Andharban - The Dark Forest

It was the third consecutive weekend when i slept early at night to get up early and leave for the Kalusbai trek, but as usual I didn’t get up on time.

It was 10am on the Saturday morning, I didn’t want to spend the weekend at home, so as soon I got up I was checking Instagram feeds where I found the link for booking this trek.

This time I didn’t bothered to ask anyone to come along as I was tired of listening to excuses, so this time I decided to go by myself, For the first time.

I made the payment immediately and got the confirmation as well.

I didn’t know the name of the place or the exact location, I just made the payment and slept again.

The only thing that I knew was that I had to board the bus at 11:30pm at dadar, rest things I didn’t cared to know.

I got up in the afternoon and packed my things, did few household tasks and left home at 8pm.

I thought that I would spend some time at marine drive before boarding the bus, but unfortunately, I didn’t have much time, we were told to be at the boarding point at around 10:30pm.

The habit of being punctual and Intime has hardly been good for me ever, still I choose to reach the boarding point at 10pm.

It was about 11pm when the organizer showed up along with few other people.

It was about 11:30 when everyone showed up, just to know that we are going to stay there for long.

It was that time when I got to know the exact place.

The organizer informed us that the bus broke down in between, and they have arranged another transport which would take about additional hour as it is completing the previous trip.

Somewhere I knew that it is going to be hours…. And it was.

Had to pass those boring hours..

The traveler showed up at about 1:30am

We left at about 2am instead of 11:30pm and were expected to reach by 6-7am

BUT……………………………………

I seriously don’t know why anyone would do what the organizer did.

He asked the driver to take us from a different route(NH 66, alibaugh, kolad) instead of the Expressway, stating that the roads are better that the usual route.

He was confident, so we believed him.

But as soon as we diverted to the proposed route, it was just pot roads or just pots, there was literally no road.

We thought that it was just a patch and will end soon.

But it was already morning and the roads only got worse.

The roads got better when we diverted from Nagothane, but yet again…

This time the tire got punctured and we were stuck at this place for a while.

Somehow, we managed to reach at 9:30am instead of 6am.

The driver was pissed because of the alternate route and of continuously been asked to speed up on bad roads and Ghats.

They had some argument, which later got sorted after their respective managers got involved on call.

We halted at some dhabha near the start point, where we changed and had breakfast.

The organizers informed us that it’s long 15km trek and it usually takes 8 hours to complete the trek.

He didn’t ask us to hurry up or cut some spots from the literary.

I didn’t pay much attention to 15km’s part, but later I realized it during the descend.

Initially it all seemed like proper village with a mountain at the end, we started the trek and got to the entry point where 130rs need to be pay for the entry (was taken care of by the organizers)

There was fog and waterfalls all around.

We were supposed to come across 3 major water streams during the trek, initially we came across a lot of small waterfalls.

In-between those streams we came across patches where we realized why it is called The Dark Forest.

It was all bright outside and suddenly it was like late evening in those patches.

The first stream seemed great, the flow was decent, so we didn’t need rope for crossing, human chain was sufficient enough.

I did go into the water, but the organizer asked me to wait for the 2nd stream as it was going to be better than the first one.

The second stream broader than the first one and the flow was more.

Crossing without human chain didn’t seemed possible over there.

We did spend some time over there.

The third stream was right next to the second and it was quite easy to cross.

We were done with all the major attractions within first few hours, the only thing was left was the river near the dam at the end of the trek.

The descent was the toughest part, we were just walking for hours.

After mountain we walked across plateau, then again mountain, and kept walking till it was near to sunset.

In between around 4 we stopped to have some snacks that we carried along with us.

We sat on the rocks in the water stream to have our lunch.

Near to the end of the descend we could see the dam.

Soon we were at the last water stream where we went inside for about 20-30mins and enjoyed the last part of the trek.

I was always under the impression that the mountains and rivers are under the government and only they have the right to charge the tourists for those.

Here I saw one guy asking for 50rs per head for the attraction, now I don’t know whether he had any right to ask or not, but it didn’t make any sense to me.

He even seemed aggressive as if it was his own property (maybe it was, can’t say for sure)

then we went to the dam.

We soon left the place and had our early dinner at a dhabha, where we changed and got back into the traveler for the return journey.

This time all of us asked the organizer to take vis the expressway and he couldn’t say no.

And guess what???….

We reached dadar within 4 hours.

The Summary

I have been to a few treks, but now after this trek I can’t realize that those were not the trek’s and just some stairs which I climbed easily.

The trek covered different regions and sceneries, and it was totally a new experience.

This is a must trek.

The location is amazing, we crossed through the Tamini ghat, which was also great.

Pros

· An amazing experience.

· This is a real trek.

· Water streams are amazing.

· Single day trek.

· Trails are easily visible.

· Food at washrooms are available at the villages.

Cons

· Water streams can be massive, at that time you will need professional support.

· It a really long trek……………………………..