Atop Karnala fort in Rains: Drenched Bliss.

So how do know whether you have entered a travelling hiatus? Why, do a trend analysis on your daily routine for the last month. If there IS a month long unchanging daily routine, then sadly, you have entered one.

I was pretty confident that after joining the corporate world, my personal lust (yes, lust) for travelling and trekking and all things related would be taking a back seat. One such uneventful Thursday, I was sipping my second cup of coffee in my Mumbai office when one of my colleagues forwarded an itinerary e-mail for Friday. It said something about trekking around Karnala. Few google searches down, I was already wondering where had I kept my cam’s charger!

That's what was up for grabs! 

Trekking up to Karnala fort was a part of TATA Teleservices’ annual outbound activity for the SME division. I happily happened to be a the right time of the year with them, hence joined the gang. We left early in the morning by office-arranged bus and reached a place called ‘Panaromic Resort’. (I must admit, the water slides of this resort looked way bigger in the google search images than what they actually were. May be it’s high time I stop judging things from their online appearances.)  After a morning session (read: ppt) of the corporate milestones, we were ready for the daylong fun.

I was rather amazed at the amount of seriousness that had got into the arrangement from the company’s side in organising it all. Not only were all the SME employees divided into different teams with carefully thought out ‘Pirate-ship’ team names with equally fanciful names for the team captains, but also, each team was provided with a flag and a banner to shout with. (Beat that!)

Now, before I begin my trekking photoblog post, let me write a bit about the place. Karnala fort is a hill fort in Raigad district of Maharashtra, and is accessible by the Mumbai- Pune road link. The area boasts of lush greenery, a protected Bird Sanctuary and some holiday resorts (including our online-images endorsed Panaromic (mini) resort).

The best part of the Karnala trekking experience? The rains. Everything looked refreshingly green and tender.

The worst part? Again,the rains.

The stones got slippery, the mud, treacherous. Roaming drenched throughout the day didn’t help either. By the time it dusked, I was already past a crippling muscle pull, running slight fever and a bit of cold nose.

But everything was worth once we reached the top of the fort; the long tender grasses swayed amid the howling winds, and  lush green forests buzzed with all kinds of birds below, as far as the eyes could see.

Enjoy the photographs.

The Wilderness.

 

Stairway to heaven?

 

Which only got worse. 

 My colleague Sushil catching a Powernap, maybe?

Mid-trek Photo-shoots galore.

and more.

Ok, Focusing back to the greenery.

Now you know what shade ‘tender’ green is.

Stuff dreams are made of. Mist.

Few good men. And Women.

Couldn’t help but see a giant Shiva-lingam here. Agree?

Bird’s eye view.

This click I love the most. Maybe because of the Surrealism.

Needless to say, a perfect outing when I needed it the most. Things could have been better, drier and a bit less sneezier had I taken a rain-jacket with me.

But the feeling of getting drenched in rains amid this much greenery, mist and winds was an experience that says otherwise.

Alok K.

August 5th, 2013

P.S. Not to forget the mid-way masti that every team-activity always splashes one with.