“As you travel solo, being totally responsible for yourself, it’s inevitable that you will discover just how capable you are!”
Traveling solo? It is a scary, exciting thing to do. It can be the most challenging adventure of your life. But once you succeed in it, there is no way back. The hardest part of solo travel is the beginning.
Another week had come to an end and it had rained in mid-October. The October heat was suddenly gone. Grabbing the opportunity I woke up and planned a Solo Trek to the Parsik Hills in Kalwa. The Mountains were calling me.
Getting down at Kalwa East follow the direction in which all people were walking. After crossing the underground tunnel walk parallel to the Railway Tracks. On Reaching the "Bada Durga Temple" take the road to the right-hand side. Walk on the squeezed road amidst Slums and then walk on the stairs leading to still a few more houses for a while. Now the trek Begins. You have to walk on a proper route up the Parsik Hill. After a short while, you will come across one partition from where you can climb up to the Tower Top or keep walking straight on the path to reach the Parsik Hill.
The vegetation is dense during Monsoon with tall grass up to the waist level. At a couple of diversions make sure you are on the right track. Once you reach the plateau you will get a panoramic view of the City. After exploring the top you'll find a Hanuman Temple and a Forest Department Room. However, no one is there most of the time. As it was not possible to go ahead, I turned back and spent some time in the fresh air admiring the beautiful view. Then I started descending. For a moment, I was completely lost and trying to figure out a way from the dense grass. It was quite scary as I was alone this time, but had a really good experience of navigating among diversions. So finally after proceeding on the right track, I started moving in the downward direction. While Descending you will get a view of a small lake nestled in between the woods. However, it's difficult to make your way up there because of the tall grass. Also, there are many broken pieces of bottles due to which you might injure yourself if you are not equipped with proper trekking shoes. You must be very careful.
After reaching back to the diversion point you can choose to climb the hill leading to the Hill Top of the red tower else you can descend downwards to the starting point of the trek. If you are trekking the other hill you will have to be very careful since the rocks can be slippery in monsoons. Upon reaching the top there is a danger of wild pigs. So it's best advised that you don't make noise if you are on a solo trek like me else go in groups for trekking. Upon proceeding further from the tower you will come across a Temple and ahead of it is a cabin where a police guard stays.
I had finally found someone at the end of my solo trek. The police officer was kind and did his duty by enquiring about me, scolding me for coming Solo and asked for water. Then warned me about the place and asked me to always have some company and not to wander solo. It was heart touching as how much we don't care for ourselves and risk our lives just for the sake of adventure even stranger's care. There was another uncle at his cabin who was shortly going downhill for some work, so he asked me to join him as there were wild pigs as I mentioned before.
The Trek downhill was entertaining with his talks about his life and how his life was wasted in childhood because he ignored studies and now had to do the work of serving the police officer by taking a can of water and daily supplies uphill for wages of Rs. 8000 Monthly. He was also inviting me to his house downhill to have water, but I refused to wait. The entire journey turned memorable because of it being my first Solo Trek.
Remember if you never go, you will never know! Traveling solo means getting to know the real you! You will never be alone if you like the person you are with! Lastly, I would like to say, "Traveling alone will be the scariest, most liberating, life-changing experience of your life. Try it at least once!"
Watch The Complete Video to Plan your budget Trek Here.
