Rohida-Raireshwar: Trek report

Rohida – Raireshwar...

Date: 2-3 July 2011 (departure on 1st July 2011 @ 12.30am)

Route: Chakram office – Mulund -> Bajarwadi village (approx. 225km) -> Rohida fort climb -> Bajarwadi village -> Depart for Raireshwar -> Ambaghar village -> Korle village -> Raireshwar climb & stay -> Korle -> Mulund

Geography:

Rohida fort – ‘GiriDurg’ is situated to the south of Bhor. It is also known as ‘Vichitragad’ and ‘Binicha-killa’.
Raireshwar - Geographically Raireshwar is more like a table platue, which spans over 20 Kms in length and 7 Kms in breath.

Historical significance:
Rohida – Rohida was built during the reign of the Yadavas. Post 1656, this fort became a part of Shivaji Maharaja's Swarajya. In 1666, the Moghuls conquered the fort but could not hold it for long. On June 24, 1670, Shivaji Maharaj recaptured the fort.
Raireshwar – Raireshwar is situated in Bhor Taluka near Pune, India. Raireshwar has a temple famous for its historical importance. The temple is very old and of stone structure, but it was later re-constructed in 18th century. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj took the oath of Hindavi Swarajya in this temple at the age of 16 in 1645 and then created history.

Places of attraction:
Rohida – Old temple, few big water tanks, Chor darvaja, Buruj (bastion) on North East Face, Chuna grinding wheel. Raireshwar, Kanjalgad and Rajgad are visible from Rohida.
Raireshwar – Shiv temple where Shivaji Maharaj took the oath, water tanks, Aswalkhinda. Kenjalgad, Kamalgad, Sinhagad are easily visible from Raireshwar. The main people leaving on this fort are ‘Jangam’.

Trek experience:
After a long break from trekking, I was eagerly looking fwd for this trek. But all went wrong that day. All the plans got shattered. My journey started with Hinjewadi, Pune to Mulund, Mumbai. I had a reservation of Shivneri bus whose departure time from Swargate was 6.00pm and was supposed to reach Hinjewadi by 6.45pm. The bus arrived in Hinjewadi at arnd 8.15pm. 2hrs long boring wait took away the zeal of trekking. I reached my Mumbai home at arnd 10.45pm and had only an hour for packing. Packing ‘Only the basic stuff’ I took off. It was a relief when I realized that I was not the last to arrive. Too tired I dozed off to sleep.

Friday Night: We took off to Bhor at around 12.30am.

Saturday –Day one: We reached Bajarwadi village. Eating our breakfast (idali-chatni) we started our climb at around 6.00am. Within no time we reached Rohida fort and did some sightseeing. At around 11.00am we started descending from Rohida. On our way back, we learned that it’s now possible to go to Raireshwar top via bus from Korle village (which is a new road constructed) or via Wai village. What a relief it was. We all lazy people decided to use the easiest mode of climbing and took off at arnd 12.30pm hoping to reach Raireshwar within no time and having our lunch. It was a decission taken as a group to go via bus. All we wanted or thought of doing luxurious trek without sweating and only enjoying the day. But the faith had decided something else for us. The clock turned, turning our faith. It all went wrong afterwards. No decision seemed to favour us.

We descended from Rohida fort too early and so decided to have our lunch on reaching Raireshwar. It was just half an hour after our bus took off towards Raireshwar when we realized that the road was too muddy for bus to pass. Some villagers told us, “It’s ‘The only’ bad patch which is muddy due to rains, and once you pass by this patch, it’s all good till the end.” So we decided to try out our luck. Requesting driver to pull off with the maximum speed, we decided to push the bus. We did it successfully only to realize that road is much muddier on the way up. The driver suggested not to take undue risk and worried that bus might get stuck in that mud. There was no point in pushing off when driver himself had no confidence. It’s his profession and he knows and understands the road condition better. And so, we again climbed down to try different route via Wai. Lazy bones!

