As we walked to the central area, the marketplace, we were often asked if we wanted to go on a horse, but we were happy to walk. According to the signposts from the entrance, it is about 2.5km to the market area. There were lots of hotels and restaurants in the market area, not surprisingly as apparently this is a regular weekend getaway for the Mumbai residents. There were also quite a lot of shoe sellers with their wares laid out on the floor, reflecting the fact that this was originally a cobbler's community.
We stopped for a drink of water in a little park just off the main road. There was a photographer at the entrance who took a look at my camera and left us alone. Presumably he was looking to see if there was anybody who wanted their photo taking. Unfortunately, almost everybody here has a mobile phone and seem happy to take their own photos with that.
We had tried to get tickets for the train trip back down the hill (the station is at the market area). Unfortunately the only choices for buying a ticket in advance are either to buy it a day early or 45 minutes before departure. As a result we decided to walk around, and perhaps get back in time for the last train.
To be honest, it was all a bit less green than either of us had imagined from what we'd been told. There certainly were plenty of trees around, but nothing that could be described as jungle in the traditional sense that we think of from Jungle Book.
The area is up in the hills, with occasional places where you can look out. Some of these are really very attractive, but the haze did reduce the spectacle somewhat. We walked round to the beginning of Lake Charlotte, which is essentially just a dam and didn't seem hugely impressive, although I believe we may have missed most of it.
Much of the rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the various pathways. I wouldn't say we were lost, exactly, but only because the area is relatively self-contained and if you just keep walking along the pathways you are bound to get to somewhere recognisable eventually. Unfortunately, whilst there are quite a few places which look like they were once used for advertising and directions, once you get off the main beaten paths very few of them are actually used.
One thing that we did come across regularly while we were wandering around was run down and apparently abandoned old houses that had presumably been built up there for homes or hotels. Some of these had notices outside saying that nobody had been given any authority to sell them, which suggests that there may (at least once upon a time) have been some fraudsters operating in the area.
It was also very hot, and I was starting to get quite tired and needing to sit down regularly (especially after uphill travel). Fortunately we reached an area we recognised and were able to make our way back towards the market area. However, by this time we had missed the time that we would be likely to be able to get tickets for the last train down so we decided to walk to the entrance again for a taxi down.
I had hoped that we would be able to at least see the train (and get some photos for the train fanatics at the camera club) and sat down and waited for a while. Whilst the train didn't come I was able to get some photos of people and monkeys. Eventually we gave up and started down the road again. Obviously, at a point that we were unable to see the railway tracks we heard the train pass (although actually on it's way up the hill rather than down, so presumably it was running very late).
As we were walking down we saw one of the impacts of there being no motor vehicles in the area - large numbers of ponies laden high with everything that was needed by the shops, hotels and restaurants in the market area.
The taxi down was no less eventful than the one up. It wasn't clear that the car even had an engine for most of the trip down, although the brakes certainly worked fine. When we got to the bottom it turned out that there were even more people in it than I had thought. As well as my colleague and I in the front (my colleague straddling the gearstick) and four on the back seat two further people unfolded themselves from the boot when we got out.
The train trip home was somewhat easier than there - one train all the way, a semi-fast one, but an hour's wait for it to arrive. My colleague was getting a bit antsy about how much later than the scheduled departure time it was; I was a little more concerned that there seemed to be people sitting on the edge of the platform with their legs dangling over the tracks. I assumed this meant that the train wasn't imminent.
Eventually we got back to Mumbai. We stopped to eat at a restaurant nearby, which was very nice and ridiculously cheap, and also had a loo (which was handy for both of us as there hadn't been any obvious facilities in Matheran itself).
A taxi back to the hotel showed that there are lots of buildings that are covered in what we would call in the UK fairy lights. Some buildings, indeed look so brightly lit that it must be difficult to sleep inside the apartments.
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