Fort : Alang
Region : Igatpuri
Height : 4500 ft (above MSL)
Grade : Very Difficult
Fort : Madan
Region : Igatpuri
Base Village: Ambewadi
Height : 4842 ft (above MSL)
Grade : Very Difficult
I wanted to do these dream forts from a long time. Dream because they are the toughest forts in the Sahyadris to climb , involves rock climbing with ropes and they command an amazing view of the surroundings from their top.
We had a week off thanks to the company yearend off policy and trekdi co-incidentally scheduled a trek to Alang-Madan and I immediately jumped on it. Earlier I had thought of going for this trek with Nisarg Bhraman but as the schedule was cancelled by NB had to jump onto trekdi.
We started from Pune on 24th of Dec 2008 in the night at 11pm towards Ambewadi the base village or rather the base camp J, the route read Pune-Nashik Phata-Chakan-Rajgurunagar-Alephata-Narayangaon-Sangamner. We stopped in the night at Sangamner for tea and to relax our stiff limbs as the bus wasn’t so comfortable. Post that we turned towards Ghoti road from Sangamner town via Rajur – Akole - Shendi – Bari and ahead. We stopped at Vasali phata where 2 people from Mumbai had to join in with us as they were coming from Mumbai. The two guys joined in and we road on towards Ambewadi. The road to Ambewadi is narrow and steep at some places and the bus ambled along. We reached Ambewadi at 5.45am in the morning and took our sacks and started. The view of the 3 forts Alang-Madan and Kulang is amazing from here. They look daunting and formidable.
First we decided to get out from Ambewadi onto the track towards Madangad (the climb for the day) and stop at a popular odha for breakfast. I helped the experts to carry the sacks (equipments) some distance. We stopped but wait, there was no water in the odha, Shridhar kaka and Bhau expressed surprise at this as they had always seen the odha full. So we stopped there and collected water from everyone’s bottles into a pateli and Shridhar kaka made tea. Some guys went back into Ambewadi with the empty bottles to refill them. I started some photography there J
After sometime tea was done and prepared and we got our cups filled and drank hot chai and refreshed ourselves, breakfast of bread-butter-jam was out and we enjoyed ourselves. Until then Shridhar kaka along with Datta went to the village to get some porters to carry the luggage for the next 2 days. Villagers from Ambewadi usually volunteer as porters for a fee to carry luggage and show the way to trekkers as the routes to the top are quite confusing sometimes. They also stay on top for 2 days with the trekkers and guide them.
After breakfast we had to get to the route to Madangad and that involved walking for about ½ a km on the tar road, a boring task. Just as we were about the start walking a tractorwala came in and asked us if we wanted a lift , he had a trailer too so in we jumped and the ride was one of the most adventurous one as people were holding on to dear life as the tractor wala merrily drove the tractor like he was driving a sports car. Finally after the roller coaster ride we got down onto the path towards Madangad and waited for Shridhar kaka and Bhau to join us with the porters. They finally came and we started on towards the col of Alang and Madan to climb onto Madan our target for today.
The route was initially via a well trodden path amidst huge bushes and trees in the jungle and then via a water fall route of big rocks, loose scree. I managed to reach the col in good time and everyone else came in soon. The col is a small place from where if you go left you get onto the Alang traverse and if you go right you get onto the Madangad traverse. We had lunch of packed theplas at the col and batches of 4 people were going ahead to the Madan steps ahead. The traverse to Madan included walking round towards the other side from where there was a small rock patch of broken steps, finally going on to good steps and a clearing above where everyone was sitting. I got onto the path along with the last of the participants and reached the clearing. The steps were damn scary and narrow but I got on ahead.
The experts had already gone way ahead and fixed the ropes on the rock patch where rope was needed and people were slowly going on top one by one over the patch and finally over the top of Madangad. We sat at the clearing waiting our turn to go ahead to the rock-patch. The time ambled on, I reached the clearing at 2pm and it was 5pm now and im still at the clearing !! The rock patch was being negotiated slowly by some people and as the batch was huge (35 people) it took a lot of time for everyone to get up. Finally we got into our harnesses and given a go ahead to goto the rock patch. The path from the clearing goes ahead to a scary traverse where the rocks are broken and you need to hug onto the rock to get ahead, but a rope was fixed in here so we could go ahead safely. Ahead there are more narrow steps and then there comes the rock-patch about 30 feet in height. The place where the patch is had steps before which were blown off by the British troops who destroyed many forts and didn’t want people to go up that time. So if they hadn’t blown off the steps we could have easily gone up the fort but then the adrenaline wasn’t coming right ?
