Crab No. 32

Path to Karnala

Once again, I was prodded to write… Note that this time it was not a sweet request but definitely a prod…  I was clearly told in no uncertain terms to make better use of my fingers than just twiddle my thumbs!

Thinking about my hiking experiences, limited though they are, I remembered my old friend, Crab No. 32…

It all started with a simple thought, that we, the younger generation, with all our multiple recreational avenues of movies, parties and vacations, had forgotten a simple event our parents probably enjoyed… the picnic!   C’mon… the last picnic most of us may have gone to was probably that low budget school picnic to the local park!   So we (My sis, Bro-In Law, Trips and yours truly) set off on a “picnic” to the lovely bird sanctuary of Karnala…  I had suggested we lounge, relax and have a lovely walk up the moderate Karnala hill – well, we definitely made quite a mountain of that hill, but I’m getting ahead of myself!

So there we were on a cool Mumbai day at Karnala.  My sister decided to dress to the occasion, in a lovely pink outfit, all dolled up – all she lacked was a parasol.   We did have an umbrella but as you will see it proved to be not quite enough.  There we were, all finely dressed – what a fine sight… alas, if only we know what we were in for!

After lazing around for a bit, we decided to climb and explore the woods…  It was truly beautiful – green, peaceful and lovely!  We must have climbed for 30 min when it sinking in that this was not quite the leisurely stroll promised by me… but thankfully all of us (with the exception of me &  my sis), which basically means only Trips and my BIL were of the adventurous kind and pressed for pushing on.

And then it started… first with a trickle.  It’s like the famous “frog in boiling water experiment”.   Throw a frog in a pot of boiling water and he will promptly jump out, but put him in a pot of normal water and heat it slowly – he won’t jump even when it starts to boil.  (P.S. Please don’t try this stunt at home.  Though it may not be dangerous to your health, it will definitely be for the frog!).   Well, much like the experiment,  we were huffing & climbing when it started as a trickle and before we realized it became a downpour… the rain, of course!   And like the rather wet frog, we tadpoles continued to labour upwards on that hill…

As anyone who has climbed a forest track in the rains will tell you (go find someone!), it gets very very slippery & messy.   Also while I was describing my sister’s fashion statement, there were a few mistakes of mine I neglected to mention earlier (obviously intentionally)…  One, I had on my slip-on sneakers that even on normal surfaces lets me slide & glide… On this slimy surface, it was like walking on ice.   Two, this was a bird sanctuary, remember? I had, in all genuine enthusiasm, brought along my new DSLR backpack with full camera gear… that weighed well over 10 kgs (though it felt like 50).  So while all the others scrambling for footholds, I was literally, most of the time climbing on all fours!  Not one of my better days!  Aah.. but I made one good choice of equipment and that gave me the edge in the end, but once again am getting ahead of things!

So there I was lagging behind all of them… but there was more salt to be rubbed in my (very sore) wounds.  My  “well built” BIL ( I would use the term portly, but he spies on my blog occasionally and may not take too kindly to it) was leading the charge and seemed to be doing so by quite a margin!   Now I was ‘handicapped’ but even then this was quite unacceptable – imagine in front of two of the most important ladies in my life, Trips and my sis!  Well… sigh… there was not much I could do than continue to climb on…

Well the one very good thing about the rain was that if it was lovely earlier, this was heaven itself…  the smell of the earth, the green leaves, the beautiful moss, cute crabs scuttling around – we were drenched and loving it!   We finally came upon a small plain stretch en route to the top and the view from there was awesome!  The world was windy and green!  And when you took all this into your senses after so much effort, it was just sweet!

Take a look at http://www.flickr.com/photos/anandgiridhar/sets/72157601744502789/

The three of my companions had realized that my slow progress was a great opportunity to take me down a peg or two… the superior being that I naturally am (ahem), they rarely get such opportunities.  So they gleefully seized it to take many a dig at me!  But little did they know it was to be short-lived due to two factors (hee hee, rubbing hands).

When we were just 10 minutes to the top, we looked back to see, very very far away some school kids climbing up… we thought who would bring some small kids on this dangerous (well, it seemed treacherous to us) climb.  And while we were debating that, in five minutes, this bunch of 30-40 school kids came like a rapidly approaching swarm and in a matter of seconds, with an agility well beyond our capabilities, overtook us!   It was over even before we could say, “excuse me,  but we were here first…”.   Needless to say, while I was already on a climbing low, my companions were rapidly demoralized to my level!  (hee hee! Evil laugh!)

With the wind taken out of our sails, we had had enough and decided to make our way back.  Now, anyone will tell you that a climb down a hill is always the more tricky one and with this rain and slippery surface, this was a nightmare.   Now this where my trump card of came in!  I had for reasons, that even I fail to understand, put on a very thick and baggy track-pant.

How did that help?  Well, while the others were delicately and carefully climbing down, I had no chance of that with my footwear…  …after a few slips I soon figured out, quite unintentionally, that I was very adept at gliding down the mud on my backside!   Needless to say it was fast, comfortable and excellent exercise for my butt (sorry, no photos here, this is a family blog!)   And moreover I reached the bottom (of the hill, of course!) much faster than the others! Yes I had finally triumphed – I was no longer the butt of their jokes! 

Finally after some five grueling hours, four very exhausted people tumbled into the car, padded with newspapers to protect it from its very filthy occupants, and drove home.  Five minutes into the trip, I looked back to see how the others were… I have seen many friends drunk after a night out, but never have I seen three people so knocked out!

And am I forgetting someone… nope never… We saw many crabs of varying sizes on our climb but one caught my eye… That’s him, Crab No. 32 – pictured here (probably 132 but I like calling him 32)…  Cheers 32, hope you had a good laugh at our expense!  We’ll be back to see you again!

Crab No. 32