Strairway To Matheran....

One Word.. Ok a Few words abt the trek...Exhilaration, Excitement and Entertainment Exemplified
Another few words...Insanily Fantabulously Fantastic.........!!!!!!!!

We Went .. We Climbed and we F$#!'g Conquered.. the mountain...

I was under the assumption that this would be just another trek done so many times over.. to a place like matheran.. well i was made to eat my words the moment the stepped out the train at 10.50 pm on a warm , Thursday. The original band of brothers was supposed to be around 12, but a couple of guys dropped out..well then lets hope they arent reading this..!!!!

Catching the 11.30 local to Karjat we started on our journey to Matheran.. Considering we were gonna spend around 2.5 hrs in it we thought we would all take some rest.. but then guys will be guys and things started rocking and rollin.. and time flew and as per my guess none other that Reuben got to catch a few winks.. Harshit.. also did try to catch a few ones but i guess he was rudely discouraged when someone poked a lil boot ...oouch.!!!! As we neared Neral however .. things got a little quieter with the lights fading off and then.. One such Dimmer resulted in Shankarsun... got a nice wake up call when some of us pounced on him.. All he could do is complain.....abt his sore elbow...lolz....

The Station


Finally after a 2 hr journey from city to Nowhere land we entered Neral Station.. A few other teams also on their way to the same place were the only other ones to get off..We planned to set out to trek after a cuppa of chai when a couple of dogs went after each other's throats, finally agreeing which would accompany us ( this was not immediately apparant to us) After having somewhat .. different tasting Chai.. we set out to conquer the mountain.. Time Exactly 2.00 am...

Lets Go

First Question->Who Knew the Way???
Aparantly no one except the dog.. of whom... Tuggie had huge misgivings about. Another thing this looked amazingly a ghost town.. narrow roads. flanked on both sides by houses which looked deserted though none had the guts to prove otherwise.. and dogs ..Every Ten steps we walked we were welcomed by a band of dogs.. all barking their hearts out..at the poor dog who was accompaning us.. then backing off because of the other 10 dogs accompaning him...After a while we came to a sort of "Naka" a board showing straight ahead Matheran..7 Kms.. The troops started walking up with the dog leading the way.. All had different explanations to why the dog would accompany us .. none though would come to the right one .. which would come later..

As we walked the darkness seemed to light up the journey.. The torches being the only light we started walking up with the climb growing steeper as we did.. Although Tuggie was trying to put a point ., that we would enjoy the trip if we kept quiet the others didnt somehow really care for the idea..The silence of the land though overwhelmed me .. The night throws its own surprises and it really not dark as they say ... The darker the night the more light it seems to shed ... The stars were brighter and at different points us Astronomers tried figuring out the north star.. and all other stars .. how true were those calculations is anyones guess..After stopping for a while to eat a few bananas and some juice we proceeded again to march the lonely mountain.. we did meet some fellow trekkers along the way and passed them .. they couldnt take our pace .. set by Tuggie..!!!!


As we progressed the climb was gettin Steeper .. and Steeper... with boards saying "1st Gear" just annoying us all the more.. but the exictement was the factor which was kept us going on and on...We Stopped we Trekked .... We Could see light and as we moved towards it . they seemed to jump mountain and seemed to be on the next hill .. and so on!!!

The Feeling

All was well and fine the euphoria and excitement hadnt dimmed a little ... and it was around 3.30 - 4.00 am and i guess we had about 1.5 - 2 kms to go.. when it happened.. we had just passed "Water Pipe Station" ..The guys suddenly had a wierd feeling .. all of em.. it was dark ahead and the turn was sharp .. the lone road just was a catalyst in playing around the minds of men.. SS gave out a loud scream/yelled at everyone or someone .. scared the shit out of Everything/everyone . that would have troubled us .. though SS debated the fact that he wasnt scared.. So we just decided to take a rest .at waterpipe Station ... There were lights inside but apparently no one was in.. we sat on the tracks .. outside and opened the snacks ... Sleep took over some of em.. the rest ate the food.. and others thought about panthers and lions and tigers..(thuggie again the leader)....


5.00 Am ..

A Couple of guys turned up .. they were the guys belonging to the Station. They guys except the ones sleeping.. asked them a few questions on how long how far etc etc.. They Troubled us with a point that someone from a group which went earlier than us had a small problemm one of their guys got into a small problem.. No use explaining it here ..Someone asked for a small match and we lit a small bonfire and went on Warming ourselves a little..Ru not satisfied with the heat ... went down to the tracks and lit one next to them (budding arsonist)...By 6.00 am.. all of us had warmed themselves.. some had warmed parts they would not normally would have thought abt.. meaning stomachs ..et all ..


6.00 AM ; 2 Kms to go

The Trek Began again.. The weather was becoming warmer and the thought of catching the first rays of the sun from matheran .. was acting as .. to get us walking faster and faster .. lasting maybe 200 metres.
Removing a few photos we walked . some(yours truly) treking without their Tshirts on..(good!! not photos to show that)..Apart from the pace slowing .... quickening a .. few open mouths .. wondering .. wow this is WoW.. we moved up without any more hurdles .... The view from the mountains was wonderfull


At around 7.00 AM we reached Matheran...........

Pls watch this place for the Part 2 and more of the Matheran Trek.. either here or
Ghost Talks

Do check out Nothingman for more .. of the past