Rendezvous with the clouds

This one should have come 3 years back...gosh...long...miss my buddies....this one for themAfter a lot of planning, discussing, and fighting over the choice of location for a weekend trip, we group of friends) finally decided to visit Raigarh...

The next day, in spite of heavy monsoons and some deadly premonitions to avoid visiting Raigarh during this season, we were on our way by 7:30 am. The view during our drive was truly mind blowing. Clouds floated on top

 of mountains and the temperature gradually fell as we moved towards a higher altitude. There were mini waterfalls on the sides of the road along with massive trees that had fallen by due to the windy conditions.

We reached the district of Raigarh at around 12.30 pm. It was pouring heavily and cold. The raging monsoon could do little to dampen our spirits, and we moved forward towards our destination. As the journey prevailed we came across one of the most difficult roads that we could have expected. The road was marred by fallen rocks and one side being the mulshi dam reservoir.

We reached the foothills of the Raigarh fort at around 3:00, and it was all deserted. The thought that came to our mind was that probably the rope way will be not running and our whole journey was just futile. To our relief and gods grace the ropeway was working and we took two of them and started our journey .About some meters above the ground the only thing that was visible was clouds and us. Yes the trolley was lost between the clouds and we were not aware of the destination.

Finally the trolley struck something hard and came to a halt.It was raining cats and dogs; we entered the gate of the fort. We took the guide which was provided for us by the authorities and started the journey towards history. Amidst dense clouds and heavy downpour we saw the parts of the fort which made us look more closely into the past that was so culturally rich and prosperous. We stood at the place where coronation of Shivaji happened and felt we were so small before the great personalities, who once ruled this country. Getting drenched from head to toe while standing on the premises we had a refreshing cup of tea. Than we visited the Grave of the Great Shivaji and his dog as well. Its said that dog jumped into the pyre of shivaji. So faithful was the animal towards his master

There was a nip in the air when we started at 5:00 pm. We were all shivering, our teeth chattering in different tunes. Around 7:00 pm the visibility was almost reduced to zero as we were surrounded by clouds on all sides. One point the vehicle came to a sudden halt and we saw that we were just an inch away from certain death, as the vehicle was just beside the edge of the road and about to fall. Thanks to our experienced driver, we reached Pune safely, absorbing the beauty of nature as the stars welcomed us back to civilization. The memorable trip had finally come to an end. But the enchanting memory still remains