Dukechi Nose

8th January came as a surprise holiday from our department. Anyways this being the first week of the semester nothing much was going on anyway. So, we decided to go out somewhere. It was decided that we were to go trekking on the hill called Duke’s Nose near Lonavala. Chiti informed me in the evening to be ready with my own food and be ready for the 6:30 train from Shivajinagar, Pune. I had my food and was at the university gate at 5:45 sharp. But there was no sign of anyone and so I just bought a newspaper to pass time. The day’s newspaper was storming with Satyam’s debacle and I was totally engrossed in it when the trek party appeared. The trekkers were Chiti, Chetana, Mubashshera, Nadera, Vrushali, Nalini, Aradhana, Siddharth, Sanjeev and Pranav. We were joined by the two Gayatris and Anagha at the station, Sandhya at Akurdi and Rajesh at Lonavala.
The journey was peaceful and we stood the whole time at the gate. At Lonavala we walked quite a bit in search of an eatery. But Lonavala’s eateries are lazy enough to not start at even 8:00 in the morning. In the meantime we went to see a temple enroute where we were mesmerized by the nature and more by the trees which had dozens of beehives on them. But an ill-tempered temple authority cut our visit short and we were back on track to Duke’s Nose. We ate Vada-Pavs at a roadside eatery and set out on our trek. After almost an hour of walking, we were at the foot of Duke’s nose in a village called Kurwande. Incidentally Duke’s nose is also called as Nagphani by the locals.
The journey upwards was not difficult but was tiring under the blazing sun. We reached the top in about half an hour or little more. The panoramic view from the top was just exhilarating. I personally was spellbound and became speechless at times. I was susceptible in sitting on the edges in the beginning but later on collected enough courage to do so. We spent almost an hour before having lunch comprising of bread, butter, jam, biscuits, sauce, rotis, sabji, idli and what else! I had a sumptuous lunch and was inclined to sleep there. But my friends had other ideas. They wanted to go and see the neighbouring hill as well whose entry was not as easy as this one. Well the less courageous ones i.e. me, Chetana, Nalini, Mubashshera, Nadera, Nalini, Sandhya, Rajesh and Vrushali stayed back while others went on the quest.
I tried to take a nap but it was difficult with the scorching sun overhead. Chetana and Nalini tried and were successful to certain limits. We then started our descent down and I was proceeding quite well before the end I slipped and almost had a rolling descent on the little rocks in the crevices. Well, fortunately we all came back safely. But a mention should be done of Chiti who came down in splendid fashion and when everyone were applauding it, she fell down and had a little abrasion in the foot.
We had water in the village and started our way back to Lonavala. On the way, Chiti suggested that we play Antakshari but with towns’ names. I and her started playing and soon were joined by the entire troupe. Even in between, Aradhana was playing from both the teams. We had ice-golas and jalzeera and set out for the station. We then went back to the station and soon our train left. On the way back we sang patriotic songs on the top of our voice and were so engrossed in it that we weren’t aware of the journey being coming to an end.
We reached back by about 7. These 13 hours had tired all of us and most of us had even their spare batteries down. But I fulfilled one of my most cherished wishes to visit Lonavala and had a fine day with my friends. This will be a day to remember for a long time.
Hope we have a trip sooner!!!!!!