Kanheri Caves on a hot, hot day !!!

The Kanheri Caves

Sanjay Gandhi(Borivali) National Park - Reminded me of Bannerghatta Park in Bangalore, the sad experience I had; still decided to try this one out. Was tough to convince Ritin and get him moving. Off we went, Dk,Ritin, Swappy and me. An hours ride in the crammed local from Vidya Vihar to Borivali. A rickshaw took us to the park. Didnt find anything worthwhile in the park. A boat ride , a sad musuem and on top of it an ill fated safari!!!

Sad plight of the beasts.

Walking in the direction of the caves

The Lion/Tiger safari ride turned out to be worse than Bannerghatta, with Swappy and Ritin feeling the pinch as they realized that the trip had ended as soon as it had begun. Tiger safari, we see this white tiger sleeping in its cage inside the enclosure. Lions, we did see two male lions , feeble and waiting for their time to leave the world, lying across a small road ...slumbering. Coudnt help laughing on seeing the shock on everyones faces after the safari ended.

Dry vegetation

Deer for company along the way

A Loner spreading her charm in the dry jungle

We now headed for the Kanheri Caves, supposedly about 8 kms from the park. It was 1200 noon by now. Steaming hot, arid and dry all over. We never bought the mineral water as they were being sold by the locals at double the prices. Just had a few pieces of chikki; Should have bought something to eat. Everyone thought the caves would be just a kilometre from the park. Walked on.....

Dried River Bed

With Payyans resting in the river bed

Still walking....With no end in sight, Ritin starts to throw a volley of complaints and questions the whole idea of this trip. All the river beds were completely dry. Reached a Jain temple and another small station of the toy train. Another ten minutes and silence once again.

Doubtful stares

Payyans learing a few tricks

Occasionaly, a vehicle moved by. Could see a group of deer amidst the dried up bushes. So dry the whole place was! Walked on till we came upon a settlement; one hut had warli painting on the walls.

Settlement

Warli art all over the walls!!!

There was no water to drink;Tried not to think about it and kept moving. It was like a treasure that we found two old women on the roadside, with cucumbers laid out and earthern pots awaiting us! They were selling a glass of water for a rupee each.

Blessing in Disguise...Ladies selling water

Script on the rocks

Relieved, we moved on and came across another set of empty houses. Rested on the cemented beds at the next river bed. Ritin was refusing to go further, Swapnil was ready to move ahead while Dk was neutral on this. Someone had told Dk that there was another 4 km to walk and we had to be back by 1830. Somehow managed to get everyone moving. By 1540 we could see the hill and the caves in it from below.

Me and Payyans amongst the dry grass

The caves can be seen from here

Tourists were all over the place, though the numbers were less. Majestic caves, we kept trudging uphill since there were so many of them all over. Ritin wanted to go back by Bus and the last bus was at 1700. So we had to finish everything in an hours time.

Water reservoir at the top; there were many like these..

Exhausted...

We reached the hill top and could see the huge apartments in the city from here. Time constraint and so coudnt move further. Will be back once again when there would be more time to peacefully explore the whole area. There was lot of area to cover but no time. Aargh!!!

Wonderful sculptures, many partially destroyed

There were two such sculptures on either sides of the main viharas

The vihara was similar to the one in Karla Caves. The buddha statues were of different sizes, and in once such vihara there were two huge sculptures. Many were destroyed but a few sculptures still intact. These are said to be very ancient back from 1st century BC to 9th century AD.

Few more sculptures

Atop the hill..Missed the chance to venture further uphill

Further uphill were smaller caves , which looked like resting places. Could also see that many of these resting places had area holding water. Am sure the men then had planned a proper water system, there was all proof for it. By 1700, we were at the foot of the hill and were awaiting the bus....

Waiting for the bus; Me, Swapnil, Ritin, Dharmendra

For more information:
http://asi.nic.in/asi_monu_tktd_maha_kanhericaves.asp

Matheran and the Monkey Debacle....

Matheran,
8th Feb, 2008

The Direct local from Vidya Vihar to Nerul took around 90 minutes and we had missed the toy train by a whisker. Found ourselves in a dilapidated van which took us from the station to the hilltop ; purchased tickets and were on our trek to the station.

Rusted roller put to use

It took another hour for us to reach Matheran station. It was sunny, dry and chill all around. Had a hot tea before starting off again....