My turn came at 6pm and I removed my shoes as I wasn’t sure of my grip. I was clipped onto the rope and started climbing. I tackled the patch gingerly and went up the patch easily. Then stopped and took photos up and went ahead depositing the harness. The traverse ahead was easy but scree laden. The view from the traverse is amazing. Alang stands in front and the whole C shape of alang is visible from the traverse. There was a rope-line attached for help ahead at the end of the traverse because of scree and ahead there are rock cut narrow steps to get on top of Madangad. There are more and more steps until you come to the broken entrance of Madangad and a small cave there.
Climbing more steps ahead we got on the top of Madangad. There are 2 water tanks here out of which one is dry and the other is used for cleaning utensils. There is one more smaller tank which has potable water for drinking. We went ahead to the cave where everyone was sitting our shelter for the night. The cave is a big one which can house 40 people easily. Putting our baggages we sat down with relief. It was already dark and then we had hot tea and biscuits. A chilly wind was blowing and everyone got into their warm wear. I was talking to Aviram on a host of topics ranging from fitness to Everest. Sometime later we went into the cave and took out our sleeping mats and laid on it for some time to get some rest.
Dinner was called for now and we took out our plates and spoons and got hot steaming bhaji rassa thanks to Kadam Kaka and chapattis with that. Everyone formed groups and had their fill after which we immediately came inside and sat in the cave. The temperature in the cave was more hence we weren’t having any problem. After some more timepass almost everyone hit the sacks as everyone was tired. The night passed uneventfully except for occasional cold gusts of wind.
Got up in the morning at 5.30am and went to the top of Madangad to view sunrise. The horizon was aglow in orange and it looked awesome. The sun took its own time in coming up and the views were excellent. Kulang was bathed in golden rays of the sun and looked amazing. Kulang is the third fort in the region and offers the highest climb (6+ hours) in the Sahyadris, we weren’t going to do Kulang. After doing some photography we went over for breakfast of poha and chai and had a nice breakfast. After breakfast I went down to the water tanks to fill the bottles and came back and packed my stuff. In the meantime everybody was packing I took the opportunity and went down with my cam to photograph the Madan stairs and the entrance and get a self timer pic clicked on the Madangad stairs J, came back and saw everyone was ready to leave so took my bags and we started climbing down Madan
Everybody started getting down as we had to rappel down Madangad go over the whole damn steps down and through the col go ahead to the Alang climbing point. The initial rock cut steps were daunting and I climbed down ladder style as getting down normally wasn’t possible due to the sack and the inclination of the steps. Got down upto the scree patch and went ahead holding the small patch of rope and got to the rappelling point where there was a huge crowd of people waiting to rappel down. We sat down there as it was going to take time. Me and Rasika were discussing weird topics and laughing away. Finally my turn came about 1.5 hours later and I rappelled down the patch .Sridhar kaka was taking photos of everyone who were rappelling down and took mine too. I came down without any incident and went down the steps and gingerly tackled the scary traverse and came to the clearing and told everyone to move down as I was among the last of the participants. We went ahead again ladder style over the stairs down and then the final rock patch and to the traverse and the col. We started towards Alang climbing point from the col and went ahead.
In the middle there were amazing rock formation at Alang base , we reached the Alang climbing point in about 30 mins. The alang point has 2 patches, the 1st broken steps patch which is small , there is a iron wire the length of the small patch holding which we can go on top. Climbing to the top with a heavy sack is little dicey and you need to be careful even though it’s a small patch of broken steps. Once on the steps we went ahead to the main alang climbing point. This patch is around 45-50 feet in height and with very small holds , the experts had already fixed the rope upto the top and here as the holds were small the participants would be pulled up on a pulley but not altogether but the participant must also pull up and get holds on the rock to keep their legs so that it can help a person pulling you up because pulling up a person is difficult just like that.
