5 Minutes Thrill....Waterfall Rappelling.

"Agar Barish me waterfall Rappelling nahi kiya toh kya kiya"

Well this thought prompted me to scribble few lines which goes like this,

5 Minutes of Thrill,
But without a Pill.

5 Minutes of High,
And you can feel the Sky.


Its very easy to dismiss waterfall rappelling as just 5 minutes Thrill but let me assure you that Woh Panch  minute (as Sharukh Khan says in Chak de India ) 

Shayaad aap ki zindagi ke sab se khaas Panch minute honge, 

Yeh Panch minute tumhe zindagi bhar yaad rahenge,

 isiliye kahoonga yeah Panch minute aap je bhaar ke jee lo,

Kyo ki kal kuch rahe na rahe, kuch ho na ho yeah Panch minute 

Aap se koi nahi le sakta. Khuda Bhi nahi !!


I feel you live  a life time in that 5 minutes...jo shayaad aap ne  apni puri zindagi me na ji ho.

I am an avid trekker but I do make it a point to do waterfall rappelling in Monsoon for the very simple reason Aap kitna bhi aacha khaana Kha lo, Bina Dessert ke baat nahi banti , Same is the case of waterfall rappelling , How much treks you do, it doesn't matter  until and unless you top it up with sweet delight of Waterfall Rappelling.

On the way to Lonawala

The Start
For me my journey this sunday took me to Dudhiware Waterfall near Lonawala. This event was arranged by Backpack Holidays headed by very dynamic and enthusiastic Dimesh Patel. Matter of fact it was my interaction with him during the course of this event which gave me lots of insight to the whole event of waterfall rappelling.Dimesh was there at the lonawala station to receive us and take us to the waterfall.We had a breakfast of Idlis and Tea provided to us by the organisers.

Insight into the world of Rappelling
To any onlooker or even the participants it may be an 5 minutes event but I was surprised to note the hard work and dedication that goes behind the rappelling event.There are atleast 6-7 people arranging the rope management, coming up early in the morning,setting up the whole system so things happen without glitch,Taking dry run and ensuring that all the safety measures are addressed.During the rappelling event co-ordinating all the efforts day lots of energy.Sometimes when the rappelling event is for 2 days the technical staff has to re-assemble the whole set up next day. 

It was 9.30 am when we reached Dudhivare Village.

Picture Poetry scene

Picture Poetry -Thats how I can describe the village,Lovely Waterfalls of different size and height, Lush greenery with streams flowing and a majestic mountain standing tall.

Lush greenery and the mountain view 

Lovely view of the waterfall that we were to Rappel Today

I just stood awestruck the moment I arrived here it was only when Dimesh tapped me on the shoulder that I woke back to reality. "Time to move buddy!! " said he. So we all started our Micro trek of 10 minutes to the top of the waterfall ( 1st timers were heard saying arre yaar upar kab pahuchege ..LOLz)

On the way up (Micro Trek), First timer pushing themselves
and Dinesh and Raka sir working out the plans for the day

Once we reached the top Raka sir started to give out instructions viz.. Dos and don't of Rappelling.What I like about Raka sir was that he was serious and affirmative while giving out instructions but yet left no opportunity to crack a joke making listening to the instructions quite easier.

Raka Sir giving out instructions

In our group today there were around 70 people and out of that only 10-11 people has rappelled before, rest all were First Timers.Hats off to the spirit of Adventure !!! Raka sir assured everyone that Rappelling is very safe and all safety measures has been taken care of so even the 1st timers need not worry. 

View from the Top of the waterfall 

All the participants dumped there bags and sat down on the ground waiting for there turn to rappel.Luckily the view from the top was so awesome that waiting for me was a pleasure too Here I would like to add that rappelling event does take time so the participants should be ready to be patient and wait out their turn. In the meanwhile few of us went to the mouth of the waterfall and enjoyed there. Akhir time to pass karne ka hai na, jab tak apna turn nahi aata...bas maje se time pass kiya.

Time pass at the Top 

During the waiting period I also took the opportunity to interview few participants. What I like is the spectrum of emotions on their faces Koi bahut excited hai, ghadi-ghadi puche ga mera turn kabhi hai, Koi dara hai sochta hai mera turn hi nahi aaye,

 someone is afraid but still has a nervous smile on their face, There was this girl who kept on laughing I asked her itni khush kyo hai and she said because mere ko bahut dar lag raha hai. He he aisa bhi hota hai.

