“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
― Augustine of Hippo
'Twas a combined travel for both the Kalavantin and Matheran treks with Hats Club on-board the Mumbai Express. Started from the Sheher-e-Shaandar, Hyderabad, on Friday 2000 hrs, and met my group of six members who, me and Sagar, a fellow organizer from Hats, were gonna handle.
From left: Siddharth, Krishna Priya, Srikanth, Sushil, Me, Dinakar, Jyothsna; Pic by Sagar
Matheran is, as far as I know, is the only place in the whole of India where even bicycles are not allowed. The way in is either by walk, toy-train, or horse back. We arrived at Karjat, in the state of Maharashtra, and then took a local train to Neral, and then a taxi (well 2 taxis for the eight of us), to Dasturi Parking Point, the entrance to Matheran and then we started by foot . Matheran was a distance of around 2.4 km from the parking point and was supposed to take around 45 min to reach.
We already had a booking in a hotel(camping is not allowed in Matheran) called Hope Hall, so we headed there and I met with Ms. Maria, the caretaker of the hotel - it was actually a big estate kinda thing which Ms. Maria and her husband run with very big rooms and dogs - yes dogs, a huge number of them.
Checked into the hotel, freshened up, and started our trek/hike at around 1600 hrs Dec 13,2014.
The first point was Charlotte lake, and Lord's Point: Got the people to Lord's point and they were enjoying the view there, when I noticed that Sid was missing (after a photo session with us at Lord's Point sitting on the edge of the cliff). We started searching for him asking the jockeys over there if they had seen him. No, we didn't have phone signals everywhere, even if we had, he mightn't.
Finally, somehow, KP got in touch with him on his phone and he said that as he did not see where we went (he was lagging behind), he followed the straight path ahead looking for us. A lot of time got wasted there and we were behind schedule, so we made haste.
At Lord's Point
We are not people who follow the most tread path, so we didn't go the way most of them went, but took a detour from Lord's point which leads to a goat trail on the edge of the cliff which we followed up to Echo point at where the main path met this goat trail.
All along the way, was a pleasant grassland with settled dew and a view to die for. We could even Kalavantin Durg(yes, the other trek) which was around 2.5 km in line of sight and, most important of it all, the echos. WOW.
Honeymoon point and Louisa Point followed and then a night walk through the deserted streets of Matheran to finally reach our hotel and retire for the night.
A map of Matheran, our hotel Hope Hall is located just off Regal hotel in the centre
The next day, we were supposed to visit One tree hill, which was going to be a 3-4 km walk from the hotel, at 0500 in the morning.
We reached One tree hill, the south-western most part of the plateau, at 0600 and were waiting for the sunrise. The light slowly started getting brighter and then we saw it - a hillock in the distance slowly appearing into view with only one tree on the hill - hence One Tree hill.
Waiting for Sunrise at One Tree Hill "point"
The scary climb to One Tree Hill
Me and Sagar slowly went there to check it if we could climb up, and indeed we found a path - a rather easy one and asked the members to follow. They were reluctant at first because from the place they were sitting, it looked like a near vertical climb and none of them were rock climbers like we were. We however, cajoled them into climbing up, and one by one, all six did, which they agree, was one of the best things to do ever because the view atop this hill was ethereal. We spent over an hour and a half clicking pics and what not, and then got down the hill, did a cross country trek through a deep forest, reached a private property belong to a well known Hindi film director(whom I didn't know) and were guided to the hotel by the caretaker there.
Fun atop One tree Hill with Jo
The one tree atop the hill
The director's house with his dogs :P
The time at Matheran was drawing to a close, we got down the hill, almost running 'coz we had a train to catch and we were getting late. Reached the station on time for the Hyderabad Express, got on it, and then began the classic Indian tradition of train journeys with a group - Dumb Charades, Antyakhshari, Playing Cards - Bluff, Gujju Bluff and what not.
Finally reached Hydeabad, bid adieu to each other, reached home, and slept like a baby, content on another trek done good, and new friends gained.
P.S.: I got dumped aka Freedom from emotional drama :P