People were slowly climbing this patch. I made the first mistake here of removing my shoes as I thought they won’t grip the small holds and then I volunteered to pull up some participants. During one such thing I hit my right toe hard against the rock ahead and immediately felt a jab of pain. My stars were good that I didn’t break the nail halfway or whatever else it would have been a very painful exercise for me and as I pulled up participants I was slowly losing my energy as pulling up something in weight requires a lot of stamina and strength. When my turn came , I eagerly climbed up to go but in a few seconds felt like my energy was gone and really it was gone. I couldn’t pull myself up on the rocks and couldn’t help the people pulling me as I lay still on the rope hanging. I however brought out my last ounce of my strength and pulled myself up on this patch with the help of the pullers down, mainly the experts Bhushan etc. I reached the top of the patch bruised and tired and sat down there for some time.
The route after the patch is pretty straightforward with steps going on top but the steps are huge and there’s a fall on one side so you need to climb them carefully but there are hand holds cut on each step so you can get up catching those holds, going further up there are a few broken steps and scree which needs to be negotiated carefully. Here ropes were fixed to help the participants. Once you cross the scree portion we get to a small way up and then we are on Alang. I finally got up and found that my toe was throbbing and the nail turning black. Damn!
Once on top I had to get to the caves on top which is around 20 mins walk from here. There are a few water tanks on the way and a shiva-linga. Getting up to the caves was a tedious task for me with the bruised toe and the sun was almost setting down in the west. I came to the cave weary and tired and put down my sack at an available spot and removed my shoes and rested for sometime and drank water. The caves are huge and can house around 40-50 people. There was another set of caves further ahead too. There is a water tank near the cave but it isn’t used for drinking just washing utensils.
The villagers who had come with us started fires on top of Alang saying that there are a lot of snakes on top. The fires raged for sometime and we all were looking at it and they formed rings like in the Lord of the Rings. In sometime the fires were gone and the whole place on top was black soot.
We found a dead snake in the water tank near the cave and then realized that the villagers were correct. Sometime later dinner was served, it was hot khichdi and we had our fill and then washed the plates. Tommorrow morning we were to rappel down Alang and goto Ambewadi and return back to Pune in our bus.
Sometime later I returned back to my place in the cave and put down my bedding for the night and lay down.I was just too tired to think of anything and my toe was still throbbing from the bruise it had got. I had a tablet of nise painkillers to ease my throbbing and fell asleep.
Morning I woke up at 4am and refreshed myself before lying down again till 5am when Sridhar Kaka woke up everyone. Washed my face and waited for tea , had nice garam chai and started to get onto the top of Alang , the part which I had not seen. The route goes from the right of the caves upward , there are some carved steps and some small rock patches before you reach the top. Once on top there are many fortification remnants and stones.
There was a network of huge water tanks (11 or 12 in all) on top , i climbed further to the highest point and saw the sunrise. It was refreshing. Some more people joined me there and we admired the sunrise. The waters of the bhandardara dam were visible from here and was creating a soothing effect. Sometime later the sun came out and more photos later I started climbing down taking snaps of the only wada on Alang and the views of golden Madangad and Kulanggad from the alang top. Reaching the cave below I had a nice breakfast of upma and packed the bags and went down to the other side of Alang to have views of the valley between Madan and Alang and Kulang et all. Reached that point and the view of Madan was cool and we could see the door of Madan from Alang and the nedhe (needle hole) of Madan.
After some photos I started back to the point from where we get down to the stairs and finally to the patch which we had to rappel down. I waited for a long time to get a harness and finally got a harness after 2 hours or so and slowly with the final batch of participants walked down the scary Alang steps.
Reaching the rock patch was an ordeal in itself and then I rappeled down not without my usual fears and stuff, somehow came down the patch and climbed down the remaining steps and then again climbed down on a rope from the broken steps. Once down the broken steps we go some distance ahead before turning right towards a scree laden downhill patch. Going ahead there are a hell lot of steps on the rock which have to be climbed down with more care. Salil , Datta and Atul passed us like they were climbing down stairs of a building !! I trudged down more slowly and soon they were also to be not seen ! To add to the problem my toe was paining making it more difficult to climb down.
