Sumargad

Sumargad

That we were excited would be an understatement .The planning had begun weeks ago , right down to the cup noodles , amount of water ,even spare rope lengths to practice knots .The original plan was to climb up to Rajmachi from the Karjat side ,meeting up with T2B membersat the top & then hitching a ride home .Somehow T2B wasn't very enthused with the idea & simultaneously Guptaji developed a craving for alphonso mangoes .Emulating the brain fever bird , he kept on going 'Ratna-giri' 'Ratna-giri' , bowing to his wishes we started scouting for a place in Ratnagiri .The narrowed down list had Jungli Jaigad & Mahipatgad on it .Seeing that Jaigad was pretty simple ,focus shifted to Mahipatgad & it was decided upon .

Once it was announced , Dr.Google came into play , with Guptaji raising a serious concern about the said trek requiring ropes & the associated gear. Not to be dissuaded by such concerns, we earnestly searched for people renting out equipment & our search led us to an organiser who charged Rs.1200 for a simple trek like Ghangad ,with no mention whatsoever of said ropes & gear.This upped the ante for us & now we were on the verge of buying a complete climbing set , but then the costing sobered us down & we decided to face the risks without any ropes & worse comes to worst to climb till where we could reach safely & then turn back .

With that sorted out we discovered that Mahipatgad was part of a trio of Mahipat , Sumar & Rasal & Sumar was the actual thriller .Without further ado ,keeping in mind our motto of 'Darr ke aage jeet hai ' (& seriously who wants to do the simple stuff ), we zeroed in on Sumargad.This meant that our night halt would be at Rasalgad , as it was relatively easy ,with good accommodation .Sumar could be tackled from Rasal .So the plan now was , reach Rasal , take charge of the accommodation ,roam , eat ,sleep , wake up by Ukrainian standard time & try forSumar early in the morning , always remembering the skin scalding experience of Mahuli just a couple of weeks ago , where we had started climbing pretty late ,with the sun taking its toll on us .

And so we set off in Rohit's freshly serviced Ritz , making good time & reached Rasalgad by 12 pm .Rasalgad is around 20 kms from Khed off the Mumbai Goa highway.Since Rohit had already visited it , the pathfinder job was entrusted to him .He mentioned that there was a short climb of around an hour or so & we would reach Rasalgad quite easily . As the drive was a long one ,Rohit & I decided that we would try for Sumargad on Saturday itself , which would give us ample time on Sunday to drive back , considering that it was the notorious Mumbai Goa highway we were talking about . If you remember Rohit had mentioned that the climb to Rasal would be easy,imagine our surprise , a pleasant one, albeit, when our Ritz drove directly upto the first gate of Rasalgad itself,talk about easy ! 

The road had been constructed recently .Keeping true to our plan of trying to finish Sumargad by Saturday itself we took only essentials i.e. water & food AND torches & asked around for directions .Some helpful workers said that Sumargad couldn't be seen from here but you have to climb this ridge, go on to the next one , cross the forest on top ,go to the hill with just 2 trees ,descend, re climb , traverse through a forest & then reach the rock patch at Sumar .It would take at least 4 hours one way .We knew this & armed with 3 torches per person were all set to rock! Hearing the description of the route Guptaji decided that discretion is the better part of valour & that it would be prudent to hire a guide .Being resourceful as always, he managed to find a guide who would take us all the way to Sumargad & back.The small hitch was, he wanted 2000 rupees for it, hearing this, economics & a sense of propriety trumped discretion & we set off on our own.

It was scorching hot & within the first 5 minutes itself we halted & feasted on huge karvanda berries & were pleasantly surprised to see mangoes too, lying around casually. During our karvanda break we heard some noises & saw a house just below where we were standing , wanting to be doubly sure we asked the house owner ( Mr.Sawant from BEST Aanik aagar ) for directions & he was kind enough to walk for some distance to show us the actual path. In parting he mentioned that it was a very difficult route & someone had died last season .Talk about motivation ! We assured him that we wouldn't be taking any undue risks & would turn back if the situation so demanded .Having bid Mr.Sawant adieu we started off on  the first steep slope & realised that we were seriously lagging , with the heat sapping our energy very rapidly .Mentally i made a note that this particular bag of mine was no good & I would have to revert back to my trusty Quechua Air system one.

