Dhak Bahiri - An impossible one.

Hello friends...
This Saturday’s trek was one of the most memorable one I did so far. It had all the twists, turns and excitements. What more to ask for? We have set a standard for others to trail this massif in the monsoon; yes you have read it right….NO ONE HAS DONE THIS IN MONSOON. I haven’t read or heard about anyone doing this in monsoon…no trails on the web too.

Almost in the entire mountain region, world over, rain means bad weather. While in the Sahyadri’s it’s great weather! One of the finest time to trek - a unique phenomenon in the trekking world. I thank my parents for settling in such a beautiful state called “MAHARASHTRA”.

Seed of this trek was sown by Datta (my colleague). Around two weeks back he told me about doing it in this month, initially I felt he was kidding. But once Amit (my colleague) joined the conversion, I was pretty sure that we are gearing up for a big one. In this trekking maniac world I would rate both Amit & Datta to be an extremely good climbers and I knew their capabilities.

Reason for me to think Datta to be kidding is quite simple...Dhak is known to be a difficult trek and during rains it’s close to impossible. I have been trekking since my school and Dhak was always on my to do list, but frankly I never expected it to happen this way.

Some information on Dhak before I take you all to the trail to this challenging, long and strenuous trek...

Dhak: Name of the village at the other base of the mountain.
Bhairi: Temple of Lord Shiva inside the caves dug into the mountain side
Type: Hill Fort
Fort Range: Karjat
District: Raigad
Height above sea level: 2700 ft. (According to www.trekshitiz.com)
Difficulty rating: Difficult
Base village: Sandshi

We (I, Amit, Datta & Srini) had planned to assemble at Kalyan Station before 12:00 AM. I and Amit reached Thane (via a bus from Borivali) and travelled to Kalyan, Datta got into the same train from Vikhroli, he was carrying a floor brush (which we intended to use to clear the moss on the risky rock patch) and Srini was assigned the task of collecting the rope from Yatin (An ex-colleague), he is an avid trekker who runs his own trek community “URJA” and has lots of knowledge about forts all over the Western Ghats. He had requested us to not do this trek, but we had assured him that if we find it difficult we would return from the col itself.

We actually missed the 00.52 Train from Kalyan , since the next Karjat train was @ 2.10, we thought off keep moving and took the next train which just arrived for Ambernath, We reached Ambernath and the platform was quite empty, we sat next to a policemen who was playing “chadta suraj dheere” on his mobile, and datta started following the lyrics. Soon the song got over and Datta was spotted standing on the weighing machine, checking how much marriage has put him off. We three followed and did the same, but note we three were bachelors.

We reached Karjat @ 3:05 and walked towards the east, when we had just started to leak ; A trek group moved towards our way, Amit immediately signalled them that “it’s a wrong way; you guys need to move left”. The team looked confused; since we were too going to the ST stand we asked them to follow us. It was quite dark out and time for our torch to show its use. In 5 minutes we where @ the ST Stand, we were welcomed with a huge noise and we knew are night sleep has been screwed. It was very dark we couldn’t spot the number but it was a huge and noisy crowd. We parked our asses on a corner. It was 3:12 and since the first bus to the base village was scheduled for 5:45, me and datta planned to take a nap. Amit and Srini were found chatting. Datta tried hard to avoid the mosquitoes with coil’s which he carried from home. At about 4 I woke up wid Srini screaming and found smokes all over, Datta had done some R&D wid the matchbox and it got ignited causing a small minor thigh burn to him.

