"Technique and ability alone do not get you to the top; it is the willpower
that is the most important. This willpower you cannot buy with money
or be given by others. it rises from your heart"
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see
Dhak-Bhairi on our left and Rajmachi fort on the right. The
village itself is located at the base of these two forts.
We
had now been climbing for almost 4 hours continuously, with
just a couple of breaks. However, the thick green forest
provided a very shady path, so we were saved from direct
sunlight. Also, there was enough water along the path, so we
did not have to carry much of it in our sacks.
the
most amazing thing about this “Nali” is that when one
stands at its beginning, one sees two hills on either side of
the Nali, and blue sky in between! Because of the steep
inclination of the Nali, its base is not visible when one
stands at it’s start. This is a very amazing and
breath-taking view, but the mere thought of walking (or
rather, crawling) through this patch is enough to make one’s
legs shiver.While we were looking at this view, we heard some
people coming from the bottom of the “nali”. The first 1
to emerge was a small kid, around 10-11 years old. His father
emerged soon after him, along with another couple of men, all
around 20-30 years of age. They were local villagers, who had
gone to visit the Dhak-Bahiri temple.We asked them the way up
to the cave. They said it was a bit tough and asked us to be
careful. One of us asked them “Can we do it?” The villager
simply said “ Have Trust on god bhairi and go ahead, He will
take you up to His cave”. The confidence with which he said
the above words had a very positive impact on us. It removed
the fear from our minds, and gave us the confidence we
desperately needed.So after a 30-minute rest there, with the
newly found courage in our hearts, we finally started to
descend. All of us were tensed, and every step was a cautious
one. One mistake, and the person would slip 200-300 metres
down, taking with him whoever came in his way. To add to this
tension, we spotted a few rats along the walls of this Nali.
Imagine what would happen if a rat crawled on your hand when
you are gripping the walls! Thankfully, nothing like that
happened to us.
separates
you from the valley.It took us about 30 minutes to cross this
Nali. When you approach the end of this patch, you can see the
main Mountain of the Dhak-Bahiri, the one that has the cave in
it. This is a straight, towering mountain and the passer-by
seems to be dwarfed by its sheer size. It almost feels as if
Gulliver is looking at the poor Lilliputs. We reached the end,
and felt very relieved. But alas! That relief was to last only
a fraction of a second. The last person among us had just
crossed the Nali, when Amol called out “Where do we go from
here?”Such a question baffled us at first, but then we saw
the logic behind it. The point where we were standing was
right at the edge of the valley. Towards our left and straight
ahead, there was this valley, running to a depth of around 300
meters, almost vertically. Towards our right, there was the
mountain, rising almost straight upwards. And behind us was
the way we had come. So, WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?Fear was
written all over our faces. We looked at each other, but the
expressions were the same on all faces. We thought maybe we
have lost track. But that was out of question since the Nali
has a single outlet, the place where we were standing. So we
had to be on the right track. But there was no track! After
the fear inside us settled a little, we started thinking a
little more clearly. It was then that we realized what we had
heard so far, “the rock patch is a difficult one, unlike any
other”. We realized the gravity of the statement. The way to
Dhak-Bahiri was along the vertical mountain toward our right.
We had to cross this mountain, this piece of rock rising
almost vertically upwards! Fortunately, we had to travel
horizontally across the breadth of the mountain, and not
vertically upwards. Had it been vertically up, we would have
almost certainly have started back home.So that was it, we
started ahead. The rock was full black, facing west, and the
time was around 1 P.M. The sun was right where we did not want
it to be, on our head. The rock had become hot by this time.
The path was very difficult. There were not enough places to
get a proper grip by foot or by hand. Generally, when there
are patches like these on any fort, there is some way using
which one can safely negotiate the part. Either steps are cut
into the rocks, or then a metal railing is drilled into it.
But here, this was not the case. We literally were crawling on
the rock, but never did we feel sure that the grip we took was
safe enough to hold us. The rock did not even have crevices
where we could get a comfortable grip. All of us were
suspended on whatever meager hold we managed, hanging on for
dear life. The sun was beating down on us, and the rock was so
hot it burned our palms. Relaxing the grip to reduce the
effect of heat was out of question; we would have slipped if
we tried to do it. After all, it is better to have scorched
hands than a lost life. All of us were drenched in sweat, and
were tremendously exhausted mentally and physically. The sweat
on our palms further made it difficult to grip the rock. The
sack on our backs, weighing not more than 5kg, felt as if it
had a truckload of stones in it. It took us about half an hour
to cross this part, definitely one of the worst in our
trekking history.
our
weight? Our hands were full of sweat. What if we lost grip of
the rope. What if the rope was not tied properly? These and a
million more questions came to our mind. But knowing well that
this was not the time to lose heart, we braved on. One by one,
we started climbing up, gripping the rope and using the trunk.
The rest of us had to wait at the bottom till the one climbing
was safely up into the cave. Amol climbed into the cave first,
followed by vikram and anirudhha. Amit and me were the last
ones to go. We could hear the cries of those who had reached
up. Amol, vikram and anirudhha were shouting excitedly, and
amit and myself were full of fear here at the bottom. Anyway,
amit started climbing. Amit is the fattest guy among us. While
climbing, he was standing on the log, with one hand on log and
one on the rope. This was not the ideal way to climb; he
should have been holding the rope with both his hands, using
the trunk only for foothold. I realized his mistake, but
thought it better not to advice him when he was climbing. But
this proved a very wrong, almost fatal decision. Amit was
using both his hands to pull himself up, with one hand on the
rope and the other on the log. While doing so, he happened to
pull the log too. The log shifted from the base. Amit lost his
foot grip, and he almost slipped down the trunk. Had he not
been holding the rope with his other hand, he would have
landed down, on me, and would have taken me along with him 300
meters down! Fortunately, he controlled the fall and gripped
the rope with both the hands. He waited there for a brief
moment, took a few deep breaths and then continued.
Surprisingly, Amit was not afraid to continue. When we talked
about this incident afterwards, he said that he was so full of
tension, that no other feeling had any place in his mind. He
had just one thing in mind; he had to scamper into the cave
somehow. And he did just that. I followed. As soon as all of
us were into the cave, we went to that corner of the cave
where Lord Bhairavnath’s idol was there. We thanked him for
getting us up there. Then we relaxed for some time, yapping
away excitedly about the things we had just experienced.The
cave was very beautiful. It had two sections, each one the
size of our recreation hall in Unit Number 3. One of them had
a big pool of water in it. The water was cold and clear. It is
amazing how our ancestors could find water in the middle of
nowhere with whatever technical know-how they had at that
time. The cave was full of names, addresses and love tales
written on the walls; the disgusting marks that indicated
people had visited it earlier. It makes me wonder what heart
people have to destroy the natural beauty of such a wonderful
cave.
From
the cave, we could see the Rajmachi Fort to our left, and in
its background, we could also see the “Duke’s Nose” in
Lonavla. By the time we settled in the cave, it was almost
evening. The “sunset festival” had just begun. Indeed it
was a festival, with the sunrays generating a wide spectrum of
colors. A few strings of white fluffy clouds, with silver
lining, added to the beauty of this view. For almost 45
minutes or more, we were mesmerized by the spectacle we
witnessed. Utterly speechless, we could do nothing but try to
capture the magnificent visuals in our ill-equipped cameras.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but even the
pictures we took cannot express the actual beauty of what we
saw with our eyes! The sunset spectacle got permanently etched
on the canvas of our hearts.We managed to pull ourselves out
of our “bed” by 7 next mornings. A few snaps, and we were
ready to descend.Easier said than done!