One among the various points

Initial trek along the railway tracks

Walked all the way to the lake, from there onward to the best sights I have ever seen. A sudden drop down and all the hills visible....Ritin the Lion was raring to move towards the edge of the cliff; was fun to watch all emotions pass across his face , though he never agrees to this!

First stop ...along the way

Resting in one of the empty houses

So many cliffs around and so less time, the one near to the lake was the most majestic of all. A sudden drop and you then could see all the surrounding hills. Far down, the river had nearly dried up and all one can see down is a thin silver line of water flowing by.

Majestic hill, narrow and flat till the top

The best drop ever seen

The trail through the forests makes you feel solitary but beware if you are carrying bag, bottles for you never know when you would be attacked by loner monkeys awaiting their prey.

Rohit and the Monkey debacle!!!

Suicide point....Six on the helipad

Everyone were enjoying a snap on the steep edge and just a few minutes back we had seen a monkey scurrying after Rohit. I do remember asking someone to feed a dog nearby, but it turned out that Prabhat convinced Rohit to part with the channa he had. Little did anyone realize what was to happen then. Somehow the simian sensed it and made off towards Rohit who dashed straight for us standing on the edge.

No one knew what was yet to come

There we were , all six of us , the monkey chasing Rohit and a mongrel in between. The fiasco ended only with the channa parting hands from him. Thouroghly shaken , we made back downhill.We were able to cover roughly five to seven points and then decided to return in time to enjoy a toy train ride.

Tensed but in smiles....

Next destination can be seen in the background far away......

Dk and the Cowboy hat...

Gimme back my Hat.

Dk had eyed a cowboy hat and wanted to have a snap but was shooed away by the shopkeeper.Having returned back, he told Payyans to click a snap as soon as he put it on and was bargaining with the shopkeeper. Fun it was to watch , Dk with the cowboy hat , showing weird actions to have a snap clicked and Payyans innocently refusing to click....

Mud slopes.

Dried grass all over the mountains

Reached early at Matheran station and another one hour wait in the queue to get our tickets downhill. We did get the tickets and had more time taking snaps in the train. Its a slow journey downhill and its worth going for it. You get better view all across the mountainsides.

At the station

Me and Dk in front of the toy train , at Matheran station

Garry tastes the horse toe!
Tough time at the station to get the tickets. Limited seats was the problem but luckily we were able to scrape in. Had a chance to watch a horse shoe being fitted. We were examining the horse toe scraps when Garry comes in. Prabhat gives a piece to him and says thats a specialty of the place and instantly it lands in Garrys mouth. Well..........

Winding up the trip....On the way back

The train journey was fun and we got few minutes off at one place for the crossing. One would get a good view of the area if he comes by the toy train. But it would be scary sight to look out of the window and see the narrow tracks close to the edge of the mountains.

Winding along the steep curves....Toy train ride

Payyans was in true form throughout the train journey. Venu anna seemed to have lost a bit of color and was relaxing by the window. Baba, bAbA seemed to rent the air for quite a long time and then everyone started off with songs and college vibes. Reached Nerul station and we were back at the hostel in another hours time...Tired...Sleep now.

Silence.......

Mumbra Hill Temple

Last Semester and just two more months left. Fag end of college life and it seems like it happened too fast. Everyone around seemed to be interested in traveling, visiting places....
Left college hostel early morning at 630, hopped onto the local train at Vidya vihar and in 20 minutes we reached Mumbra. There seemed to be a temple atop the hill where the mumbra devi resides...dont know whether thats quite a reason for the city to get its name...Heard there is a Mumba devi temple further away in the city!!!
The temple can be seen from a distance itself...
From the station itself the temple is visible in between the hills. Mumbra seemed to be majorly dominated by the Muslim community and the station was surrounded by butchers and poultry stalls. Soon as we alighted, we could see men running around goats that were desperately trying to get away from the ghastly scene around....a last run for their life.

At the foot of the hill, a young lad asked each of us to carry a container of water to the temple top, seemed like there would be people at the top who would require water. Hence started the journey, each carrying extra weights with them. There were steps all the way to the top.

In front of the temple ...

Its just a small temple with rock like structures painted over in deep orange representing the deities. It was a good view from the top , we could see the flats downhill,the backwaters and winding river in the distance.

Uphill task! - Everyone were tempted to go the odd way ...




Dk was down and clicking the snaps . It took around an hour and half by the time we reached down hill, ....