Can dark be synonymous to beautiful? Ever? Dark has always been intimidating for me. But somehow, I managed to gather my grit and agreed to explore the said beauty of the dark.

Andharban- The Dark Forest. Located in Tamhini ghat in the Sahyadri ranges of Western Ghats, the dense forest gives some of the most spectacular views of the Kundalika valley and the mountain ranges within Tamhini ghat during the monsoon. Due to it’s dense vegetation, the sunlight can hardly penetrate within the interiors. This makes the forest appear dark even during broad daylight. The trek through the forest is a complete descent trek, however, a long one. There are two points of descent- one towards Nagshet and the second towards Bhira dam.

The starting point of the trek was Pimpri dam and would end at Nagshet via Hirdi (the only village in middle of the forest). It was awesomeness thriving all over. We sallied forth to begin the 13 km long trail and I was loving every bit of the walk. We were covered with mist and green. The rains had decided to halt while we prowled around the trail. It would be untrue to say that I wasn’t in awe of everything I was surrounded with. The flora, the wild mushrooms, the spiders and their designer webs, the waterfalls, the streams, the blue mormons (state butterfly of Maharashtra), the anthills, the unusually beautiful crabs were a delight to the eyes. Walking through the dense forest trail, I felt like having jumped into the pages of Snow white and the seven dwarfs.

The initial half of the trek is simple, more like a walk through the trail. The jungle is pretty dense and since the sun rays find it difficult to penetrate through the giant trees, it makes a dwelling place for several mosquitoes and insects. Covering oneself completely is recommended or do carry insect repellents with you.

Totally famished by lunchtime, we gorged on the Chicken Tandoori brought by one of the trek buddies and it was absolutely yummm. The real trek starts after crossing Hirdi. The village doesn’t comprise of more than half a dozen huts., made me wonder how would the villagers manage to take the cattles for farming, and where?

Out of the two descent points,  we opted to descent towards Nagshet, the longer route. Our descent for another 3 hours was absolutely thrilling since by then, it had started pouring heavily. The moss covered rocks with slush and mud furthermore, made our descent an interesting one.

An amazing experience in every way. To sum it up- Dark can sometimes be synonymous to beautiful. Omnipotently beautiful.

However, I still get intimidated by dark. 😉 How do you deal with the fear of dark?

I would love to read your thoughts on this, please leave your comments below and share if you enjoyed have the read.