A break to Tikkona.

The rains are now on a full throttle. The rains that started on Friday have sortof taken a pause today on Monday. Saturday went pretty fine, lazing all day and cheering the non-favorites in the game of Football. I was extremely happy over the fact that Portugal and France made it to the semi's.

Nilesh called me on Saturday, asking me to plan a trip. So for Sunday I was all ready for one.

Day (2nd July) started at 10am with Nilu's call, then at around 11:30am I left home. The rains were continuous but not that heavy, but definitely enough to make me restless and not-be-a-couch-potato!

So picked up Nilu at about 12 and off we drove towards KatrajPhata deciding on Tikona /Sinhagad /Tahamani Ghat. Well we finalized on Tikona (2 reasons - it would'nt be crowded and is not all that far!). The drive was smooth and the view was bad due to the heavy downpour as we drove off the pre-expressway towards Dehu road.

From there we drove on via Japalloupe and towards Kamshet village from where we took a left towards tower hill and on in via the narrow road into the hilly terrain. Everything was green and the distant mountains were invisible as the rains were lashing in as though they were on a roll! Soon we started ascending via Bhor ghat (yes there is a Bhor ghat here as well!).

Here we took a halt near a little temple amidst the road to enquire for directions. So we had to drive on straight towards the Pavna dam then take a right and then a left for TikonaPeth (the base village). So on we went.

This was one amazing drive, at times driving under the thick clouds then at-times under a tree cover but all time the rains were lashing in pretty hard. Every few minutes we would ask for directions from the locals to learn that we were in the right path. On the final inquiry we were directed into a kuccha path to the left next to a temple to park our vehicles.

Unfortunately we had no cameras, mine was totally washed out. :-(. So pic's here are from one of my previous treks.

I had been to this place and recognized a bus stop. But no sight of Tikona, it was hidden in the clouds. So quickly taking the necessary stuff in my bag off we went into the rain on our venture towards Tikona.

We walked over some dirt path, via a few settlements then on a broad path that led towards the left edge of the hill fort. We were on the right path. The path was all dirty and mushy. Tyre trails could easily be spotted here. The path went on and on, eventually we were walking along the left side of Tikona. We kept walking and the walk seemed endless.

May be it was overconfidence, I suggested we just keep going and relied on my numb memory to find the right intrusion path off the dirt track towards the trail that leads up. In no time I was sure we walked too far, for the fact that the Tikona hill came to an end where the path bifurcated to the left via a pass towards some "Gurdwara"(a name plate read so). So we backtracked and this time inquired at one of the houses, where a gentle lady instructed us to take a right near a huge tree.

So we did that and went in (well we took an early right and walked towards the tree) and eventually were on the correct zigzag trail that went up. The climb was pretty gradual initially and suddenly went steep up. The path was all covered in thick foliage. I could easily realize that it had been a long time since I trekked. Anyways on we went and within 15 minutes (as predicted by the lady) we were up. :)

From here behind lay the steep path that went up, ahead a valley and Koraigad in a distance which was very blur behind clouds (so Ambey valley was hidden too), to the left was a path that went some where (we decided to take this path for the descent) an to the right the path went gradually up towards the fort and "Ballekilla".

The climb was gradual, as we went over a well-marked trail over the green ground :). The path circled via a rock and in no time we entered the first "Dwar/Door". The path went on through some thick vegitation that eventually led to a "taki/water reservoir" and a cave lay behind that. We took some time out at the cave. Relished on chikkis and made some phone calls.

In about 20 minutes we left this cave and went up towards Ballekilla. The climb was steep via stone steps. In less than 5 minutes we were up, and in a minute or so through another little climb we were at the top most point of Tikona next to the flag post. Atop there was this Shiv-temple, which seemed to have been recently renovated.

Here we sat at the edge of the mountaintop in awe of the white clouds around that gave us absolutely no views :) (hahaha). But it felt cool. We decided to descend. The time was roughly 4 pm. A quick descent and a few little halts later we came to the spot from where came the path we had decided to take down. So on we went on that path. The trail went straight over the hill and then a sudden zigzag descent to the road that had the "Gudwara" bifurcation. We were down in about 10 minutes.

From here we had a monotonous walk via the bifurcation (with the board) then on via the left edge of the hill fort then on towards the temple where the car was parked. Here we changed over to dry clothes in the temple and finally bid TikonaPeth goodbye. The time was about 5:30pm.

We decided to drive towards the Tung side and return via Lonavala (I really did not want to go back the same path!). So on we drove till we spotted this board that held a direction towards Paud (17 kms), we took that. From here the drive was amazing, which offered beautiful views with distant low-lying clouds and a beautiful surrounding. The water went flowing over the road as waterfalls from the hills on the roadside and at times the farms along the road spilt the water on the road. This was an amazing drive.

Soon we reached Paud village, taking a left here we drove on towards "Pirangut". There Nilu suggested we have food at one place where they serve amazing "bhajjis". So we halted at this place called "SriPadh Snacks". Here we relished on amazing bhajjis, wada-paa , misalpav and chaay!

The rest of the drive went via Chandani chowk then via null stop to my house. Here mom re-treated us with and bhajjis and Indian cut cakes post which I dropped Nilu back to his house. It was about 9pm by the time I came back.