TREK TO MATHERAN VIA ONE-TREE HILL - EID SPECIAL HIKE

On the way to Matheran from the Shivaji Ladder/One Tree Hill route

After a not so wet trek we were waiting for the rain on the weekend. Saturday went by with hardly a drop, so we called off the Sunday program, only to wake up next day amid pouring rain. Since Tuesday was Eid we decided to take advantage of the holiday and planned a trek close to Mumbai. And what better place is there to trek near Mumbai than Matheran!

We decided to take a later morning train than the usual early one to Karjat. As I walked to Dadar station, it was raining already. The portent for the weather was already good. As we alighted at Karjat it was pouring. After a breakfast of tea and vada pav we took a vehicle to Borgaon which lies off the Karjat-Chowk road. We could take the road up to Ambewadi from where the trek to Matheran via Shivaji Ladder up to One-Tree Hill starts.

Ambewadi overlooks the backwaters of Morbe Dam. A well near the village is the marker for the starting of the trek. From here a sharp grassy ridge leads towards Matheran. The clouds were playing hide and seek with us, offering us glimpses of the valleys and mountains around. Everything was lush and green and wet as it should be on a monsoon hike. After some steep climbing we started entering the forest. My friend remarked it was the enchanted forest and it couldn’t be truer. A lovely walk through thick forest in the middle of heavy rain was just what we had been waiting for.

The pièce de resistance of the trek is the Shivaji Ladder which is a name given to the route by which Shivaji is said to have climbed up to Matheran. A small shrine is a marker for this route and there is actually no ladder but a waterfall through which one has to climb. The route skirts the waterfall here and there but at times you just climb through the waterfall. Climbing between the cascading water swollen with rain was a high point!

Eventually the route leaves the waterfall towards the end and one climbs upto the One-Tree Hill point on Matheran and the dark forests of the hill station greet you. From here its a long flat walk to the main market. In the middle of the week, on a rainy day, there were very few people around and the lovely roads of Matheran were misty and moody, just the way they should be!

My very first hike was this very one many years ago. At that time we started from Chowk phata on Bombay-Pune road, through the valley which is now submerged by the waters of Morbe Dam. Ambewadi was a half-way point on that trek. The route to One-Tree Hill has always been a beautiful hike and it was unimaginably beautiful to me on that very first hike. Years later it still is a fantastic trek. Change is inevitable but the newer hikes feel somewhat inferior versions of the old ones (I had a similar experience with the changed Shidi Ghat at Bhimashankar). I miss the earlier experiences when things were less accessible, there were fewer trekkers and even less litter.  All that is left now are the awesome memories of experiences that are now just no longer possible.

Pics at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/115394767952469723630/MatheranViaShivajiLadder