I had just two days left at home and I needed to do something wild before going back to hostel life and college assignments. I called Abhinav and asked him if he was ready to come with me to Matheran. I had to go out, take a break and do something out of the box so that I felt I ended my holidays at home with a bang. So hiking and trekking was the best I could think of.  So a few plans made, a few schedules cancelled and in half an hour both us were in the train taking us to Matheran. We didn’t have to book in advance as we got a ticket when we went to Thane station. Matheran is just around 108km from Mumbai. It was the month of April so it wasn’t a wrong time to visit either.

Raigarh district is a beautiful place with a lot of greenery where needed. Matheran was one such place with a lot of greenery. Most of the people in Mumbai prefer going to Matheran for a weekend for two simple reasons – It is near, it is economical. In fact, if one just has a summerhouse near this place, there is nothing like it. The only enjoyable way to reach Matheran is by rail. This is because the place is at a high level and the altitude makes the journey memorable. One can see the trees moving along in tango with the train and the beautiful scenery makes the whole experience really exciting. Sometimes the simplest of places give you the best of pleasures. Matheran is one such example.  Matheran is a place for monkeys and there is no dearth of it when you are travelling. One has to be very careful while walking here as they could grab your cameras, foodstuff, handbag or anything that catches your attention.

I wiped the perspiration off my neck and saw the towel. It was so dirty. I was glad I was getting away from the heat for at least a couple of days. It didn’t matter even if the stay was short. This is the perfect getaway spot for someone who wants something in a short time. We reached the base station at Neral. From here we had to take a taxi up. The drive up was around 6km. The dry brown hill below suddenly transformed into a vast green expanse. The place was looking extremely beautiful with its forests and trees seeming like doing a tango together. In Matheran you wouldn’t find any motor vehicles after a particular spot. These are banned here. Only a small railway runs here and this seems to be the major transport queen here. The train takes one around a 21km route up the hill. Anyway I would be describing this later. We reached our place and we had our bookings at the MTDC resort. So we went there and relaxed for some time. It wasn’t hot and the climate was pleasant because of the height that Matheran is in.  The cool shady atmosphere of the resort completely relaxed our tired nerves and we dozed off for some time. We then went out, had something to eat and just roamed around in the area. We saw the soil which was so red and also noticed our white sneakers changing color. We loved to smell the freshness of the trees and ate the gooseberries, mangoes, cucumber and peanuts that vendors were selling on way up the path. There was a tea vendor who gave us instant masala tea. It was so tasty.

We were going round in circles and then again reached the same spot. The immense beauty of the surroundings ensured that I had complete worth of my SLR. I loved my camera and I loved to take a long exposure shot. So I took out my stand and stationed myself near a cliff. I set the camera on long exposure rolling and Abhinav and I just lazed around while the camera did its work. I have found a wonderful way of using the camera on the laptop and I had connected it to the laptop and was lazing around when suddenly Abhinav yelled. I jumped out of my skin and a chill went down my spine as I saw a monkey there ready to type asdfgh on my laptop. Gosh! Now what we thought. Then we slowly relaxed when we saw that the monkey wasn’t interested in either the camera or the laptop, but the packet of chips on top of my laptop bag. The monkey understood that it was being watched by us and knew we would swoop on it anytime. So it stealthily took the packet of chips and jumped up on a rock and up on to the tree and ate the chips. Oh our poor tummies were rumbling to see our chips being shared by our newest friend.

“Why do you have to carry your laptop and camera around everywhere>?” chided Abhinav and packed the laptop bag. I reluctantly gave in but not before I took a photo of our monkey friend.

“Sorry, Hanuman bhai.” I told the monkey and mocked at it and walked up. Even as I said it, another monkey came down and flicked my red cap away. Awww! My “Fly Emirates” red cap. Man! It was difficult in Matheran but exciting. My red cap gone, my laptop almost taken, we trudged further up and kept looking up to see if we had any more Hanuman Bhais coming to greet us.

We trekked up and the hike was really tiresome. The walk is very long and there were many tourists who were on a pony back. Matheran had this system of taking you around in a pony. Or else you take the train, but no vehicles. AS we walked up, in an hour’s time we reached the town area. The town in itself was just a small imitation of an upcoming town. It was dusty, scrappy and not a very exciting place. But the fact that you were in a home away from home, made you like the place whichever way it was. I thought to myself that my sister would have enjoyed this place a lot as she would have a lot to shop for. My neighbor, a teacher and a very enterprising lady, often comes to Matheran twice a year and shops for her footwear. Matheran offers you the best kind of footwear. I was amused to see a monkey wear a single slipper and walk around.

“Perhaps he has flicked someone’s brand new slipper and maybe the person is still searching for it” said Abhinav. As we walked up we saw some more stalls and vendors trying their best strategy to sell their wares.

