Wind-Mill Hiking

The mid-October climate in rural Maharashtra has a mix of summer, autumn, and winter. The scorching heat at mid-day is coupled with the cool chill late in the evening. Most parts of the day are accompanied by cool chills. It is the ideal climate to go camping near a river. You could take a dip in the cool river-water while the heat warms up your tent for the night's cold-rush. Three of us were sent some years back to a particular village in that particular region. While basking in this Utopian atmosphere, we were told to have a first-hand experience of life in remote villages. While we obediently took down notes of our experiences, we developed a new task: A half-day hike to a mountain.

The village we were sent to were surrounded by mountains. But, we had one mountain on target for the expedition. It was the mountain that consisted of a number of windmills. The windmills were owned, funded and constructed by a noble politician in Southern India to provide electricity for his region. The irony in this lies in the fact that the village that lay so close to these mountains constantly had power-cuts. Out main objective was to go as close as we could to the wind-mill.

Before we embarked on this hike, we did a bit of scouting. This we did through some of the spare time we had at hand. To begin our climb to the top of the windmill mountain, we had to overcome another set of mountains first. The task at hand seemed too strenuous. When all hope seemed lost a glimmer of it caught our attention. Just before we could cancel plans on the hike, we found an easier route through a neighboring village that took us straight to the base of the mountain we had set our sights on. This news rekindled the hope that had seemed lost.

We fixed the day for the hike. The villagers would all be busy, so our daily activities could be put on a halt for that day. We set our for our hike immediately after breakfast. The journey to the base was about 6 kilometres. We had to travel through farms and plots. Just so we didn't get lost, we had to constantly keep the mountain as our landmark. From fat there seemed to be a pathway made of rocks that led straight to the peak. But, on arriving we realized that it was just an illusion. The rocks merely showed us the way to the top. We had to discover our own way to it. Putting our heads together we charted out our course.

Indeed, the journey was excruciatingly tiring, yet it was enjoyable. En route to the peak we had to have two stop-overs just to catch our breath. But, it all paid off in the end when we reached the peak. The view on top was amazing. Against the backdrop of the gigantic windmills, the scenery was just picturesque. We could not enter inside the windmill but we could stand a few meters away from it as there were no barricades. The whole adventure just made our day while the experience remained etched in our memories.