spiders-web

 

It started with the first visit to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park or Borivali National Park  and we were amazed that we lived so close to such a large expanse of nature, and hadn’t explored it for so many years!

And so  we headed back next week  to the Upper Kanheri Trail. The guide was booked, permission got.  I’d missed out on the Borivali National Park for the seven years I have been in Mumbai, but now that I am awake to it, I want everyone to also join in!

The centre manager informed us that  there are two trails – the Upper Kanheri and the Lower Kanheri. Upper was a little more of a challenge, so we decided to take it!

We picked up our guide for the day, Ganesh Naik, a MSc Zoology student and made our way to the Kanheri Caves. the caves are situated around 5 – 6 kms from the main gate, so you either need your own transport or need to hop onto the bus that goes from Borivali station right to Kanheri. After parking our car, we got ready with bags and camera and umbrellas and raincoats and got cracking on our ‘trail, wondering if it would be too tough, given our sad levels of fitness – ‘upper’ sounded like a lot of climbing right? Instead of walking upward by a cement road towards the caves, we took the road that went into the forest.

It was a road through a jungle, not the rainforests with scarce light that exist in my dreams as a reference point to all jungles, but a deciduous and evergreen forest – and a mix of both that exists at the Borivali National Park. The trek or walk had a mild upward inclination but at no point was it more than 30 degrees I suspect. It was gradual, and we walked up very slowly… why were we that slow? We were with a zoologist! We stopped at every point and asked questions and he patiently pointed out spiders, birds, plants, shrubs and told us many stories about the eco-system. There was a cacophony of forest noises as we walked… the birds chirping, the Hanuman langoor with its loud  UUUPHHH that startled us every time he made it in the distance, the cicadas protesting from tree to tree as we walked by. And the crabs scrambling over the rocks… it was a beautiful soundtrack that took centre-stage that Saturday morning…

And then it began to rain, actually just drizzle… so raincoat out, camera tucked away and Instagram (read my phone) bundled away into my pocket. We continued the upward walk. The forest came alive even more. Without any distraction of taking pictures I was concentrating on the world around me. Did you know that the rain in the forest sounds REALLY loud? The pitter-patter on the trees, dry twigs falling on the ground, the rain falling on the tiny rivulets, and the rain-water streams gushing by… it was loud! For those 10  minutes of walking , we heard nothing but the sound of rain. It was gorgeous!

At this point, I must tell you that the trek was through a tiny path. It wasn’t that slippery but ye,s there were some rocks, some little puddles and streams to jump over and once of twice, all of us had a near-fall experience! I was being extremely careful to not step in any slush as I definitely didn’t want to get my shoes dirty… Ganesh, our guide, was wearing crocs and I snickered in my head,”how is that going to give him a good grip?”

He obviously knew much more than us about this walk.  We soon came across a monsoon stream, running right across our supposed trail and the path was through the stream! Ganesh just walked on like nothing had changed. Realisation hit, the crocs were a really good idea for situations like these. The three of us waded in with our shoes, in seconds we had water till our ankles and our shoes were completely wet.  So much for being careful with shoes! The water was cold and clear, we could see the stones at the bottom of this tiny stream… and we walked in it for around five minutes till we branched out and took another route.

Grey skies loomed over, while a deep valley yawned below… and silence except for the birds chattering!

The rain stopped appropriately when we reached the mid-way point… and we stood on this tiny plateau  with a clear view of the deep valleys in front of us, of Gorai and the pagoda in the distance to the right, and hills on all other sides. It was impossibly green! And quiet. Suddenly startled by a cacophony of crows, Ganesh told us they would be feeding on some leopard’s kill… the scavengers cleaning up…

And sure enough in a bit we came across some leopard scat. With no other shit, have I been so curious and gone so close. It’s not the first time I have seen a big cat’s scat… but every time I do, I almost marvel at it!  Probably because in my head that’s the closest I would ever get to a wild cat!

There were so many spider webs, some huge, some gorgeous and some that I have just not done justice to with my shots. Ganesh rattled off the names, stories and who eats whom and how they hunt. I have forgotten most of those stories and maybe another trip is due, soon. The Malad Trail is supposed to be  just for these spiders and their gorgeous webs. It seems there are some spiders that have an x-mark across their webs, and that x is not visible to the human eye, except from some angles. but insects see it, and get attracted and get stuck to the web!

The walk took us around an hour or more, it was slow and we paused and lingered at every small detail  to know more about it and even when we reached the top, there was still so much beauty left for us to explore!

Nitty-Gritty:
– You need to book a trail two days in advance. Call the Nisarg Mahiti Kendra or Nature Information Centre at – 28841428
-If you are headed out in the monsoons, take your umbrella or raincoat.
– Wear good footwear, the rocks are slippery and you do not want to be scraping the moss clean with your posterior!
– The Upper Trail is around 1 to 1.5 hours at a slow pace and many stops to observe the abundant nature around. If you want to do it quicker, I think 45 minutes is good. It’s not steep and importantly, not on a cement / tar road at all… completely through the jungle!
– Do go, it’s beautiful at this time of the year.

For more pics, click here..http://merrytogoaround.com/2013/08/09/borivali-national-park-the-upper-kanheri-trail/

Bhavani is a traveler by choice, photographer by interest and writer by desire. She crafts tours at audiocompass.in and blogs at merrytogoaround.com.