Trek to Rajmachi.

Trek to Rajmachi was my second weirdest trekking experience for me as well as my friends. Unlike last year’s trek to Duke’s nose, we completed our trek successfully. It was a new experience for me to trek on a route which was all the time steep.

For all those who are planning a trek to Rajmachi, here’s a short gist of how to reach Rajmachi. All the references are with respect to Kalyan. It’s a sincere request to all those who want to complete the trek in one day to get as early as four in the morning. Catch the early trains for Karjat or Khopoli. The precise timings of local trains from Kalyan are 5:30, 5:42, 5:50, and 6:10 a.m. Alight and walk towards the Pune end bridge and get down at your left side of the station if you are coming from Kalyan. The east and west of karjat sometimes drives you mad hence it is easy to remember to get down at your left side. Ask locals for a bridge and there you will get ‘dum-dum’, ‘kali-pili’ or rickshaw to Kondivade Phata. There are adequate signs telling which rickshaw to catch. Don’t tell the rickshawallah Kondivade as he may charge more. The Kondivade Phata is located in Khandpe village. The standard rates are Rs. 10 to Rs. 15 to Kondivade phata on share basis. From Kondivade phata, you should be willing to walk 15 minutes to reach Kondivade village. Ask the locals for correct directions in the village and trek starts.

The above things mentioned above were for those who are searching on net how to get to Rajmachi. My personal experiences are little weird and it starts now.

The 4^th July, 2009 was the date assigned for our trek. We were three of us and after huge debate and discussions we decided to leave at 5:15 a.m. sharp. I as usual arrived 5:15 sharp and after making frantic calls to my friends, I was given the orders to buy tickets for all of us. After buying tickets, I saw the 5:30 a.m. train go past by my side still no sign of presence of them. I again made class saying we are late by 45 minutes. Again another train came, 5:42 a.m. and now I was dead sure that there will be no train to such a far destination after this train. No sign of presence of my friends and I started to get frustrated before dawn and to my surprise the indicator displayed 5:50 train and the blokes arrived on time. Karjat came in talking and pulling legs of each other. As soon as we alighted we were greeted by ticket checkers who found three blokes walking in garden on railway station. The joy of showing them the tickets gives me great pleasure as they could not get ‘Bakras’ early morning. We reached Kondivade village at 8 a.m. after helping a ‘cross country rider’ pull out his bike in mud. The trek started after asking locals directions and we were unsure of the path till we reached the white markings which tell the path to Rajmachi. I was happy that we were on right path. The climbing part began with steep slpoes and crossing huge stones. There was 95% humidity in air and we were feeling it and I was sweating profusely and had to stop many times for water which annoyed my friends a lot. The climbing part is easy one for regular trekkers but a difficult one for annual ones like me. I had to stop many times and in this process a small group overtook us which annoyed Sushrut a lot. But I couldn’t help as I was feeling heart beats in my ear and the sweat made me take out my towel every 15 minutes. We were climbing and there were no signs of flat plateau. Every time we thought we reached a place the top of mountain would appear to be far away from us. Finally we saw a small hut and that was 12:00 p.m. the time when we reached that spot. The owner of the hut gave us refreshing lime water and dried peanuts to eat. That energized us as we had only eaten ‘Batata vada’ at Karjat station. The view from that point is worth remembering.


 A small walk of 20 minutes and we reached Rajmachi. We dropped our bags at one of the houses of locals taking precious things with us. We started to trek and reached a small temple and took rest for nearly 25 minutes and started taking snaps of beautiful scenery around us. Them it started to rain torrentially and we dropped our plans to go to top forts namely ‘Shrivardhan’ and ‘Manoranjan’ as they were still far away. We trekked down to village and ate ‘garam dal-bhaat’ at the local house. Eating hot food gave us energy as we were drenched in rain and giving out vapours from our mouth.

We started to trek down at 2:30 p.m. We came across the same hut that we had encountered and ordered hot tea. The smell of kerosene made me fell dizzy and as soon as I drank the hot tea, I vomited and I lost all my energy to trek down. Then the hardest part started, that is to trek down when it was pouring cats and dogs. The path became slippery and my legs started to tremble on the path. Then the narrow muddy part came which had a steep valley running down and I fell at least four times on that path frightening my friends. I started to lose my confidence and the trek became the hardest part of my life. The small paths of a deep valley near the either side became more frequent and the trek started to get dangerous for me as well for my friends who cared for me. I became completely covered by mud due to my frequent inability to place my foot on right spot of path. The rain lashing my body acted as cleanser and I was kept clean but the trekking down gave me an experience that I will never forget. I was also helped by members of other group namely a 42 year old fellow named John who helped me to trek down on difficult parts of path. The trek down became hard only due to me losing my confidence and the rains. We took three and half hours to reach Kondivade phata while the usual time taken is one and a half hour. All this happened solely because of me. I ate greedly as I reached Karjat station as I had eaten less amount of food since morning.

As we were trekking down some groups of people were going up for night stay and that is more suitable if you want to complete trek in peace. Trekking in rains was enjoyable as we were racing against time to reach Kondivade before dusk. Short synopsis of trek:

   1. Carry lots of water.

   2. Good food is available at Rajmachi.

   3. Follow white arrow marks, you will not get lost.

   4. Trek via Karjat is more interesting as we have to climb up while trek via Lonavala is easy as you are coming down.

  5. No need of guide.

  6. The honking of horns of railways is heard on most of trek, a vital sign that assures that you are on right track.

Lastly I would like to thank my friends Angad and Sushrut without their help this trek would have not been possible.