trek

The Kulang Experience -
March 14-15th,2003

This was only my second trek, and it was one of the longest in the shayadri mountain range. Its located about 200 kms from mumbai. What you will read below are my experiences on this trek. It might scare a casual trekker, but trekking is always a challenge. I am not a regular writer or something, but i want to write about this trek as things are fresh in my mind and I want to preserve this experience - Just like a photograph.

My account of events

Soni's account of events.

Very soon I'll be putting up all the photographs we took. A few are pasted on here.
Follow the link below for more pics.
Kulang Pics



	We set out at 12:30 am for Kulang. The last train to Kasara leaves Kanjurmarg (the railway station closest to IIT ) at about 11:50 pm. We had no hope of catching this train. However, when we reached kanjur we were delighted to find this train was one �n half late, probably because of the series of bomb blasts that had occurred in local trains that evening. It took us three hours to reach Kasara. It took us another half �n hour to reach Igatpuri from Kasara. The base village Bahuli, from where we began walking towards Kulang is about half �n hour from Igatpuri by auto-rickshaw. A four hours walk from Bahuli took us to the base village of Kulang, called Kulangwadi. There are no roads after Kulangwadi. All you will see is cattle tracks, which will take you through a valley, which runs parallel along the mountain range. Stick to one track which takes you towards the mountains. After half �n hour walk along these tracks you will reach the base of the mountain, from where the main climb begins. It�s a four hours climb. There is no source of water in this village except a natural water hole, which has muddy water. And you will see hundreds of insects swimming in there. However, we filled our bottle with this water for emergency. We had hired a villager for 100 bucks to show us to the top. We began climbing at 11:30 am along the frontal wall of Kulang. The terrain is mostly rocky and climb is quite exhausting. After climbing for two hours and then skirting the edge of the frontal wall we reached the base of the final wall of Kulang. The climb is quite steep from here on. You will find gravel patches and you will find it difficult to hold your foot in there. We climbed on till we reached the final stage of climb. Here there is only a flank of stairs going up along the wall of Kulang. I am not used to walking so much and my legs were giving up. I had almost walked 6 hours non � stop to reach this place. My legs were trembling like tuning fork by this time. So I decided to give up. It was dangerous to take the risk of climbing along the stairs, because one wrong foot and you would slide down the cliff. However Soni was quite okay and he decided to go on with the guide. I told him I would wait for him somewhere below. From where I had left Soni, the summit was just 100 meters above. So Soni climbed on, I began to climb down. Soon I came to know that it was a right decision not to go any further. I slid along the tracks more than 10 times while climbing down. My legs were trembling to bad, it would just not hold on to the terrain which was mostly gravels. The most difficult part was the hair-pin curves, where the track would just turn 90 degrees. If you slip on this track, you will just begin to slide down the cliff. And I did slide down on these patches but somehow held on to some bushes in a desperate attempt to save myself from going down the cliff. However, finally I reached the spot from where path bifurcated. One path goes to the village from, where we had started climbing and the other leads to Ambiwadi, which is closer to roads. I decided to wait there for Soni. But I had run short of water and I decided to climb down further. I cleaned a portion of the ground there and tried to scratch a message for Soni that I had gone down. However, it didn�t look good and I wiped it out and climbed down. I reached the base at about 4:30 pm and I expected soni to get back latest by 6. So I spread my mat there and began to wait for Soni. Around 6 o�clock a villager was passing by and he stopped to ask me if I was planning to spend the night there, to which I said yes. And what he told me in reply, terrified me. He said that there were leopards and bear in the jungle and it was just not safe to spend the night there. He offered me to come with him to the village. But I had to wait for Soni who had not come as yet. The villager left after telling me which way the village was. Soni didn�t arrive by 6:30 and it started to get dark. At 6:30 I decided to go in search of the village, for Soni was with the guide, and I expected that the guide would surely take him to some safe place for the night. I set out for the village. I walked for around half �n hour in the direction where the villager had gone, but there was no sight of any village. The time now was almost 7 and I decided to ditch the search and return to the place where I expected Soni to come. When I reached the spot, there was no sign of Soni as yet. And darkness now had spread all over. There was no option now for me than to climb a tree and spend the night there. I looked for a tree which I could climb and which would not be too visible from the jungle side. I quickly climbed on it. Soon it was totally dark. I could only see the outline of the forest under the moonlight and some distant fire from some huts in the village. And I had to spend the night there on that tree. I had seen such scenes only in movies but this time it was happening to me. And the only protection I had in case any animals attacked, was my torch and a 5 feet long stick that I had improvised. I climbed around 15 feet up the tree and settled in a V-kind place, where two branches divert. The wait for the morning began and time would just not move on. I was dead tired and it was so difficult to stay awake. But I did keep my eyes open, because dozing off meant falling off the tree. Minutes by minutes the night crept on. The most difficult part of this wait was the final hours. At about 5 o�clock when I was expecting sunlight in another one hour, the moon went away, and this time was the darkest part of the night. My back had totally stiffened and it was so difficult to sit anymore on the tree. I was restless but morning wouldn�t come. But my ordeal had to be over sometime and it did at about 7 am. There was light enough to get down and I did give out a sigh of relief. The ordeal was over. I went back to the base, spread my mat there and slept. I expected Soni to come down by 11, in case he stayed the night over on the top. I woke up around 11 am, still there was no sign of Soni. I began to worry now. I went down to the water hole to ask his whereabouts from the villagers. I expected Soni to be with the guide who had gone up with us. There the villagers told me that Soni had climbed down by the other path and left pervious night. It was some relief, now I only had to reach IIT. I began my way back. End to an eventful but not the last Trek.

