It was just another Friday of a week filled with work and office hooplah, when we decided to have a small day trip somewhere around Mumbai. With a lot of ideas generated by some of my friends, the decided place was Tungareshwar, which happens to be at Vasai, a village on the outskirts of Mumbai. Its very well connected by Local trains to Mumbai. Its hardly a 45 minute ride by road or through the ever glorified local train if you start from Andheri. Since Mr.B in our group supposedly worked out the car from his sister, we had no problems reaching Vasai by 10 a.m. Thanks to Mr. B's driving skills. The only pain which i suffered was that i had to getup at 8 on a Saturday and meet the other guys on the Mumbai-Ahemdabad highway near Borivali.
Well, all set we reached Vasai at around 10, had some tea with hot Samosas. It had been raining quite heavily since the last night and my newly bought windcheeter dint help me a lot in keeping myself dry. I was soaked to the bone and a quick change helped me feel comfortable. Its so good to be dry... man! At around 10:30 we started walking from the village, the road was quite good upto a certain area after which the tar started to fade out into the mud and we entered the area which could be safely called as a forest area(This is a part of Sanay Gandhi National Park by the way). Well, the trek or walk, whatever you call it(i would hardly call it a trek, its more like walking on a kuccha road) was accompanied by heavy rains. It didn't seem to be the perfect weather to actually walk the way. I later on found out that vehicles actually go upto Tungareshwar, but a few metres of walk and i found out that the vehicles couldn't cross the river due to the swelling of river by the heavy downpour. To continue the trek further, we had to cross this same river which looked dangerously swift and somewhere in the middle of this rain, forest and a cautious" cross mat karna" warning by the bhutta wala, my adventerous streak to cross it faded out. However, there was this adjoining track(lets call it loser's track.who cares!) which we finally took. It allowed us to reach where we wanted to without getting into the water. What followed was a beautiful walk admist the forest area, wild flowers to be seen, numerous pics to be taken collectively by Mr. S, V, Su, B and well, me. We would have walked for around an hour before we reached this place where lot of aunties(a.k.a. devotes) were chilling out in, lets say..ankle deep water. Keeping the fantasies for the later part, we moved on and reached the temple. The temple is quite well maintained with things like Chips, Tea, Gola, Bhutta and what not in this whole damn world available in the adjoining shops. Quite a decent place to have tea, and thats what we did.
We were told that the waterfall is closeby to the temple & we headed straight to the waters. A few meters ahead there was another water channel which was quite a good place to actually take on water sports like trying to swim in knee deep water. Well, puns apart, the water is not deep at most places but its swift. We found a decent spot to have same water fun & we found one. The place was quite abuzz with some 10-15 family guys but as soon as we took on, the numbers started to reduce and in 30 minutes, all that was left in the wilderness were we guys. Quite an achievement, eh! It was almost 2 hours we were in the water before we planned to move on. The waterfall at Tungareshwar is quite amazing, but equally dangerous. We were not directly beneath the waterfall but further downstream. The rains had made the waterfall all the more large as we found out later. There are a lot a of rocks in this whole area and when mixed with swift currents, things do become a bit dangerous and you need to take care. Well, as we were moving up the waterfall, i realized a guy actually was taken away by the current. Well, lucky him that he din't hit a rock and ended up safe!
There is nothing more to explain about this trip as the water and the forest wilderness are the only things to look out for. We trekked down, drove back & ended up stuffing ourselves with chicken, mutton, veggies at one of the food joints on the highway.
Well, I had read a lot of things about Tungareshwar on the internet, I read in a few blogs things like "Heaven on Earth" or "Best places in India", I would rather not agree to them, as i saw for myself, its a nice place but there is nothing adventurous about it. It is a decent place where you can arrange a small day trip even with family members. If you are not going to the temple & looking out for fun, rains are the only time you can be there as thats the only time you will find water. Without it, there is nothing to look out for apart from the Lord Shiva temple.
The trip was what i wanted, a small no frills trip on a rainy day with good friends. The small trek admist the forest, which happens to be a part of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park is a beautiful one where one can forget the honking of vehicles or the chatter of the Mumbai crowd. Its an amazing getaway from the hustle-bustle of what Mumbai is. The best thing about the place is that it is so close to Mumbai that you can round up the trip replete with travel, trek, fun in just a day. Definitely suggested for a monsoon weekend trip!
Some things to take care:
1.Don't try to ride a bike on the alternate jungle route, you might end up breaking your mirrors as what happened with an idiot. Is it easy to ride bikes on slippery rocks(not roads...rocks)? Take the road, if you cant take it..simply trek!
2.Take a camera alongwith you, there are good things to be seen and remembered.
3.There are monkeys to be seen on the way, take care of your mobile & purse.
4. If it isn't the rainy season, avoid this place.
5. Avoid plastic. If you can't, then avoid littering, the forest area is clean, lets maintain it that way.
6. Most important..dont use a shoe in this rainy season(or use a waterproof one)! Ur feet would start smelling and you would make shrieking sounds while you walk once the water is inside them! Its damn uncomfortable!!
