Wednesday, September 17, 2008

First Taste of Rock Climbing: Bhimashankar via Shidi Ghat: 13th-14th September

Trek path: Neral by local train, Neral to Kashele by 10-seater, Kashele to Khandas by 10-seater, Khandas to Bhimashankar via Shidi Ghat.

Time required:
Neral is about 50 minutes from Kalyan by local.
Neral to Kashele - about 30 minutes or more.
Kashele to Khandas - about 30 minutes or more.
Khandas to Bhimashankar via Shidi Ghat - 4 to 5 hours.
and via Ganpati Ghat is about the same time i guess.

Height: 1000 metres (3300 feet)

Trekking experience required: While trekking by Ganpati Ghat is a piece of cake except for the really long time taken, Shidi Ghat requires a fairly seasoned trekker who has done at least 4 to 5 previous simpler treks, since there are huge boulders and flimsy looking ladders to climb and a lot of times all four limbs, shoulders and even your chest and stomach are needed to apply thrust to climb.

Fitness required: Ganpati Ghat needs moderate fitness, but the Shidi Ghat needs a highly fit, fairly strong torso and a well rested overnight body so that you dont lose concentration.

Fear factor: Nothing on Ganpati Ghat, but on Shidi Ghat, there r sheer cliffs and nearly vertical climbs although with plenty of steppable stones and grips. however one wrong move and its a plunge into the valley. Shidi Ghat can be the first stepping stone to rock climbing and a preparation for more thrilling treks like Harishchandragad and Dhak.

trek story:
Our first trek in September was a long standing trek to Bhimashankar which had been planned for quite some time during August but kept getting postponed for one reason or another. This time we made sure that all other plans cud wait and the Bhimashankar trek wud finally get underway. This particular trek was riddled with silly mistakes of a typically unplanned trek, but it was thrilling all the same. To introduce Bhimashankar, it is a mountain town at about 1000m from the sea level and has a Shiva temple, considered among the 12 Jyotirlingas in India, the foremost and the most important of them being in Somnath, Gujarat and also the world-famous Kedarnath, Uttaranchal. But it was not faith that lured us there, it was the trekking challenge presented by the Shidi Ghat, which translated to English means the "stairway pass" or "ladder pass". The Shidi Ghat has imposing boulders, which have to clambering upon using all four limbs and at three places where there is no human way to scale, aluminium / wooden ladders. There is a thrill about this route that attracts trekkers from all over Maharashtra.

To Kalyan station:
Like all my other treks, i left my bike at the Kalyan station's parking lot. Then from Kalyan, with my co-trekkers, Nikhil and Yogesh, caught the 5:30 am train to Karjat.

To Neral:
After about 50 minutes, we arrived at the Neral station. Neral is primarily famous for its route to Matheran. A single line narrow gauge railway line built by the British takes millions of holidayers to Matheran every year. But the prime location of Neral and Karjat at the foothills of the Sahyadris makes them an ideal place for a lot of Sahyadri treks. The availability of cheap local trains from Mumbai makes them very accessible also.
When we got down at Neral, our first silly mistake was obvious, a simple mistake which cost us about two hours of headstart. Instead of getting out of the station's main exit, we got out of an exit way which was completely secluded. In fact, we three were the only people coming out of it. It led to some buildings nearby. But there was no sign of public transport or main road nearby. We spent some precious time walking to the nearest intersection to the main road. But we cud not find a single 10-seater which wud ply towards Kashele for about half-an-hour. Then a nearby 10-seater driver spotted us and called out to us. He then lightly reprimanded us for not coming out through the main exit, from where two 10-seaters had already left for Kashele, during the time we were finding our way to the main road. Then he offered to take us there, but he also wanted to pick up more fares from the next train that wud arrive at the station. So he first took the 10-seater to the station, picked up some people and then started towards Kashele. One point to note here is that a 10-seater in this area can pick up upto 20 people, so be willing to sit tight and adjust, otherwise u will be considered rather unwelcome and have the possibility of being asked for double tariff.

To Kashele:
The ride took between half an hour to 45 minutes. We reached Kashele and had a light breakfast there. Another group who were bound for Bhimashankar got out and were headed to a 10-seater for Khandas. Our earlier mistake cost us here. Had we been on time here, we cud have made it to this 10-seater along with these other trekkers. However it was not to be. Only the three of us wanted to go to Khandas at this time. We cud find no one else who was willing to go there, and the driver of the 10-seater that we hired wanted an exhorbitant price for plying only three. So we waited there for close to an hour until some people (sorry many people, close to 10 or 12) were willing.

To Khandas:
16 of us were huddled in the so-called 10-seater all the 12 km to Khandas. Finally we got there with slightly stiff muscles and spasms after sitting tight all the time for about an hour. In fact, we were eagerly counting down the kilometres every time we saw a milestone. Finally we reached Khandas two hours later that we wud have liked.

Shidi Ghat:
From Khandas, a long path leads off towards the mountains and on the way, the road forks. Taking right we go towards the more mellow but guaranteedly achievable Ganpati Ghat and to the right we go to a place called Kathewadi from where the path to Shidi Ghat starts. Naturally, we took the Kathewadi path and reached the base of the Shidi Ghat.








