Reaching Harischandragad

After a very hard and tiring climb , all of us successfully and unscratched made to the top of the hill. I thought we were very close. But to my surprise, it took us another 2-3 hours to end our trek. But the trek never ceased to be exiting to say the least.


In fact, it started getting even more exiting. As we climbed a small hill the rain came down so heavily that it felt like they were stones being thrown at us. And the wind that was blowing, don't even ask me! I felt like I was being carried off, with that huge backpack that all you guys have seen in the pics.

I then made a huge goof up. The fog started coming down (we you can say that we were also going up! ;) ), is sometimes fogged up so much that it was even difficult to see 5 meters ahead. There were these little arrow marks that point to the direction of the final point. We reached a point where the fog came down heavily, there were rocks onto my right which were slippery and seemed like there would be no way in that direction. But to my left there was this beautiful trail. I took the trail and kept walking. After walking for almost 15 minutes, the trail was getting darker and darker and we started seeing hood prints and paw prints of animals. Even the branches over the route was closing in. After a point we decided that I had chosen the wrong route and we trekked back.

Now there was three options for us to get out of there. One was to go back the way we came till will meet some team , take the route that we had just taken or wait there till some team catches up. Just then, Jana spotted a team on top of the hill we just crossed. We spoke to them, just then the fog cleared up and the leader of that team showed us the route. Guess what, we had to climb down that rocky patch and cross a small stream and on the other side was this beautiful beaten trail.

Holy cow, what a big Idiot I am. There was rocky patch, covered by fog due to which I can't see what's on the other side and there was this trail with an arrow mark on it saying this is the route and I just could not guess that we had to take the rocky patch. Damn, I went to the wrong school! lol

After walking for little bit more and taking in the scenic beauty, the smell of the soil, the green grass and the beautiful fog all around us we reached our point. Even here we hit a road block(While there was no road to block, I literally hit it. ) We reached an ancient temple like structure and we were sure that we had reached the end point, But the problem in that, we knew there are caves where we had to stay but we could not even seen 5 meters ahead of us. Jana started walking ahead saying that he could see something. I followed him screaming to him to halt and move slowly, when all the while I was telling the guys to watch their step stepped onto a slippery rock and band went down. I hit my left side. My head banged up against the rock and I started bleeding right near my left ear. Welcome to Harischandragad.!

slippery rocks of harischandragad

I looked down, with a huge valley right below me. There was not even a single piece of rock that could have broken my fall. But I shook it of in a second and completed the climb. But for me, the even scary part was looking down and bending down trying to help the other guyz up. One slip of hand or foot would not only take me but also the other person. But, IMHO , this trek was worth it.


As we moved along, Jana started falling back every now and then and Anand started catching up. I had actually asked Jana to be the tail man. Anand was telling us that Jana was getting cramps. We didn't give it much importance and moved on thinking that stopping would be the last thing that we should be doing right now. But as we got to a level point, we took a break. Even after waiting for 5 mins Jana and Omkar had not joined us. I knew they were right behind us, but for some reason could not take the last steps. So I went back and I could not believe my eyes. Jana was sitting on a rock, with his calf muscles so tightened to hell that a few more minutes of walking would have turned it to the front! I sat down next to him. Started massaging his legs for some time. He was back to business in about 5 mins, and we continued our trek.

There were a few more trekking groups, one or two overtaking us, and one or two returning. One of the returning teams, told us it was too risky to do the trek right now, so they are going back. Vow, we still were not ready to give up. As we walked along the small winding path, up and down the hill we just stood in our tracks. We just found out why the previous team was going back.



There was this freaking 300-400 meters height that we had to gain. That too, in short distance hike, walking on rocks that were wet and slippery, had only space for one foot at a time and most importantly, if you fall. you are going down not just that 300 meters but a lot more of what you have already gained. BTW, I should say here that our government understands the safety concerns of the trekkers and had put up Iron railings so that people don't fall off.

But, guess what, they forgot that there are people living there and should do something for them to earn a living. Else what? else nothing, other than those people would pullout the railing and sell them for what ever they can get. (And people get angry when somebody call us third world. lol)