead from the Irshalwadi, You will see a small idol of godess vishaldevi, it appears like hanuman idol at first. Probably the name irshalgad is by her name, as its common to pronounce "Vi" as "E", particularly in interiors of maharashtra. But thats my theory.
From here there won't be any more houses or huts to fetch more water from, we started walking little faster, landscape was getting straighter and the crown shape "irshalgad" was appearing more like a deadly weapon now.
We reached right at the bottom of the huge rock from where the last lap for "irshalgad" begins. Deadly human like rocks looking over you, makes you think about your amateur adventure. It takes around 45 minutes to climb these 50 odd feet’s, most difficult so far. We reach Nedhe on the fort. Nedhe, means a natural hole in the mountain rocks created by force of high flying winds. Winds flow with so much of force here, you understand the meaning of Nedhe quite instantly.
We crossed on to the other side of nedhe and landed up on a narrow patch of flat grassy land, we were on the top now. You get to see Prabalgad towards north, Manikgad, Karnala, Songiri westwards and Matheran hill range in the east. Patalganga river and small dam between Irshalgad and Matheran. Irshalgad must be a key location for Shivaji's forces to monitor this part of the territory.
We ate our lunch while three professional climbers from our team were putting nails and ropes in the rock we were suppose to climb. Everybody started climbing the rock with rope and trainers on both the ends as rest of us sat in front of the rock waiting for our turns. We sat almost for 2 hours in blazing sun, the rock started appearing like face of hindu god "ganesha". As per hindu mythology to get an appointment with god it takes standing on one leg for years and not to loose your concentration to half naked seductress like mallika sherawat dancing in front of you. This wasn't entirely similar but definitely had desperation of same scale.
In the end of this drill everybody was looking like some kind of a rock, it was definitely different from the crowd which boarded the train last night. This is what nature does to you, Normalization. "We better start walking down before it gets too dark" warns our leader. Soon it was dark; moonlight helped us on our way down. The whole set was too tempting for night photography but fatigue took over me and i fueled my reserved energy to roll down the hill.
After a while we were back at the bottom, village of the shivaji's horseman Netaji Palkar. In shivaji's era he was known as "shivaji of deccan". As we passed by this dark village i could only hear small kids shouting "golya golya" means "sweets" in marathi. They were either trained or habitual to shout when visitors pass by, sometimes it’s easy if you are not aware of history.
Next day i landed up in the office and sat around like a boss without even touching my keyboard, admiring Santa Claus singing around in office. The Inbox blinking 34 unread emails with potential apocalyptic material inside wasn't bothering me at all, and i was wondering why?
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It began Saturday 11.28 pm VT. All the trek members were getting in to the train at various stations from VT to kalyan. By the time we reached karjat it was quite a mix of crowd from seasoned climbers to people with "iam_actually_a_newyorker" expression.
It was 2.30 am and we taken a halt at Mr. Pardesi's porch for the night. I later came to know, he charged 10 rs per person for stay and breakfast. It reassured my belief about gujrati's competitive businessmanship. Its too tempting to write further on Mr. Pardesi and his services but i will preserve him for another post.
Bus stops at "chowk fata", birth place of shivaji's warrior netaji palkar, and we all got down looking fresh and ready for the mission. As bus moved ahead, frame in front of us was replaced with full scale landscape of mountains, and you could distinctly figure out crown shape irshalgad standing tall among them. "That’s where we are heading", the leader shouted and we started marching.
It was about an hour we were walking now. As you keep moving on the tar road, into the farms, over the tracks you realize the difference between searching "A-145, Dickson tower, Tommy lane" and heading to some thing that have only huge rocks to their identity.
We reached another small village probably section of the same village "chowk" known as "Irshalwadi". We drank water, ate carrots and refilled our bottles with water from village. We fetched around 15 bottles in 20 Rs. thats little more then what you pay for distilled mineral water, Mr Pardesi scores here.
As you move ahead from the Irshalwadi, You will see a small idol of godess vishaldevi, it appears like hanuman idol at first. Probably the name irshalgad is by her name, as its common to pronounce "Vi" as "E", particularly in interiors of maharashtra. But thats my theory.
From here there won't be any more houses or huts to fetch more water from, we started walking little faster, landscape was getting straighter and the crown shape "irshalgad" was appearing more like a deadly weapon now.
We reached right at the bottom of the huge rock from where the last lap for "irshalgad" begins. Deadly human like rocks looking over you, makes you think about your amateur adventure. It takes around 45 minutes to climb these 50 odd feet’s, most difficult so far. We reach Nedhe on the fort. Nedhe, means a natural hole in the mountain rocks created by force of high flying winds. Winds flow with so much of force here, you understand the meaning of Nedhe quite instantly.