The climb down from Alang to Ambewadi was too bad with scree and rocks but somehow I slowly climbed down with Rasika (a volunteer from trek'di) and the others were way ahead. We walked and walked and as it was afternoon around 1.30pm the heat was taking a toll on us , finally we reached level ground and saw Ambewadi at a distance.
Reaching Ambewadi we camped at the temple , I sat down and changed my shoes for floaters , washed my face of the grime and changed my clothes at a nearby house. Lunch was a simple affair of Khichadi again with pickles and bhaji which me and Dushyant (avshya) shared on the same place. I made a hell lot of friends in this trek.
The return journey was uneventful with all of us tired and sleeping like there was no tommorrow. We reached Pune at around 11pm and I came home by 11.30 pm.
The dream trek was done!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Dhak Fort
Fort : Dhak (the one above the bahiri)
Place : Lonavala
Base Village : Jambhvali (Kamshet)
Height: 3000 ft (above MSL)
Grade: Tough
The week was very busy and we had decided to meet at Avinash's place in Lonavala and carry on to trek Dhangad. Me and Rakesh reached Avi's place and were followed by Deepak M, Deepak R, Sachin,Nitin and others. Had a nice time chatting away and then had some breakfast. We were deciding on lunch after an hour or so when Avi suggested we go to Varsoli phata where there is a nice hotel. Purvesh was coming from Mumbai and Saurabh was coming from Talegaon. So we started from Avinash's home by 1pm to goto a hotel for lunch. The lonavala part of NH-4 was as usual traffic jam as being a weekend people had come there. We found Purvesh standing there trying to call someone of us and asked him to join us and found Saurabh too on the other side of the road in the jam and asked him to take a U turn. We finally reached Varsoli phata and found out that the hotel was veg and many wanted to eat non-veg too so frustation set in and after a lot of expletives we got into Tejas Dhaba and had our fill and our usual tp.
While returning back from the dhaba Purvesh suggested lets do Dhak Fort (not the bahiri) tommorrow by starting tonight and staying at the Kondeshwar Temple and starting the trek in the morning. I was apprehensive at first but said yes later. So me , Saurabh, Purvesh, Avinash and Deepak M were in for the trek.
I came home, packed a few things and started back to Talegaon to Saurabh's home at 9pm. We were to meet Purvesh and Avi at Kamshet station , Deepak M was already at Sau's place. We got a call from Purvesh at 10.30pm that they will be in Kamshet by 11pm. We started from Talegaon, the outside temperature was low and cold , we reached Kamshet station by 10.55pm and stopped outside.
Purvesh and Avi arrived and we set off to Jambhivali where the Kondeshwar Mandir is and from where we would start the trek in the morning. We reached Jambhivali around 12am in the night via bad roads and ghost experiences :)
It was decided that we directly take our bikes to the Kondeshwar Temple and not park it in Jambhivali. I thought ok lets go ahead but going ahead i could see no road just a track that too littered with stones and mud and all.
Going ahead I asked Purvesh to get down as riding pillon was impossible on such a small track and asked him to walk while we go ahead with the bikes. The distance from the road to the temple is around a km of bad , extreme roads where you go via small stones, huge ditches and things and the rear tyre slips all the time. We continued on and on and on and reached the temple in around 15 mins.
Then we realized we left back Avi and Purvesh in the dark and they could get lost, so we backtracked and found Purvesh and Avi coming mouthing the choicest expletives for us as we left them back there and they had lost their way in between :)
We went inside the mandir to find it already full but the caretaker told us that we could sleep in the main sanctum near the shivalinga. It was cosy in there and as soon as we hit the ground we started sleeping.
Morning we woke up at 6am and packed our stuff, freshened up , filled water bottles and started for dhak. The mountain of dhak was visible from here. The route is via a ridge from where we can clearly see Rajmachi and the forts and the view is amazing from there.