We settled down in one of the local stalls and had vada pav and tea. Any place in Maharashtra is bound to give you vada pav and I enjoyed binging on it for a change. We saw a garden there and there was a badminton court there. We could take racquets on hire and we played for some time. We walked past and then went to one of the points there. It was a nice 7 km walk up. The air started getting cooler as we went up. The path wound up to no man’s land and I was reminded of Hansel and Gretel the fairy tale where Hansel left bread crumbs as the markers to come back. The entire area was quiet, silent and remote. Though there were a lot more tourists like us, the expanse was so much that there wasn’t any crowd as such at any place. Only when we reached the points, the entire crowd seemed to come from nowhere. All the while when we walked we had the unsolicited company of the monkeys who seemed to be seen all over. There was lot of noise made by the monkeys as they chattered. Garbut point was lovely and beautiful and by the time we walked down the entire 7km stretch, we were tired, exhausted and decided to go for an early dinner. There was this guy playing the piano and singing some songs. I went and played the piano a little. Anybody could play. We had an early delicious dinner and then to bed dreaming of walking holding the monkeys hands.

The lights were very low in Matheran and the roof was made of tin. So the entire night was spent in listening to the monkeys scampering up and down on the roofs. The noise that it made ensured that our dreams turned into nightmares but the sheer exhaustion took us back to deep sleep again.

With this intermittent orchestra of the scampering monkeys and the deep sleep snores of Abhinav, I was thankful when it was early morning. There is nothing like a sunrise anywhere in the world and I didn’t want to miss it in Matheran either. So I woke up early and walked around the place and saw the sun rise in the distance. The stillness of the morning, the dew on the leaves, the cold air that grazed my face and the absolute calm relaxed me completely and as I picked the paper from the receptionist, I saw Abhinav walk down in his pajamas towards me. In the same attire, we went to have breakfast at the café and then refreshed and set out for the next day. We decided over coffee what we had to do that day and then breathed the ambience and the greenery that was so infectious.

We had to reach the northernmost point of Matheran today. We knew everyone had spoken about the beauty that is seen to be believed here. As we made our way up, we were again accosted by some monkeys. One even had the gall to sit on my shoulders. I gave up and stopped feeling scared of them. Their faces were of all types, some of them creamy, some of them black, some of them brown. They came in all sizes and shapes. Grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, babies all of them seemed to befriend me.!

Western Ghats has a very rocky terrain and trekking on it requires a lot of stamina and energy. The northernmost point finally came into view after the long winding walks up the path. We saw from here a separate range of hills. The hills had jagged edges and were completely covered with a green blanket.

One thing that really jolted me in Matheran was the snakes. As you walk up, you see them in plenty slithering away the moment they hear our footsteps. We even saw a dead snake, a huge green creature. Amidst Abhinav’s objections on my taking the photo of a dead snake, I proceeded to take a lot more photos.

“Look at that.” Said Abhinav and sure enough there right in front of our paths, lay a beauty, dead and victorious maybe. The snake would have been around 11 inches long and had the air of a perfect martyr. Later on we came to know that it was no ordinary snake. It was the Russell’s Viper.

We kept walking and then reached the Hart Point. This is a great place to visit as from here one could have a complete dekko of the entire city of Mumbai. In the night, the lights that came from Mumbai city seemed to be dancing angels.

After this we went further and captured the beautiful hills of Sahyadri n camera. This place is an environment lover’s paradise because it is a very eco sensitive area. It does not have any kind of pollution by way of vehicles. The lesser the pollution, the more pure is the air. The person coming here is drawn into a web of tranquility and silence and the entire area calms his frayed nerves. As we walked up, we reached the Panther’s Caves. A lovely area of calm, greenery and scenic ambience. The monkeys were our constant bodyguards so we had a view of the monkeys perched on trees even here.

The constant up and down terrain and the continuous hiking that we did sure took its toll on us and were really tired. but we didn’t want this excitement to stop. So we went on walking and reached the idyllic surroundings of the Lake Charlotte here. This lovely serene spot is the main area of supplying drinking water to the entire area of Matheran. There was a temple here which we visited. The temple was called the Pisarnath temple.

From here we went to the Echo point and the Louisa Point. We had fun shouting our names at the Echo Point and were a little disappointed when initially there wasn’t any echo. We tried half a dozen times and then got it. We saw a lot of birds here and captured them on the camera constantly watching out for the monkeys. They used to swoop down the moment I took my camera out. The lake wasn’t really filled with water as it was summer time.

Then we kept walking and then after a considerable time, reached a place where we really breathed in relief. Do you know why>? Because this was a place where there were comparatively fewer monkeys. We rested here for some time and ate our packet of chips in peace.

We came back and were satisfied with all the points we saw in Matheran. We were happy to see the surroundings and enjoy the serenity. We were happy to get away from the madding crowd and be a part of silent ambience. We were happy to see the lovely green trees in Matheran and the beauty that exuded out of its calm exteriors. I surely felt rejuvenated after some hours of stay here. If only life would continue this way and we could have this kind of atmosphere always.

As our train trudged into the Thane station and we got out, the familiar sounds of the vendors and the noise of the auto rickshaws purring on, brought our senses back to regular routine and our trip to Matheran just got shelved in our memories as a fairy tale weekend trip.

Parting Say: Go rejuvenate your soul in Matheran.

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