Day 2: Towards Torna

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We started around 8 am to hike to aloo darwaja. It was cold and foggy with a visibility of 100 ft. Vivek took a quick dip in Padmavati lake. This guy loves torturing his body and does some wierd things to himself. He slept in a wet T-shirt, shivered all the night, took a dip in the cold lake, did some kind of yoga (dhauti or sth) and was ready to hike with us. After walking for about 30 min, on what we thought would be a machi, we took parting snaps and went different ways. We continued on the trail and completely missed the Alloo darwaza on our left. The trail came to the dead end on a buruz. We climbed on the buruz and spotted a trail on our right which we thought might take us to Torana. We tried in vain to find any such trail and walked back hoping to find some villagers or get cell phone network so that Vivek can ask his friend. As we were walking back, we took a turn and almost bumped into a herd of strong and huge buffalos bathing in a small pond. The pond was located just besides the trail. The other side of trail was a valley some thousand feet deep. A couple of them looked wild, aggressive and showed signs of attacking as we approached. We were hell scared as one swing of their head and we would flying into the valley. We waited for half an hour thinking on what to do. There wasnt any other way back and we were left at the mercy of the bathing habits of some wild buffalos. Suddenly there came a pack of 7-8 guys, who took sticks, started shouting and throwing stones. The buffalos just moved a bit aside to the other side of the lake leaving only a margin to let us pass. Our hearts in our mouths and boldened (!!) by our younger friends we moved swiftly without running. As luck would have it, Vivek could make phone call to his friend. By then it was 10.30 am. Vivek's friends firstly gave a mouthful on starting so late and then said we have to turn back to the machi and look for the Alloo darwaja on our left instead of our right. Our hearts sank !
This meant passing the buffaloes once again who had just momentarily interrupted their bathing to let pass the huge group of 10. Now we were just three of us. After waiting fruitlessly for another group, we started cautiously towards the herd. After a couple of minutes of doing nothing but exchanging stared with
them, Sid started shouting "Hurrrr" and to our surprize and relief, the buffaloes moved. We did the same drill and passed the buffaloes. We found the Alloo Darwaja in no time and started descending. By now the fog had intensified and the visibility worsened. We descended and then took the trail that turned to right to find a large group of people sitting on the open space. It was a youth hostel, pune group consisting of families with kids led by Vivek's friend Kiran Patil. They had started from Torna the previous night, got split, got lost somehow managed to reach Velha, re-unite and then start back on the trek. A couple of experienced hikers including Kiran from the group seriously recommended us to reach the tar road below, drive to Pali, then to Velha and then climb torana from that side which is comparatively easy. They said we were sure to get lost and esp. the climb to budhala machi would be dangerous with slippy surfaces. But I was in no mood to heed to their advice and I am sure neither was Vivek nor Sid. So we started on the steep descent. As I descended, I slipped 4-5 times and doubts seeped in on how I can climb the Budhala Machi. We reached the Paali khind, where we met kids who were carrying buttermilk to Rajgad. It took some coaxing before they agreed to pose. As I showed them the photo, the 10 year kid wasn't pleased that Bal Thakre on his Shiv sena cap didnt show up pretty well ! Refreshed with the buttermilk, we started on the hike and within 15-20 min were on the tar road. This was the point of no return. One way was the Pali village where we can get a jeep to Pune and other was Torana and the dreaded machi. By then, having slipped number of times, I had completely made up my mind on giving up. But it wasnt much difficult for Vivek and Sid to make me change my mind and I decided I will postpone the decision to backup for later time of the day. We started on the hike and approx. after 2 hours reached Bhagoji Dere's house. We briefly chatted with him and asked him the way to Torana. Not being a good salesman, Bhagoji did not
ask if we needed a guide. We ventured out towards the maze of trails. The fog was as intense at 1.00 pm as it was as 7.00 ! We took the wrong trail and walked on the trail for 40 min until we met two women who said we were heading to Bhuini village and Torna was 30 km from here in the other direction !
Never ask a villager to quantify the distance in km. Their unit is time. Ask them the time and multiply it with a factor of 1.5. The fog had worsened and by 3.30 pm, we were approx 10 km away from Torana heading for a nightout in the Jungle and worse than that getting lost. By then I had made up my mind to
back out. It took atleast 30 min for me to talk Vivek and Sid into my decision. Vivek knew what we were heading to and given his masochistic 😊 tendencies he was all for continuing ahead. But he didnt argue much and was ready to go either way. However Sid, on his first trek, was more of "I dont want to give up
after making it so far" and being a lawyer it required a lot to get him convinced. Finally we decided to turn back much to the despair of the two. As we passed Bhagoji Dere's house he made the proverbial "offer that we could not resist". He offered a night stay, a dinner for 3 and a guarantee to reach Torana the next morning all for 700 bucks ! A smart and a very nice person, He made arrangements for us in an out of use cattle stable and served us with hot tea with a strong dose of sugar ofcourse. He confessed that he knows english and could understand our discussion in English about how much we should pay him. He said in a sheepish smile that all trekkers from mumbai and pune start talking in english on the charges part without realizing he can understand that ! A couple of hours later came a very tasty and hot meal and an hour after that we were in our sleeping bags incredibly surprised at our good luck.

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Photos

Team
(l to r) me, Vivek, Aditya, Siddharth, Indu