My fellow hikers and I gathered at the Deerwalk premises at 7:00 am in the morning. It was Sunday and also the auspicious occasion of the great Hindu festival, Shivaratri. The roads were covered by great masses of people. We started our journey around 7:30 am. On the way were numerous human road blocks asking for donations to celebrate Shivaratri. We reached Kakani at 10 am and had some breakfast. After that we stocked up the necessary supplies and started walking from the Kakani (picnic area) at around 10:15 am.