Slesse Snowshoe Walk

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Crisis at Chanderi - Part 1

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The sweat cooled off my shirt as we descended the gully between Chanderi and Mhasmal. I was glad for the respite from the heat of that November day in 2003. It was the first day of the month, but it had felt like a humid and sticky summer day all afternoon. The sun was now well hidden from us as we came down on the east side of the Chanderi hill and the light was quickly fading. Behind me I could hear Shreyas and Shruti and Shyama and Shridhar negotiating the trail : the sound of shoes slithering on the scree, the crack of twigs as they snapped beneath someone's weight, the rustle of dry leaves as tired shoulders brushed past, the occasional "ouch!" as one of them stubbed a toe. Shreyas Map by the late Arun Samant for Harish Kapadia's "Trek the Sahyadris" (5th Edition) The village of Chinchavli is spelt Chinchli on the map. I reached the point where the trail crosses a dry gully to the other side. It was almost dark and very quiet. I could b...
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The soft pitter patter of the rain falling on my head was like a comforting rhythm. My feet went squelching in the mud but it did not matter. We had been walking in the rain all day and by now we had adjusted to this wet wet world. We walked in silence in the rapidly approaching darkness. As we walked past the few huts that comprised the little hamlet, we heard a female voice cry out. She said something but the words were lost in the moist wind that cooled our faces as we hurried past. "What was that?" I asked Anil, who was a few paces behind me, "what is she saying?". His command of Marathi was marginally better than mine, or so I thought....thus my appeal to him for a translation. Anil shook his head. "I can't really make out what she is saying." The voice called out again, but we ignored it and kept walking until we were out of earshot. As we approached the little stream that we had waded across 8 hours earlier, an ever increasing roar fi...
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