An adventure of sorts

Wasn't in the best of moods for this one. But with nothing else to do & boredom staring at me in the face I felt I'd better take up this trip.

That explains how I landed up at Karnala village in Panvel during last weekend. We'd put up at a place called "Shanbhar Vishranti" & planned for an early morning trail of the bird sanctuary as well as a trek atop "funnel hill" (Karnala Fort).

The nature trail was more of a peaceful walk thru the forest woods admist twittering of birds but it was the trek that blew our guts out. What should have been a peaceful 2 hour walk ended up as an ardous 5 hour climb. Mentioning it as just a "climb" would not do justice to it. It was a triathlon of sorts - navigating through the forest, then crawling (clawing describes it better) through slippery grassy meadows & finally rappeling up on slippery vertical rocks (minus any ropes).

Me was amongst the luckier ones who scampered atop initially and reached the safety of the fort bastions. The next in line folks were stranded in between on the slippery rocks. Neither could they summon the courage to move up nor could they take the risk of going back by the same slippery route. Finally we'd to call in some rescue folks to aid us.

As I sit down writing this occurence of last week, my joints still carry a sweet ache. Must say that the entire journey ended up as an experience in itself. Enjoyable & adventurous to the hilt.

So next time you go on a trek - don't forget that map & don't try out too adventurous routes.