We stopped in between to have breakfast of biscuits , chivda and started again. The climate was cool and the sun was emerging. We crossed over to the 2nd mountain on the path and continued ahead and went into a dense jungle part from where we could see the kalakarai pinnacle too. Going ahead we started descending to the base of Dhak. In about 45 mins we were at the base of the Dhak mountain and we started up the steep climb to get to the col from where the routes to the Bahiri and the Fort diverge.
We reached the col in about 20 mins and stopped there for sometime to get the route. It was a rock face and there was a path going ahead. We werent sure so we asked the locals who said it was the right way and asked us to go ahead on a well trodden path. We went ahead searching for the way. The whole path is rocky and made up of rock patches somewhat exposed but not very difficult. The sun had started hitting us now even though it was only 10am. We went ahead carefully searching the path because it wasnt well trodden and we didnt want to lose our way and go somewhere else.
The heat was sapping my energy and on top i was not well , however we continued ahead slowly and steadily and got onto a path which lead on top of the fort. The top of the fort is a huge area with thorny bushes and grass all around from which we could understand that not many trekkers come up to this place. We roamed on top. There isnt much to see on the fort except a huge terrain. We wanted water desperately so we started searching for water and found a few shepherds who were grazing their herds there so we asked them and they led us to the water tanks on top of the fort. The water was amazing and it was like heaven. We rested for sometime near the water tanks took some photos and started back.
We came back to the way and went to the part of the top from where the route to the bahiri would be visible , we could see people going towards the bahiri and amazing views from top. We started getting down now from the fort. The rock patches were heated up and scary now to climb down but we did and came back to the col in about an hour. It was roughly 3pm now and we had some more snacks and water and started back.
Returning back was an ordeal for me as I felt that I had no energy due to the sun and my body was slowing down and slowly I was losing my energy. Purvesh , Deepak M and Sau went ahead and me and Avi trudged slowly towards the Kondeshwar Mandir. I thought as if i would fall down somewhere in between but i anyway kept walking and we reached the temple. I washed my face and lied down for sometime at the temple because I was not feeling well. Ate some biscuits and started back on bike towards Kamshet.
The return journey was as tortourous as the night one riding over the huge stones and ditches we came back to the road and started for Kamshet station. There Purvesh and Avi missed the Lonavala local by a few minutes so we left them at the highway to get a bus to Lonavala / Mumbai and started back home.
This was a really exhausting trek but nevetheless the trek was amazing.
Place : Lonavala
Base Village : Jambhvali (Kamshet)
Height: 3000 ft (above MSL)
Grade: Tough
The week was very busy and we had decided to meet at Avinash's place in Lonavala and carry on to trek Dhangad. Me and Rakesh reached Avi's place and were followed by Deepak M, Deepak R, Sachin,Nitin and others. Had a nice time chatting away and then had some breakfast. We were deciding on lunch after an hour or so when Avi suggested we go to Varsoli phata where there is a nice hotel. Purvesh was coming from Mumbai and Saurabh was coming from Talegaon. So we started from Avinash's home by 1pm to goto a hotel for lunch. The lonavala part of NH-4 was as usual traffic jam as being a weekend people had come there. We found Purvesh standing there trying to call someone of us and asked him to join us and found Saurabh too on the other side of the road in the jam and asked him to take a U turn. We finally reached Varsoli phata and found out that the hotel was veg and many wanted to eat non-veg too so frustation set in and after a lot of expletives we got into Tejas Dhaba and had our fill and our usual tp.
While returning back from the dhaba Purvesh suggested lets do Dhak Fort (not the bahiri) tommorrow by starting tonight and staying at the Kondeshwar Temple and starting the trek in the morning. I was apprehensive at first but said yes later. So me , Saurabh, Purvesh, Avinash and Deepak M were in for the trek.
I came home, packed a few things and started back to Talegaon to Saurabh's home at 9pm. We were to meet Purvesh and Avi at Kamshet station , Deepak M was already at Sau's place. We got a call from Purvesh at 10.30pm that they will be in Kamshet by 11pm. We started from Talegaon, the outside temperature was low and cold , we reached Kamshet station by 10.55pm and stopped outside.
