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| The Ridge that connects Rajgad and Torna |
Rajgad-Torna was on mind for a long time. Almost 4years now. Torna, in particular, has been the reason why I hesitated. People had talked up about its rockpatches so many times that it had become a monster in my subconscious mind. So much so that I used to have dreams of a tall rock-face on Torna, where I would get stuck in limbo, somewhere in the middle. I always kept postponing it to the next winter, and eventually due to various reasons, one of them being the self-doubt about my rock-patch climbing ability, it wouldnt happen. Almost 3-4 years passed by like this.
This year, while riding high on confidence after climbing a Vetal-tekdi rockpatch and then the Madan rockpatch, I decided Torna has to happen now. And trekked it without absolutely any difficulty couple weeks back. Only after reaching the Mengai Devi temple, and then to the Zunzar Machi did I realize how silly I was to believe in that hearsay about Torna rockpatches. Like almost all food-joints in Pune, the rock-patches on Torna were also 90% hype and 10% substance. The railings around the rock are plain unnecessary. It's a standard trek.
With that experience in mind, I started planning for the long overdue Rajgad-Torna backpacking trek. As I had half expected, people were not ready to go unless there is a sizable bunch, and accumulating a sizable bunch for such a hectic trek is easier said than done. So the plan was quickly going down like all other over-optimistic plans. This time though I was way too much into the plan, and on Friday night, the night before the trek, I decided to go solo.
Going solo in the hills, has its own perils. All those bad things that can happen to you, you have to face them alone. But then, if one puts that negative thought aside for a moment, there is a brighter side to going solo as well - You are free out there. If you want to take a detour you can take it; if you want to spend sometime focusing on a bird, you can do it; if you like a flower or some peculiar thing, spend as much time around it as you want; you want to keep walking, keep walking, no need to wait for others. It's calm and tranquill all around and you are out there enjoying yourself, without any restrictions. Going solo, is not as bad as it sounds after all.
Now the initial plan was to leave Pune in the afternoon, reach Rajgad top during evening, stay on Rajgad, and then early next morning, leave for Torna. That way we would get one full day for crossing that loooong connecting ridge between the two heavy-weight ramparts of once glorious Swarajya. That would have been easier on everybody with varying physical fitness. But now that I was going solo, those considerations could be scrapped altogether and a tighter and tougher schedule could have been worked out. I decided to do the full Home-Gunjavane-Rajgad-ConnectingRidge-Torna-Velhe-Gunjavane-Home thing in a single day.
I went through whatever info I found on the net about this trek. On an average people had reported a 5-6hours walk on the connecting ridge to reach Budhala Machee. An hour more, to reach Mengai Devi temple. From previous experience, I knew I would need at most couple more hours to trek down from Torna. The daylight ends at around 6:15 to 6:30pm. So 6pm was the deadline by which I had to be at the base of Torna. That means by 4pm at Mengai Devi temple, by 3pm at Budhala Machee, and by 10am in the morning, I should be on Rajgad and on my way towards Torna. So 10am was the magic figure.
As per my previous Rajgad treks, I used to clock around 2.5-3 hours for reaching Padmavati Machee from Gunjavane. So for reaching Rajgad top by 10am, I should be in Gunjavane and should have started my trek by 7:30am. Now Gunjavane is around 63kms from Kothrud, and given the windchill in these wintery mornings, it's very difficult to race the bike even at 60kmph. 40-45kmph is more doable without shaking violently on the bike due to windchill. That meant I would need at least 1.5hrs frome home to reach Gunjavane. Leaving at 6am in the morning, meant I should get up before 5am since I always need at least an hour to get ready to go. And to get at least a 6-hour sleep, I should have slept by 11pm. It was already 11:30pm and I hadnt even decided about what gear to carry. I set an alarm of 4:45am and started brooding about the gear.
I had a gut-feeling that, thanks to cycling, my stamina and fitness is much better than average, and I should be able to comfortably do this trek in a day, though I didnt find anybody doing that before (at least on the net). Trusting my guts, and going without all the camping gear, I would have saved almost 5-8kg of weight on my back. But given the vast jungle along the route, unknown territory, and not much sureity about what to expect, my second mind was warning me about being prepared for a worst-case condition, rather than blindly trusting the guts. I slept undecided.
After getting up the next morning, I decided to carry all the camping gear, since I would be better prepared in case of an eventuality. Packed my gear and got ready to leave. Here is the list of things I decided to carry -
Tent: 2.5kg
Sleeping Bag: 0.5kg
Extra Clothes: ~2kg
Food: 1kg
Water: ~4kg (2 bottles - 2 ltr each)
Camera Bag: ~3kg (DSLR + 1 wide-angle + 1 telephoto + bag)
Misc: ~2kg (big hiking backpack + medical kit + head torch etc)
TOTAL: ~15kg
Continued to Part II ...
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