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Published: February 11th 2009
Rock climbing:
One of the guys I climb with in Toronto is from Mumbai and he hooked me up with climbers in Mumbai. The climbers I met here belong to an outdoor club called “Adventurers and Explorers” and they do hiking, trekking, rock climbing and all kinds of outdoor stuff depending on whatever the members are into. Every January, they hold a rock climbing training course for beginners which is spread over 2 weekends (5 days ). I was only able to go to the first weekend (long weekend with India’s Independence Day). For the first day, we went to a bouldering area somewhere in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Kanheri (Borivali Railway Station). We got there at 7am and for the first time in Mumbai, I actually felt cold. This is when we went through the forested area of the park on motorbikes. As soon as we got to the rocky areas, it was warm again. The rocks retain a lot of heat. There were a lot of interesting boulders and slabs and lots of fun scrambling (nothing really difficult). The next day we went to another part of the park to do slab climbing and rappelling, and to get there we had to hike pass Kanheri Buddhist Caves which are preserved by the Archaeological Society. The oldest cave date from 1st century BC and more caves were made from 2nd century AD onward. The caves were in use up to the time of the British in the 1600’s. The park opens at 7:30am but there are lots of people that get in before 7am for jogging, etc. (with a yearly membership pass). There is also a hut for people who want to stay overnight at the park (must book ahead of time) but there is no electricity or drinking water. Cost is minimal. The park is quite big and forested with lots of wild animals including man-eating cheetahs. There are many other rock climbing spots so I’ll have to come back. Apparently, on the last day of training which I wasn’t able to go to, the group went to somewhere in Kanheri for 120 feet climbs!
For the third day of the training, we went to Manori which is accessible by ferry. From Malad Railway Station, you can take the rickshaw or bus 272 to Marve Jetty, then from there you can take the ferry to Manori which only takes a few minutes. Motorbikes are allowed on the ferry. Once we got off the ferry, we took another rickshaw to the beach, and from there we hiked to the rocks, first to a couple of bouldering areas, then to the “central pillar” where the leaders set up 3 climbing routes, top roping and there are anchor bolts at the top. It’s a very beautiful area with lots of rocks everywhere and we were right by the water. There was nobody else around except a fisherman. (We did see some visitors from the city in the bouldering areas). It’s a great place to get away from the crowd in the city without having to travel too far. We got out of the rocky area quite late and couldn’t get any rickshaws and ended up hiring a cart pulled by 2 horses for going back to the ferry point. When we got to the dock, there were over 200 hundred people waiting for the ferry! I guess because it was a holiday and everybody was trying to get back to the city. Once we crossed over to Marve Jetty, another few hundred was trying to catch rickshaws and the bus to get to the railway station. A few of us finally got on the 2nd bus that came even though there were at least 50 people in front of us, and that was because there was standing room only and nobody else wanted to stand in the bus.
I met so many really nice people from this course and people who are into the outdoors! Yay! The club usually has a trip to the Himalayas once or twice a year so I’m looking forward to that. One girl told me about the rickshaw race and I definitely want to do that. You need 3 in a team so if anybody is interested, please let me know!
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Tot: 0.103s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0523s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
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Ronak Makwana
non-member comment
Admission In Rock Climbing Courses
I Want To join A Rock Climbing. how Can i join This. plese Send Me A right Address Of This Courses. Thanking You..