Aisa bhi hota hai...laughters and tension together

Ultimately mera turn aa hi gaya...Guys its Showtime now !!!
because its Waterfall Rappelling time now !!

Show time ...Rappelling Time

5 minutes thrill ...Watch Out

Now watch out  meri nazar se what happens in this 5 minutes

Standing on the edge

1st minute:
Standing on the edge of the waterfall ,the technical staff is checking your ropes for the final time and you are feeling all the excitement over ridden by the fear, Heart thumping Chehre per smile aur ander toofan, Dil bolta hai chalo yaar bas karo mujhe neeche uttaro, Bravely you look out at your friends jaise marne ko ja raha hai but still manage to give smile " Yaar ek photo toh lo !!!" saying this you move on to your next minute.

Moving down cautiously 

2nd Minute :
Cautiously, you are moving down, but still your eyes are on the instructor, you start to get the feel of the water escaping under your feet and gradually you are into your own element and is flowing with the flow of events, lagta hai yeah ho jaye ga, mai toh aise hi darr raha tha with this thought happily and satisfied you move into your next minute.

Oh F@#$...Abbe yeah kya ho gaya 

3rd Minute :   
You are not only happy but confident now, that the things are now under your control. Ab batata hoon, Mai kya cheej hu, Faltu me dara rahe the..... Confidence level satwe asman me hai ...and you start coming down little faster taking giant steps.(Kyo ki ab toh aap expert ho gaye ho na in rappelling) and then Thud ...thump...crash...and you call out  Oh F@#$...Abbe yeah kya ho gaya and you realised that in your over exuberance you have missed a footing and slipped and banged yourself into the rock,
2 second ke liye aap haath -pair marte ho and like a true soldier you are back on course Thode excited aur thode cautious you move into your next minute.

Hai meri shaas itni ruk ruk ke kyo chal rahi hai.

4th Minute:
By this time you have realised ki mai koi Tees maar khan nahi hoon and with this awakening you rappel more carefully but yeah kya yeah pani ka flow kisne bada diya bhai, water is hammering your helmet, ankho ke aage kuch dheek hi nahi raha , arre yaar  ab yeah helmet theek karni padegi. By the time more water is hitting you and suddenly you are realising that you are out of breath. Hai meri shaas itni ruk ruk ke kyo chal rahi hai.But like  a true junkie who enjoys his high with drug pill you are enjoying your high without any pill. Floating on this high you move on to your next minute.

yaar yeah katam hi nahi ho raha 

5th Minute:
You are now in complete tizzy, You simply cannot comprehend the speed of the water flowing in front of you, the deafening noise of the waterfall is getting more loud and you are almost on the verge of asking yourself yaar yeah katam hi nahi ho raha  that you slip from the overhang, Suddenly the peace has prevailed, no more water hitting you, you recover your wits and could now feel the ease of rappelling down , the lost smile coming back on your face and the relief and joy of the life time on touch down.Yes you have lived your 5 minutes of lifetime today.

Believe me in the above 5 minutes  journey of yours you have jumped into an unknown territory, you have overcome lots of fears, your self-esteem is now pegged 2 notches higher . 135 feets is no mean feat, you have dared to do something and you have done it, a new person is born out of you.

Yes truly ,
who need any pill to get the highs,
when you can have them here .

Many thanks to Backpack Holidays team of Dimesh Patel, Raka Sir, Hemant Salunke sir and rest of the team members for giving us such a fantastic experience of Waterfall rappelling.

Most noteworthy thing was that 140 people did Rappelling in two days and more than 80% were first timers . Kudos to the team

 Looking forward to come again.  

Click here to watch waterfall rappelling photos

Thank You

Torna Fort Trek

“If Sinhgad is a cave then Torna is eagle’s nest"

This statement by James Douglas was the start point which set the ball rolling and propelled me for the trek to Torna Fort.

 Torna was the first fort won by Shivaji at the age of only 16 years ! ( I am wondering what I was doing when I was 16 ..Most probably must be chasing girls in college!)  I think seeing this huge fort must have prompted Shivaji to name it Prachandgad.(The Huge One) 

Another very noteworthy thing about this fort is that it is one of the highest Fort (1405mts) in Pune District.

Most trekkers like to do Rajgad- Torna or Torna –Rajgad trek. This involves crossing few mountains and walk of 5-6 hours of ridge walking. However due to constraint of time we undertook to trek to Torna.

