Based on the discussion of all members of safhayedh kawla (white crow) organization it was decided to conquer the Karnala fort. Karnala fort is 75 kms away from Mumbai and is about 12 kms away from Panvel. It is around at a height of 450 mts from sea level.
We started at about 6:00am in the morning. While trying to take a shortcut towards the vile parle station we were greeted by dogs. In dark morning, we were unable to spot where the dogs were but could hear them bark, so just like the brave men would do, we ran away to fight another day. Now we were in problems since we had just wasted another 5 mins. We were not sure of the timings of the train so decided to get into an Auto. The auto driver was not happy to have 5 passengers, however he had little choice since we literally hogged him to take us. Once on the station, Trushal Pawar, bought the tickets. However he only bought single way, which he realized later. We got into the 6:09 C.S.T from Vile parle which dropped us on the Wadala station at 6:35am. We then got into a 6:35am Panvel. The train was pretty empty and since we were a bit bored we started reading the train advertisements. Thats where we found a new name for Trushal, and he was renamed as Baba Ajmeri, a psychic who can cure anything.
We got out on the Panvel station at 7:50am. From there we walked to the panvel state transport depot. We found there was one bus that suited our requirement. We were soon in it and Baba Ajmeri as usual was joking with the bus conductor. There was no place to sit hence we remained standing. After 20 mins at about 8:15am we were at the Karnala stop. The sanctuary official responsible to give away tickets to get into the sanctuary acted quickly. We gave him 100 Rs and he returned nothing, it was 20 Rs per man, and we were 5 of us.
After walking for another 300 mts, we saw a bird cage. It had a duck in it. Then we soon spotted a few more cages. One had a peacock both male and female. There was a himalayan parrot, rabbit and some other birds. We watched the map that was placed a few meters from the cage. The map showed two roads to get on the Karnala fort. There was a long route meant to go to the top safely and there was one route for crazy people to go trekking. The trekking route was a steep one. It was stupid to take that route. However we still took it. Then started the great trekking, crossing a small bridge, then many roots, tree trunks fallen in between as barriers and a lot of stones that some times helped and some time acted as a barrier. Slowly Deepak, Trushal, Sumit made there way up. Mayur remained behind taking one photo every step he took. I was all out, sweating, and litterally crawling from behind. Another 30 mins and we were soon near half point. We reached a flat plateau where we took a few snaps. There was a thought to stop and eat but was soon discarded. I started walking briskly leaving other to continue taking the snaps.
It was getting tougher towards the end. I climbed over the big stons and then climbed on to the steps to get into the fort. When I entered the fort it was 9:50am. I mad it quickly to a spot where there was a cool breeze blowing. I sat down. Other slowy followed and I was happy to claim that I was the first one to get on the fort. We then decided to have our breakfast. Following was the light breakfast we had, around 35 theplas, 10 dosas and 3 chapatis. After this we took rest. It was 10:30 am when we started again. We saw a few caves at the top and decided to move there. When we reached into the caves and found there was very clean water there. We were able to see the bottom. However we were sure it was not good for dinking. Baba Ajmeri got into the caves and showed how he meditate which made everyone laugh. After relaxing some time at the caves which included singing, Mayur snapped a few pics and then we left. We then explored some other areas of the fort and were amazed to see how people might have lived there. After some more snaps, we decided it was time to go down. At that time the clock said 11:30am.
We decided to take the long route to get down this time. It took around one hour to get down. However during the one hour descent we encountered with monkeys. A group of about 20 monkeys were hanging from the trees and seemed to charge around us. Thats where I took a risk and asked the rest of the guys to do that too. This is not something that you should try. We raised our hand and taking a position that we do while doing jumping jacks screamed loudly. We screamed so loudly that the monkey ran upstairs on the tree that they hung on too. After that we continued to descent downwards taking little rests in between. Once at the foothills we saw the peacock in the cage again. This time, the peacock was dancing and displaying the wonderful designer feathers that god designed himself for this great bird. It was a great sight and would remain in memory for a long time. We were resting below a tree when we saw a few more monkeys hanging on the trees. We decided to do the same exercise. But to our surprise the monkey this time retaliated and made us run.
Next mission after conquering the great fort was trying our hand on cooking some rice. We read boards of no cooking, or no litting fire in the sanctuary. We did not break the rules and got out of the sanctuary. Then walking a few distance we found aother place with no one around and decided to make a small fire to cook. There was one big vessel, we added rice, cereals (moong not sure of the English name, but then who cares), turmeric and salt, and yes jeera (again don't ask the english name).
Baba Ajmeri lit the fire. Sumit thinks its his old business ('aag laagane may he has done phd' were his exact words). Trushal left us to refill the bottles. The fire soon started to work around and made the rice boiling. Wait a minute this is a lie. Nothing of that worked, the fire was not making anything boil. The fire was picking up in the wrong place. I and Deepak tried to adjust the fire. Sumit continued complaining that we have no clue what we are doing and this is not going to work. Mayur was collecting dry leaves. Soon Trushal (Baba Ajmeri) arrived and made a new fire. We adjusted the vessel on the new fire and it started to boil. Basically we were missing a simple point, that you should allow oxygen to make fire work and not pack the leaves from all sides. Trushal made sure that does not happen again. After one hour of this effort rice was all cooked. We all enjoyed it, there was morning thepla left, which we ate and then there was pullav which we also ate everything.
After the lunch and cleaning the utensils, we started walking towards the higway. After some time the state transport bus arrived and we reached panvel. Then once at panvel, we got the Andheri train and after another hour and thiry minutes we were back at Vile Parle station, it was 7pm then.Its about 11pm now, I am sure all of us are suffering from body aches. In the words of Baba Ajemeri our legs are yzed (whatever that means)........................................