But the path doesnt have consistent markers and on reaching a brook which ended in a waterfall, we took a wrong diversion and lost our way.
Quite a bit of effort from our wrong diversion cudnt put us back on the right track and we had to come back to the brook.


From there we eventually found the right path. With some amount of difficulty we kept on the right course, until we hit upon what we thought was an insurmountable wall. There was small ledge of rock that was taller that we were, and peering above that we thought it was all sheer vertical rock face. The ledge had mossy rock and flowing water. We were pondering whether this was the right path and tried to find a path around the ledge, but to no avail. But then a good thing happened to us. Another group of boys who were from Pune, arrived on the spot and they too were confused about the right path. Since 6 people took the same path, we were fairly convinced that this path was right. One of the boys who was light on luggage decided to scale the ledge and we pushed his thighs through. He went a bit further up and declared that the path was right. When we asked how he cud identify, pat came the reply. There was a ladder propped up against the rock face. So we followed him, climbing the ledge one by one. The ledge gave us an idea of how the climb wud be. The climb wud be such that it dictated more use of hands and shoulders than using stepping of feet. We wud have to prop ourselves up with the sheer strength of shoulders after finding sufficient grip. Legs wud only be used to find difficult footholds or sometimes even be dangling freely in the air.
Huffing and puffing we reached the base of the first of the three ladders. The six of us worked systematically and managed to scale two ladders, in both places taking care that only one person was on a ladder at any instant. The aluminium ladders were bearing the brunt of repeated climbs, with some rungs bent out of shape by weight of trekkers. But since it was aluminium there was no wear and tear due to weather, oxidation or elements. Think TV antennas for example!!! Along with the two ladders, there were places where we reached the corner of a mountain and had to swing ourselves to round the corner from one ledge to another, when the rock face suddenly changed direction.





The third ladder is the most thrilling of all though. We reached a flat area from where we cud see that the ladder was on the top of a heap of rocks, which themselves were inclined at an angle. Also, this particular ladder was taller than the rest and seemed to go to some unseen distance above us. But there was another feature here. There was a long niche in the rock face just to the right of the ladder with a waterfall falling over its mouth. We climbed the rocky heap and took some rest inside the niche. The niche was warm compared to the surrounding. We also filled up some water from the waterfall.




Then we continued towards the third ladder. Again this ladder also had crooked aluminium rungs, but along with the aluminium there was a wooden ladders reinforced and tied up along with the aluminium mainstay and it looked more durable. The difficulty was not the ladder though. It was the stop when we reached the top of the ladder. We cud see two huge rocks twice our height and we had to scale it to the reach the top of a plain plateau. All of us worked in a co-ordinated manner to scale the two boulders and reached the plain. I have to say that these two boulders gave me my best trekking pleasure to date. It was almost rock climbing. And they also proved that I in general and my shoulders in particular are very fit.







We reached the top of the plateau which was expansive and had a cultivated area as well, with a tiny village nearby. It was also the location where Shidi Ghat met the Ganpati Ghat. From here the two paths joined and went as one along the Mungi Ghat upto the summit in Bhimashankar. From here we cud see the height still left to scale and cud also see people who started earlier than we had, almost reaching the summit. They looked like ants crawling along the rock wall, hence the name Mungi Ghat (Mungi means ant). Here again we had to rest and ate a little to build up the strength to reach the top.

Mungi Ghat:
The Mungi Ghat is completely uneventful, but a very long winding path upto the summit. Besides it is heavily forested and we walk under a very thick tree cover. It looks dark during day, and at night it is dangerous with nocturnal prowlers. Overall we had a rather tired but uneventful ascent up the Mungi Ghat. But the skies opened up and we got drenched by the time we reached the top.

Bhimashankar summit:
When we reached the summit, it was so clouded that we didnt know that it was the summit. We saw a small moat which had clear water, so again we filled up our bottles thinking that there was a long way to go still. However we saw some cottages and some boards and a paved road and realized that the trek was suddenly over. We reached the town proper and ate some warm snacks and sought out a room. The rest of this blog looks at the various options u have when u reach Bhimashankar.

Sightseeing options:
Of course the Jyotirlinga temple is the first spot that you must consider. In fact, other that trekkers, the common public comes here exactly for that. The temple, though, seems to have had heavy signs of restructuring of walls, entry gate, etc. Its obvious that the entry gate has been shifted as confirmed by the signboard just outside the new entrance. The new entrance has a lot of shops, the most famous among them being the shops selling condensed milk puree (The Marathi word Mawa is obviously easier to say :) ). When consumed warm, it is really tasty, and when kept for too much time, it hardens and is a bit tough to break into pieces.



