"Monsoons are coming.. lets trek!"
Well, that's exactly how my friend managed to convince me. Though rains were no where to be expected in the near future, i was very much in for this. Word was spread among friends, and FOFs, and after some (much expected) last minute back-offs, 8 of us confirmed. Kalawantin it was going to be.

At 2300ft., Kalawantin was termed as a difficulty level "Medium/Easy" trek... a good one to start the trekking season with. None of us had any idea as to how to reach there. So we decided to tail the group who had initiated this trek. We contacted Jagdish and decided to join them. The trek was to start from the base village – Thakurwadi. The plan was to board a bus from Panvel Bus Depot at 7:00 AM sharp. The ST buses run with a frequency of one in every 2 hours.

When we reached the spot, Jagdish and gang we already there, and like us, had missed the bus by a whisker . This gave us some time for mutual introductions. The gang was probably more than 35 people now. After some light breakfast, we boarded the share rickshaw service to Thakurwadi village, which was about 30 minutes from the Bus Depot.

We started the climb at about 9:00 AM. We knew that the trek was going to take about 3 hours. The first trek of the season was going to be tiring. To top this, it was hot.... very hot. It was only at the end of the trek that we realized that there was no shade at the summit too! No trees.. no cave, no roof to take cover in the hot sun! We took ample breaks, with lots of water to keep us hydrated. One of our friends, who was a first time trekker, realized at the start of the trek, that this wasn't her cup of tea and almost fainted after climbing the first of the many sections to come. She had to return without completing the outing. The rest of us continued and reached the summit at about 12:30 PM.

The last few feet of the climb were specially interesting. A miniature rock climbing experience to say the least... :)

The strong breeze compensated for the hot sun. Nevertheless the next day we were sure to find ourselves with a distinct tan on the skin. We were short on drinking water, which was a bad news. So restrain and preservation were the best option available. Another lesson to learn from this trek was to prefer carrying fruits over other eatables like rotis, bread/butter/jam, etc. Just having half an apple at the summit when we were lacking drinking water was a lot more refreshing than everything else we'd had.

The last bus towards Panvel from the base village was at 6:00PM. So we started the descend at about 2:00 PM. Others in the group belonging to Jagdish and gang had wanted to climb to the Prabalgad Fort on the adjoining mountains. Thought his seemed a difficult task, we started anyway. Water was to available at a small village halfway towards the base, which was also the common point to ascend the Prabalgad fort.

We reached this village at about 3:15PM, refilled the bottles and after some rest, started towards the base. The Prabalgad plan was canceled as they were sure to run out of time to explore. The rest of the descend was relatively easier. Reached the base at about 5:20... well ahead of time for the bus to take us back to the concrete jungle. Its going to be a hard day tomorrow, aching legs, paining backs, straining knees... but this time we would be enjoying the pain.

More pictures here