Matheran Trip: an adventure saga

Matheran

One of the awsesome trips i ever had was this one with lot of adventures. we 4 of us just went for an outing as it was not properly pre-planned. i also was unsure about the outcome whether i would go with balaji ("bala"-as i would call hereafter {an online friend who came for interview from chennai}) or not because he had to book his tickets for chennai. But somehow he agreed on going on it was a surprise for me. We reached in Dadar stn on time and met Bodhi and Anirban("Anir"-as i would call hereafter)

We travelled on a train journey of 2 and half hours on 2 local trains to reach 'Neral' from where we would get share taxis to the top of the hill. We also looked for a toy train which goes on narrow gauge on all around the hill to reach the hill top, but it was out of service since the last monsoon in 2005. Last monsoon has majorly destroyed the railway line and its repair work was going on.

The taxis went on the curly and narrow paths ofthe hill which was surely breathtaking for any individual. we could see ourselves elevated aroud each corner ofthe turning of the road. The driver had to be very skillful in driving the small taxi van in which at a time 6-8 people are fitted in(they modify the space where the actual space designed would for 4 only excluding driver).

We then walked for about 1 hour to reach about a place whre we could find a place to stay as we didnt book the tickets in advance and we feared that we wouldn't get a room and might have to return on the same day. But luckily we got a dorm in which 4 of us put up and rested for a while, then took cameras, mineral water bottle, snacks and went up towards the hills.

The path on the hills were kutcha roads on which stones were naturally laid out thru which we walked for about 5 hours continuously! that was really a trek. something which i hadnt thought about whether i would do it or not. But we just went on.. in a group of 4. chatted and talked and stopped occasionally to view the naturally carved out beauties. the trees were interesting as they remained or either fallen on the ground because of major soil erosion taken place during the monsoons. The soil was slippery and full of sand. It gave very little chance for trees to have a solid ground except the mountain n hilly areas.