I am so thrilled to write about my first ever experience in the trekking. It is one of the biggest fear I have covered of myself. My husband being an hardcore trekker, always influenced me to accompany him for a trek. But due to my fear that I won’t be able to climb and would leave it half way.  I finally decided to go for it! Along with me, my husband and two of his friends accompanied us.  Little did I know then, that there were many learning & experiences awaiting for me.

So this first one will be always special for me because it build the base for my love towards trekking and travelling. Though it was a simple trek to Korighad to Lonavala. We all woke up at 4am and reached station to reach Churchgate from where we had to board one more train to Lonavala. That train on Sunday morning got cancelled. We had to board one more train which was after 2 hours. We took the train by around 8.45am and reached Lonavala station by 10.45am. By the way, this time is considered late as we should have reached the base village by this time. We were hungry, late and suppose to take ST bus to recah base village which left in front of our eyes. We were clueless about it until we checked at the ticket counter that the bus which just left was suppose to go for the base village and the next bus was at 1.30pm. Firstly we decided to pick some food for us, so we went to buy local food called vada pav, as soon as we reached to the shop, the food was over and had to wait for 15-20 minutes for him to fry the vadas. So we decided to pick some chips, chocolate biscuits which will help us survive.  We then went to hire a private vehicle and we got one uncle who drives rickshaw who took Rs. 500 to drop till the base village. ( Though he was very helpful and he took us to a place where we hydrated ourselves, we had sugarcane juice.) It was freshly made, tasted like honey, sweet. The base camp was 4-5 kms away from the main city of Lonavala and we reached there by 12pm.

We started at around 12pm and few boys were descending down, we asked them about their experience on the fort. We had 4.5 hours to explore the fort and descend down. First 20 minutes we walked through the jungle. It was not raining. The fort was hidden behind the fog. It was a walk of 1.5 km until the start of the steps. Climbing the steps is a very easy task. Halfway across the steps, we came to an open space with a cave on the right side and a small Ganesh temple. The cave was not smelling good, it means that the bats have made their home inside. But one can stay inside except monsoon season. I would not recommend going near the cave, there is nothing to see in it. On the left, there was a beautiful view. In monsoon, the water flows on the steps which make the climb more interesting if the flow is high. Since it was not raining, therefore the flow of water was less, that too only on a few of the steps. A little further there is another small cave on the left side, there is a water tank inside. Soon we came across the Ganesh Darwaza, the entrance of the fort. This Darwaza is the entrance from the Peth Shahapur village. The fort also has some more entry points. There is a flag on the top of the Darwaza. There is a way to that place.

There are small shops who sell maggi and bhajiyas, so we decide to eat there as we did not had breakfast or lunch since morning. After eating we started our descend and in no time we were down. We were waiting for the ST bus (locale bus) to take us back to Lonavala station from where we had to board train to reach back to CST. No sign of bus was seen, we asked villagers and they told us the bus comes so full that it doesn’t even stop. Many of the groups like us who didn’t have private vehicle were waiting for the bus. It was now 5:00 PM and no signs of the bus. A pickup truck passed nearby asking us to board and would take Rs. 150 per person to drop us till Lonavala station. We decided to hop in and as soon as we reached Tiger point, there was bad traffic jam. Tired of the trek we almost waited for 30 minutes for the traffic to clear but no signs of clearing, infact it got worst. So we all decided to start walking and in between we would hire one more private vehicle. We paid only Rs 75 per person, started walking. Our legs were in pain- the sore pain, we walked till the Lonavala station. It was 20 kms walkthon. We had to no strength to board the trains and it was 8.30pm, all the stored energy of ours was also over. So we decided to hire a private vehicle till Mumbai. We got a private taxi which was charging Rs 900 for 4 people till our final destination our home. As soon as we took the cab, we all slept, tired and hungry. We finally reached home around 12.30pm.

The day didn’t end well for me. But

“Joh hota hai ache ke liye hota hai”

We would like to suggest not to go on a trek to Korigad on weekends of monsoon. Never rely on public transport in that area especially in monsoons. There are only 2 buses a day. If someone wants to visit then go by private vehicle and leave as early as possible during monsoon season.