A day trip along Matheran's trail

     With the latest craze of catching some virtual creatures into the ball and traversing some distances to hatch the balls... I felt the usual weened urge to spend some time catching/framing some natures' actual beauties and having a look at the nature's transition and metamorphosis...
      After the amazing Amboli trip I always wanted to explore the closest Western ghat area near Mumbai, i.e., Matheran. After seeing the amazing sightings that my friends share on wildlife FB and Whatsapp forums, its amazingly interesting how a completely astonishing wildlife world is nurturing just about 80-90kms from Mumbai. Matheran houses a wide spectrum of endemic species and also plays as a host for numerous migrants too and hence has been a key area for the Naturalists , zoologists and botanists to explore and study the diversity of this area.
     Though after several plans, atleast from my side, could never manage to attend any of the Night trails which many of my friends generally organize or attend. Luckily got a chance to traverse one of the Morning trails thanks to Nisarg Bhraman group, with whom I had attended few trails including my very first trail in Mumbai, the Barvi Dam trail, with the expertise/guidance of Rajesh Sachdev. This time the trail was under the expertise and guidance of his protege, Samrat Godambe.
     The day for the trail started off with early morning train to Neral and reached there by around 8 and later, followed by early morning breakfast and a brief intro session, about the day's plan, we moved towards DasturiNaka via local Taxi service. The weather was great for an outing with little drizzle and mostly cloudy skies, with decent breeze, keeping off the heat in a rather chilly morning, which could turn into hot and humid noon. 
     Once at Dasturinaka and traversed to a safe spot, away from the weekend CROWD, and as we were about to kick off with the introduction session thats when we heard some calls which took us by surprise and it turned out to be an elusive Indian/Malabar giant squirrel that had come very close to the spot where we had gathered. After getting ample shots of the beauty that was, as usual, trying to keep itself away from our sight we finally kicked off the trail. The trail was for about 2-3kms(one way) and with an expert like Samrat, who has spent several years exploring various trails of Matheran and studying the Biodiversity of the major area, the trail would easily had been a very interesting one.
     We traversed the whole trail with several sightings of Flora in form of a variety of orchids, insects, reptiles and several breath-taking scenery we ended the trail at the predetermined spot, basically the end of the trail, by noon and started the journey all the way back to the starting point. In all we had a great experience with a hugely vivid range of sightings. 

The list of sightings(selective):
 Orchids: 
     Habernaria rariflora
     Malaxes Versicolor
Flower:
    Cristisonia Calcarata
    Ixora
    Begonia crenanta
    Tolypanthus laganifer
    Yellow ground star
Insects:
    Harvestman
    Cicada
    Cranefly
    Beetles
    Stick insect
    Hummingbird moth
    Blue mormon
Mammals:
    Indian Giant squirrel
    Langoor
Reptiles and amphibians
    Green Vine snake
    Indian Monitor lizard(juv)
    Brookii gecko
    Indirana sp frog

     Though the highlight or showstoppers had to be the Malabar Giant Squirrel, Juv Monitor Lizard and Juv Vine snake.
      Here are some of the snaps from the trail

Few of the breathtaking scenery along the trail

Ganapati Bappa Morya!

Those layers of wood and greenery

The Panorama worthy...

A series of images of the beautiful flora along the trail

Rock Begonia

A beautiful fungi

Water drenched

Yellow ground star

Tolypanthus Lagenifer

Habitat shot of Habernaria rariflora

A Happy to pose Langoor

The elusive one, Indian Giant Squirrel

Few tiny beauties that we came across...

A molt and...

...the fresh beauty...Cicada the nosiest insects...

 

Mosquito bites, insect burns, sweat... well we are not the professional photographers but when we get a good subject we put every comfort at bay... Sameer in active mode...

And finally the semi-vibrant(semi camouflaged) group :), Had a great time interacting with each other, sharing the afternoon lunch :P

      The overall experience of the hike was complemented with the presence of really enthusiastic group who shared their own unique attributes with aiding in essential sightings and tips and tricks for handling the beauties and equipment. The day ended off with a return journey thru the overcrowded local train, due to heavy rains, which had commenced while we started returning to Neral station and partly due to the usual mega blocks. 
     Special thanks to calm and modest Sameer Patel and Talented Rohan Kshirsagar i.e., Team Nisarg Brahman, for the well laid out and executed planning for the trail, loved every bit of the trial and the presence of the knowledgeable expert like Samrat, it was like the Cherry on top of the icing.

     You can get more details of the future trails by Nisarg Brahman at the following links:
FB Page: Nisarg Brahman
Blog link 

     As usual open for your feedback and suggestions to improve the Blog. BTW the taxi ride to Dasturi naka, on sharing basis, is ₹70 per person, not the most comfortable way to reach the gate/entrance, but cna rely on them at almost any time of the day. the other option being the toy train which is a slow journey, but thru the most breathtaking scenery, unfortunately its off in rainy season and since the last derailment, it hasnt comeback into service yet.