We follow our dreams, few of us are able to fulfill, in every aspect! While some may still try and find ways to accomplish their dreams,
One of such dreams is “Sandhan Valley” for many of trekkers in our trekking world,
Sandhan Valley is the destination in it-self, worth reaching, experiencing, and most amazingly it makes us a part of it, for-ever…! Every rock, every drop of water, every shadow, enchants you, for days to come!
It was Friday the 8th of November 2013, that was finalized by Vibes Outdoors, to start our journey towards reaching our dream, and many of us have had no idea of what was arranged in the platter, for us, !!! Vivek, Rachana, Amruta, Dhaval, Divesh, Neeraj, Sushmita, Sagar, Ashwin, Ameya, Yogesh, Nishant, Suresh, Prashant,Vinyas, Neerikshan, Tushar, Bhaskar, 6 school kids and me, were the ones to take on this amazing journey together.
We all gathered at Kasara Railway station, around 2:30 am, Jeeps were waiting for us to take us to the base village for Sandhan valley, we hopped in to catch our favorite seats, Yogesh caught the front seat, whereas Divesh and Vivek settled on middle seats(at the end of jeep journey, they asked me if same jeep is going to carry them back, I said no, and asked why they enquiring it, in reply I could see they were touching their *** :D), Everyone was obviously excited, but at the same time feeling sleepy, jeep running through rocky roads, curvy mountain passes, and through the surrounding dark night… just to lead us to something that would remain forever in our memoirs … shining…!
We reached “Samrad” in the morning, the base village for Sandhan Valley, it was still dark, and we took shelter in Mr. Made’s house, took some rest after a strenuous Jeep journey, few of us could not sleep, and kept chitchatting till the morning sun rays arrived to present us what is called as “The nature at its best”, as if to describe it, starting with Samrad village, it is a village with tiny old houses, and some of them are built on a proper rock base and decorated with beautiful doors made of fine tic-wood, and superbly crafted with colored carvings, giving a definite evidence of their existence of more than 100 years, and then the surrounding mountains, the ones which are on the all-time favorites lists of many of trekkers, starting with Alang, Ratangad, kalsubai peak, at the same time we could see many trees and shrubs, and the cows, sheep’s moving towards jungle to start their daily routine, they inspired many of us to go and get “refreshed” in Jungle, or in Yogesh’s words, “halka hone ja raha hu”.
Delightful poha and tea, in breakfast, were enough for us to get started for an introduction round, where, we introduced ourselves with name and a movement that describes us, now everyone was looking eager to march towards valley, we walked westwards from Samrad village, after walking few minutes, we arrived at a junction, one road going towards Karoli Pass and the other towards valley, Karoli pass, helps people to reach at the base of Sandhan valley with ease, and is route used otherwise and in monsoon when valley is full of water.
We started walking towards the opening gate of valley, expecting a large amount of water will be present, may be till neck high, at some places, and then it came the entrance of the magical valley of shadows…
Initially all novice trekkers, in our team, delighted to know that they will have to descend through valley, and that too in shadows, so they won’t have to face sun and ascend,
Water flowing through the round rocks making a joyful sound, and the refreshing coldness in air was providing energy to move ahead,
Soon all the photographers in the team, came alive, and started clicking, at various angles, everyone was looking amazed as the suddenly find themselves in a place in between the huge walls of hills, huge fallen rocks at vary distance, the environment started playing its colors, the magic of valley started enchanting everyone, and soon every soul become a part of the valley,
Everyone was wondering what this valley has in store for them, next, the sun-rays travelling till the ground through the narrow gap at the top, putting us in a drama full of suspense, we were awestruck, how this valley would be in the monsoon, when hundreds of gallons of water flowing through it, those huge rocks at places were the evidences of the devastating power the flowing water has,
We came across first pool of water where water was almost chest high, we made a human chain and transported all the bags to the other side, and at the same time, Sushmita fall straight in water with a camera in hand, oh bouyyy… that was tragic, we tried to check if cam is alright, but was of no use, but everyone was in mood of swimming, and posing for pics, and more photographer's were ready to capture happy moments...
