Bhimashankar ...and back in one day :-)

It all started when Tushar suggested that we can do a trek together and it would be Bhimashankar. I eagerly wait for this season of the year... friends , nature, adventure ... sheer refreshment.

As usual, whatsapp group was formed and on 5th August , we were debating whether to go ahead as planned due to bad weather. But i am glad that we opted otherwise.

Milind volunteered to drive and I know his passion for it ... but somewhere i felt its sheer madness , as we all would be exhausted after the trek... But ya , its Milind :-)

We (Milind , Ruchi and I) started from Dheeraj Upavan at 4:15 a.m , picked up Snehal and Tushar , headed towards Pranay's place. Team complete !!! and then we are on our phones for which route to pick. With some missed turns and bridges , with few kms extra drive :-) around at 7:45 a.m, we reached Khandas. We had decided to take Ganesh Ghat , even though it was longer route and i promised myself to come back for Shidi Ghat in winters.

Tea and Bread butter for breakfast and we started at 8:20 a.m. , Few photos here and there we got our first climb before Ganapati Mandir

Ruchi suddenly was feeling dizzy. We all were looking at each others faces as it was just a start and we had 4 more hours to go. With little break , water , jelly , Ruchi was back on her feet , little slower in her pace , but she was determined, reached the temple and i am sure she must have prayed for strength to complete the trek :-).
Thereafter it was all about climbs and for first time I used stick in trek and it really helped to distribute the weight. Along the way i saw so many shoes , as if  "unhone dum tod diya".
After continuous climbs, we reached flat land and everything was picture perfect , like a dream .
I was trying to get all the green within me , listening to the sound of water gushing either in streams or smaller waterfalls. You suddenly feel alive .. I was able to see so may waterfalls pouring out of the mountain , each one with its own layer / structure and it was amazing experience.

Walking was easy now due to flat land ,but still looking at the time, we decided not to get socked and carried away with waterfalls and we would do that on the way back . We were progressing at good pace with some tricky spots where you have to get your weight on the rock and pass the patch as other side was slippery slop to nowhere.

After some time we reached a spot where we had corn and Ruchi decided to walk ahead (after informing) as she had concerns about her speed. Rest of us decided to finish the corn and then start due to monkeys over our head. We started and we walked and walked , but there was no sign of Ruchi . Here the area looked little spooky , with dense forest and clouds making the path blurry.
And suddenly we stopped. A huge tree had fallen off blocking the way, and it got us thinking if Ruchi really had gone so far ahead of us , or we missed her behind .
Pranay and Milind decided to walk back 15 mins stretch to the corn shop and came back , and we concluded that Ruchi is on her way up to the top. There was no way for us to contact her as her phone was with Pranay.
We frowned , little irritated and we moved on. Some time later Pranay received a call from unknown number and there she was, calling from fellow trekkers phone and we were relieved that she is fine.

After 45 mins we reached the top and we saw Ruchi in small tapari ,which was selling Vadapav . There we started Ruchi's class :-) along with tasty Vadapav . But poor thing was scared as she came long way and still there was no sign of us after corn shop , so afraid of waiting alone , she chose to tag along with a trekker.
We lost around 30 to 45 mins in this scene and reached top at 1:00 PM or so and we were not able to see beyond 10 feet due to clouds and it was freezing cold. but was an amazing experience.

Then we visited the temple. Hated marketing of pujaris as always. It feels like they have divided the places/ gods in the temple to earn money. They have their valid reasons to do so , but somehow does not go well with me. By now everyone was hungry, had Delicious lunch at "Kshitij" , as suggested by flower vendor and started descend at 2:30 after having not so good Tea.
It was chilling at the top and we quickly wanted to get into the woods so that we are protected from the wind/ cold.

On way back we enjoyed our time in waterfall

and reached the car parking at around 6:30 p.m , left Khandas at 7:00 p.m and reached home at almost 11:00 p.m.

It was excellent experience and all thanks to my running routines, it helped me a lot in the trek and even after that. and of course the Gang for supporting each other.
Pranay summarized the trek excellently in his video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7nL8M-fYc0

One thing which I observed and true for any popular place in India , that people have no civic sense. I could see countless plastic bottles, plates , wrappers  right from beginning till end. We are so destructive, that we do not care about anything. Its sad to see that we make full effort to destroy the beauty of nature. I am not religious, but at least people who are and visit these places, can they answer simple question , is their GOD happy to live in such a filth ?