Monsoon Trek to Bhimashankar

A re-acquaintance with the Sahyadris

To be in the Sahyadris in the monsoon is a treat. It is amazing to look at the marvels God can paint with a limited palette of green and black. The dense lush forests of Bhimashankar contrast beautifully with the freshly laundered black granite of the mountains. With the ample rainfall, each leaf dripping with little water droplets looks vibrant. But these forests and rocks accompanied with the rain make a deadly combination creating one of the most difficult environments to trek in. The thick thorny shrubbery houses innumerable bugs and insects buzzing around. The huge rocks, pointed in places, are overgrown with slippery moss. The dozens of little rivulets and waterfalls that make their appearance in the monsoons can convert the easiest of trails into a tight-rope walk. And that, precisely, was the thrill of a monsoon trek in the Sahyadris which I had come to experience after almost 6 years.

The Mountain of Bhimashankar

The Green Carpet

 

I joined the Times Trekking Group on one of their monthly treks, this time their destination was Bhimashankar. The temple of Bhimashankar is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, situated about 120 kms from Pune. The river Bhima originates on this mountain and eventually merges into the Krishna River. In the holy month of Shravan the temple attracts a lot of devotees. But they take the vehicular road passing through Chakan, Manchar and Khed. Though a popular monsoon trekking route, we pretty much had the mountain to ourselves. Out of the two possible routes to the top, we were to take the Shidi Ghat route, which is more of a heads-on assault on the mountain, as compared to the more round-about and gradual ascent of the Ganesh Ghat.

The Incessant Rain

Tea stall

The Bhima River

 

One of the Rock Walls

The Shidi Ghat more-or-less involves walking straight up the massive wall of Bhimashankar, and requires a decent degree of rock-climbing. Wherever the rock wall is too steep to climb, a ladder (or a Shidi - in Marathi) has been fixed to the rocks to make the climb a little easier.  Hence the name – Shidi Ghat. It was very overcast, but not quite raining, when we started walking from Khandas village at 11 in the late morning. After a 15 minute walk, at the bottom of the mountain was the Bhima river, where we took the first halt at one of the little tea-shelters. Trekkers were happily playing in the river water as the rain started to pour down. The rain fell persistently, and I got totally drenched, but I had no complains, because that’s what happens to you in monsoon trek – you get wet! I only prayed that the double plastic lining in my “waterproof” backpack kept my belongings dry. 

One of the Ladders of Shidi Ghat

After a 20 minute climb, we came to the first of the three ladders of the Shidi Ghat. The ladder was in reasonably good repair, but had a few missing and broken steps near the top. The part that connected it to the second ladder had no railing, and was supported by a not-so-sturdy-looking wobbly log of wood. People went one-by-one up the ladder, and when it was my turn, I spent a few nervous moments climbing up these steps. By now it was raining heavily, and the skies showed no signs of relenting. Next was a long rock patch where there was no ladder, and over which an impromptu waterfall was gushing down. The muddy water crashed down with considerable force, and we had to climb the rocks through this water. I totally forgot that my camera was in my jacket pocket, which got flooded with water as I climbed up on all fours. When I eventually reached a point where I could stand on my two feet again, it dawned on me that I should have kept my camera safely in my bag when it started raining. Water poured out of the camera and its cover. That was the end of photography on this trek. Anyway, it was no use crying over spilled milk now.

For lunch, we sat down in a cave, the entrance of which was screened by another waterfall. To wash my hands, I just had to stick my hands out of the cave into the gushing water. How convenient!! Refueled, we started climbing up again. The next few rock patches were very tricky and made me continually wish either that I was a few inches taller, or that I had a few extra limbs – like a spider or an octopus. I did not notice it then, but my knees banged into the rocks a few times, and were quite bruised by the end of the trek.

This was a long trek, we walked for almost 8 hours, traversing rapidly darkening forests laden with thick fog. It would have been simply too easy to lose way here. But after some time, the temple loomed up from the mist and marked the end of the climb. There were several guest housed near the temple, in one of which we had booked rooms before hand. The next course of action was to go visit the temple, change into dry clothes, and then pay my undivided attention to the delicious dinner served by the owner of the guest house. Being so tired, I fell asleep within seconds of lying down.

Since it was a bad idea to follow the Shidi Ghat route while descending, the next day the rest of the team took the longer but the relatively easier route via Ganesh Ghat. But I had to say goodbye to the mountains here as I caught a bus from the Bhimashankar ST stand back to Pune.