Purvesh and Avi arrived and we set off to Jambhivali where the Kondeshwar Mandir is and from where we would start the trek in the morning. We reached Jambhivali around 12am in the night via bad roads and ghost experiences :)
It was decided that we directly take our bikes to the Kondeshwar Temple and not park it in Jambhivali. I thought ok lets go ahead but going ahead i could see no road just a track that too littered with stones and mud and all.
Going ahead I asked Purvesh to get down as riding pillon was impossible on such a small track and asked him to walk while we go ahead with the bikes. The distance from the road to the temple is around a km of bad , extreme roads where you go via small stones, huge ditches and things and the rear tyre slips all the time. We continued on and on and on and reached the temple in around 15 mins.
Then we realized we left back Avi and Purvesh in the dark and they could get lost, so we backtracked and found Purvesh and Avi coming mouthing the choicest expletives for us as we left them back there and they had lost their way in between :)
We went inside the mandir to find it already full but the caretaker told us that we could sleep in the main sanctum near the shivalinga. It was cosy in there and as soon as we hit the ground we started sleeping.
Morning we woke up at 6am and packed our stuff, freshened up , filled water bottles and started for dhak. The mountain of dhak was visible from here. The route is via a ridge from where we can clearly see Rajmachi and the forts and the view is amazing from there.
We stopped in between to have breakfast of biscuits , chivda and started again. The climate was cool and the sun was emerging. We crossed over to the 2nd mountain on the path and continued ahead and went into a dense jungle part from where we could see the kalakarai pinnacle too. Going ahead we started descending to the base of Dhak. In about 45 mins we were at the base of the Dhak mountain and we started up the steep climb to get to the col from where the routes to the Bahiri and the Fort diverge.
We reached the col in about 20 mins and stopped there for sometime to get the route. It was a rock face and there was a path going ahead. We werent sure so we asked the locals who said it was the right way and asked us to go ahead on a well trodden path. We went ahead searching for the way. The whole path is rocky and made up of rock patches somewhat exposed but not very difficult. The sun had started hitting us now even though it was only 10am. We went ahead carefully searching the path because it wasnt well trodden and we didnt want to lose our way and go somewhere else.
The heat was sapping my energy and on top i was not well , however we continued ahead slowly and steadily and got onto a path which lead on top of the fort. The top of the fort is a huge area with thorny bushes and grass all around from which we could understand that not many trekkers come up to this place. We roamed on top. There isnt much to see on the fort except a huge terrain. We wanted water desperately so we started searching for water and found a few shepherds who were grazing their herds there so we asked them and they led us to the water tanks on top of the fort. The water was amazing and it was like heaven. We rested for sometime near the water tanks took some photos and started back.
We came back to the way and went to the part of the top from where the route to the bahiri would be visible , we could see people going towards the bahiri and amazing views from top. We started getting down now from the fort. The rock patches were heated up and scary now to climb down but we did and came back to the col in about an hour. It was roughly 3pm now and we had some more snacks and water and started back.
Returning back was an ordeal for me as I felt that I had no energy due to the sun and my body was slowing down and slowly I was losing my energy. Purvesh , Deepak M and Sau went ahead and me and Avi trudged slowly towards the Kondeshwar Mandir. I thought as if i would fall down somewhere in between but i anyway kept walking and we reached the temple. I washed my face and lied down for sometime at the temple because I was not feeling well. Ate some biscuits and started back on bike towards Kamshet.
The return journey was as tortourous as the night one riding over the huge stones and ditches we came back to the road and started for Kamshet station. There Purvesh and Avi missed the Lonavala local by a few minutes so we left them at the highway to get a bus to Lonavala / Mumbai and started back home.
This was a really exhausting trek but nevetheless the trek was amazing.
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Kavlya Trek
Fort: Kavlya
Place: Varanda Ghat
Base village: None
Height : ??
Grade : Easy
Me,Sau,Chaitanya,Deepak,Purvesh,Shailesh,Sharayu,Bhavin,Deepak ,Pankaj did this trek on 9th Nov 2008. Kavlya is a virtually unknown fort on top of the Varanda Ghat some 33 km from Mahad and 80km from Bhor. Last time when I did a ride on the ghats I spotted the Bhagwa flag on top of this hill and asked the locals there as to whether this was Kavlya and they said YES, I had known of the existence of the fort but didn't know its location , now that I knew we decided on a trek to the fort and add it to our existing fort list !