Seeing the utterly drained condition of all of us, i came up with the idea of climbing up a little bit, resting & then returning to Rasalgad .Sumargad could be tackled the next morning, before the sun could drain us completely. This suggestion was accepted with surprising ease ,and an unanimous vote . Having got the exertion out of the way , we reached a forested patch , threw our bags down & experienced the literal lightness of being .We gulped down all our electrolyte preparations & decided that since we had ample time on our hands , we could defer lunch a bit .​This time was going to be constructively put to use by learning the basic climbing knots .Since boys will be boys ,only the sole girl in our group,Savitha, had sincerely got the rope length, which had been discussed about. At the end of the session , our group picked up jargon consisting of words like reef knot , bowline , clove hitch etc.Dongardev put his knot training to dubious use by demonstrating a hangman's noose .Once everyone was through the knots we decided to address more pressing matters i.e. lunch .Lunch was idlis with 1 proprietary patented by Savitha  chutney & 1 standard chutney , followed by non maida cake . All this food enthused  & energised us & Guptaji & I decided to head out a bit further to chalk out the route for tomorrow . Having said this , we heard some faint rumbling , which i put down to construction work .But then it was quite persistent & within minutes the entire sky was blanketed with heavy ,dark clouds .We could see that it was raining further off in the distance & could actually see the rain travelling towards us .Within minutes the harsh, oppressive heat was transformed into cool thundering sheets of rain.There was lightning all around the entire atmosphere was literally charged , you could experience the power & magnificence of Nature at her majestic best .

​Needless to say, our route marking plans were quickly discarded & we hurried to Mr.Sawant's home .We were completely drenched, but, boy, were we enjoying! ​​Guptaji again played the discretion card & cautioned us about the enormous electric charge in a lightning bolt & urged us on to the safety of Mr.Sawant's thatched abode. Once there we discovered that there were puddles not only all around where we standing but within our shoes too! Mr.Sawant was just locking & leaving but the rain had stopped him & we started conversing with him .He cheekily mentioned that he had seen it in our eyes that we were not very keen on climbing in the heat & he had a premonition that we would be back soon .To make amends for these blasphemous statements he offered us the liberty of taking fresh jackfruit off his trees ,which Guptaji readily availed of, since his mom makes a killer jackfruit sabzi .The results of which are awaited .The small, or in this case huge, problem was that Guptaji took not one ,not 2 but three jackfruits ! How were we going to carry this?

​Dongardev then made a plea to the rain gods, who then acquiesced ​& allowed us a dry passage back to our Ritz .All our non-essential stuff was there , remember ? That included our raincoats too! After depositing our bounty of 3 fanases & scooping up all the other stuff , we started our short trek to Rasalgad top from Rasalwadi ( Peth ) .Since Rasalgad is a fairly popular pilgrimage stop , having a yearly jatra for Waghjai devi , the government was revamping it , repairing the path , putting the steps in order etc. Since it had poured torrentially just a few minutes ago, all the workers had managed to find shelter as per their convenience, in essence leaving an empty though equipment riddled path for us. Why i mention this is to set the background for the next event. Like i said there were a lot of drums & spades & what not lying about the steps, we were tired, drenched & just wanted to reach the top & sleep. I dodged one of the huge drums & stepped onto some gravel & imagine my surprise & horror when i sank straight till my knees into what was freshly prepared cement. I immediately scampered out,only to realise that my brand new trekking pant & grand old trekking shoes were uniformly coated with a grey slime .After much laughter from the rest & frantic attempts to remove the slime ,we set off again & reached the top in around 10 minutes .On the way though, we had a photo op of Dongardev yoking Guptaji to the Lime press . Once on top , it was truly a sight to behold , the fort appears to be very small from below , but is actually spread out over a considerable expanse on top .There were lots of canon strewn all over & we made it a point to note their id number along with date of manufacture . Why? we had nothing else to do . Of course we had, we had to make haste & reach the temple, see that we could stay in it, scout for water supply, set up Guptaji's kitchen & foremost get out of the yucky, sticky clothes & shoes.

