50th Hike : Ramdhara

A bubbling crowd of people bouncing around like metastable electrons is what greeted me below the Magarpatta flyover at 6:30am. We rallied in 12 cars and drove to the Loni Kalbhor area and meandered past the Mutha canal which irrigated the area. This area is known for great cash crops like grapes, figs, custard apples and more so bring your shopping bags along to stock up from the farmers tottered under trees along the NH 9. We circled around the train tracks that made to Solapur and parked under the trees at the Ramdhara temple.

PC: Karthik Padamshali

A beautiful saffron in a pool of green in the background we arrived at our headcount of 75. After briefings we made our way to the base. There were toddlers, uncles and grandfathers on fours within 15minutes.  Pune's usual October heat had set in a month later because of extended showers so the hills still had greens with different colours looking like tufts of a green blanket.

Picture credits: Sudharshan Bhat

This hike was steep rocky climbs interspersed with ridge walks along winding tall cacti. As we took the centre route the whole pathway was littered with the Feroza green copper sulphate pebbles as if Hansel and Gretel just walked ahead of us. After a good 2 hours, 6 steeps and cheering on friends later, 69 of us completed our ascend.

Drone shots by Lakshmish Shenoy

We cooled our heels under a the shade of a solitary tree on the top. We shared soaked peanuts, dates, Oreos, lime juice and candies while talking about the much dreaded descent in the now notched up heat. After a few excited drone shots by Lakshmish Shenoy and ice breakers later we began the hike down.
This time we took time to take in the flora around.

Picture courtesy: Karthik Padamshali

We used 45 degrees angles, tufts of grass and optimised knee angles but we could do only so much against the crumbling metamorphic rocks of the Sahyadris. One of the local pointed us to a "shortcut" along the edge so that we would have the tree shade for relief. It was only 11am but there was frustration and agitation amongst the same smiling faces. The lower body strength, primarily calf strength is core to the 101 of climbing down hills. Soon as if the hills turned sympathetic to our impatience, it gave us a few lines along which beautiful white crystalline quartz had formed over millions of years. After some reading up, I found out that these where known as veinlets. Veinlets could either precipitate along cracks and fault lines or accumulate from the flowing streams through them.

Picking up these beauties we reached the base within no time and we hopped over to a family friends farm house for lunch where we devoured the authentic Maharashtrian meal of Jowari bhakri- a millet based hand beaten flat bread with bharlela vanga stuffed brinjal in peanut curry and usal - a sprout based curry. We had some lovely ukdiche modak - jaggery and coconut filling in a rice dough that is steamed. What took the cake was a lovely homemade chocolate based fort that was made from whole wheat flour and jaggery by Feastwithjo.

Just like the hikes it reminded me of the simple joys of the 90's, home baked cakes, Sunday picnics and lime sodas.

Picture and cake courtesy: Anjali Shenoi