Weekend hike

On Saturday, 19 February a bunch of 10 students were ready for the hike to Tikona fort. Even before the sleeping dust was rubbed out of our eyes we sat in the jeeps driving alongside the magnificent mountains of Mulshi valley. Meeting up right besides the Great (and when we say great we really mean it!) Valley for a typical college reflection we got to know from Andrew and Martin: “Hey guys, where do you want to go? We are not at Tikona!” This was the first of many, challenges we received from them. As a group we discussed some possible destinations we wanted to check out. And that was how we started the one day-long hike.

Rotating leader and risk assessment, we walked up streams and steep hills. For Emilio, Eric and Sundeep nothing was considered a problem until Marte, in charge of the risk assessment, had to stop them from being too optimistic. Even though the dry season is fast approaching and the landscape is gradually turning drier by the day, the forest covering one side of the canyon seemed oblivious to such changes. The walk through the forest was in partial shade, illuminating the oranges of the leaves, the emerald green of the trees and putting some parts in dark blue shade. Even looking back at the canyon from the road, about 1 km away, you could see the blues, greens, oranges reds and purples in the forest. It was amazing and quite refreshing to see so many colours at once.

In the evening, we decided to set up 'camp' in a meadow we had noticed during the hike. It was perched on the side of the canyon with spectacular views. Using the wood which we had gathered on the final stages of the hike we made a small fire, under firewomen Tony's watchfull eye, and with the expertise of Marte's Norwegian fire skills. After two paper cups of pasta cooked in a mixture of onions and cabbage cut and prepared in my straw hat we spread out our sleeping bags and chatted. We told stories from home including some ancient myths; Eric in particular blew us away with his stories while we stared into the fire's embers. The sky as always was full of stars which Mark helped us understand, until the moon began to rise from the east illuminating the sky.

Waking up at sunrise with the morning star and the moon gradually dipping down behind the mountains, we lit the campfire ready for breakfast. It was silent, no stress; only the surrounding nature, right under the magnificent pyramid peak. We could not have had a better start of the day. As we walked the last kilometers back to the starting point all of us had to soak up the last view of the canyon. And everyone agreed that we had had a nice hike.

Marte & Becky