I
An early start today so we have to skip breakfast. A brisk walk takes us up to CST. Quite a few people about but no vendors. We find a tea stall open in the main station and get a fix of chai. The plan is to take a suburban train out to Neral Junction, about an hour and three quarters trip, where we will meet A from IndiaMike who is going to take the ride up to Matheran with us on the narrow gauge train. We have researched the 6.45 to Karjat as the train we need and D has a minor panic when there is no train listed at that time. There is however the train we need at 6.50 so we can relax.
We leave dead on time and make very good progress. The train runs as an express until Kalayan Junction and then as all stops. To start with it is not very busy and we get ourselves window seats facing each other. Ever profligate D has bought First Class passes which work out at just over £1 per day. R's visions of a peaceful coupe with an attendant in puggaree and white gloves are dashed. The seats are exactly the same as in Second Class on the other side of the stainless steel cage bars. A five day pass in Second class works out at less than 30 pence a day for limitless travel over a very wide network.
As we head north out of the city the train fills up. Second class is soon quite packed and the seats in First are full. At every stop a few people get off and more get on. It was much busier than we had expected the early morning outbound trains to be. At Kalyan lots of students get on and our 3 person bench seats now contain four. We ask a chap where everybody is going and he tells us there is a college at Neral so hopefully we will be able to get off the train. It actually thins out significantly at the stop before ours and we get down without a problem. We make our way over the footbridge to the narrow gauge station. A is in the queue waiting for the booking office to open and we introduce ourselves.
D does a quick recce of the train and opts for the First Class chair car. This should give us more space and less competition when we want to stand at the doors. The tickets are old fashioned Edmondson card tickets, manual stamped and dated, so the ticket issuing is a laborious process. In true Indian Railways style we are allocated a bay of four seats, but only one window seat. The fourth seat in our bay goes to a German lady who looks thoroughly unimpressed. Her travel partner, a younger man, is seated by himself in the opposite bay.
D and A do all of the necessary things like visiting the loco shed and watching the couplings being fastened. Our loco is a fairly elderly NDM1 class diesel, number 501. The coaches appear to have been smartened up since our last visit, three years ago. The down train arrives and pretty soon we are off. The German lady and friend decamp to an empty bay behind so we get comfortable. R sees some birds to watch while D and A take photos out of the windows and doors. All great fun.
There are a couple of stops on the way up including at the splendidly named Waterpipe station where we wait for quite a while to cross a downward train. A tribe of monkeys live here and they entertain the passengers in return for pieces of bread. After we move off we catch glimpses of the other train on the hairpin bends lower down. Only one tunnel on the line - the very short "One Kiss Tunnel". No screams today. There is a splendid Ganesh statue on the side of the mountain and the train stops briefly to let us take photos.
The Matheran USP is that there is no traffic, just horses and hand pulled carts and rickshaws. This makes wandering around much less of an ordeal. The admission fee has gone up to 50 rupees per head since we were last here. A major section of the main street has been partially paved with a dirt track down the middle for horses. Otherwise it looks much the same, but a bit quieter. We walk down to the lake and out to one of the viewpoints. From here you can really see how elevated Matheran is although the distant view was hampered by quite heavy haze. A kept seeing butterflies that refused to pose for pictures. They are even worse than birds.
We took a side trip to one of the unofficial viewpoints which resulted in D taking a slide on the gravel and getting thoroughly coated in the local red dust. As it happens we carry a stiff clothes brush in our gear - bought last time we were here for the same reason. We are starting to flag a bit in the heat and dust, so we head back to the village and have lunch. Aloo mutter, Dal Fry and two rotis each. We have worked up an appetite, not to mention a thirst.
We decide to return to Neral by road to save a bit of time (chorus of cheers by R). This involves a walk of a mile or so as motor vehicles are kept out of the town. On the way to the roadhead we pass several convoys of pack ponies carrying loads up the hill. There is almost a Wild West feel to Matheran in some ways. We arive in time to complete the body count in a microbus heading for Neral. The driver does not know fear. We must introduce them one day.
There is a bit of a crowd on the platform and a little jostling as the train comes in. Somebody stands to offer R a seat and then we are away. We realise that A is not with us but manage to text him and he is OK. He is further back on the train. We see him through the crowd on the platform at Thane. Once again the train fills up for a few stops and then thins out as we head for CST, arriving around 6.15. We get back to the hotel and wash off the all pervading red dust of Matheran. A long and tiring day but great fun and wonderful to meet another IndiaMiker.
We are just about bushed but feel the need to eat. We ask the hotel concierge to recommend something nearby. He immediately beckons us to follow and sets off on a two block rapid march to the Pratap Lunch House. We are seated at a table next to a New Zealand couple (man + woman) who now work as a team driving a truck backwards and forwards between Houston, Texas and Edmonton in Canada. They basically live in their truck, taking turns to drive. Stop moaning about a 60 minute commute. Strangely enough they are also at the Residency and were brought here by the concierge. The food is OK but we are ready for an early night and bale out.
Today's set of photos is incomplete as the little gadget used to transfer photos from the camera to the tablet appears to have gone on strike. We are working on a solution.
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