Monsoon trek to Prabalgad

Last Sunday we trekked up to Prabalgad in the Matheran range. It was truly our first monsoon trek as it was pouring. Until Saturday evening we were not sure if the trek would be happening as the weather had taken a turn and city of Mumbai and interiors of Maharashtra was witnessing very heavy rains.
Although Jayesh was sure that the situation would ease by the evening and as decided we would be going on the trek, there was still some amount of apprehension. Hence we gave ourselves time till Saturday 6 pm to take a call. 25 people had booked the trek with Odati Adventures but, surprisingly none of them even called to check if the trek was called off. We were expecting that. All the same we were pleasantly surprised when nobody called. Atleast we were assured that all of them wanted to definitely go on a trek. God was kind and the rains subsided and our plan stood firm as usual.
As decided we met up at Bandra Station (west). We were in all 25 of us and there were four cars. It was a mixed group of bankers, consultants, entrepreneurs, social activist just to name a few.
We left Bandra at the said time 6.45 am. As usual our first stop was at 'Shree Dutt' at Panvel for some hot mouthwatering Maharashtrian breakfast like Poha, sabudhana khichdi, vada pav, sheera and misal pav. We halted for about 45 minutes finished with breakfast and immediately headed to Poinje, from where we had to take a left to Prabalgad.
The Weather was still pleasant and it wasn't raining. It was indeed a good weather to do this trek.
Prabalgad is a nice spot closer to Mumbai. A distant cousin of Matheran, Parabalgad has all the ingredients for making of a hills station; Forest on top of the hill; at 2300 feet above sea level; quite nice weather round the year; chirpy birds all around; but what's missing is a resident water source on top. I like Prabalgad especially for its forest. It is an amazing trek through the forest.
Prabalgad can't be missed if you are traveling via Mumbai to Pune cruising through the national highway, the gigantic V-Shaped to the west of fort is visible. The gigantic fort is not alone; next to it stands its smaller cousin Irsalgad. This fort has a canoe shaped crown. Prabalgad can also be seen from Matheran's Sunset point.
To get to Prabalgad by road one has to take a turn at the Poinje Phata. This road branches out from the Panvel road, just six kilometers short of the Panvel crossing. From Poinje, we got to the base village called Thakarwadi. Considering the fact that twice before despite knowing the route we have managed to get lost. So we hired a guide from the village thinking he would be better than us. Unfortunately we were mistaken they were worse than us. But you know what? I think getting lost on a route is what provides the fodder for excitement.
Before proceeding on our trek we applied Odomos as there are horse flies and once they get you they can really suck your blood out. Jayesh our trek leader had warned us of the same. Just as we were ready and started on our trek light showers began. It was good weather.
Except for Jayesh and myself everybody else was trekking up to Prabalgad for the first time. But everybody walked so well. We trekked up slowly and the best part of the trek was all 25 of us were in one group walking together. The pace was good enough lest some people deviated and were left all by themselves.
I forgot to mention there was Ali with us a 10 year old enthusiastic kid. At first I was not sure he would walk all the way up with us though his parents were there. But he surprised me totally, he did not crib once and enjoyed the trek to the fullest. He told me stories of his various trips. He was a pleasurable company indeed.
As we trekked up the rains got heavy. It was fun. We had to cross two streams. As we got up close to the fort and had another half hour 45 minute to get the fort the weather had turned bad and unfortunately the path to the fort also got washed way. We had to take a call whether to reach up the fort through an another slippery path or no. It was going to be difficult. Therefore Jayesh took a call it would not be worth taking that risk and we decides to walk back the same route.
The fort has some ruins of stone walls and ramparts. There is a small water tank and a Ganesh temple.
There is not much of a history on this fort. Except that in 1826, freedom fighter, Umaji Naik, along with his companions, had made Prabalgad his home for a brief period.
On our way back we stopped for a wet lunch at the plateau. Everyone was so hungry that they did not mind having a wet lunch. But one can't complaint, the lunch was awesome. It comprised for some homemade 'Theplas' (a gujrathi dish), with some excellent coconut chutney and curds. There were also kachoris, chaklis, and 'Nankatai' biscuits and last but not the least we also had 'Rosogullas'. After a sumptuous meal we had to quickly start trekking down. It was already 3 pm in the afternoon and rain had not stopped. Our fear was that the streams would swell up and then crossing the stream would be a difficult task. We were right. Our fear was almost coming true. When we reached the first stream it was frightening. The water was gushing through. We had no choice but to cross the stream. Expression on everybody's face was one of fear but no one actually spelled it out. Not even little Ali. He seemed only too excited to cross the stream. After deliberating on how are we going to manage, Jayesh took a call that we would form a human chain and cross it. Precisely, what we did. We formed a chain –one girl-one guy- and holding each others upper arm tightly. The only thing we had to remember was not to let loose even one arm. We followed the instructions right and the next we knew was all of us were on the other side of the stream. We had crossed it easily.
But that was not the end. We had one more stream to cross. This was slightly bigger and the distance was slightly more than the previous one. We used the same tactics and it worked very well. In not less than ten minutes we had cross the second stream as well. All fears put to rest we continued our walk leisurely to singing along the way to the village. We reached the village at 6 pm. I managed to get a room in one of the village houses for the women to change our wet clothes. The men managed to change at village gym. I also managed to get some tea made for all of us. Having got into our dry clothes and sipping hot tea was an absolutely blissful experience. We were now ready to get back home to the big bad city life… did we have a choice …well no… but what a way to end the week..amazing.. it certainly has left most of us I am sure with happy memories of adventure.

Pictures by Jayesh Morvankar