As Torna fort is near from Pune so  my daughter and me  took a night train Pune –Veraval Express and Sachin ,Mayur ,Dolly were to join us from Pune, we were to catch this  train from Vasai, As I have never taken any train from Vasai station  so was unaware as to on which platform the train was suppose to come and this resulted in lots of commotion for us , so much so that Akshita and me were running and climbing stairs from one platform to another , My daughter shouted aloud and said  

“Dad !! Saara trek idhar hi karaa doge kya !! “ I smiled and said “beta yeah toh thoda sa stretching chalu hai, before the actual climb” hearing this my daughter had a weird looks on her face which I deduced could be like Go to hell !!! . At last our train arrived and we managed to easily get into our compartment akhir mai reservation lekar ja raha tha, But what is this meri seat per yeah kon so raha hai, I tapped on the shoulder of the guy and said bhai sahib yeah mera seat hai” he rubs his eyes and say sab seat khali hai aap samne wali seat per chale jao . 

 I was like flabbergasted and wondered Kya Such me yaar in our country sab log yeah seriously sochte hai ,jo tera hai woh mera hai aur jo mera hai sirf mera hai.

Anyways I finally was able to get my encroached seat back. The guy was grumbling arre itna bhi kya seat ka 4 ghate ka safar hai baad me ghar per sona hi toh hai.I turned around and said oye boss pehli baat mai ghar nahi jar aha aur doosri baat sona toh door mujhe agle din pahad chadna hai. The guy must have thought that I am crazy…per who kya jane hamare shauq(hobbies).

It was 4.45am when we reached Pune. As our bus to base village Velhe  leaves from Swargate ST Stand so I took a bus from pune station to  Swargate. Swargate is quite popular so one can find numerous mode of transport. It is hardly 15-20 minutes drive from Pune station. But problem yeh thi ke swargate itna popular hai ki bus me baithne ko jagah hi nahi thi . Fully packed and I must be standing on my toes like a balle dancer, meri daughter lucky thi I don’t know how she can get that bechara expression on her face and people offer her seat. Poor me mai standing hi travel kiya ….imagine yeh haal hai subhah 5.00am ko !!!

At Swargate, Pune, so many buses but where is my bus ?

I was given to understand that there was 6.30 am bus from Swargate to Velhe (Velhe is the Base village for Torna Trek) So I went to the Enquiry counter, It is another mad house bas woh bunda jo counter ke peeche tha mere ko get lost nahi bola…simply said aapka bus toh gaya , I said lekin abhi to 5.35 hai  bus 6.30 ki hai na, he said toh aap 9 no platform per jao woh aayegi, Crazy yaar  however no bus turned up till 7.oclock.   Upon looking at the time table at the ST stand the first bus timing was given 8 am. Full chaos. Per hum trekker multiple option lekar chalte hai , yes ,Another way to travel is that we catch the bus which goes upto Bhor or towards Satara. In this case we get down at Cheladi/Nasarapur Phata.(Distance from pune to Nasarapur Phata is around 30 kms).From this Phata we get sharing Jeep which takes you to Velhe Village(31kms). We took the 7.30 Bhor Village bus and  followed the above mentioned route.

Waiting for the jeep at nasarapur phata

 In the bus we met a group who were going to Raireshwer so I asked Mayur and Dolly bolo Raireshwer chalna hai, and they were  like" sirji maaff karo" Let me tell you we wanderers never have fixed destinations atleast for me I never know where I will end up therefore it has become a practice for me to inform my wife where I am when I reach the base village.(Its easy to report pati kahan se lapata hua tha)

All set to enter Velhe Village

It was almost 9.30 when we reached Velhe Village .Velhe is a small Town which has quite a few hotels where you can have Maharashtrian delicacies viz Poha,Misal, Wadapau etc.. Nowadays due to large trekker traffic Velhe has a lodging and boarding facility too !

Our Trek starts just from the Velhe village itself ,one has to come upto the Police station of Velhe village just next to that there is a cemented road trail,

 

Follow this cemented trail just behind the police station

you start walking on that for hardly 200 mtrs and take a right and you can see the trail in front of you ,

From the village one can see the trail very prominently

 passing through the village within 5 minutes walk you  come across a small man made waterfall.

