Trek to Matheran through jungle route

Ever since I moved to Mumbai I have heard a lot about this unique hill station near Mumbai (100km away). It’s among very few oldest hill stations in the world. Matheran means 'forest on top', and no vehical allowed here, what an impressive way to preserve this forest, its flora and fauna.

I obviously had a plan to visit this place by its common means of travel i.e. by toy train or horse (these are the only travel mode to Matheran from the station Neral, 80km from Mumbai). But I never knew that it was a trekker’s paradise until I found in the internet an adventure travel group's trekking schedule to Matheran. Most interestingly, the proposed route was not through the usual road that leads to hill top, but was from the opposite side of it through a small village called Dudhani, and a villager who know the trek will led the group to hill top at an elevation of 2625 feet through an uncharted territory. I booked it instantly and waited for the Sunday morning (July 4, 2010).

It was 5 am, and guess what? It started raining incessantly. I was certainly expecting a bit of rain but not so much in the starting itself that limits my ability to meet the group on time. But I challenge rain god and jump on it putting backpack and rain coat. Further adding to my frustration at least 5-6 auto rickshaw refused to ply, ultimately I got one and end up pushing him to rush – he dropped me destination in 15 minutes. I knew by experience that adventurous people are persistent and determined, hence less chance of being tardy, but didn’t honestly expect that group will turn up dot on time when it’s pouring so much. But I was wrong, vehicle was waiting, and I got late by 5 minutes…My apologies – I had to say humbly :-(.

It was a 20 members group, all from diverse background and it seems everyone knew very well that it was about the nature they want to talk and not the office, even during the introduction. We stopped on the way to have quick breakfast with poha and a cup of hot tea and traveled another 30 minutes to reach Dudhani village our starting point. The lead villager joined us and we started following him, it was still drizzling a bit and after few minutes walks treks become very slippery and few ladies already slide, then comes the stiff heights and the cliffs to cross over. Walking through the narrow patch of the cliff on our right side appeared the breathtaking and stunning view of the valley, as the sun started rising it added a mesmerizing feeling. The entire crowed that was huffing and puffing profusely suddenly got recharged with the view and started clicking pictures. I decided not to bring my camera as it was heavily raining in the morning, and now cursing on my decision.

After one and half hours trek we reached a big waterfall, though there were many small ones on the way but this one was really big. I’ve got enough time to enjoy as people behind was taking time reach the spot. The rule of thumb – staying ahead in a big group trekking is an advantage as lead has to wait until all arrives to proceed again, and the irony is the laggard gets less time to rest and enjoy.

The patch after the waterfall was all rocky and few surface were literally required crawling to cross over. Trek after this was full of rocks and thick jungle, and after a strenuous walk reaches a height where the clouds were moving below me – I am in the top of the world! said to myself. Nature surprises with its vivacity and makes you feels so great which will be hard to realized unless one experience it.

Further to this point another half an hour walks with the final climb of 50 meter on the rocks we’ve got in to a hillock where we took our lunch and proceed towards Matheran market. Entire Matheran is covered with thick forest and red soil, it has 32 viewing points, and by the way if you trek and climb up from the jungle route you’ll get thousand view points anyways. We just picked water bottle, energy drinks etc and returned from the market without wasting time. Started descending at around 3:30pm through the same route, it was scary in some places as from the cliffs entire valley was visible right ahead/below us, it was reverse when we’re walking up. All was well, finally we arrived in the waterfall and everyone jumped into the water, had lots of fun and reach in base village by 6:45pm. There were hardly any energy left to chit-chat much in the vehicle, few in the group vowed not to venture out again in search of weight loss – nasty idea they said, but agreed the scenery was once in lifetime experience though.