Lost at Duke's Nose :)

This one's for all those adventure freaks- Rappelling at Duke's nose near Lonavala. These camps are generally conducted by various adventure sport groups like campfireindia.com (the one that we had taken)...you can easily find groups like these on google- it happens almost all weekends I believe.

So basically we took a ST bus from Dadar @ 2am which dropped us at Khandala at around 4ish. That is the most stupidest thing to do ever- coz everything is dark and closed and it's definitely not safe. (The best thing is generally to reach the campsite on the previous nite and camp there overnight.) Somehow we got a lift and managed to do a tripling on a Hero Honda to the nearest auto stand :) Woke up the sleepy auto guy and gave him the instructions- and lo behold- we're lost again! :D It might sound funny now- but when you are lost in the open landscapes with no cell phone signal- it can be very scary (or romantic- depending on how you look at it ;)

Finally we found the way and trekked up the hill to reach the camp site on Duke's nose at Lonavala- was able to just catch the early sunrise beyond the mountains- was like one of those pictures we used to paint in school (with the sun behind the mountain and open landscapes).

To cut the story short- they made us climb this huge peak from where we were supposed to rappel down. The rappelling part of it was even more exciting that you can imagine. As you can see from the pic- it was quite some way down. It's like a straight wall and if you fall- your simply dead...

Once you're down- you need to do a spiderman act and walk over a thin ledge and come to the main camping point again. That was scarier than even the rappelling- coz I actually looked down the gorge to see how deep it was. You'll love the rush of adrenalin- it was almost like you're in some movie.

Finally back at the camp site- got some food and hiked back down the hill (to be lost in the field again... hehehhe.. this time it was seriously hilarious!)..

Back at Lonavala, you'll easily find buses to Mumbai... the return journey was covered sleeping... came home and crashed :P