You can also see a place called Gupt Bhimashankar which is supposed to be the ancient location of the temple. But try to go there when its not raining too much. There is rivulet in between which swells which huge currents of water and you can risk getting swept away. We had to form a human chain to step through it.
Then then there is this place called Nagphani (Cobra's hood), so named due to shape of the rock on the cliff overlooking the plain. This is the highest point on the mountain where Bhimashankar is situated. There is nothing spectacular to watch here other that a splendid view, but the Shidi Ghat offered much more splendid views on the way anyway.
There is a Maruti - Anjani Mata Mandir quite some distance away from the main town as well. This place is infested with monkeys so dont carry anything loose. But the scenic beauty around this temple is spectacular, as we see the Nagphani hill in the backdrop of this temple.


There is a point called Bombay Point, from where I think you can see some of the Mumbai City, but there was simply no way we cud see anywhere through the cloudy haze. Perhaps December might be a good time to revisit this place.
One unrecognized spot here is the view offered by a broken wall in the Bhimashankar bus stop. It offers the same view as the Bombay Point, but in my opinion this angle gives a more expansive view.




Lodging options:
There are local official lodges (called Dharamshalas) at the entrance of Bhimashankar. They are very cheap but seemingly lack basic amenities. They are not too well kept.
There are costly rooms which every facility you can think of. These are overpriced in excess of 700 - 800 rupees and are generally afforded by the more affluent metropolis based trekkers.
There are row houses which have different bedrooms, pricing depending on the number of beds, and a commonly shared toilet. These, in my opinion, are the best trade-off between price and comfort. We took a room with three beds, priced at 500. Warm water was for 10 rupees a bucket.
Unlike other places like Rajmachi, there are no ancient caves or medieval stone cut rest zones here and its absolutely not advised to shelter in the forest at night since there are sightings of nocturnal prowlers.
The best thing wud be to finish off Bhimashankar as a one day trek, reaching very early, sightseeing for a couple of hours, having lunch or tea and leaving. Lodging at Bhimashankar is unnecessary and is an overkill coz there is nothing worth seeing here for more than 2 - 3 hours. If you are having to stay here, then your plans or execution have some flaw somewhere. I cant count the number of mistakes we made coz i dont have that many fingers :). We took the wrong exit at Neral, felt too drowsy to sightsee on the first evening, overslept on the second morning, tried to catch a bus which was eventually cancelled, took a sudden decision to do sight seeing on the second afternoon, .........

Eating options:
The lodges in Bhimashankar dont provide their own food, but there are lots of eateries in Bhimashankar. There are a lot of cuisines to choose from, but the rule of the thumb is, if in doubt, always go for the local flavour, which in case of Bhimashankar is the Maharashtrian cuisine. We also tried Punjabi stuff and it did taste good, I have to admit.

Options for public transport from Bhimashankar:
Bhimashankar is well connected to Pune by bus, one bus every half an hour. Apart from that there is bus to Kalyan at around 7:15 am and a bus for Chembur at 11:30 am. There are also one or two buses to Thane I think. If you want to go to Pune then great, you dont need further reading. But if you want to go to Kalyan, Thane or Mumbai and find the bus timing limiting, then you can pick one of the following options.
Trek back to Khandas via Shidi or Ganpati Ghat and reach Khandas, Kashele and Neral, the same way we arrived. I have never heard of an instance where one has trekked down via Shidi Ghat. It is not for the faint hearted.
The other option is to catch the Pune bus and get down at a stop called Manchar. This takes about 2 hours. From Manchar, catch a bus to Alephata. There are frequent buses, about 1 every 15 minutes. This commute takes about 1 hour. From Alephata there are hundreds of buses per day plying to Kalyan and Mumbai. It takes a good four to six hours though, depending on where you want to go. But the bright side is that you get to go across a scenic ride across another beautiful Ghat, the Malshej Ghat of Nasik district. It takes you across some really tall Sahyadris and there are lots of roadside waterfalls. Waterfalls fall from rock faces on the side of road and drop onto the road itself. You can hear constant banging of water on the bus' rooftop. We followed this option, since we left Bhimashankar at 2pm.

All in all, despite all the mistakes made, this was the most enjoyable trek I have had to this date, especially the Shidi Ghat rock climbing. This trek transformed me from the "stick to safe tried and tested routes" to "Just go for the most thrilling route, no matter, what you are advised" kind of trekker.
We had heard a lot from people about Shidi Ghat being a dangerous beast of a route, but nature was really kind to us, no heavy rain during the ascent, no sliding rocks or boulders, no attacking creatures, no slippery mud, no mishaps, nothing at all. In fact as we were doing the so-called 'fatal' ascent, there were serial bombs ripping through Delhi in an unpredictable man-made terror. At least nature strikes with a lot of warnings. Just like the Delhi bombings, Mumbai bombings, Bangalore bombings, Ahmedabad bombings, blah, blah, blah were all man-made, so are all the mishaps at Shidi Ghat. Trekkers not wearing proper gear, not concentrating hard enough, not being disciplined enough, not being well-prepared and so on. Why blame the path?
So whats the point of all the ill rumours about a wonderfully thrilling trek path, I ask. Traversing the Shidi Ghat is as safe as or as dangerous as living in an Indian metro city. Its all in one's mindset, point of view, attitude and preparation. In both cases, if you look at the positive points and are reasonably careful, you will enjoy and if you look at the negative points, you will live with fear.