The initial planning by me of the timings was like , we would be able to complete the climb (initial) in 20 mins and time to view around would take around 1 hour and back to the base in about 2 hours and back to Pune by 2pm but that was not to be , read on.
We started from Pune at around 7am post meeting everyone at different points and then a fiasco on the road to the new Katraj tunnel with truckies who with double the load trying to overtake another truck at speeds of 20kmph and blocking the fast lane , they never learn.
Post that it was fun riding on NH4 over the smooth tarmac and broad roads. Stopped at Natraj as everyone was showing signs of hunger, had a nice breakfast of upma and tea and post some entertaining photosessions from Chaitu, Saurabh, Deepak and some timepass left ahead.
Reached Kapurhol (from where we turn to Bhor) in no time. Found out that the others stopped just ahead of the turn as they were unsure as to whether this was the turn or not , and I confirmed that this indeed was the turn to Bhor , as there isn't any sign board on the NH to tell this people do get confused. Got onto the 2 laned road to Bhor and went ahead , roads were good. Entered Bhor at around 8.30am and there was road work going on , asked everyone to follow me as we were to pass via the city and one missed turn could cause confusions, and the last thing we wanted was lost bikers trying to find out the way...:)
The city road was empty in the early hours so we managed to get smoothly out of the city and touched the road to Mahad which was to take us to the Varanda ghat. The roads out of the city were also good for about 5-6 km before the bad roads started , bad as in typical country roads with potholes greater than tarmac, this reduced our speeds but it was not so bad. Amidst cool views of the backwaters of the Nira we went ahead and touched the ghat, the ghat ride was uneventful with good roads and nice twisties beckoning.
We made good time and reached the point on top of the ghat at around 10.15am and stopped for the others to come in. In the meantime ordered chai and bhaji from the stalls there. Others came in 10 mins and we waited for Purvesh who was to come in from Mumbai via the NH-17 and Mahad. Everyone had their share of tea and bhajis and vada paav and post enquiries we set for the fort. It was 11am , the schedule already screwed :)
We got onto the path , thankfully the sun was shining from the opposite direction so we had nice shade all the way but the path was very slippery and sloping downward, but not so dangerous. It was a nice payvaat all the way , we reached the top of the fort in about 20mins and then I realized that the fort expanse on top was way too huge to be completed in 1 hours time. Post some photo sessions on a rock at the extreme end. The fort top is covered with knee lenght grass and 6-7 feet tall karvi bushes.
We went to the right side of the fort , climbed via the payvaat via thick bushes and went ahead towards the extreme end of the fort, passing remnants of some old structures and finally reached the extreme end of the fort which had a bastion and a flag. Post some photosessions , I went towards the other end from there to just explore as in what is there but didnt find anything of interest so came back. Had nice lunch of theplas and thaali peeth thanks to Purvesh and Sharayu and we started back. The sun was at its peak and we felt the heat , in the middle me , Chaitanya and Bhavin slided down over a particularly steep stretch of descent , me for the sheer fun of it did it.
Reached back to the place of descent from the fort , Purvesh,Sharayu,Sau and Deepak decided to try the difficult left hill part and we decided to stay put and climb down as we didnt want to try stuff in the sun that is. We started climbing down and got onto the narrow path , slipping and struggling over scree we made it down to the road and to the stall and gorged on glasses and glasses of nimbu sarbat and taak and waited for the others to return. The time read 2.30pm and we needed to start fast for home. The others came in by 2.45pm including the adventurous bunch and then they had their share of nimbu sarbat and taak and bhajis.
We finally started back at 3.15pm parting with Purvesh who had to go via Mahad to Mumbai and we started back for Pune via Bhor. The ride back was uneventful with stops at the back water views of the Nira and photos with Sharayu deciding to let her legs in water at a bridge and enjoy the coolness. We hit the NH-4 via Bhor at 6pm and came home by 7.45pm thoroughly exhausted with the riding. Nice trek!!
Place: Varanda Ghat
Base village: None
Height : ??
