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It was Friday, 9th June 2006. I was just entering the apartment in the evening when my phone rang, and to my surprise I was in a conference with Sheetal, Milind and Mahindra. The agenda was to plan a trip to Matheran for six of us in Mumbai (Sudeep - who had just joined IBM Mumbai after his training in Bangalore - and Vivek being the other two). We decided to gather @ Thane station at 9 AM on Sunday, 11th June. The original plan was to proceed by local train to Neral and then move ahead. But I was guilty of messing it up as I got up late (courtesy of the FIFA World Cup matches) and could only reach Thane @ about 10 o'clock. So, we ended up hiring a Sumo, which in the end proved a good choice.
Matheran is hardly 1.5 hours drive from Thane. The weather on that Sunday was quite pleasant, not too hot after the early monsoon showers . As the Sumo started going upwards on the really steep mountain roads to Matheran, we could feel the cool mountain breeze blowing. Once you reach the top the vehicles have to be parked in the parking space and then you have to either walk to the various points or hire a horse. We, of course, decided to take a walk without worrying about the number of points we visit (Though Mahindra - who was the only person among us to have visited Matheran before - was insisting on visiting some points, we knew that there was no "point" in doing that :-) ).
We started walking along the Toy Train Track - you can catch the Toy Train from Neral - which is closed now for the rainy season. The soil was moist and slippery at places due to the early monsoon showers. And Sheetal was troubled the most by it as she was in high heeled sandals! (God knows what she was thinking while leaving from home :-) ). But kudos to her for completing the trail without breaking her sandal!
We reached the Madhavrao Point (a small garden) after about 1.5 hours, including the breaks for cold drinks, nimbu paani (prepared with mineral water!) etc. Sheetal and Milind spent a few bucks to see some spots in the valley from the "Doorbin". Only the owner of that "Doorbin" knows what exactly he showed them as he was controlling the directions, nevertheless the guys seemed happy after this "sightseeing" session. We spent about 45 minutes there, had a cup of tea and left for the Khandala Point (supposedly the point from which you can see Khandala, we never got to see it!). The view of valley from this point was even more beautiful. It also provided us an oppertunity to shoot a few photos like the one below and we were caught in a passing shower also (It did not last too long :-( ).
At about 3 o'clock we left the Khandala point and started walking back towards the parking place. We took a halt @ a nice restaurant to have lunch and then bought some chikki (Matheran is famous for Chikki and Leather objects) from the market. Around 5:30 in the evening we left Matheran after what had been another wonderful outing. The day is as fresh as the Matheran air in my memories and it is going to stay that way!
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