A scary but worthwhile experience!

Two Sundays back (25th June), early in the morning at 3:50am, I woke up to get ready for a trek to Devkund waterfall (3.5-hour away from Pune) with a group of people, including my dad. We reported at the bus pick-up point at 4:45am and off we went. I was sleeping almost the entire three-hour journey except during the times my dad woke me up to see the nature and the scenery, or while eating breakfast. We reached the trek starting point at around 8:30am and after a round of introduction, we started our trek through the forest at 9:00am.

Lush green plains

It was already raining by the time we started the trek. Me and my dad hoisted our umbrellas and did about 30min of the trek with umbrellas until we realized that we were slowing down due to the umbrellas getting tangled in the branches of the trees. We closed our umbrellas and continued our trek. Due to it being the rainy season, we constantly encountered small streams of water but we had to cross one stream that was quite wide, thigh-deep and rapid (This stream is further referenced as Stream-4. Stream-1, 2, 3 weren't encountered during the onward journey). We crossed the river quite effortlessly by creating a human chain, although the riverbed was not uniform. We continued onward and often crossed lush green plains, from where we could see the beautiful mountains covered in fog and low clouds.

Bhira reservoir in the background

At one of the plains

Now, comes the beginning of the thrill. As we trekked further, the incline increased as we were climbing upward and not trekking flat plains anymore. The forest became thicker and the rain (that had stopped a while ago) had made the mosquitoes wake up from their resting places. They were everywhere, annoying several of the group members, especially when we had to stop due to a few people fallen behind. Once we were all together, we moved on, only to our disappointment that the next stream we had to cross (Stream-5) was way too rapid for a safe crossing. So, we took a U-turn to try a different path to a place where we thought the stream might be less rapid. We had to trek downhill this time which was much more difficult as the ground was wet and mushy after the rain. Once we reached the spot, we observed that there were a lot of people at the banks of Stream-5 contemplating whether or not to cross the river. In the end, the option of crossing was eradicated and everyone started heading back group by group. My dad and I were disappointed that we could not reach the waterfall to enjoy ourselves (we later learnt that after Stream-5, there were to be two more streams).

To remind you readers of the beautiful nature for one last
time as we had no access to phone after this point, under
harsh circumstances

The scary part was during our return. As we started back towards the starting point, we encountered Stream-4 once again. This time it was much more rapid, waist-deep and looked scarier than before. As we started crossing by creating a human chain, we realized that we underestimated the force of the river. So, we doubled-up the chain to create a stronger chain/loop to cross the river. But (A big BUT), this doubling-up resulted in breaking of the chain a few people after me, right after whom was my dad! He was 1/3^rd into the stream but the chain broke off and he was in a dilemma on what to do. Luckily he held back on the other side (This entire episode of his experience was told to me after we were home. At the spur of the moment, I did not know what was happening as I was still focused on crossing the stream.). Here is what my dad has to say:

“Having walked another couple of hours back, we got stranded at the first stream we crossed in the onward journey. At this stream I was the first one to experience the state of "being declared stranded"! Half of our bus group crossed. After Suhas, two more people crossed with more struggle and everyone could sense increase in the flow. The next guy couldn't cross and lost balance and got almost washed away! He was pulled out with difficulty to the other side. I was the next, a couple of meters behind him in the water having already crossed one third. I was feeling the full force of the water barely able to lift up leg for next step. At that instance the people shouted "go back". That's it! We were stranded for the next couple of hours.

Rain increased further and water was gushing crazy. The Bhira reservoir entry point for that stream was just 50ft away right in front of our eyes which was already increasing level. So, anyone who slips directly ends up in reservoir. While we were waiting for an arrangement to be made to cross the stream, the rain turned out to be like a shower operated at full speed. We were standing in that rain watching the stream in full spate for more than an hour and half, wondering if we would make it back for the day. Meanwhile, a few hundred people from different groups accumulated there all waiting to be rescued.

Finally, two rope arrangements were made at two different spots and a few strong men held the rope standing across the stream with rope in hand and helped all of us to cross. While we were trekking back, we got to know that a group of people who started earlier than us managed to reach Devkund and got stuck there due to increased water levels with one college student feared dead, but found later (The news was in Times Of India!). Of course, we couldn't even reach there. That tells the gravity of the situation we could have faced. Thank god, decision to turn back was made at right time! The trek guide later said that never before had they seen such a thing happen in June. Typically such sudden heavy rain happens only in July it seems.”

Once, I crossed the stream, crossing the stream was declared too dangerous by everyone and the people on the other side (including my dad) were asked to wait there until the flow reduced a bit. Seventeen of our group had crossed, while sixteen were still stranded on the other side. The bad part was, I was the only one who was separated from family on either side; the rest were either entire family on this side, or entire family on the other side.

I was really scared as I did not know what would be the outcome over the next few hours. The leader of the half group on this side later decided that we should start heading back, and that we should not worry about the other half as one of the leaders was stranded along with them. But that did not suffice my question of ‘how much longer?’ For a moment, I thought of not listening to the leader and staying back waiting for my dad, but later I realized there is no point in waiting there as every group which successfully crossed was leaving, and the rain started pouring once again, and this time, with all of its might.

So, the successful half and I headed back. But to our surprise, we came across three new streams, which had only come into existence after the heavy rains. Stream-3 was relatively the same as Stream-4 was in the morning, so we could cross it without much of a problem. Later we encountered streams 1 and 2 which were basically part of the same larger stream split into two. These two streams were literally within feet of each other so we did not have much bank in the middle either. This was quite a scary place to stand in, considering there were raging streams on either side. All this while, I was wondering how my dad would return as there was heavy downpour and the streams might speed up further.

In the end we reached back to the starting point, completely drenched by the rain and by crossing streams. We changed our clothes at the place we rented for lunch, and then ate lunch and (applicable to me) waited anxiously for an hour and a quarter before the remaining sixteen were back safe and sound. They changed, and had lunch, after which we started back home at 5:30pm, delayed by almost an hour and a half than the estimated departure time, and we didn’t even make it to the waterfall! We had tea and snacks midway and we reached home at 10:45pm to mark the end of an exhilarating trek – one of a kind.

-Suhas

4th July 2017