Originally posted on: 10-June-2011

Its been long time since when I was curiously waiting for this trek. Its one of the favourites of most of my trekking friends.. I Had a quite rejuvenating Saturday morning, and pleasant Saturday evening.. It was 1015pm and I had just returned home when my friend called.. asking for Sunday morning Dhaak-Bahiri trek plan.. I said yes in a flash !!

I could not sleep properly that night.. may be because of excitement..

we decided to start at 0600am, started at 0615am from Kothrud, Pune. Heading towards Lonavla on Pune-Mumbai old highway, reached Kamshet which is 45kms from pune(45 minutes) and around 15kms from Lonavla towards Pune. Had a much needed breakfast (Samosas n Chai), it was much needed because we only had cooked so called dinner for ourselves the night before :P .. resumed our journey.. next stop Jambhavali – 18 kms from Kamshet.

Road condition from Kamshet to Jambhavali isnt great, its not bad either.. views along the roads surely make your journey interesting. We reached Jambhavali at 0825am and took convenient option of parking my bike in one of the villager’s house’s porch.. as always :)

Started walking towards dhaak bahiri, greenary and jungle everywhere, one beutiful temple along the pathway.. there is one road which goes to Rajmachi from here as well.. first glimpse of Dhaak..

Dhaak-Bahiri has a mandir located in caves in the rocks way up the cliff, where people from local villages go at times for rituals, festivals n all.. I was quite surprised and thrilled to see later how do they climb up :)

0945am – we reached what we can call base of rock climbing path.. we have to pass through a very narrow rocky terrain to reach there.. and just then, it starts getting more n more interesting (read it as more n more testing ;) ) From this point onwards, first u start walking on rocks with steep ( > 65 degrees) without any support but still you are walking in horizontal plane.. sliding you can say.. then comes a point onwards which you are not allowed to look down.. u are heading straight up, giving extreme importance to synchronized movements of your two legs n two hands.. then its get even better (again, read it as.. ;) )just a rope-or-two hanging from the top.. this point onwards, you have to trust ur hands that they wont slip, trust your feet that they will find the right spots to get a grip.. Life is all about one step at a time !!

1010am – reached at the bahiri caves, followed by calm, tranquill 10 minutes of my life with beautiful view in front.. I could sit there all day long.. clearing all pending, wandering thoughts in my mind..

Descend was even more difficult.. Feet have to do all the searching for the right grip.. They start getting edgy.. Trick is – not to look down and be rock solid – find solid rock.. but then it start getting better when you find the nack of it.. and you are down there within 20 minutes..

one snacks-break in the jungle, quite return walk, partially because of summer-day heat, and partially because of lingering thoughts of the experience.. reached Jambhavali by 1230pm n Pune back by 0200pm..

It was a ‘Phat ke haath mein..’ experience.. I guess now I can call myself a trekker.. hopefully :P

Towards dhaak

Climbing..

View from the cave