Visapur

In the season of monsoon when you are enjoying comfortable and silky sleep on your cosy bed in the wee hours of morning, who would like to wake up early, just to venture into an uneasy terrain, 100 km away from your home, demanding loads of hardship...! But there was something about Visapur that made everybody of us to get ready for the trekking.

On 25th morning of August 2012, we (Bhupesh, Pratik, Neha, Sandip, Rohit, Ketan, Vivek Vyas & I (Vivek Bisen)) gathered at Dadar station around 5:30 am to board Pune-bound Indrayani Express. In the early hours of morning at Dardar one could see the famous rush of Mumbai which makes this city different from others. This hustle-bustle of fast paced life in metro cities perhaps compels people to take a break and go to a lonely world close to nature.  10 km from Lonawala, Visapur is such a place that offers great deal of satisfaction when one wants to respire!!! Hence our choice of the place was perfect. (Ketan & Vivek Vyas…..Thanks.)

चलते रहो।

At 5:50 am the train arrived at Dadar. Ashsish, Sagar and Dipali joined us at Kalyan. Now the quorum was complete. As the train started from Kalyan, our gossips and gup-shups also got their pace followed by fun-loaded games of Bluff with playing cards (Thanks to Ashish for carrying the cards). Tea, biscuits and light wafers added more flavours to the pastime we had. It was a matter of two hours in the train and we were at Lonawala. From Lonawala, we caught a local train to reach Malvali - a small railway station on Mumbai-Pune line.

At Malvali: On our request the Malvali Station Master gave us the washroom-keys to get refreshed (Strange but true. The washrooms were locked ! J ). However he was not very happy the way we had asked him for the keys. Probably he was expecting little more respect - the infamous babugiri attitude at govt offices!

पर्ण कुटिया

Moving ahead there were some snacks-stalls nearby the station. To one of them we offered an opportunity to serve us.  J  Couple of other groups were also having refreshments there. After getting energy from a satisfactory breakfast and having a brief rest; it was right time to start for the trekking. From the station itself one could see the nature's blessings spread all over the village. It was 9:18 am then and the sunshine was warm enough to refresh all flora and fauna.

An eventful journey had already started: We were stepping ahead passing through Malvali village. On one narrow street one angry hen (gavthi komdi) attacked Sandip as he was walking close to her...! J  Amazing... nobody likes aggressive strangers. J  Few steps ahead and some street dogs had already decided to bark badly to make us frightened. Somehow we managed to get rid of them.

After overcoming those hurdles we entered into the real trekking zone… Open sky with wandering clouds, agriculture-farms, lavish green plains and plateaus, scenic mountains, beautiful waterfalls, swaying trees and reposing breeze were all the ingredients of the beautiful magic that the pristine nature had created there.

विसापुर का भव्य किला - महान मराठा साम्राज्य का साक्षी।

Walking further there were small ponds of water, dense trees, blossoming flowers welcoming us into their territory. However it was not always easy to tread in that area. For instance, it was very challenging to climb over some of the big rocks. Slowly and cautiously we kept on advancing. Yet on couple of places Sagar lost his balance and imperceptibly slipped away. Fortunately no injuries resulted, this was what he assured us (Don’t know whether he was suffering from pain and pretending to be alright. J ) After these 'accidents' we decided to have a quick break and had some chocolates, biscuits and cakes.

After the halt, gradually we were moving into an impenetrable forest. On some places the sunlight was breaking through dense leaves of tall trees making startling dark shadows. Moreover, spikes and thorns were making it difficult to go ahead. Despite all these hurdles we kept our light and funny conversation on… J One more incident added a blast of laugh when Ashish was trying to climb over a rock and suddenly his Armani designer pant tore apart with a comic sound. J  I was way ahead of him but was able to hear the explosion clearly. J Thanks to Rohit for giving him his extra shorts.