		Kulang � 14 &15 of March 2003 I started with my friend Ashwini on this trek on the night of 13th march at 12:30 in the night. We were a bit indecisive about starting that night due to two reasons first that we might not get local to Kasara secondly due to explosions that occurred 3-4hours back in a train neat Mulund station, but we where so eager to start that couldn�t resist ourselves to wait up till next morning. On reaching Kanjurmarg we realized that fortune is on our side at least to start off. The last train to Kasara was late by about 1 hour 30 min and we got the train. It took as about 2.5 hours to reach Kasara, from there we boarded a long distance train to Igatpuri. We waited outside igatpuri station for about 2 hours for the autorikshaws to start. We got the first auto to the Village called Bahuli at 7am and reached there at 7:30am. From here we started walking towards the village called Kulangwadi.With me I had some literature regarding the route, thanks to Kaushal Chandak my who wrote the whole thing from the book and mailed me, the content was very good as it matched to every bit up to Kulungwadi. We reached Kulungwadi at 10am. Actually we didn�t realize that the village was Kulungwadi as there were only few houses that we saw. On crossing those houses and walking for 30min we realized that we have left the village behind. Ahead of village we met some people and asked them for the way to Kulung. They asked us to follow them. They took us from some shortcut to some distance and then told the way ahead. But unfortunately we could find the way told by them, mostly because we were not able to understand what they were saying as neither of us knew Marathi. So we decided to head straight for the base of the gully ignoring various cattle tracks in between. Soon we found on shepherd and asked him for way he took us to a point close by from where the marked track led up to the top. He also took us to water. We were a bit afraid to drink that water so we filled our bottles for emergency. Then we asked the same person to guide us agreed on sum of 100 bucks. From here we started the climb at 11:30am through gully then traversing the frontal wall of Kulang though jungle towards the top. We reached the reached the base of the rock wall at 13:30 the forest was behind us. At this point my friends conditions was not good and as this was his second trek only he was not confident enough to climb the wall, though there where good footsteps cut in the wall. So he insisted me to go up and come back while he will sit there and will listen to the India Vs New Zealand world cup match. I tried to motivate him but all in vane. In the end I though that he was actually quite tried and low on confidence but I must say that as a person on second trek he did he terrific job climbing for 6hrs. So I went up to the top with guide. But before leaving I asked him not to go beyond a point from where the path bifurcates to two different villages. All along the way we saw some beautiful views of Alang by our side, Madan with the beautiful hole in it and the mighty Kalsubai in far front. After leaving my friend it took me some 40min to reach the top I stayed there for about an hour had lunch. I was able to see the view on the side opposite to the one from which I came but not the other two as the time was short and the plateau on the top was quite big in those directions so I decided to ditch them and move down fast. I was there back on the same spot where I left him in 30min by 15:45. To my surprise he was not there and not near the point of bifurcation as well. I was quite worried, and then the guide saw some markings on a part ground which was cleared, it appeared to be a arrow towards the other village, Ambiwadi, which according to our guide was closer. I had no other option but to go ahead on that path. I went down quickly and after one hours of descending when I was not able to find him I was quite worried so I gave the guide promised sum of money and asked him to go back and look for my friend and tell him that I will be reaching Ambiwadi. I reached Ambiwadi at 17:45. There I was told that last bus for Ghoti has already left at 17:30. I decided to wait for my friend there only. The biggest problem in the village was nobody knew Hindi after sometime from somewhere they came up with a chap who was able to speak Hindi. Until then most of the conversation was limited to hand waving and taking in terms of works like Kulung, Bus, Time, Jeep, etc. I stayed there in the Surpanch�s house in the night. His hospitality was extraordinary. The dinner was kadak, the best part was the Baajre ki Roti. This is the second time that I got a chance to eat it. Actually this is the reason that I always try to plan a trek in such a way that I do get a chance to stay in a village in night. I had my sleep in the open courtyard of his house also got a chance to listen to match on the radio. It seemed that India was winning as Kaif was hitting the deliveries out of the ground but I was quite tried to pay attention and went to sleep quite quickly. Next morning got up at 6, the bus was at 6 but then I was told that there is a jeep at 8 so I decided to wait for my friend in case he comes back by then. At 6:30 the Jeep came, asked him what are the other timings for the jeep he told that it comes only once a week as today (Saturday) is the day for big market at Ghoti and hence a lot of people go. So finally I boarded the jeep for Ghoti at 8 thinking that my friend must have taken the other path to the village Kulangwadi. I reached back to my room at 14:30. I was quite worried for my friend as he was not here. As the time passed my tension increased. It was finally at 22:00 that I got the message from ashwini�s friend that he is back and indeed he has taken track leading to Kulungwadi. In the end this was great trek. The experience was thrilling; off course not due to right reasons but in the end what ends well is good. At the end I do miss the stay at top of Kulung but then may be the mountain just wanted me to come back once more to have that pleasure.

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