Written by Kevin Sanghavi
Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity...”
― John Muir
After much debate about keeping the trek on or not the previous night me, Simon, Joe, Ambrose, Sean, Phillip decided to go for the trek on the 19th of Febuary 2014.The closest station from Mumbai is Panvel. I was supposed to catch the train along with Sean from Chembur while Ambrose, Simon & Joe were supposed to catch it from Kurla and Phillip was supposed to meet us directly at Panvel as he was coming directly from Thane. Simon, Joe and Ambrose caught the train from Kurla and i caught it from chembur. Suddenly we realised Sean is missing and then Sean calls up saying that hes just reached Chembur station and that he would catch the next train. Meanwhile Phillip had caught the train from Thane. We reach Panvel and inquire the travelling charges with the autowallas outside the station and they said they would charge 200 rs .We decide to opt for the S.T. bus which we assumed to be relatively cheaper. Soon Sean and Phillip join in and we head towards the Panvel Bus Depot which is merely a couple of minutes from the station.
We board the bus for Thakurwadi. The conductor charged us a meager 15 rupees per person. The bus ride was a bumpy ride and dropped us to the base village of Thakurwadi in about 20 minutes.
We start our trek towards Prabal Machi (the next village en route). We asked a couple of villagers about the time that would take us to reach prabal machi and they said that it would take around an hour to reach the village. The road was a single road which eventually turned into a kaccha road. We reached a pipe on the road from where no vehicle could go ahead.
We met 2 trekkers from the Trek Kshitij group who parked their bike before the pipe and started their trek. The trek to prabalmachi is quite tiring as it goes around the mountain but the view en route is amazing. One can see a lot of peaks on the way.
On the way we reached a stone like structure where we stopped to take pics.
We then encounter a series of steps that leads us to a small fort like structure. We go through it and soon reach the base village of Prabal Machi. It took us around an hour and a half to reach Prabal Machi. They serve lunch as well as have room services though i highly doubt about the room services. We gave our lunch order and filled our bottles from there and continued the trek.
Now you pass through the village of prabal machi and soon start the climb to the mountain. The route passes through a forest and the trail is too sandy and skiddy
. Soon you reach the point where one has to start climbing the mountain and start climbing the stairs which kalavantin is famous for. Though the steps look scary in the pics they are not.
Soon the trek is over and we reach the summit of Kalavantin. We now have a huge 15 feet rock in front of us. We are in 2 minds whether to climb it or not. Ambrose with the help of one of the Trek Kshitij guy starts climbing and reaches the top of the rock.
Soon me and the Trek Kshitij guy both climb up the rock. Soon Joe Sean and Phillip too join us up.We have our victory pictures on the top and soon begin our climb down.
One needs to be a lot careful while climbing down the rock. We help each other to get down and soon descend from the peak towards Prabal Machi.
We climb down all the way to Prabal Machi to the hotel where we had ordered our lunch. The thali served to us included 2 rice flour rotis, aloo sabzi, papad, achaar and dal and rice. The food served was tasty and the family was very amicable. We had ordered 3 thalis between 6 people and it was sufficient. The cost per thali was 90 rupees and then we also ordered Nimbu Pani which was quite refreshing. We rested for sometime over there and then began our climb down towards Thakurwadi.
We reached Thakurwadi in around 40 minutes. We reached Thakurwadi by 3:50 hoping to catch the 4:00 pm bus. As it turned out the bus was gonna come at 4:30 and we waited at Thakurwadi for the bus. The bus came at 4:30 and soon we were off to Panvel station and on our way back home.
