My first jungle trail

June 30, 2008 Sunday

Sony R1 batteries all charged up. No filters, 3 GB card packed all gear up. Got up early morning at 5.30am as I had to reach Andheri station around 6:30am. Got ready got taxi took out ticket for Nalasopara that’s where I was heading for. Got down at Andheri sharp 6.30am I am sharp about timing if any ones tells me to reach on certain time I make sure I am there. But my friend Ketan he reached around 7:00am. At last we boarded the train for nalasopara that’s where I was going for, this was my first time I was going for jungle trail and I never had clicked photos of insects. At last we reached nalasopara from there we had to take shared auto to go towards Mumbai gujrat highway, that’s where we started our journey. 

After reaching the highway had small cup of tea, and there in front I saw mountains covered by clouds greenery. We started our journey to reach the spot you really need to walk for more than hour, the boring part is there are too many dairy farm around that area you have to cross them and after that there is awesome small village, small huts, wells and then you walk little more and there you are which you can just imagine in dreams………. mountains covered by clouds and there is dam full of water. There we were standing and I was clicking photos and then all of sudden it started to become dark mountains started to vanish and I had to just put camera back in the bag as it started to pour heavily………. It was raining like cats and dogs. But we were safe as there was small hut beside the dam where the security people use to stay. As we entered inside the hut the people gave us to sit on the bakhada and it was still pouring out there. As we were talking with the people I saw one man he had caught lots of fish from the dam and he had marinated them and was frying it, my mouth started watering and I showed ketan too, some time later rain was slow and all of sudden in front of us big four pieces of fried fish with some onions ah ha yummy just guess raining out you in hut surrounded by jungle and eating hot fried fish, it was hell like a experience. 

After we munched everything I think I must have eaten the bones too as it was so yummy rain suddenly stopped again mountains were back, so we hurried washed the plate and just offered the people 50rs for there nice service, but none of them took the money but said we are welcome anytime and can join with them for lunch when ever we visit again. So again we are back for our jungle trail we started through the dam itself as water was below the mark so we crossed through it as u can see in the photos water was really less and you can see greenery all over, clicked around 15 photos and there once again heavy rain immediately put camera in bag with plastic on it, enjoyed the rain.As we were walking through the dam you can imagine it full after 3 months of time period. After crossing we finally in the jungle trees all over water flowing beneath your shoes wet all over, crabs all over where ever you step, as we were walking we came across mango tree small mangoes fallen over, ketan he is proper jungle boy started to eat them I just tasted they were really sweet, stopped had like three to five and again in the woods. Small mushrooms beetles, spiders you will be able to see lots of signature spider all over the jungle. 

We were just crossing the water flowing basically ketan was taking me I just stopped where ever I felt like clicking. And then again we were out of the jungle and we were at the top of the damn where actually water level comes when its full, ketan got idea of swimming so he thought walking across and going little ahead, ohh I was damn scared to walk on that route I can still feel it it was like total slope with road diameter not more that five inches and one slip and you go tumbling down the hill in the water, ketan crossed it in min. but I was going slow as I had camera and bag too at one point the soil was so slippery one step you slip second step you slip but some how I managed and crossed it. As I reached there ketan was already in water with the village kid enjoying, I am scared of water so I was out busy clicking photos, all of sudden ketan came out full of mud on his body like terminator he was enjoying every bit of it. Again we started to walk as we had to head back, but we took different route again through jungle and the came to wards a slope like steps made of concrete going in the water, we sat there for almost thirty min and was just enjoying the rain it was so heavy and windy we were all wet and busy eating cake, biscuit it was fun. 

After some time got up started walking as we had to cross all over and walk through the dairy catch auto then main part is local train which is full always after walking since 8am to 5pm. But my first trail was awesome I really enjoyed it. Enjoy the photos. For more photos CLICK HERE