Lone trek to the hill-mountain

This little mountain-or large hill- is visible from my place in talegaon. An odd shape sticking out abruptly from the surrounding land. Unlike the other hills, this one doesn’t form the continuation of a range; it stands there all by itself, its contours smoothing out gradually without spreading to the nearby hills. I always thought fold mountains were formed in linear ranges, with the exception of a few individual blunt hills. But this one is sharp with a clear peak. Peculiar forces indeed that formed this little aberration of the earth. Enough geology though. The point is, this strange mountain always made me want to give it a visit.

So one day after lunch, I decided to head out and see how far it was. Since I had not really prepared for a trek, I packed a few things I thought could help- large knife, wooden stick, matchbox and some paper, plastic bags to keep stuff dry, extra pair of glasses and 2 phones; apart from the obvious food and a 1 litre water bottle. I couldn’t find my long rope so I hurried off with what I got my hands on- skipping rope and elastic clothesline. Big mistake.

Off I went, starting out at 13:30 down Ambi road which connects the old highway to Ambi village and all the new factories that have opened up there. It goes over a railway track and the river Indrayani- both of which run roughly WNW to east. The mountain is NE of my place, so once on the road I saw it a bit to my left, long way away. Standing over the railroad, I totally forgot about the river and decided to head straight toward the mountain. I crossed the open fields, coming upon goat jaws and buffalo skulls, 2 types of mushrooms, mostly thorny shrubs and loads of grass spread all over in tiny patches which made it appear dense and continuous from far away. The wind was strong as always, carrying with it sparse little drops of rain from the North West. I picked a power tower and a far away tree to form a straight line to the mountain, as a guide. As I went on following this line I came across some farms at the base of the tower. There I saw the river some way further and clapped a hand to my forehead. The return to the main road cost me some time and yet this wasn’t my last detour.

After crossing the river I was again tempted to go off road, straight to the mountain. The landscape on this side was awesome. Smooth dunes rising up and sloping down in the distance, into the remnants of a stream, only to rise again on the other side. The cloud shadow meant that that side had a misty blue shade to it, while the grass on my side glowed gold and green. Soon it was the opposite; and because the wind was so strong it meant these colours kept changing all the time. I thought this only happened on the ‘fields of pelennor’¹, with Oscar winning visual effects. I went ahead to find a great depression in the ground which rose steadily into a dense forest which I had no intention of crossing. So I went back to the road that-to my dismay- continued way toward the east to be going anywhere near the mountain. I went off road again at the first chance and continued till I reached a fence and a mango plantation. The farmer told me there was a small off shoot from the main road that went north, straight past the mountain. I cut across to this road from the nearby green houses and was finally on my way, with about 1km left to go.

The detours had meant I had walked a total of 8kms instead of the otherwise 6.5km long path. Still I didn’t stop until I climbed up the gentler slope and rested on a rock I had seen from below. Walking straight for 2 hours, I had not eaten or sipped water since I had left home and so I took a 10min break here.

Point 2

Then I picked my things and looked up to plan a route. I was still considering going all the way up, but by the time I got to point 2, it was obvious that the way ahead was too difficult and time consuming. It was 16:00 and I wanted to get home before sun-down. By the time I went a bit further toward the right, something felt wrong. The terrain looked and felt very different the moment I started the descent. There was grass everywhere and only a few precious little rocks and even fewer reliable foot-holds. The gradient suddenly looked steep. I couldn’t go back the way I came, it looked too treacherous. Two fathoms below there was an overhang preceding a straight fall of I don’t know how many feet (around 20-25 from the figure it seems). So the only option was going sideways. Progress was very slow and each move was risky. Firm looking outcrops just gave way when I tried to grab them for support. A base rule for climbing is to have at least 3 points of support at all times and this was becoming increasingly scarce. Finally I reached point #3. Here I thought I was trapped. There were no foot holds, no rocks jutting out, and everything I stepped on was slippery. The only hold I had was where my feet were. With no hand supports, I could only stay there leaning back against the slope. This was impossible with my backpack on, so I removed it slowly and carried it in my left hand.

