The Final Plan

1. Assemble @ Parel ST Stand on 15th Dec Friday @ 9.30 pm at the place from where the buses leave. Catch the 10pm Bus for satara(265kms).(RS. 205)

2. Get down @ satara ST stand @ about 5am. On Saturday 16th Dec. refresh yourself. Have your breakfast on the ST stand itself.(RS.25 approx)

3. be ready to catch the 6.30am bus to bamnoli (35kms) (RS.40approx)

4. Reach bamnoli by 8am. Take the permission of the forest officers to venture into the sanctuary. This may take up to an hour. Money charged shall be about RS. 30 per head.

5. At about 10 am catch the launch for Met indavali (RS. 500 one way). Reach met indavali at 11.30 am.

6. After checking in with the forest officers start our trek by 11.45 am. We can reach vasota by 2.45 pm., which I think is a bit too late, as we have to aim at reaching nageshwar at 5pm max. Going to vasota on the first day itself will be feasible only if we start our trek by 10.30 am max. Which may happen if get through the formalities earlier. In this case too we have to start for nageshwar by 3pm max as the forest to nageshwar is dense and the sunset occurs at 6pm during these days.

7. This is the other alternative we have: go directly to nageshwar if getting late. Way to Nageshwar goes to the right, just about 10-15 min before the top of Vasota. Reach nageshwar by 4pm. Max.

8. Start preparing for our royal meal; get the inventory of water full. Water cistern at Nageshwar is situated to the right (on about 5 min distance), just before the steps to the cave. Have an early meal @8pm. Go to sleep by 10pm. There are going to be night shifts of 2/3 ppl at a time for 2 hrs each. The fire has to be kept burning throughout the night.

9. Next day morning wake up at 5am. Have breakfast till 6am. Leave the cave as soon as the sun rises @ about 7am for vasota. Reach vasota by 9.30 am. Explore the place till 11.00 am. If we have visited vasota the day before then we can have the luxury of getting up by 7am. In this case leave nageshwar by 9am for chorawane. Reach choravane by 3pm max.

10.Start our descend down from vasota to choravane at 11.00 am sharp, If visiting vasota on 17th Dec Sunday.

11. From vasota there are 2 ways of reaching choravane one takes about 3 hours but slightly difficult. The other is simple and takes about 5/6 hours.

12.Any of the 3 situations preceding we reach choravane by 5pm max.

13.Have some food at choravane (RS.25), and depart for chiplun by 5.30 pm. Reach chiplun (RS30) by 8pm max. From chiplun there are frequent buses to Mumbai. We can have dinner in chiplun (RS.50)

14.Reach Mumbai by 6am max on 19th Dec Monday (RS165).

Total cost of the trek according to this plan is RS.620/-. It is advisable to carry RS.1000/- per person.

Note: we cannot stop anywhere in between to have food. Food can be had at bamnoli or only after reaching nageshwar.

Smoking, doping & drinking on the trek strictly prohibited.

Although everybody will have their say, the decision of the leader and co leader will be final and binding.

We can have a group of 15 people max. on first come first serve basis.

We are going to spend the night in a cave in the middle of a jungle; I hope nobody has a problem with it.

We are supposed to bring these things with us, which are for common usage: 1-liter kerosene, 6 big candles, and clorivat.

If anybody suffers from any physiological ailment like diabetes, asthma, high B.P., etc they should declare the same prior to the trek & join the trek on his or her own responsibility.

Although we always see to it that there are no accidents, each person is responsible for his/her own safety.