Bus started to move by 6 and it was just us and a team of football players; seems like going for a match. I continued the sleep in the big seat of the bus, while rest enjoyed the scenic beauty. We reached the last stop “Sandshi” (Base Village). Next to the stop was the Sarpanch’s house, “Sandshi” houses not more then 20 homes, so it’s just a small village. Since the path towards Dhak is believed to proceed through dense vegetation and is considered to be quite confusing, we enquired for guide and the Sarpanch tried but he couldn’t, he replied saying that since the farming was ON he can’t find anyone to guide us. Sarpanch’s wife gave us some water to freshen up. We looked in a mess, but I made it clear we are doing it and I was pretty sure of the team. With this confidence we started the trail…we were first welcomed by multiple muddy fields, then a stream, then muddy fields again, within minutes we found ourselves into the Jungle. The trail was properly marked with arrows on some stones at a mere distance, we really thank those guys who took this pain and did it in great intentions. We kept moving and whenever we met a diversion and were confused to choose the way, two of us used to split and move in one direction if we spot an arrow we used to cry the Jungle Word “AO” and other two members used to move towards the sound and acknowledge back with an “OA”. We kept following this lingo till the end. During one of our stream crossing when Amit was moving in the last, I spotted something moving behind Amit, I shouted to Amit “seems to be a snake behind you”, Amit jumped in shock and indeed it was a snake, the snake jumped too, but in the direction of the stream, I ran behind the snake and Datta followed. We had done this for the intention of a snap, we love animal so it was never to hurt them, but before we could remove the cam’s (it was drizzling so we had kept them in the pouch) it had disappeared under the rocks in the stream. Amit took a breather and we moved on. We spotted lots and lots of colorful crabs, insects, frogs, birds and good green vegetations all around. Srini had carried biscuits which we munched now and then. It was then hours of steep climb with few minutes of break, we kept moving hard and kept calculating the time, and we knew that our prime target was the col since then it was only the rock climb, which is the most difficult part of this trek, so we travelled at a good speed. We finally reached a sign board which showed direction for four places 1) Dhak Bahiri 2) Dhak Village 3) Sandshi Village 4) Kondeshwar Village. Just opposite to the board is a rock and it’s believed that anyone who moves towards Dhak bahiri has to pray here and keep some leaves on the rock, we followed the custom and did the same. We started have the glimpse of the col which gave us a feel good factor. We reached the col by 12 PM. It takes anything from 4 to 6 hours to reach the col because of route finding difficulties. We munched some bread n butters; my army knife had turned to a spreader. From the col one has to descend about 50m through a narrow passage between the Kalakrai Pinnacle and the Dhak Mountain. The track descends at an angle of 45 degrees and the soil is a bit sandy so one has to hold on to both the sides to prevent slipping. After the descent one comes on to the wall of Dhak from where an exposed traverse of about 100m leads one to a position below the cave. Most of the traverse consists of a series of rock cut steps which are just large enough for one foot to rest on. After the traverse are a series of rock cut steps climbing vertically upwards. One has to climb up a set of steps then do an exposed traverse, again climb some steps and again traverse till one reaches a "bichki". The steps are blown off in this section. A tree trunk (called bichki) has been suspended there by ropes. The branches have been cut off into small stumps to make footholds. Using this bichki one climbs up for about 5m after which there is still about 2m of climb left for reaching the cave which consist the temple, where there is no support of a bichki. But a stem of a creeper has been tied by ropes in this section. Using this stem one can haul oneself up into the cave. It took us about 30 minutes to reach the cave from the col. I was the first to reach the summit and was crazily shouting, screaming, jumping, punching the air and doing whatever I could. It was a proud moment and a trend set. Srini climbed next followed by Amit and Datta, we hugged each other and it was high fives all around we called up two of our colleagues (Kevin & Rishi) who dropped it in the last minute and told them what they missed. Yes, IDEA network really rocked at this height. Not much to see in the cave, it has an idol of Lord of Bahiri. From the caves, we can have a glance of the terrifying beauty of peaks of Sahyadri. We can also see the beautiful twin forts of Rajmachi i.e. Shrivardhan and Manranjan. For the first ever I saw palms trees standing tall at such huge height The cave was stinking probably with monkey shits, it was getting darker and we knew that the drizzles would get heavy so we just spent 30 minutes in the cave, did some photo shoots and decided to start the descend. We could see joy in each others eye, we reached the col easily from the same route in just 18 minutes, we decided to munch and move down. Datta as usual carried chicken since Amit and Srini were veggies we both had to finish them all. With our hunger off we were ready to move when we just spotted two monkeys on the adjoining tree, Amit checked with us if we are done so that he can feed the monkeys. He dropped the breads on the ground and down came one gutsy monkey who filled his mouth with the maximum he could and took some in hand and ran off to the bottom of the same tree. The other monkey kept making faces to frighten us, and we kept saying “hey dude show some guts and pick those breads, instead wasting your time on us”. He didn’t move, meantime the other monkey came for another round he took all what was remaining. We laughed at it and moved on.

I remember telling Srini about descending tricks including why most people get injured during descending then ascending, who had impressed me a lot since it was his overall second trek. He was very agile and fit, and I was more then happy since I am planning a trek to the valley of flowers where he would be a part of. We stopped at a waterfall took some snaps and cleaned ourselves and moved on munching biscuits. We even saw some langoors here. We then moved faster since we had targeted 5 PM bus to Karjat. Srini slipped on a rock and had some minor bruise on his knees and stomach. Finally we halted at a stream took bath, changed our clothes, Srini cleaned his wounds and applied an antiseptic cream. We heard the sound of the bus and ran towards the village. Luckily the bus was going to move and we were on time. We were really tired but the achievement kept us silent and we all were just thinking about the trail. We reached the last stop (Karjat Station), went into a local hotel had some vada pav, missal pav, bhaji’s, tea and cold drinks. We got into the CST Fast Train at 06:30 pm, soon except me all three were in a good sleep, Datta got up in between and was looking for his floaters which was missing, guess what, the passenger sitting opposite to him and was also in strong sleep was using Datta's floaters for some leg cover, we smiled since it was there. Three of us got down at Thane, Datta moved in the same train to Kurla.

To mention we didn't use the rope and brush which we had intentionally carried for support, but completed the trek without its use and we don’t regret carrying them it. I would rate it as a medium level trek if done carefully.

We four will remember this trek all our life, I would remember this for one aditional reasons it made me write my first blog ….just wanna say people like us read the word impossible differently "I M POSSIBLE" !!!

Picture on this link : http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Album.aspx?uid=17376615179501771458&aid=1247967622

Regards,

Jay Nair

jaynair01@gmail.com