Back to Harishchandragad (17-18 May)

This year I could hardly do any treks. Had been busy with the course and also not many trekking opportunities near XLRI and Jamshedpur. I had trekked to Dalma in October and since then did not do any trek. Had decided to do some trek during my internship period.

However Mumbai is terribly hot these days, so could not decide upon location. Finally it came to going back to Harishchandragad. Vinay was also waiting for a trek. We decided to a night trek to Harishchandragad. This would have been my fifth time to Harishchandragad. Took 9 pm bus from Kalyan to Khubi Phata. It was almost midnight when we reached there. We slept in the school veranda at Khireshwar � the base village and decided to start early, instead of doing part section at night.
We started early. Pre Monsoon atmosphere had started developing, which helped us avoid summer heat. We almost completed our trek through dense fog and cold winds, unlikely weather in mid may. Early trek left us enough time to stay on the fort and Do NOTHING! Spent entire day in the cave in Khireshwar temple doing nothing but laying back and resting. We decided to trek back via different route this time � getting down at Pachnai. We got up at 4 to trek in dark and catch 6 am bus from Pachnai. But fog was so dense that we couldn�t at distance of couple of feet. We went back sleep and trekked to Pachnai � fairly simple route � in daylight.

Journey back home from Pachnai was however very tiring. We had to wait till 11 am to get the next bus. It had become terribly hot by then. Bus took us Rajur, a taluka place in Ahmednagar district. From here we shared a Jeep to Kasara. Local train from Kasara took us back home. We started 8 in the morning and reached home by 6 in the evening!

In the end, good trek after a long time. I realized in this trek amount of weight added in past year and how rusty body has been!

Vinay had been busy with his camera. His photos at
http://picasaweb.google.com/vinay.savla/HCGad17th18thMay2008