14 Jul 2007: Lonavala Trip

Well in the monsoons it is kind of hard to go trekking what with the mountain sides becoming slippery. So after persuading and begging we had finally managed to get together 10 people( 5 girls and 5 boys) to come. Some had told their parents fibs, others had told half truths so that they were allowed.


Things did not exactly start off on the right note. The 5 girls came late,
not very but late enough. 4 min to be precise. This meant we missed the 6:45 am Intercity Express and had to take the Deccan Express at 7:10. Reaching a whole hour and a half late. Having experienced the problem while coming back from Lonavala in the general compartments before, we decided to book tickets and ended up taking tickets for the 19:25 Indrayani.


We then took a rickshaw to Bushy Dam. The place however is teaming with people, as this is the season anyway. So, we trekked a short distance to this waterfall near the Bushy Dam lake. And it was worth it. The water was COLD and it took me some time to get used to the temperature. Others were wearing wind sheeters in the waterfall. What they planned to achieve I donot understand. After that, time was spent testing the force of the water at different points. We could not even rest our backsides against the rock, it was pushed away by the water. Intermittently stunts were performed like sitting right in the flow of the waterfall where it was the strongest, I will upload the pics.
It was time to get adventurous after that. We went a little higher and sat under a cascade of around 20-25 feet. The sheer force of the water hitting my head gave me claustrophobia.
Negotiating the moss on the way down was a pain.

But it did not stop there. We went even higher. But there was no real path. Going higher meant going upstream, literally. Negotiating the moss,water, and overhanging branches was a pain. But the waterfall was amazing. Even better than the one below. Generally I am the one who does all the falling for the entire group. But my floaters were giving an unusually high amount of grip. (Although I was moving like a primate.) My role was taken over by Sweta, who managed to slip and fall pretty hard. After that she persuaded one more from our group to stay with her and as a result we donot have any photos of th journey from that point onwards. We spent some time in a small nature made jacuzzi, and then saw crabs after which we decided to get out before any crawled up our pants.

On the way down we found that the stream had gained strength which made it difficult to get back. Finally we reached the shed where we had dumped our bags and ordered vada pavs. But our order was hijacked by a gang of lukkhas who were drunk and still drinking. So we left, realizing we had a whole lot of girls with us.
Some time was spent at the lake, where a few of us chose to 'swim' in waist deep water. I chose to let myself dry in the wind, only to be drenched in the squalls which kept coming.
When we reached down, we found a shop and finally my wish of sitting in the shade and eating kanda bhajiya and having tea was fulfilled. The girls managed to find a changing room. Most of this time was spent clicking photos. Aaron ran around the room shouting "hold this pose!!" at every person he saw. And we left, reaching Lonavala at 16:30. We guys changed in the waiting room bathroom. Nice it was, what with a used condom lying at the side. Following that we spent time at the Maganlal chikki shop and did some more roaming around. But finally we were left with 1 hour and had to wait in the waiting room. We watched each of the trains go by. The Nagercoil Mumbai, the Pune Mumbai intercity both of which we could have taken.
The return journey was uneventful, I managed to sleep through the ghats right till Karjat.
Well, nothing more to write really, I missed Indian Idol, but it was worth it.