Some people on the bus were very annoying. When we were tucked in that mud and were requesting driver to push off, some were engaged in making fun of the situation. All the rubbish things started with, “Look driver is getting frustrated as he is unable to meet his target. His boss has given him target of reaching the top of Raireshwar fort. Unable to do that he is tensed. In frustration he has now started smoking.” He even went ahead saying, “Oh! Mr. Smoking man, Mr. Smoking driver.” What an immaturity… How can someone employed in a reputed bank behave in such a nasty and childish manner? It was getting on my nerve when suddenly Gautami, yelled at him, “Show some maturity. What rubbish things are going on? Understand the situation and behave accordingly.” Even I yelled at him. It was really annoying. But I very well knew it was of no use and that these people will never improve and will never grow up mentally. Anyway…

I expressed my sincere thanks to the driver for accepting our request and taking up that first muddy patch. On the second such patch, he gave us his frank opinion of not taking risk and return back. After discussion, we all decided to listen to the driver. We came back to Korle Village and learned that the road via Wai is all the same. It was by that time 5.00pm. We decided to have our packed-lunch and then climb the Raireshwar as per our previous plan/schedule. Having our lunch, we took off to Raireshwar with ‘Watadya - Guide’ helping us showing the way up. Taking the count of the torched, we all took off. It took 3 hours for 25 people to climb. It was thrilling indeed. A big, long ladder added to our thrill. (There is a ‘Kaccha road’ which starts from Korle village and reaches near the ladder. It further goes to Wai village till Bhor village). This was my 3rd trek to Raireshwar but every time the fort looked so different, so new. We reached Raireshwar at 8.30pm. Shivaji – the villager at whose home we stayed, came to pick us up at the gate. Nevertheless to say, I dozed off again immediately being travelling since 6.00pm the previous night.

It was in the morning that I came to know one more nuisance created by few members. They all were chit-chatting till 1.00am. How can someone doesnot understand that we were guests staying at someone’s place and should behave in descent manner and should not annoy others. It was only after Amol, our leader interfered and asked everyone to go to sleep, that bunch of people maintained silence. One even went saying that, “Those who cannot enjoy should not be coming for treks”. I was pretty surprised to know that the person I thought to be much more mature and sensible than rest of her group members said those words. May be out of anger or frustration after all the bus story, she might have ended up saying it. So never mind. I think treks are not only for enjoyment, it’s an adventure in which one needs to respect the rules. Those who think rules are burden should go for a picnic instead. When you do trekking as passion and want to try out the difficult routes, the most needed thing is to follow the strict rules. Also leaders should hold power to withhold the crowd. These were the rules which I was taught to follow when I started trekking with the same group. And with the leaders under whose guidance I did treks, was pretty strict and we never dared to argue with their experience. Anyway, as I myself was hell tired I was fast asleep to realize or to hear the chaos. One more very bad thing I notice is that, whenever a girl leader scolds someone, the bunch of people terms her as rude or over smart. But when same thing is told by a guy leader, that bunch of crowd takes it in positive manner. It’s my overall observation across everywhere. Even at work place or anywhere else.

Sunday – Day Two: After much ‘Tu-Tu Main-Main’ last night we went for some sightseeing. We visited the temple where ‘Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’ took the oath of ‘Hindavi Swarajya – Freedom’ at the age of 16 along with few of his friends. Unfortunately, the temple was closed. As this was my 3rd trek to Raireshwar, I knew that there is a Lord Shankar Pindi inside and a beautiful portrait of Shivaji Maharaj cutting his finder with sword and taking oath of ‘Hindavi Swarajya’. I still remember my 1st trek to Raireshwar, wherein ‘Apte Kaka’ (A member of Chakram hikers and a well-known person for studding the history and who has visited all the forts of Shivaji Maharaj) told us the History of Shivaji Maharaj oath. Listening to that story, sitting inside 'that very' temple was thrilling. It was as if we were experiencing it all LIVE. As it was very foggy, we just visited few placed from where Sinhagad, Kamalgad and Kenjalgad are visible. After having lunch we started descending. Again getting down the ladder was exciting. We reached Korle village within three hours. Immediately after packing up we started our journey back home. It was approx. 3.00pm. As I was supposed to get down in Pune itself, I thought of reaching home by 5.00 – 5.30pm. But sometimes plans never seem to work, like what happened on this trek. Just after our bus took off on the road, driver realized that the rear wheel of the bus was damaged. We had to take the bus to nearby car mechanic. He did some welding and we again got into the bus. The cleaner again realized that the welding that was done was not proper and needed rectification. Again we all got down the bus and the driver took the bus back to the mechanic. To our disaster, the welding machine was then taken to Bhor by the owner for some work. It was then decided that we all should proceed to Bhor by government PMT while 2 leaders Parag & Manas - the most experienced leaders should go with the bus. Accordingly, when we reached Bhor by PMT bus, it was almost 7.00pm. We were told that the last bus Bhor-Borivali (Mumbai) would be taking off soon and if we missed on that, we had to wait till the next morning.

