Trek to Matheran!

While staying in Mumbai, I had a fixed picnic schedule, two picnics in a calendar year. On 15th August and on 26th January, every year we had a unique picnic destination. The destinations were not as same as any others were. We often breezed through the city’s hotspot and stopping every place for a couples hours. A pattern often was like this, we started with Charni Road Chowpati, after a minuscule stop and a multicultural breakfast, we proceed to Malabar hill to Kamala Nehru Park. We used to stay there until late afternoon while had our equally interesting homemade lunch. Then we took a bus to Gateway of India, bus route too was very interesting. It was via Nariman point and then passed a few important structures before we reached GOI. We spend there a couple hours and of course, this time we had Bhel, it was too from our own kitty. Finally we came back to Victoria Terminus and then to our own destination. Therefore, when all looked for a picnic spot, for us it was no problem to find one. We liked trekking and we always tried to find a trekking destination, specially on 15th August. We were amateur trekker, every time we ventured, we found it very difficult. Every time we decided to put a full stop to it but once, we back and within twenty-four hours, we planned for the next one.

I visited Matheran twice, once with my neighbours and next with my buddies. Both the visits were memorable for different reasons. Our plan for Matheran was not as per schedule, we gone there in mid nineties, it was neither on 15th August nor on 26th January. We gone there on Dussera day, it was somewhere in mid October. I had another memorable trip before. So, when we friends decided to go to Matheran on foot, that was not the first one for me. There are three ways one can reach Matheran. Take any Karjat local from Mumbai V. T. and get down at Neral.  Once you reached Neral station, you can trek or you can enjoy a toy train ride and you can go there by a taxi too. No modern days vehicles are allowed inside Matheran town. One go by taxi, have to get down at the gate of the town and then walk. Let me tell about the place.

Matheran Matheran is a town and a Hill Station in the state of Maharashtra. It is the smallest hill station in India. It is located on the Western Ghats range at an elevation of around 800 m  above sea level. It is located around 90 km from Mumbai. It is one of the few places in the world where vehicles are not allowed, which makes the place different from others. Because of vehicles being banned in Matheran, the place is quite peaceful despite the thousands of visitors coming to visit throughout the year. Matheran is connected by toy train to the mainline rail route at Neral Junction. Neral Junction is well connected by local trains from CST along the CST-Karjat route.

There are lots of lookout points that provide spectacular views of the surrounding hills and valleys. Matheran has a reasonably dense forest cover. There are around 38 designated look-out points in Matheran, including the Panorama Point that provides a 360 degree view of the surrounding area and also the Neral town. From this point, the view of sunset and sunrise is breathtaking. The Louisa Point offers crystal clear view of the Prabal Fort. The other points are the One Tree Hill Point, Hart Point, Monkey Point, Porcupine Point, Rambagh Point, and more. There is a Lake known as Lake Charlotte, it is the main source of Matheran's drinking water.

My first visit was with my neighbours, mainly remembered for the glitches and that made the trip very interesting. We gone there and back by a toy train and stayed there for two days. Second time it was for one day and by foot. My niece was visiting me and we decided to go to Matheran. We started from Dombivili at six in the morning and got a return ticket for Neral but when we about to reach Neral we found the ticket given to us was for Nerul that was at the other side, towards New Mumbai. We have to fool the T.C and managed ourselves out. Trekking was not easy yet by eleven we reached there. It was one of my best expedition of course trekking to Valley of Flowers was incomparable. Evening we started at five but this time we were not on foot, we took a cab to come down. It took us only half hour to reach Neral station. On our way back,  we saw film star Dev Anand, who too was going down in his car. We took a train back to Dombivli and we return with same ticket. I don’t thing it can be branded as cheating, wrong tickets that given to us for Nerul, pinched our pockets more than Neral.

!!!Life without a backpack, is boring to the power infinity.!!!