We started at about 6:00am in the morning. While trying to take a shortcut towards the vile parle station we were greeted by dogs. In dark morning, we were unable to spot where the dogs were but could hear them bark, so just like the brave men would do, we ran away to fight another day. Now we were in problems since we had just wasted another 5 mins. We were not sure of the timings of the train so decided to get into an Auto. The auto driver was not happy to have 5 passengers, however he had little choice since we literally hogged him to take us. Once on the station, Trushal Pawar, bought the tickets. However he only bought single way, which he realized later. We got into the 6:09 C.S.T from Vile parle which dropped us on the Wadala station at 6:35am. We then got into a 6:35am Panvel. The train was pretty empty and since we were a bit bored we started reading the train advertisements. Thats where we found a new name for Trushal, and he was renamed as Baba Ajmeri, a psychic who can cure anything.
We got out on the Panvel station at 7:50am. From there we walked to the panvel state transport depot. We found there was one bus that suited our requirement. We were soon in it and Baba Ajmeri as usual was joking with the bus conductor. There was no place to sit hence we remained standing. After 20 mins at about 8:15am we were at the Karnala stop. The sanctuary official responsible to give away tickets to get into the sanctuary acted quickly. We gave him 100 Rs and he returned nothing, it was 20 Rs per man, and we were 5 of us.
After walking for another 300 mts, we saw a bird cage. It had a duck in it. Then we soon spotted a few more cages. One had a peacock both male and female. There was a himalayan parrot, rabbit and some other birds. We watched the map that was placed a few meters from the cage. The map showed two roads to get on the Karnala fort. There was a long route meant to go to the top safely and there was one route for crazy people to go trekking. The trekking route was a steep one. It was stupid to take that route. However we still took it. Then started the great trekking, crossing a small bridge, then many roots, tree trunks fallen in between as barriers and a lot of stones that some times helped and some time acted as a barrier. Slowly Deepak, Trushal, Sumit made there way up. Mayur remained behind taking one photo every step he took. I was all out, sweating, and litterally crawling from behind. Another 30 mins and we were soon near half point. We reached a flat plateau where we took a few snaps. There was a thought to stop and eat but was soon discarded. I started walking briskly leaving other to continue taking the snaps.
It was getting tougher towards the end. I climbed over the big stons and then climbed on to the steps to get into the fort. When I entered the fort it was 9:50am. I mad it quickly to a spot where there was a cool breeze blowing. I sat down. Other slowy followed and I was happy to claim that I was the first one to get on the fort. We then decided to have our breakfast. Following was the light breakfast we had, around 35 theplas, 10 dosas and 3 chapatis. After this we took rest. It was 10:30 am when we started again. We saw a few caves at the top and decided to move there. When we reached into the caves and found there was very clean water there. We were able to see the bottom. However we were sure it was not good for dinking. Baba Ajmeri got into the caves and showed how he meditate which made everyone laugh. After relaxing some time at the caves which included singing, Mayur snapped a few pics and then we left. We then explored some other areas of the fort and were amazed to see how people might have lived there. After some more snaps, we decided it was time to go down. At that time the clock said 11:30am.
We decided to take the long route to get down this time. It took around one hour to get down. However during the one hour descent we encountered with monkeys. A group of about 20 monkeys were hanging from the trees and seemed to charge around us. Thats where I took a risk and asked the rest of the guys to do that too. This is not something that you should try. We raised our hand and taking a position that we do while doing jumping jacks screamed loudly. We screamed so loudly that the monkey ran upstairs on the tree that they hung on too. After that we continued to descent downwards taking little rests in between. Once at the foothills we saw the peacock in the cage again. This time, the peacock was dancing and displaying the wonderful designer feathers that god designed himself for this great bird. It was a great sight and would remain in memory for a long time. We were resting below a tree when we saw a few more monkeys hanging on the trees. We decided to do the same exercise. But to our surprise the monkey this time retaliated and made us run.
Next mission after conquering the great fort was trying our hand on cooking some rice. We read boards of no cooking, or no litting fire in the sanctuary. We did not break the rules and got out of the sanctuary. Then walking a few distance we found aother place with no one around and decided to make a small fire to cook. There was one big vessel, we added rice, cereals (moong not sure of the English name, but then who cares), turmeric and salt, and yes jeera (again don't ask the english name).
Baba Ajmeri lit the fire. Sumit thinks its his old business ('aag laagane may he has done phd' were his exact words). Trushal left us to refill the bottles. The fire soon started to work around and made the rice boiling. Wait a minute this is a lie. Nothing of that worked, the fire was not making anything boil. The fire was picking up in the wrong place. I and Deepak tried to adjust the fire. Sumit continued complaining that we have no clue what we are doing and this is not going to work. Mayur was collecting dry leaves. Soon Trushal (Baba Ajmeri) arrived and made a new fire. We adjusted the vessel on the new fire and it started to boil. Basically we were missing a simple point, that you should allow oxygen to make fire work and not pack the leaves from all sides. Trushal made sure that does not happen again. After one hour of this effort rice was all cooked. We all enjoyed it, there was morning thepla left, which we ate and then there was pullav which we also ate everything.
After the lunch and cleaning the utensils, we started walking towards the higway. After some time the state transport bus arrived and we reached panvel. Then once at panvel, we got the Andheri train and after another hour and thiry minutes we were back at Vile Parle station, it was 7pm then.Its about 11pm now, I am sure all of us are suffering from body aches. In the words of Baba Ajemeri our legs are yzed (whatever that means)........................................
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