Night Hike to Nakhind

I had to post this account months ago, but some how it just did not happen on time…..

I have never been a fan of night trekking but I believe in trying new things. So I agreed upon a night trek in May hoping that a night on any hill would be cooler than one in sweltering Mumbai. Since we were totally against walking in the sun, our options were limited as the hike had to be nearby and not too long. So we settled on to Peb or Nakhind or both (we are always ambitious in our intentions!)

There were only three of us on the hike and we took the last local to Karjat and alighted at Neral station, which was expectedly deserted. Now though I have been to this hike many times, we always make some common mistakes. Predictably we had trouble searching the way in the dark and after many detours and dogs howling about in the night, we found ourselves on the right road.

It was a pleasant night with an almost full moon (one day before pornima). There was a slight breeze but in no time we were all sweating with the climb. We reached the first TV tower and then the second and we knew we were on the right way. However as we started moving towards the col between Peb and Nakhind, we lost our way and we took some wrong turns. After almost an hour of mad exploration and discussions, we turned back and fortunately on our way back we got hold of the right path.

I found the night hike experience very surreal. It’s deadly quite and a bit eerie, everything is dipped in darkness and there’s only your torch to guide you. It does bring memories of….well, those children in the dark getting caught by leopards or those horror camping movies!

We made it up to the point between Peb fort and Nakhind and rested a bit, deciding where to go. We were drenched in sweat by then and I had never sweated so much on any trek. We decided to go to Nakhind and then made up on the steep incline to the right. The narrow ridge walk soon became forested and the eerie impression strengthened. We reached the high point but decided to go further. As there was nothing to see we decided to turn back after 30 min of more walking and came back to some rocks where we watched the sun rise. The view was nice with Prabal, Chanderi and Peb forts around us. During this we didn’t even realize that we dozed off and soon we were on our way back.

Walking down was quick but we should have been quicker. My shoe was biting me and soon by seven the sun was beating down upon us. By eight we were down and almost roasted by the sun but still alive to catch the 8:30 train which was late. We entered the platform and the train door just appeared before us and surprising we had seats. No waiting time for the train, just made this experience even nicer!