Trek Mates' Diary: Harishchandragad summer trek

Namaste.

as an old member with Youngsters (TrekMates now!), i'd like to share about this trek of mine to our Beloved Harishchandragad in the month of March 2012.

as we all know about HCG and its beauty, i decided not to write much, again... so this leaves me with this PhotoBlog of HCG...

This trek was my first lead trek to Harishchandragad. We planned this trek as my old friends Ashwin & Altmash wanted to enter the trekking scenario & get ready for the Manali trek we plan to go to, so for a start I decided to take them to our beloved HCG trek:-P. this was one of my best experience at this mountain as well as for my friends…

At Khubi Phata around 1:30am….

We took the route towards Khireshwar which starts just opposite the tea stalls… it goes through the farm lands & that’s the route the villagers usually use rather than walking all over the dam… this route goes via the Nageshwar Temple, it’s a preferred route by most trekkers I say… it took us an hour or so with this route…

Somewhere around 3am on the clock and we reach Khireshwar village amidst the village darkness, the starlit sky and the cool breeze… the photographs will explain how it looks in a quite village in the night… I think all you readers should at least spend a night at such a place, once… it’s a totally beautiful experience…

The cock rings upon my ears beside where I was sleeping and the next thing I see was the Oh! So beautiful curtains of colors in the sky along with the morning mist… next thing I do is wake up my fellow mates who hadn’t seen such a view in their lives and then they wake up in astonishment for the prettiness of the nature…

7:45am : we had stayed in the courtyard of Hotel Aishwarya for the night (a known place among trekkers on this route). We had some hot Kande Pohe (plenty to satisfy our bodies and get ready for the trek). We started our trek at 8:30am with the sun just giving out the perfect heat (not so hot not so cold) as we walked past the green farms with the crops standing tall and fresh…

Taking it slow and steady with my amature friends, we reached the diversion towards HCG at 10am. It took us another 50 minutes to reach the Tapri above the rock patch.

12:45pm : taking it slow & steady all through the trek and enjoying the beauty of the nature (as my friend Ashwin says) and after having quite breaks, we reached the Harishchandragad Temple complex in 5 hours… and then my friends go mad & crazy just looking at the place and relishing some cold Nimbu pani at the food stalls put up by the villagers. They had set these stalls for the Mahashivratri Celebrations a week ago…

My friends spend a good time talking and admiring the nature around that place… and then we headed to the caves to have some food & rest….

5pm: we started our journey towards the Konkan Kada and we were there in some 15 minutes or so. My friends had never been on such a height ever in their lives and the place left them speechless for a while. I don’t need to describe the beauty of this place I guess, my fellow trekkers will surely know it and my readers wont know it unless they visit it… :-P

We spend a lot of quality time in peace there. We had a good chat and one of the best views to look at. Returned to the caves at 6:30 pm. We again headed to the stall to have to so refreshing Nimbu pani. Gathered some wood for the fire and started preparing a vessel full of Maggie. At around 8pm, we were done having food and arranging our bedding and ready to admire the beauty of the night. A couple of smoking rounds after the tiresome trek:-D as we sat outside the cave having the beautiful time of our lives and having a good chat with my old friends. The photographs will explain the beauty of the night again and my readers have to be there to experience it. Looking at the photographs, and getting the feel after being there, are two completely different things. You all got to be there once…

The star lit sky and the star trail in the sky behind the Shiva Temple at around 11pm.

Then we slept in the silence of the night. I could have added much written stuff but many factors permit my writing and leaves me skipping some part of the experience around midnight there… :-P

10:26am: we get ready with our bags packed for the descend, and pay a visit to the Shiva Temple before heading home… the architecture and carvings in the temple are simply marvelous.

The metallic robo bug that stopped our way… (it’s a live insect btw)…

2:06pm: tired and relieved at the same moment, my friend Ashwin reacts after reaching the village. It took us 4 hours to descend to the village at a steady pace.

the route that goes via the Nageshwar Temple towards the HighWay…..