Trek to Vasota has been a long pending one. We (I, milind and satish
included) had made one unsuccessful attempt in 2003 (10-12 Jan to be
precise). Then we had taken the Konkan route from Chiplun -> Choravne ->
Nageshwar cave and fatigue had dragged us back to base camp.
This time satish had made arrangements to trek vasota via a relatively
easier route thorugh the Koyna backwaters near Bamnoli. He also got hold of
Explorers trekking group who would manage the logistics for us since the
area is a protected sanctuary.
On 23rd Dec night 11pm the bus started from BMC and there were total of 44
people in all. From persistent it was me, Milind and Tushar. We had lots of
fun in the bus playing antakshari till late in the night. We were sitting on
the last row and boy it was a real bumpy ride. Now I now why they call it
bum(py) ;-) We reached the village early morning and when the bus halted I
could catch some sleep. And then at 7am we had Kanda-Pohe and Tea.
There were some problems getting the boat. The forest officials asked for
money of 3 boats and they crammed all 44 of us into just 1 boat. We started
our voyage at 9am and it took almost and hour and a half to reach base camp.
>From there we started a hike to the Maruti - Ganapati temple for about 10
minutes.
The temple has fork...one way goes directly to New Vasota (3k steep climb
through the jungle) and another goes to Nageshwar through a dried up nala
(about 8km). We went to Nageshwar first and reached at about 1pm. The road
was all rocky and everyone's feet were hurting. We had a very nice lunch
(Poli, Bhaji) at the Nageshwar cave and slept there for an hour; much needed
rest for the rest of the trek.
We tanked up our water bottles and were ready to go to New Vasota. This
route is right at the edge of a steep cliff and 44 trekkers meant that
traffic jams were common at risky places. Tushar had worn - out shoes and he
had to remove them to have some grip.
The cliff section was over once we reached a pinnacle called "Mhataricha
angatha" (Old womans thumb). Then the jungle trek began and we quickly
rushed through towards New Vasota. Few people were tired and didn't come up,
and I went up only till we could see Babu kadaa. This is a dangerous cliff
and was used for capital punishment of the prisoners kept on Old Vasota. The
view of the Koyna backwaters from here is just too good.
It was getting dark and so we came down quickly in just 30 minutes and
reached the base camp. We also saw a bison on the way. Now it was post
sunset and navigation of the boats was very difficult. The chilly wind was
hurting but I was sitting near the boat's engine which was quite warm. At
about 8:30 we reached Bamnoli and had another round of Kanda poha and tea.
We started at around 10pm to come back to pune and reached at 2am after some
traffic jams in Katraj ghat.
Overall it was a well organized trek... thanks to Satish and Explorers team.
Cheers,
Milind