Up the Duke's Nose

Quite often, we think and contemplate, "What if such a situation were to occur?? What will I do if this happens??" ....

Well, precisely one of those moments occurred yesterday. The scene is this. Eight of us, half tired, are huddled on the banks of a neat looking pond discussing how to measure the depth of the water there and sniggering what each of us could do if the bulls happened to come at us. Just meters away from us, stood a line of what looked like about eight to ten, meek looking, yet strong and huge bulls, buffaloes and things alike. They looked to be peacefully munching on their afternoon cud and looking at us now and then with their gentle eyes. As a sign of courtesy, we acknowledged and stared back(gently mind you), some smiled too, nothing more. Before we knew, three of them charged at us in full speed. Before we realized, each of us were running hither-scatter in different all possible directions, away from the pond, along the pond and almost into the pond even. No one turned superhero, no one was there looking out for the other, all for himself, run for your life!! Apparently the territory was marked and the bulls were just guarding their territory. The sound of heavy footsteps stopped once all of us drifted off about 100 meters away from the pond and the mad chase ended. A close one that was. We quietly marched off, looking behind ourselves, every two minutes; the bulls were still staring at us.


Phew! That was a close one indeed. Of course, after we were sufficiently far away(bulls still in sight), there were the moos and the fingers. The same treatment was extended for the rest of their kind we met yesterday!


What were we doing there? Ah, yes!, we were climbing down the Duke's nose. A lovely place just at the entrance of Khandala. Greenery all over, totally covered with mist, small waterfalls here and there, gives a feeling of euphoria. A light drizzle, chill winds, tiny amount of sunlight managing to escape the silvery clouds all provided a perfect monsoon weather, which just added to splendidness of the place. After a comfortable two hour trek to the top, the valley down paints an ecstatic picture from the top. One face of the hill is very steep and cut in a V shape and hence the name. It is shit scary to look down from the steeper side. Lying on the floor, gripping the rocks, staring into the valley, we could literally see tiny droplets of water from the fog condensing and rising upwards and hitting against for faces like splashes from a gigantic waterfall.

The adjacent Duchess' Nose was equally impressive. A remark here, "If the nose itself is so beautiful, I just can't help wondering about the rest!!". Its true, truly an exquisite sight to watch.

Trekking after a long time is fun!

Damn Bulls! Tiny ponds, clean and dirty! Greenish white scenery! Sweet monsoon rains! Cute waterfalls! Damn bulls again!!