Under Open Sky

Today I had a discussion with my friend 'Vivek'. After some time our discussion veered to trekking since we had earlier done a trek together. He had recently visited fort ‘Rajgad’ near 'Pune'. It’s a very interesting fort, with double walled construction for weak areas of the fort.

This discussion reminded me of my trek to fort ‘Ratangad’ beyond lake 'Bhandardara'. This fort has no such extra protection and does not need one. Its natural defences are so strong that it did not have walls at all in some places. And it is so remote that some few years back it had no human habitation around it for miles.

Ratangad

We had climbed the fort from 'Konkan' area which meant we had to climb its whole height of 4000 plus feet. Route climbed through a seasonal waterway and small waterfalls in some places but there was not much water flowing through it at that time of year.

Route was difficult to find in overgrown shrubs. It was only with the help of some arrow marking painted on rocks by some kind trekker that we could find our way and reach the fort. But all this took time and our estimates went totally wrong. So by the time we reached fort it was quite dark and after some time it became pitch dark.

We had planned to stay in the temple of goddess ‘Ratnabai’ in a small cave on the face of the mountain. But darkness in the jungle does something funny to your psyche. You feel disoriented and helpless. Darkness that engulfs you is not dead, it is alive. Leaves are rustling, grass moving with the wind and you know for sure that there are creatures moving around. There would be snakes, boars, jackals and even leopards in these jungles. May be this fear has something to do with the early life of our species when they lived in constant fear of ambush from other animals and it is etched so strongly in our genes that it is not erased still. Only after such experiences can we truly appreciate the value of a abode, however flimsy.

Of course you need not go to jungle for this experience. Thousands of orphans on the streets of 'Mumbai' would know value of a house better than me. In many respects I find the concrete jungle scarier than true jungle. In the city it could be so pitch dark during daylight that men and women are attacked and robbed in front of others but they fail to see it.

In that dark we searched for the cave for over an hour. We were tired after a day’s gruelling trek but kept going. We searched the fort from one end to another but could not find the cave at all. We had entered fort from another direction so usual telltale signs were also not there. Finally we gave up our search. We found a kind of ‘Burooz’ a bastion. It was a circular structure with some elevation, obviously to keep watch on surrounding area. We zeroed in on this place as the next best option. There was grass growing in the corners of it's walls but it had dried. So we burnt it to make area clean and to clear any insects or snakes staying in there. Of-course we never carried tents since it was a luxury which we could hardly afford and did not really care about since we loved to travel light.

This structure was not only open to sky but it had a wide entrance. We tried barricading it with sticks collected from surrounding area. But soon we understood the futility of our efforts. Entrance was too big to be secured this way. So we decided to keep a bonfire burning through night to deter any predators getting too close to us.

Our abode for the night

We also decided to take turns for 2 hours each to keep the bonfire burning. First two turns went on as per plan but the third person was a new recruit and not a trekker. He was so sleepy that he flatly refused to keep his turn. After a tiring day this was not very surprising but regular trekkers have a little more resilience. So we took more turns but it was too much for us in the end. And we all slept peacefully under the open sky in a remote, dark, unknown jungle.

Next morning we searched and found the temple at 5 minutes walk from our night halt.