I moved a foot to the right somehow. My feet were firmly supported so I chanced leaving the slope to stand straighter. Just as I peeped down, a great gust of wind came from my right(left hand side in the photo). At once I leaned back again, my heart pounding. I looked up at the sinister peak and for the first time on a trek, I felt fear. There was nowhere to go and even the soil under my feet seemed unreliable now. . I stopped to think. To my left was the edge of a dry stream. I toyed with the idea of jumping across; the land on that side looked negotiable. But looks could be deceiving, and even a precisely executed jump would not come with the guarantee that I would land on something firm. The risk was to roll out of control for 10 feet and off the overhang, crash down and roll again, breaking god knows how many bones before I would come to a stop somewhere on the gentle slopes..’eventually’. And this was only the optimistic outcome of course. About 7 ft above me was a great rock the size of a small square room, with one corner sticking out, precariously supported on several small broken rocks. It just hung over there, spoiling any back up plan of mine to stay there until someone rescued me or something. I mean, what if it came lose at night, and crushed me in my dreams? I know, sounds ridiculous; but when you’re trapped alone on a place like that-literally ‘between a rock and a hard place’- then anything seems possible. The daredevil and the coward are both in your head, and there’s no telling which one’s right! Where do you go and what do you do? Do you move at all?

I started talking to myself to calm down. Then I started praying slowly. Rationality returned; I must make a plan; plan a route; route to go down. But there were no foot holds for 5 ft below my feet. “So hang somewhere! You’ve got rope!” “What? Skipping rope?! And hang it where?” Just then I saw a shrub sticking out beside me. I pulled on it to test it, and it felt just well rooted enough. Cursing myself for not searching for the long rope back home and feeling stupid, I pulled out the skipping rope. Looped it around the stem and chanced a pull. I pounded my heel into the damp soil a few inches below to make a foothold. I continued this way for a few feet. When the rope felt short, I tied a knot and slid it up to the root with the wooden stick, so the double rope now became single. How easy would it be if I was free of my bag, I thought! What if I flung it off the mountain and collected it later? Nah, the bag had my precious water and food, apart from other survival goodies. It would be fatal to let it go!

Wishes come true even in bad times though, especially in bad times I would say; so be careful what you wish for. I descended in that manner till I ran out of rope. The difficult part was far from over. In fact it would now be even harder as I didn’t have my rope to hang on any longer. Resentfully I let it go to help some other fool in need. The same problem resurfaced again though, and this time there wasn’t even a bush beside to rope up. So I pulled out my wooden stick. Without hoping for much, I dug the stick into the soil as vertically as possible. This would give the optimal resisting torque without the chance of the rope slipping over it(sorry for the geeky input but you see how vital it can be sometimes! :P). I pushed it as far as it went and looped the elastic clothesline over it, with the 2 hooks in my hand. Surprisingly, the stick supported the load. Grabbing the line firmly with one hand, I carried my bag in the other and continued my slow painful heel-digging descent. The elasticity of the rope made this very discomforting. I reached another thorny plant and rested my feet on it firmly. I recovered my line and stopped to think. The bag was making me unstable so I decided to hook it and carry it a few feet below me, using the elastic line.

Point 4

I hooked it and let it slide down slowly. Son of a gun stopped abruptly and made my line go slack. So I jerked the line and slip! The bag came free! I watched helplessly in slow motion as it tumbled crazily down and out of my sight off the overhang. I stood to peep but didn’t see it far below anywhere.

Now things were suddenly serious- too serious to come down one heel at a time like a scared sissy. I stuffed the line in my pocket and went to good old unsupported hand-and-foot climbing; I didn’t need the damn rope. This mountain was not above my skill! :P Quickly I stepped, taking each hold and niche with the confidence of master crane² of kung fu panda fame. I came to better ground in no time and the red line became orange again. As you can see, I had come to the side, in the direction of point 2, so I could now see the path I thought my bag had tumbled down. I strained to see the slopes and plains below but there was no blue dot. I looked up and there it was! Stuck in a shrub some way to the left(below #4). I went there as fast as I could (horizontal orange line), picked up the bag, eager to have a sip of water for my now dry throat. But hell! The bottle wasn’t there. It must have tumbled out due to its weight and gone on. There was no point searching for it. And then again, less weight in the bag was precisely the reason it had got stuck and stopped! So I took it and continued along the now childishly easy terrain, winding my way back down and off the mountain.

Conclusion

Parched and tired, I hopelessly tried for a lift until one fellow with a Gandhi topi let me hop on to his bike and took me all the way to talegaon rly stn. Turns out he’s the ‘adhyaksha’ of the warkari group of Maval taluka. Told me he lives in the village on the other side on the mountain and asked me over for lunch the next time I came. I thanked him, took his card and left. Overall, it was quite the adventure I had in mind, and a lot that I didn’t!

1 Pelennor fields are where the battle of minas tirith takes place in the 3^rd LOTR movie.

2 Kung Fu Panda has a short prequel “Secrets of the furious five”. Master Crane’s secret is Confidence.