Once we reached the temple, we were simultaneously enthused & dejected .Enthused because the temple was superb, it was huge, renovated & also had a fan! Dejected because you remember the missing workers, they had made the temple their home & we were loath to share 'our' accommodation with them .Talk about judgmental! Since the temple was really huge , the presence of the workers turned out to be a non-issue , in fact they were a blessing in disguise , but that's for a later time .Accommodation sorted ,our next mission was to secure water , the villagers from Rasalwadi had told us that there were 2 huge tanks on top which served the entire village & we should have no problem as far as water was concerned .Buoyed by this, we went to search for the said tanks & we didn't have to go far , they were just next to the temple .Small problem , said tanks had fluorescent green water ! Unanimous decision conserve Mumbai water , no other way out .Next mission - chai, that heavenly nectar which can lift even the most dejected spirits ,especially when it's hot , spiced & the atmosphere is rainy ! For the cooking , Guptaji had been entrusted the responsibility of procuring the small gas cylinder , the red one which as around 2 litres of LPG with a burner on top .In true Guptaji style , he said ,consider it done , Axita would be doing the needful & that was taken care of .Imagine our horror , when the time came for making chai , Guptaji produced a 6 inch by 6 inch contraption which had 4 pods for supporting a vessel & a recessed compartment for putting in a 3 inch diameter camphor like solid fuel tablet.Guptaji narrowly escaped being beat up as he had made friends with the workers and they graciously let us use their wood fired choolah along with their vessels. And thus mission chai was accomplished , the high afforded by the lemon grass tea at that time was nothing short of heavenly. With dry clothes & energised spirits we decided to explore the beauty that was Rasalgad .It was dusk with the rain just having stopped , the storm clouds had created a huge bulwark & it felt as if we could reach up & touch them , in fact we think Dongardev just about managed too , if pictures are anything to go by .

The scenery was surreal , a multi hued dusk palette , rolling hills , a twisting river , scores of birds with the most myriad of calls & that special feeling which can only be experienced in great expanses of Nature when day slowly turns into night .

We broke this magical spell with more mundane thoughts of conjuring up dinner & headed back to our temple abode.Since by now it was established that these city slickers had no means of cooking , the workers again lent us the whole set up along with plates , pitchers full of water & ample wood , thus proving that they were indeed a blessing in disguise .Without them leave aside dinner even chai would have been impossible .Guptaji ,proving his resourcefulness yet again , deftly removed a dental gas torch & greatly augmented the heat from the wood, thus giving us a world class cooking system. He had also very smartly carried an extra canister of gas , in case a refill was required .Oh , the joy of steaming hot pulao with dal makhni & rajma masala, all thanks to MTR ready to eat packs ! Dessert was in the form of melt in the mouth puranpolis from Nagrik & we were ready to call it a day .

At our post dinner council meet, we were strategising for the next day & we decided that it would be prudent to hire a guide & start off around 6 am so as to avoid the killer heat. As can be expected there was a small hitch in this plan too, the entire village was off to the before mentioned wedding .Then one of the villagers gave us the idea of going by road to Mahipatgad's base village, climb up to Mahipatgad ,roughly an hour's climb, & from there approach Sumargad, as the route from there was simpler & faster. Our pragmatic selves liked this idea & we froze it as our plan of action for Sunday. The venue for our council meet was in the courtyard of the temple with a rich blanket of stars & a cool breeze for company, so pleasant was this that Savitha refused to go back & sleep in the 'stuffy' temple. Only when the workers told us that just last week a leopard had killed a bull in the jungles below did she relent. I forgot to mention that we were in the jungles of Javali , famous in Marathi as ‘Javaliche khore’ , a jungle once so dense that sunlight wouldn't penetrate through to its floor.

And thus ended Day 1 with us retiring to the temple & catching up with much needed sleep.   

Day 2 started off unexpectedly early with Guptaji striking a conversation with one of the workers , recounting the glories of T2B & the number of forts visited by us .We would have been really happy to hear this had it not been for the fact that it was at 4 am in the morning / night , whatever ! Talk about Ukrainian standard time, those who had been to the Padargad trek will recollect Guptaji's concept of Ukrainian time which runs around 2 hours earlier to ours, so if we decide to wake up at 5.30 Guptaji will wake us at 3.30.