Posing time

 Waterfall dekh kar Mandakini itni excited nahi hoti hogi jitna hum trekker ho jate hai. Cameras came out of the bags , posers like us jumped into the waterfall and bas photo…photo aur photo.

 From here we kept walking along the trail and then you see the stream on your right side

this same stream falls over that man made waterfall.Jiske neeche hum log pose mar mar ker photo le rahe the.

 As we cross this stream we can see the trail in front of us going up the mountain. We start the climb from here ,just ahead we see a large rusted signboard giving details of the torna fort.

The trail as you can see from the stream

 If one stops here and look around him he will find himself watching at the numerous water falls all across various mountains, The stream below at the foothill looking serene and magical, with lush green carpet running parallel to it.

Greenery, waterfall surrounds you

The trail going uphill is quite prominent still one has to be careful to avoid some overlapping foot trails which could lead you into the forest nearby. As we were doing this trek in the Monsoon so walking through the fields 

walking through the fields 

and climbing the initial portion was murky and muddy affair especially with lose red soil, making it very difficult to climb, many people were slipping and gripping at bush or stone to avoid slips. This climb some people may find stiff 

Muddy slopes on the way up

but once  we cover this climb of say 1 hour session we reach a traverse section. This portion is easy consisting of flat to gentle climb of ½ hour till you reach the ridge section.

The ridge

Walking on the ridge is one of the highpoint of this trek. We see Lovely valley on both sides , If you are facing towards the Torna Fort on your left we can see beautiful series of mountains with clouds hanging over them,

 mountains with clouds hanging over them,

 Numerous Waterfalls and on your right side in the backdrop we can see panshet dam backwater engulfed by the mist. It’s a sight to behold.

 

Panshet dam backwater engulfed by the mist

 As they say Boss Break toh banta hai ..well this point is such point where you must sit for a while because by sitting here you will experience sheer heavenly delight, Let me tell you it is not the end of goodies here because the icing on the cake is in form of Vagabond Breeze that blows over this ridge, 

Enjoying the breeze on the rigde..Dil to Bachaa hai ji

Mind you its so fierce that it can sweep you off the ground literally. One has to hold hands to withstand the impact of this wind.( My suggestion is become a child and enjoy been superman in this Wind).

Moving from the Ridge, the climb gets little tougher because of the two Rock patch. This is about one hour climb from the ridge to the Top. Though there is railing along the rock patch section yet one has to be very careful while climbing during monsoon holding grip on this rocky patch becomes tricky. Getting down from this portion while coming back was indeed very difficult for many people. After climbing the first rock patch and further climb of 15 minutes we come across a waterfall, atleast more than 50 feet in height, Do drench yourself under it because the waterfall is again one of the highlight of this trek. Once you are done with the water therapy be ready to encounter the second and the last rock patch.

Stone stairs

It’s a medium level rock patch with stone stairs, few of the steps have broken hence the climb becomes tough especially during rainy season. Here again there is iron railing which provides support. Once we complete this section we enter the fort through Bini Darwaja

a little walk further we see large water tank and just behind that is Menghai Goddess temple. On the right side of the temple is Budhala Machi and on the left side of the temple if you walk further you reach Konkan Darwaja. It is so called because from here the route opens to Konkan Plateau. Further as one walks on the Torna Top plateau you come across the famous majestic Zunjar Machi. Reaching to the furthest end requires good amount of skill as there is a rocky patch to overcome. Here I would like to bring to the attention of the the readers that if you do Torna Trek in Monsoon exploring the Torna Top is literally not possible due to excessive misty condition leading to very low visibility. Generally one day trek is not sufficient to cover the entire Fort(after all it is Prachandgad..The large fort).

 

Prachandgad..The large fort

Points to be noted:

1.If you want to enjoy all round beauty of sahyadri Trek then do it in monsoon .

Advantage: Lush greenery, Misty condition, .Less Fatique while climbing

2. Disadvantage of doing in monsoon: Nothing is visble on the Top,so you are not able to explore, getting down is hell of a problem because stone stairs and rocky section is quite slippery and the last portion of Descent is through muddy patch so you keep slipping and falling.

3.Winter is a good Time to trek here.

4.If trekking in non monsoon season then carry atleast 3 ltrs of water because there is no water source on Top.

5, Jeep from Velhe to Cheladi is easily available but From Cheladi/Nasarpur phata to Pune getting transport can be difficult.

6. it is better to hire pvt vehicle till the base village.(this is more relevant to Mumbai people )

 Thank You