Footprints on the Mountainside

In a mood for mischief. Was looking around at various sites and blogs. The Mumbai Hikers Blog, Lonely Planet, wikitravel.org, Trekshitiz, Treks N Rapids…. and I was wondering what do I write on my blog. This is what came up - my intense need to know.

What is it in the outdoors and adventure travel that calls to people? Honestly there is mud, mosquitoes, snakes and other creeps. There are no easy lifts and clean beds. Food and cooking is primitive. We exhaust ourselves climbing a mountain and risk life and limb to come down again. So why?

Why is the world so passionate about (to quote some inquiry emails I get) weekend gateways, hicking, treasure hunt riddles clues, rapling, climbhing and so many other things that they don’t even know how to spell? What about those things tempts them? What makes them leave their warm and cozy homes in pursuit of strange hardships with even stranger people? Read more… »

Roger Greenaway is an outdoor facilitator and the person behind the immensely useful site on the subject - reviewing.co.uk - a man whose writings I have read on and off for the last three years, and emailed a few times with appreciation and link exchange requests, etc.

Imagine my surprise this morning to receive an email from him saying that he was planning to come to India for the first time in October to conduct an outdoor management training program at Empower Camps. Sushil Bhasin, one of the owners is someone I have known for years and we are in fact currently in a dialogue about doing some training programs together.

I promptly called up Sushil to gossip about this new coincidence. As we caught up with current stuff, I discovered that Sushil had set a goal for himself - that of being the first outdoor training organization in India to do work with international facilitators!!! How absolutely amazing.

In our busy lives, we are so fixated with creating our own images, and glorifying ourselves, it is rare to look for resources and opportunities to widen our experience, quality of work and talent sets. Not only did Sushil have this in mind, he actually pulled it through. This programme is tentatively scheduled for October. Read more… »

Ram and Kishore, who work with the authorized dealer for Petzel in India had invited me to join them for this programme. I was working officially with them for the first time, and hence excited. The plan was for canyoning, which is basically “waterfall rappelling” when done at Kondana.

I’d been doing corporate training programs for a long time by now, and I was extremely energized by this opportunity - change in work being rest and all. Really, it doesn’t take much to be tempted to the outdoors in this weather. The beginning of the monsoon, and being paid to get wet and do what I enjoy. What more did I want? Work is a fun way of life in any case.

Plan was to leave Mumbai late in the evening and stay at the location, but traffic, rain and other events conspired to delay us till we reached the location at 2:30am.

7 instructors and a driver, a trunk full of equipment was the staff load. We were expecting about 80 participants. We slept immediately, and woke up almost immediately (it seemed)

A quick breakfast later, we had distributed the equipment load for the long haul to the Caves. We were expecting the group to reach at the rappelling location by 10am, so we had taken along some biscuits to keep us going through the day (it was going to be long) till a late lunch.

It had been raining in torrents since noon. The drizzle had been there all day, but really, after noon, it poured with a vengeance right until evening. Our plan was to rappel from the top of the Kondana Caves, and we were standing facing the valley.

Seen the rain many times, got wet many times, but this time, we stood at the edge of the valley and could see the rain in the valley, while we stood clear. And then, the wind shifted, and the sheet of rain raced to us, and we raced for cover. Half the day was spent in fun like that, as you can see from the photos.

Sam and I were working together after 4-5 years, so it was a superb time for us. Talking, flashbacks, catching up with what was current in each other’s lives… and he was leaving to the US in a few weeks.

Of course, the group came late. By then we were wishing that we’d had lunch and come….. The group reached the rappelling location by 2:30pm, we began the activity late, and we ended the day late. 60 participants of the 80 had done rappelling. Whoever wanted to do the rappel, got their moment of glory. In spite of starting late, we had somehow managed to work hard and fast enough to not refuse anyone out of a lack of time. And thus, this rappelling session was finally concluded.

In my experience, the group comes for adventure, but they take the whole experience lightly, and have no concern for the reality of the situation. In their excitement, they had no concern for the delay and danger in the dark. The stream was swollen from the days rain, and the group was unused to the terrain. This was when they realized that it was no longer the trickle they had jumped across on their way in the afternoon and finally realized why we had been asking them to hurry.

Our human caravan slipped and stumbled through the thigh deep water and shivered across to the other side. The road from here on is muddy, but pretty straightforward.

In the beginning, I had been considered the villain when they tried to rush me, and this is the point where they realized that I had been talking out of concern for them, and not myself, and I found myself happy to suddenly be the much appreciated hero.

On the way down, one of the newer instructors asked me, “Sir, I’ve got a dilemma”. I asked him what he meant. “Do we go down and have lunch or dinner?” he asked with a laugh.

I pondered for a bit and shared what I was certain of, “No matter what we call it, I’m going to eat like a starving elephant.”

What should have been done in daylight by 4pm ended at 8pm as the group stumbled and groped their way back in the dark.

On reaching down, we decided to pack up the equipment and wind up the logistics of the programme before freshening up and eating, knowing that it would be twice as hard once the adrenaline levels went down and our bodies figured out that we were tired. Finally…… we sat down to eat misal paav. It was a long time before anyone wondered if the traditional snack was lunch or dinner.

Children naturally enjoy the outdoors. Apart from exercise, and health, adventure education helps children develop natural resilience from experience. Learning through experience is a natural state of being for a child, and while imparting information and training is necessary, it is important that a child gets to explore the world on his or her own terms, learning to cope with consequences or celebrate them from personal experience.

A young girl on one of my camps was rapt with attention during the introductory rappelling session. She came up with this exact question “Do soldiers use these same tactical rappelling techniques?” Tactical rappelling techniques!!! I had never considered this term before.

Another child from the same session asked “Why do we call abseiling rappelling?”

The questions in themselves are not particularly significant. No particular knowledge is involved, and knowing those particular answers is not going to change anyone’s life.

What I found satisfying about them was that “my kids” had stopped simply swallowing information, and were now exploring it.

The whole Karjat, Neral area is so lush green and totally enchanting this time. I just spent a weekend there. I’d gone to Dr. Modi’s Health Resort to attend the ISABS Umang Party and generally get in touch with the community, and then Raka and I took off to a friend’s bungalow in Neral.

Driving around the place, I realized how far it has come from the time I had begun trekking in this region. New resorts in Karjat seem to have sprung up every where and this area and Neral and Matheran seem to have become the most popular picnic spot near Mumbai. Crowds of tourists that look like friends, families and even corporate groups can be seen in the waterfalls around Karjat, generally having a great time.

Its a loooong way from how we guys were considered odd because we wanted to head out to this region in the monsoons. Of course, our world was mostly roughing it out, hikes, staying in caves….. Photography in particular used to be considered an expensive hobby. None of us had really thought of photographs beyond memories of our trip.

As “Mumbai picnic spots” go, it is a whole new world. Nature resorts near Mumbai are a growing trend, both in availability as well as demand. Quick, clean service, lovely ambiance and a whole new attitude of “back to nature” is a far cry from the rural mentality of pride in simplicity and basic accommodation with few facilities. While I miss the good old days and the charm of life in the mountains, I see this as an evolution in the mindsets of the Mumbai crowd, where pleasure in the outdoors is becoming more and more accessible, inviting and desired for the less adventurous.

Once more, it was Raka, me and our trusted bike, out in the mountains wandering to our hearts content, remembering the good old days and welcoming the change.