​Using brute force to shut Guptaji up, we managed to squeeze in another hour of precious sleep & by the time Rohit's alarm started screaming, we were well rested.​It was a glorious morning & the only way it could be made better was with chai .We all knew the drill , so feeling quite at home using the workers' vessels , water & wood we came up with the morning edition of Girnar's lemon grass tea, to be savoured with cup noodles .By this time we had also made peace with the fact that the green water was the only one which we were going to have , so we enthusiastically filtered , chlorinated & filled it in our empty bottles and set off for Sunday's share of adventure.In spite of all our exertions , we managed to leave Rasalgad only by 7 am .

​Mahipatgad's base village was around 15 kms from Rasalgad ​& we were informed that there was a road till halfway, beyond which you walk .The road was through the earlier mentioned Javali jungles and we  were surrounded by tall mountains , narrow valleys & dense forest .The particular topography of tall mountains with deep & narrow valleys was reminiscent of the mighty Himalayas . The Ritz went up beautifully on the twisty turny roads ,aided by Rohit's expert driving & we reached a point halfway up the mountain from where we had to set off on foot .We assumed that the road being constructed was to the base village of Mahipatgad i.e. Beldarwadi & started walking on it .It was difficult to ignore the utter destruction caused by humans to the proud , majestic mountain . In an effort to carve out a road , they had blasted huge portions of the mountain , with the resultant landslides wreaking havoc on the forested slopes. Guptaji cynically though quite rightly mentioned ; Shanti geli pan Vikas aala . Along the road were young women with very small children laboriously breaking the stones to create the road, at that time you realise the privileged position you are in . Guptaji wanted to try his hand at stone breaking as that is being touted as a new exercise form in his gym , with the first hit he created so many splinters flying into everyone's eyes that not only us but the workers too were keen to get the hammer out of his hand .

​Onwards we trudged & reached the last stretch of the road where a JCB was hard at work casually flicking boulders downhill . The operator told us that this was literally the end of the road , if we wanted to go to Mahipatgad , we would have to go back down & climb up from a path which followed the electric poles . If we didn't want to go that far we could cross over to the ridge via a steep & densely forested, though nearer, patch. ​We asked him twice whether it was really possible to climb over from there and were encouraged by his casual assertion . So Savitha & I started off to see if it was possible , Guptaji & Rohit stayed back , in the absence of a route it didn't make sense all of us getting stuck .So i made a way through the brush & thorns and reached a rock patch .The incline till there was almost 60 degrees & the heat was searing .Had reached the crucial step, climbing which would get us on top of the ridge.After stabilising my feet , i pried around for hand holds & got a good grip around the top of a huge boulder .I pulled down on it and was about to hoist my legs to the top when the entire boulder just came loose , not only that it started crumbling in my hands .With great difficulty and luck i managed to replace it in its slot & decided against taking the road never travelled .

​Back to the road and downhill till we reached the spot, where they had just matter of factly blown the trail off , all in the name of development . Slipping and sliding , since it was no longer native mountain but the remnants of a blasted one , we reached some ​stable ground & decided that we needed a Tang break , we also pleaded with Dongardev to introduce the zebra candies since at Mahuli they had succeeded in bringing the clouds on .That's where Savitha decided that she was a long lost cousin of the crested serpent eagle and perched herself on a branch .From this vantage point we could see the electric poles stretching not only till the horizon but beyond it and this really frustrated us , as we were just 1/3 rd of the way up , it was ridiculously hot and our water supplies were low .Not ones to give up though, we started off again & got a second wind with all the sugar & electrolytes doing their job . Our trail wound around one mountain , climbed down and then again climbed up another mountain .Once we reached the top of the second mountain there was no stopping us , but where were we going ? Till now, no one we had asked had been able to actually point out either Mahipat or Sumargad to us .