Buffalo Attack: Toddling through dense forest we had reached one open green ground having no idea where to go ahead from there. Some wild and scary buffalos were grazing on the ground unaware of our entry into their kingdom. We decided to leave the place silently but Bhupesh had other plans. He tried to tease one of the buffalos. The strong bovine gave immediate response running behind him trying to hit with her mighty long horns. With all our quick reflexes each one of us ran away wherever he/she could get shelter pushing and jostling anybody who was coming on the way. All this happened in just a few seconds leaving us laughing for a long time.

अदभुत विहंगम दृश्य 

After that funny-cum-scary incident we moved ahead on the way Bhupesh advised J . The new course was full of stones, rocks, pebble and waterfalls. That was a steep track ascending to the fort then. Clouds were hovering all over as if somebody had tied balloons with strings to the fort. The wind was blowing smoothly with drizzling; motivating us to move ahead. The path turned out to be very slippery due to rains. In 50-60 min from there finally we were at the top of the hill – the Visapur Fort. A sigh of great relief and a sense of achievement could be seen on all 11 faces. J

At the Summit: There was a splendid beauty of nature all around. From the top one could see distant places having panoramic view. Though Lohgadh fort was a stone-throw away. Everything was looking green as if somebody had painted all objects with the same colour. In such a lovely place proudly standing was the Visapur Fort at a majestic height of 3400 feet. Its remains were the witness of Satwahan era and were part of the empire of Shivaji Maharaj. The castle must have seen the heroics of the Great Maratha King.

It was 12:30 pm then, time to have lunch. Cakes, Chips, Chocolates, Tango, Thepleys, Khakhras, Chiwda, Bread, Butter, Jam, and Pickle etc were on the menu. J Thanks to Neha for making sure each one of us had good food. After loading ourselves with sufficient calories we roamed around the fort and had a few photo sessions. Dipali was instrumental with her modelling assignments  J  hence Ketan had to click some pictures of her.

Buffalo Returns: After spending some time there, we started descending vigilantly in a slow pace. Going back in dense trees everybody was scared of those dangerous buffalos. A single animal was enough to do unrecoverable damages. J All of us got relaxed only when we crossed that danger zone. Now movies and cricket were the topics of chit-chat while going down. Vivek Vyas was leading us at that point of time. All of a sudden he turned back and ran away shouting ‘Bhaago-bhaago-bhaago’ (run-run-run)… J He could not even answer when I asked “Why-What happened?’. He was just in a shock… J Rohit couldn’t find a way to run because Pratik and I were walking right behind him. He collided with us. Lastly he found a way to bypass the Buffalos. Yes. They were back – the gigantic buffalos. The best part of the story was they didn’t hurt us…in fact they were not disturbed by the nuisance we created.

That incident again proved to be a good laughing stock throughout the rest of the trip. With improved speed we were moving towards the base of the hill. Close to the Malvali village we saw a herd of goats with sharp horns coming towards us. It seemed as if the buffalos would have sent these smaller animals to take their revenge. J Nothing unfortunate happened and we moved on.

Buffalo Part 3: To our surprise there was another flock of big and dangerous Buffalos coming closer to us. That time it looked like none from us would remain unhurt. Rohit, Pratik and I dared to cross the enemy J. Others followed suit. But before that, everyone swiftly ran to take shelter wherever they could. Dipali quickly rushed towards a tempo standing by. Sandip found refuge in a nearby home. Others ran away as far as they could go. J Luckily that was our last confrontation with different animals that had opened fire against us right from the beginning of our trekking.

This is how our animal safari came to an end. Finally, we reached Malvali station….after waiting for about 20 min, boarded to a local train to Lonawala. From Lonawala Inter-city Express took us back to Mumbai. Tired with full day’s breath-taking actions I just wanted to retire to bed after having bath in warm water.

Besides entertainment and a break from our busy routines; this trip provided us an opportunity to have a glance at peoples’ lives living in such areas. For us, climbing uphill is a recreational activity which we do once in a while but for those people; day to day hardship is the lifestyle to earn bread and butter for their families.

On a different note, the picturesque beauty of Visapur is unique in itself. No camera can capture the magnificence gorgeousness of this place; no video could do justice to it; no travelogue can portray pictures of it... You only have to be there to enjoy it.  J

अलविदा विसापुर ...!

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