There's always a new trek at the end of one

I love walking. If my shoes aren't killing me, which they rarely do because i do not associate with shoes with violent tendencies in the first place, and if its not too hot outside I prefer walking to any public or private transport. And that's the reason why treks are my favorite kind of holiday activity. Fortunately, I have a pretty good group of such aficionados in my office. This group, my husband and I went for a short trek a few days ago to a place called Sandhan valley. It was out of this world! Of course not literally because we didn't even step out of our state (yes it was THAT close to Bombay. And yes I am gloating).

from left- my husband Dipanjan, Mayekar and me

The scale of the space will be clear in the next few pictures

It is more a crack in a plateau than a valley formed by centuries of gushing run-offs from the plateau during the monsoons.  But I would like to believe that its been born out of a dhoti clad, Indian style Gandalf's staff while stopping a menacing demon. We even had a "YOU SHALL NOT PAAAAAAAAAASS!!!" reenactment. At the start of the walk (I will replace this word appropriately in the later phase when it ceased to be a walk) we were like Tom Cruise in M.I. and Daniel Craig in Casino Royale all rolled into one. Except that we had foolish grins pasted on us. 

little did we know what lay ahead.....

The trek grew steep and we city bred mortals had a hard time coordinating all the unknown little pieces of muscles we had. Gradually, I realized that my body was behaving like my brain does on a rare Sunday in office. Lazy, disoriented and uncooperative. My legs would give way quite a few times on the extremely slippery stones and would fall in a undignified heap. Thankfully, the rest too were having a tough time keeping their balance or else we would have a lot more pictures of me lounging uncomfortably between the rocks. More than half of the trek we were just dragging our asses from rock to rock. I kid you not when i say this but the only difference between us and a scooting dog was that we had some clothes on. Again thankfully we have no photographic evidence of the said posture. 

This resulted in a rebellion by my shorts. And now that we have all established how thankful I am, let me just say that my dignity was protected by the sheer foresight of my husband. He had packed an extra pair for himself! The flab on my midriff played an important part here in preventing the 2 sizes too big shorts from sliding off.  I hope this post does not portray that we did not have fun. We HAD fun. Big time. I cant put into words how the sound of a woodpecker or one of those whistling birds sounded within those huge rocky walls. The softly falling rain and the dripping water from the sides of the valley, it was all deeply magical. Actually this place is also described as the Grand Canyon of India. Of course, topographically only. 

Il leave you with some pics here before I come to the climax of the whole post because then you will be able to place the whole revelation into perspective.

   

A 30 feet rappelling was also on the menu

that's me lying face down while everybody else had lunch

We found this amazing pond with an awesome view at the fag end of the trek and jumped right in. 

THE VIEW....!

A week after this I came to know that I was pregnant. I mean I AM pregnant. Apparently the young one is quite a tough cookie and of course loves to walk too!!! YAAAAAAYY..... we are going to have a baby!!!