Launar Crater

Here it came the long drawn opportunity to catch a glimpse of a world not seen daily, of scenes that do not gel in with the day, of sounds and spirit that humble one down while also showing one of the limitless possibilities, which accompany dogged pursuits. The location was not planned to be the selling product for me, but it did not disappoint. Curiosity makes novelty a precious resource of entertainment. Feats of inhuman accomplishments of achievements when seen, belittle our lifestyles, plans and our little dreams. Do visit Ellora and get a guide while you go around to ponder about the feats in an educated way. I will try to elaborate before the weekend or before I forget. So, off we went from Piyush and Shivangi's place to the station to meet new people and to a new place. The journey started with Uday and a leg-pulling extended prank and ended with a long idea evaluation pre-sleep session with Piyush. Met Aniruddh, the funny guy, and Niranjan who were carrying tents and were experienced with long treks. As expected?, the train reached late, well over and hour and a half late where the two Tavera drivers where fretting and fuming. Off we went in our A/C vehicles, sad that there was no hint of rain, looking up and looking long, playing travel games and hoping for a beautiful place. Reaching at the MTDC guest house a Lonar, where we had a 10 bed? dorm booked for the day, we freshened up and had a quick brunch-y meal before we began our trek downwards from the guest house which was uphill. The First stop was at the Daitya Sudan temple, the only temple on the top of the hill, the rest were around the lake shore and in the dense forest area. This temple denotes the victory of Lord Vishnu over the asura Launasura. Structured with seven levels of carvings and pillars adorned with intricate human figures, this neglected temple was a sight to behold. Next stop was atop the hill, near a small path which lead to a medium to steep descent of some depth. This path would lead us closer to the picturesque Lonar crater lake which was created as a result of an asteroid impact 50,000 years ago. The trek down was not long, and soon we were at the base of this huge 1.2 kilometer diameter lake with alkaline water(pH 10.7). We walked along the inner circumference edging through the camouflage and slowly inching towards the starting point, covering a series of temples on the way and wound back to the beginning eventually to have a evening lunch followed by a mango feast courtesy mango lovers group(Piyush and me). Taking off for the next location, we inched away towards the Aurangabad for the night's stay after a small feast at a Dhaba on the way. The organizers found a hotel for the night's stay and moments later, most of the guys were already snoring, well not before a short discussion on books and movies with Vijay and Aniruddh. A quick run through the morning ablutions and some misal pav later, we were back on the road. This time towards Dualatabad fort. An hour's drive? perhaps and we were already there for a quick walk to the top and back when we noticed the rest of the folks attempting adventurous routes to the top and doing it quite well too. The Daulatabad fort must have been well noted for it's high security and if security in those ages had a rating, this would surely be z+. Starting with the moat, the next series of narrow swirling path of stairs when climbed up by the enemies, would eventually find a bowl full of boiling oil to be hurled onto them. Another surprising element was the presence of a Bharath Mata temple at the fort. Another short dhaba stop for lunch later, we were at Ellora waiting for Uday who was left back when the taveras took away. Bringing him back, the best part of the journey started with Kiran getting a guide for information about the series of caves. The first few caves were built by buddhist monks and had buddha in various poses with a series of small chambers for meditation and sleeping. The USP of ellora would unmistakeably be temple no.16, the Kailashnatha temple, carved-out from the rock is a magnificent example of Indian supremacy in the earlier ages. The only thing I would regret after Ellora would be not visiting Ajantha. The visit back included a small stop for really sweet corns and then off we went for packing our bags for one last time before we set off from Jalna back to towards a day full of sedentary work.