Matheran via Garbett Point

Height : 2600 ft.
Awesomeness : Exceptional, at least in the rains
Difficulty : Tough (actually, scary, not tough) at the final 15-minute stretch for inexperienced people without a guide, or if you climb up the wrong spur. Easy otherwise. First time trekkers with a sedentary lifestyle find it tough.
Endurance : 4 hours of no to low to medium climb. (Total time : 1 day ex-Mumbai - early morning to late evening)

Travel mode : Local train

Cost : ~ Rs.200 including travel and grub

Region : Karjat

Trek route : Bhivpuri Road -> Garbett Plateau -> Garbett Point (Matheran) -> Neral

My trek date : 03-Aug-2013

Ramblings :
Returned to this trek last week after more than a decade. August 2001 was when I had first taken this route - my first trek. It was a gang of about 50 hostel-mates going on the traditional 'sophies trek' then - starting on foot from campus at 4 in the morning - waking up effortlessly since we hadn't slept - to catch the first Karjat local... Last Saturday, it was a group of 5 techies, hung over from late Friday night coding horrors, fighting to make it to the 5:20 AM local. My adventure started right from CST when I just missed the Karjat local. Fortunately, it was a slow train, slower than the taxi that I took to catch up with it at Dadar.

All I remembered of my last trek to Matheran was lush greenery, low flying clouds, stinging rain, a well (- weird, I know), a couple of risky spots on the way, and great fun - mostly useless. So I did a bit of google search before the trek, and a couple of hours of blog and google-map review later, I had it all figured out... Or so I thought.

The entire trek was an enlightening experience. That day, I figured -

    * that crows have a fantastic aim - they can shit on your wada-paav, which has a much smaller surface than your head, from 30 feet up.
    * that rogues in your team could make a 3-hour trek last 6 hours by wandering off while you're busy photographing nature, but make it fun all the same.
    * that if you don't carry some sweets or chocolates for the cute village kids, someone in your team will end up giving away all your energy bars.

    * that you shouldn't assume an 'easy/medium' trek would really be easy/medium without looking at who's labeled it so - it could well be impossibly difficult for a novice without a guide.

    * that a local village woman wearing a saree and a pair of slippery slippers, both hands carrying large bags, can put you to shame with her agility on a trekking route, no matter how many marathons you may have run in the city.

    * that you could lose your way if you follow directions based (only) on the presence and shapes and sizes of 'mango trees' - trees get bigger, trees get cut, and more importantly, the adjacent hill could also have 'two mango trees showing you the way ahead'!

    * that every villager that you meet en route knows the way to Matheran, but knows it via his/her own village, which could be well off route.
    * that, fortunately, all roads lead to Matheran.

    * that sunburn really burns!

Words of advice : If you know for a fact (based on experience, that is), that you have good instincts for hiking/climbing, use them. If the said instincts are not reliable, use a guide, who could be one amongst you, or a local villager, or a regular hiking group.

Pointers :

You might find this section useful if you want to do this trek without a guide. Read with reference to the map below.

As you start walking from [Map Ref #1] (Bhivpuri Road station), it won't be difficult to figure out the route up to [Map Ref #2], part of which goes through Diksal village, and the rest around a big, scenic lake. You can pick up water, dry snacks and wada-paav in the village. Keep going up the stream from [2], cross it at a safe point (- note that the stream could be deep at some points during heavy rains), and climb up the hill range on the north. The landmark 'tree' [4] that some blogs mention is on this hill range. Before crossing the stream at [3], you could also take a small detour south of the stream to wallow in a waterfall.

The route from [4] to [8] has low gradient. After you pass through Sagachiwadi, you'll find a well at [5] and one at [6] before you reach another village. There's a third well at [7] after this village, and then another village at [8]. (Apparently, there's also a route via [3a], which is on a hill range further north of [4], that takes you to [7] without going through [4].)

Fun starts after [8]. But the trail ahead is tricky - the latter parts are hidden amongst rocks and plants, a little too narrow, and the spur's steep here. Some spurs ending west of [6] seemed to have a gentler gradient and we probably should have turned left and started climbing from these points to touch Garbett plateau somewhere at [9a], but we were taking directions from local villagers (- we might have misheard or misunderstood them). Blogs give you different directions as well, and apparently none of them are wrong. Although I must say that mango trees didn't seem to us as very good landmarks in this region; almost every spur has a few, albeit not prominent. I would recommend climbing up to Garbett plateau from somewhere between [5] and [7], along the spur that seems most intuitive (read gentle), maybe directly from [5]. (Addendum: Starting the climb on the first big spur after the well at [5] is, indeed, the least confusing way to the plateau. You'll see a clear trail going up all along the way up. In general, if you find that it splits, take the central one, except at a point about two-thirds way through the climb, where it splits into two, one going along the left edge and one along the right one; take the one on the right here. This one will lead you on to the next spur, eventually leading up to the top at [9] - the same point that our original trail from [8] led us to.)

The climb from [10] to [11] after you walk across the plateau is ok, but (alert! alert!) you need to be careful on the climb further up to Garbett Point [Map Ref #A] along the south-west side of the sheer cliff. It's steep, narrow and exposed, the winds are strong enough to scare the hell out of you, and to top that, it could be slippery in the rains. But this is the most thrilling 15 minutes of the trek.

Approximate trek route from Bhivpuri Road to Garbett Point superimposed on a google map of the area.

Note: Directions are indicative; points haven't been marked too accurately.

If you plan to head back via Neral, start walking north along the trail on the right. (Refer to map on wikipedia for this part - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Matheran-map.jpg.) Keep walking straight when you come to a T-junction with a big rock at the centre, after walking for about 20-30 minutes. A few minutes after this, you'll come to another similar junction, where you have to turn right to reach the narrow gauge railway track. Take a right on this track and you'll reach Dasturi Naka, where you get a shared cab for Rs.70 per head. Alternatively, you could walk down on the road to Neral. Back in 2001, we had taken a third way back - a trail cutting across the road and fields at many places, straight down to Neral. But I don't remember where that trail starts, neither the way down. (http://www.businesstravellerindia.com/200407/wildside01.shtml mentions a Postman's trail back to Neral, which could be it.)

Images from the trek :

(Top-left) Garbett plateau and Matheran in the distance
(Top-right) [4] is on the hill range in the foreground
(Bottom-left) Region around the stream at [3], to the left of [4]
(Bottom-right) Lake and stream as seen from somewhere between [4] and [5]

(Top-left) Spurs leading up to Garbett plateau
(Top-right) View east from [9] - note the brown serpentine path just below the photographer
(Bottom-left) Garbett point as seen from Garbett plateau [9]
(Bottom-right) Garbett plateau as seen from Garbett point [A] - note the path leading up to the photographer's location

I don't want to spoil the fun by getting into too much detail about the trek or posting too many pictures (- have I done that already?); go explore, and experience for yourself. The information above should be sufficient to guide you through the top. Drop a comment if you have any questions.