While we were deciding our next plan. It was my observation that some good experienced leaders were behaving in very improper manner. May be it was due to last night frustration that they were behaving harsh even while climbing down. Few things were definitely annoying, but that does not mean we shld be losing our temper. Such kind of things do happen during treks. Few situations are unavoidable and we shld accept those and shld work to solve those. It’s really not good to show our own frustration during that time. Something which we can control, we should and will. But frustration or anger or short temper worsens the situation. Even though she came as a member, she was looked as one of the good experienced girl leader. Few things done were too dramatic to handle.

We requested the driver to wait until our two leaders arrive. Luckily they agreed and when Manas & Parag joined us, we started our journey back. The travelling tragedy did not ended here. Just before the Toll-Naka near Pune – Satara road, our PMT driver dashed a new BMW car. We then had to go to the police station for registering the FIR complaint. It took more than an hour. Finally I got down the bus at around 9.30pm at Pune. Waving good bye to my friends, I reached home. As the bus was of Borivali, my friends had to get down at Sion, some 20km away from Mulund. Few of our Chakram members got the car to pick up everyone from Sion and droped them safely back home. My friend SMS me saying, the driver drived fast and we reached home at 1.00am.

The Best part:
In Chakram Hikers, one best think I have noticed is that, the new leaders get all the authority to make decision, implement those, change those, make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. New leaders are definitely guided by the experienced one. But final decision is taken by the leader himself/herself.

Moreover many of Chakram members took their own cars to pick-up all trek members from Sion and drop them safely back to their home. Thatz what group is all about. Thanks to those who showed such spirit. Heads Off!

Also good leadership and calmness shown by Amol Deshmuhk, Saagar Deshpande, Parag Thorat & Manas Thorat. 3 Cheers to them all !

The height :

1. Welding machine: Can u in ur dreams think that welding machine go to Bhor when we just used it few min back. But it did :)

2. Asiad bus dashing new white BMW: When we thought all the tragedies are over. Our Asiad bus met with a small accident near Pune-Satara toll-naka. All we prayed was, "Hey bhagwan! aab is raat ko boring bana do.. bhagwan!" :)

Team:
Amol Deshmukh – Leader (M)
Saagar Deshpande – Co. Leader (M)

Parag Thorat – Dy. Leader (M)
Other Male participants:
Manas Thorat, Amey Paranjape, Gajendra Jadhav, Sriram Iyer
Female participants:
Sharvani Khare, Punit Thorat, Gautami Barve, Aditi Karnik, Arohi Atre, Maitri Bhatt, Apurva Paranjape, Ashwini Nawathe, Varada Nawathe, Pooja Chaudhari, Shamlayee Thakur, Priti Bhujbal, Aditi, Sayali Patil, Manasi Deshmukh, Saloni Modh and Tanvi Vaze.

My Views:
1. Girls/boys ratio:
Reading the experience above, you might have understood that it was a complicated trek. No decisions were working in our favor. Girls/boys ration was really pathetic. It was 18/7 with only 4 leaders. The complicated or nasty situations that we experienced during this trek, I myself think that the ratio between girls and boys participants should be either equal or in the reversed way. I still remember the tensed faces of the leaders. How much they try to hide their tension, one can clearly make out that they were tensed. Getting stuck in jungle with responsibility of 18 girls is a disaster.
2. Rules:
Again these are my views. And anyone disagree with it by all means. I started trekking under the guidance of best leaders. They were strict no doubt, but that made us perfect. You enjoy trekking, but that enjoyment also should have some limit and not bothering others. Sleeping time, departure time, summit time (with little flexibility) etc should be told to all the participants in advance and leader should see to it that everyone follows them

“All well that ends well”

* NOTE: I have written this blog very frankly. Have included all that I experienced during that trek, without favouring anyone. It was not to hurt anyone. It's not done intentionally. Sorry if anyone is hurt coz of me.

Really sorry!!!

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