We crossed on to the other side of nedhe and landed up on a narrow patch of flat grassy land, we were on the top now. You get to see Prabalgad towards north, Manikgad, Karnala, Songiri westwards and Matheran hill range in the east. Patalganga river and small dam between Irshalgad and Matheran. Irshalgad must be a key location for Shivaji's forces to monitor this part of the territory.
We ate our lunch while three professional climbers from our team were putting nails and ropes in the rock we were suppose to climb. Everybody started climbing the rock with rope and trainers on both the ends as rest of us sat in front of the rock waiting for our turns. We sat almost for 2 hours in blazing sun, the rock started appearing like face of hindu god "ganesha". As per hindu mythology to get an appointment with god it takes standing on one leg for years and not to loose your concentration to half naked seductress like mallika sherawat dancing in front of you. This wasn't entirely similar but definitely had desperation of same scale.
In the end of this drill everybody was looking like some kind of a rock, it was definitely different from the crowd which boarded the train last night. This is what nature does to you, Normalization. "We better start walking down before it gets too dark" warns our leader. Soon it was dark; moonlight helped us on our way down. The whole set was too tempting for night photography but fatigue took over me and i fueled my reserved energy to roll down the hill.
After a while we were back at the bottom, village of the shivaji's horseman Netaji Palkar. In shivaji's era he was known as "shivaji of deccan". As we passed by this dark village i could only hear small kids shouting "golya golya" means "sweets" in marathi. They were either trained or habitual to shout when visitors pass by, sometimes it’s easy if you are not aware of history.
Next day i landed up in the office and sat around like a boss without even touching my keyboard, admiring Santa Claus singing around in office. The Inbox blinking 34 unread emails with potential apocalyptic material inside wasn't bothering me at all, and i was wondering why?
15 Comments
Tell a friend
Bury
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Comments
Good One kiran.
The idea of being normalized by nature,seems really good.
Nice article , there is 1 correction in it Mr Pardeshi charged Rs 10 only for stay.
In that case, my respect for Mr. Pardesi is grown little further. He know the trick of wining customers on ungodly hours :)
Kiran, it seems nature has finally worked its charm on you.
It definately must be feeling like "BORN TO BE .. WILD!"
Very well written Irshaalgad trek experience. Kattekaries, if you want to test your physical & mental strength, you must go for Irshaalgad trek.
Kiran u mentioned about Mr. Pardesi 2-3 times but how could you complete your article without mentioning great efforts made by our leaders Milind sir, Ulhaas sir, Vasant sir & Tejas to make this trek successful. It would be great if you add something about them. That will make this artcle complete in real sense. The way Milind sir & Ulhas sir helped us for climbing & rappling is really very difficult to ever forget as for most of the trekkers it was almost an impossible dream which came true only because of them.
I would be lyeing if i say milind, ulhas, vasant, tejas and their distinct hats were not on my mind. But their pictures in my memory are stored with slightly different tone and textures .. call it "leaders". It wouldn't have been fare writing about them as just the mentions. Anyways thanks about pushing me on this, i will put down my observations about them soon. For now i am in total agreement with limin that such trek's are impossible without leadership and climbing skills these four people have exhibited.
Wow. Nice article. Way to go Kiran.
I wish our office had arranged something similar instead of the regular year-end bash at a Juhu pub.
After the long drinking and dancing sessions I had difficulty climbing the 4 floors to my home
But i have taken inspiration from your superb article. I am joining a trekking trip with some friends this weekend. I hope to detoxify myself - body and soul.
The debate within our group is between Raigad and Bhimashankar ... any advise on which is better option ?
wow nice article. After reading this feel like seeing this fort.Have u guys taken photographs.Please upload them for us.
we will share the pictures later for now i have uploaded few on my photo blog.
http://www.dancewithshadows.com/kiran/2007/12/irshalgad.html
WHy isnt there any downhill view?
It was dark and too scary when we were getting down and besides that trek leads were not allowing me to look down and take pictures.
It was dark and too scary - - - you are supposed to be a photographer.Watch National Geographic for some inspiration. Pathetic excuse to give that to from a photographer, I can understand if funaholic said "It was dark and too scary"
Nice writeup and specially the pics.
When is the next trek planned? I would be interested.
u got down from that thing when it was dark ??? God its so scaryyyyyyyy :) hatts of to u all guyss. I m sure u guys will remember this trek for long time :)
Mein shayd kabhi bhi na kar pauuu. :(
I can imagine trek with the pictures, nice one and well done.