Few were first timers amongst us for the trekking and were little cautious about their walk, our back leaders helped them to catch with others, but that reduced our overall time to reach decided milestones considerably, we reached at the first rappelling patch, around 1 pm, and our last few members reach till 3 pm, it was almost a 60 feet rock patch, and everyone was excited to rappel down, Suresh, Bhaskar made the rappelling arrangements, taking care of all safety precautions,
one by one all our teammates rappelled down, rappelling patch involved a waterfall running sideways and it was fun to touch the ground with water-falling beside you, Suresh was the last man to rappel down using the “U” technique, then we moved through a grove between the huge rock, touching the tall wall of the hill, and everyone, reached the second rock patch of almost 30 feet, there were three routes which could have helped us cross this patch, the path on left side involved a grove between rock, and a dive in to pond below, Bhaskar, Tushar, and many used this pond to dive, and cross the second patch, the path on right side was risky and we used that path to send our bags down, and the path in the middle, was used by most of us to rappel down and to cross the second patch, the 6 school kids were wonder boys, they descended this patch without using the rope, and then making fun of it by again ascending it for rock climbing practice, when all of group went safely at the base of second patch, me, Suresh and Prashant, rappel down using “U” technique, from the right side route.
It was 6:30pm now, and it was getting dark in the valley, only half moon was the one providing a light to us, besides our torches, we prepared a rice and “zunka” to help everyone cover the hunger, everyone opened their food packets, cakes, snacks, and had their energy drinks, now it was time to gather all the courage and start the night trek to the base of Sandhan valley, we gathered at the start of 3rd rock patch, and then decided to move further, I asked Suresh to anchor a rope, at the top of 3rd patch, it was matter of 7 feet, but a in dark, we were in no mood to take any risks, bhaskar stood at the mid-point of the patch and helped Archana, Amruta and Sushmita to get to the base, and then moved to cross the grove, between the rocks, one by one, everyone rappelled down the third patch, and then the grove, then we came to know that because of rain, the right side opening of this grove was closed, and thus everyone started descending down from left side, which involved, some 7 feet, descending from a rock patch, Ameya, Ashwin, Bhaskar, Tushar were guiding the teammates, descending below, and Yogesh, Suresh, Nishant, and me, helped passing their luggage from the other side, using the rope, everyone was thrilled, some were tired, but everyone wanted to soak in with this entirely new experience.
We thought we crossed all three rappelling patches, which involved fourth unexpected patch, and then we started walking through round rocks, crossing the ponds in between, but again we reached one more rock patch of almost 15 feet, we repeated same procedure, and got passed this patch also, after walking for another 15 minutes, we reached the base of “The Sandan Valley” and the time was almost 15 past 12, every trekker from the group was tired and hungry, but was more importantly sleepy, base was a large place surrounded by hills, and many plane rocks formed as islands, because of flowing water though deep tracks in-between.
We gathered few dry woods and started a camp fire, I had brought few tomato soup sachets we prepared a tomato soup, meanwhile everyone managed to settle at plane rocks and then everyone gathered around, fire, had their share of soup, food was still not prepared, we had chapatti’s and rice, prepared and were in process to finalize mixed vegetable curry, on another camp fire, meanwhile we provided the guys who gathered at the fire, some papad’s, Potato, onions to roast, but then one more starter came at their disposal, fried soya balls, all of them hurriedly went on to finish every last soya ball. Soon the food was ready, most of group members slept, at the place they found plane, and it was 3 in the morning…!
Chirping of birds, sound of flowing water, shivering due to cold, wake me up, when I opened my eyes, it was an open blue sky, fresh air, and greenery all around, we had crossed the Sandhan valley, and were at the opening towards Kokan region, it was mind blowing, we could see the hill standing tall and the fort above, called as jewel fort, i.e. Ratangad.
Day started with “Shira” i.e. a sweet breakfast, and we started descending towards Dehne village, it was still a long way to go, especially when everyone was tired of walking through river and round rocks which were moving. We spotted few snakes during this river journey; we let them roam, without disturbing their routine.
After a while we reached a plane road, and then soon a jeep came to end or walk, towards Dehne, and took us to Asangaon railway station, we all gathered at a snack and tea corner, and bid farewell to every member, I could see some mixed emotions flowing through every member, eyes were clearly telling that everyone’s got something to cherish for a long time, out of this trek.
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