​We surveyed the situation, we were on top of a mountain ridge with a sheer drop all the way to the valley floor on one side, the other side was a bowl like depression with paddy fields, almost half an hour across the fields were clusters of houses which we assumed to be Beldarwadi and beyond that again an assumption that there was Mahipatgad .From our position Mahipat was no less than at least 2 hours of climbing and heaven knows how many on top . Since it was already around 2 pm we decided against Mahipat & started moving in the direction of Sumar.A solitary peak captivated our attention and it seemed near enough , 45 minutes maximum .Having no clue as to where exactly Sumar was ( it was still not visible ) and with not a single soul visible to ask for any directions, we fixed the solitary peak as our destination .The peak had what is called as a 'nagfani' or cobra's hood configuration .

​There was a sheer drop all the way to the bottom on side & the other side was a steep ascent through slippery scree & overgrown brush. Even before reaching the base of the peak , we had to traverse through a pleasant forest ,​​which provided much needed shade .Since it was on top of the mountain , one could consider it to be a sort of 'Matheran' ​.During our traverse we came across a solitary hut with lots of fodder , but no living being in sight, we fixed that as one of our route markers & carried on .Now the peak was just in front of us  and seemed to be much steeper as compared to the earlier assessment. This brought a gleam to our eyes, as everyone knows  Darr ke aage . . . .Dropping our bags at the base we climbed up a grassy patch of almost 60 degrees and reached a dense  area of undergrowth .There was no question of a path being present , you just had to smash your way through & that's exactly what we did .Once this was covered, the way opened up again and we were very close to the summit . Though the path to the summit was clear of any vegetation it was scary to say the least .It was only as wide as a foothold with sheer falls on either side , having negotiated that, we were finally on the summit , a place where roughly 5 people could fit .Summit meant the mandatory ' naam to pata hoga' pics & when we realised that this particular peak had no name , we promptly planted the figurative T2B flag on it & claimed it as our own ! We had superb panoramas all round and very reluctantly decided that we had to move back down.

In mountaineering climbing is only half the job,getting down safely is mandatory for the attempt to be successful.Most accidents happen on the way down and in this particular trek we were made acutely aware of this fact .Climbing a razor thin ridge is one thing but descending it is another ball game altogether. As has been seen, most of us when given the choice like to descend tricky patches by sitting down and then sliding forward .There are 2 ways this is dangerous , one - your haversack may just snag on some rock & push you forward , leading to a loss of balance & probably life too , two - your centre of gravity & entire weight is facing towards the valley  , so any misstep is sure to send you hurtling towards the valley .The correct way to descend the tricky patches is by facing the rock , not only is the sack out of the way but even if you fall you only fall on the rock in front rather than deep into the valley , moral of the story - always face the rock !

​Having drilled this into our group, we managed the tricky rock patch with great teamwork & reached the slippery scree of the scrub. All lessons learnt were quickly forgotten & it was quite a sight to see everyone slipping & sliding & ultimately resorting to tried & tested methods of gluteal descent .Thus ended the exciting climb , which was followed by a quick lunch , where we had a very colourful & exotic guest viz. the blue & pink beetle seen in the pic.Since it was almost 4 pm,we started our descent ​& decided to stay back in Khed to avoid becoming a victim of the Mumbai Goa highway ​.We passed the solitary ​ ​hut route marker & were surprised to find an old man there. With genuine affection, he asked us to rest in the shade a while and then proceed .He also offered us water, which we gratefully partook and were even more thankful when we learned that he had got it all the way from Beldarwadi .The burning question had to be resolved, we had been climbing for nearly a day but had no clue where we were ! Our joy knew no bounds when he said that Sumargad starts from here & the main peak was beyond the one which we had just climbed, so technically we had completed Sumargad . The insistence on naming things !

​Descent was quite uneventful except for the final slippery blasted off trail ​​​, where a group of villagers had just been dropped off & one of the small girls was merrily climbing up & down the trail blissfully unaware of ​dangers if any .She was in sharp contrast to us with our specialised trekking shoes , retractable aluminium poles and unsure footing. Since the vehicle which had dropped them was anyways going empty , he offered to drop us till our car .Savitha had a gala time standing up in the tempo , feeling the breeze in her face .The unexpected tempo ride saved us almost an hour of walking & we were free to achieve our main objective of the past two days i.e. buy mangoes ! Thus ended one of T2B's longest treks, the events at Khed & the wild popularity of Rohit there could form matter for another story, but that's another day, another time!