Grade : Easy
Me,Sau,Chaitanya,Deepak,Purvesh,Shailesh,Sharayu,Bhavin,Deepak ,Pankaj did this trek on 9th Nov 2008. Kavlya is a virtually unknown fort on top of the Varanda Ghat some 33 km from Mahad and 80km from Bhor. Last time when I did a ride on the ghats I spotted the Bhagwa flag on top of this hill and asked the locals there as to whether this was Kavlya and they said YES, I had known of the existence of the fort but didn't know its location , now that I knew we decided on a trek to the fort and add it to our existing fort list !
The initial planning by me of the timings was like , we would be able to complete the climb (initial) in 20 mins and time to view around would take around 1 hour and back to the base in about 2 hours and back to Pune by 2pm but that was not to be , read on.
We started from Pune at around 7am post meeting everyone at different points and then a fiasco on the road to the new Katraj tunnel with truckies who with double the load trying to overtake another truck at speeds of 20kmph and blocking the fast lane , they never learn.
Post that it was fun riding on NH4 over the smooth tarmac and broad roads. Stopped at Natraj as everyone was showing signs of hunger, had a nice breakfast of upma and tea and post some entertaining photosessions from Chaitu, Saurabh, Deepak and some timepass left ahead.
Reached Kapurhol (from where we turn to Bhor) in no time. Found out that the others stopped just ahead of the turn as they were unsure as to whether this was the turn or not , and I confirmed that this indeed was the turn to Bhor , as there isn't any sign board on the NH to tell this people do get confused. Got onto the 2 laned road to Bhor and went ahead , roads were good. Entered Bhor at around 8.30am and there was road work going on , asked everyone to follow me as we were to pass via the city and one missed turn could cause confusions, and the last thing we wanted was lost bikers trying to find out the way...:)
The city road was empty in the early hours so we managed to get smoothly out of the city and touched the road to Mahad which was to take us to the Varanda ghat. The roads out of the city were also good for about 5-6 km before the bad roads started , bad as in typical country roads with potholes greater than tarmac, this reduced our speeds but it was not so bad. Amidst cool views of the backwaters of the Nira we went ahead and touched the ghat, the ghat ride was uneventful with good roads and nice twisties beckoning.
We made good time and reached the point on top of the ghat at around 10.15am and stopped for the others to come in. In the meantime ordered chai and bhaji from the stalls there. Others came in 10 mins and we waited for Purvesh who was to come in from Mumbai via the NH-17 and Mahad. Everyone had their share of tea and bhajis and vada paav and post enquiries we set for the fort. It was 11am , the schedule already screwed :)
We got onto the path , thankfully the sun was shining from the opposite direction so we had nice shade all the way but the path was very slippery and sloping downward, but not so dangerous. It was a nice payvaat all the way , we reached the top of the fort in about 20mins and then I realized that the fort expanse on top was way too huge to be completed in 1 hours time. Post some photo sessions on a rock at the extreme end. The fort top is covered with knee lenght grass and 6-7 feet tall karvi bushes.
We went to the right side of the fort , climbed via the payvaat via thick bushes and went ahead towards the extreme end of the fort, passing remnants of some old structures and finally reached the extreme end of the fort which had a bastion and a flag. Post some photosessions , I went towards the other end from there to just explore as in what is there but didnt find anything of interest so came back. Had nice lunch of theplas and thaali peeth thanks to Purvesh and Sharayu and we started back. The sun was at its peak and we felt the heat , in the middle me , Chaitanya and Bhavin slided down over a particularly steep stretch of descent , me for the sheer fun of it did it.
Reached back to the place of descent from the fort , Purvesh,Sharayu,Sau and Deepak decided to try the difficult left hill part and we decided to stay put and climb down as we didnt want to try stuff in the sun that is. We started climbing down and got onto the narrow path , slipping and struggling over scree we made it down to the road and to the stall and gorged on glasses and glasses of nimbu sarbat and taak and waited for the others to return. The time read 2.30pm and we needed to start fast for home. The others came in by 2.45pm including the adventurous bunch and then they had their share of nimbu sarbat and taak and bhajis.
We finally started back at 3.15pm parting with Purvesh who had to go via Mahad to Mumbai and we started back for Pune via Bhor. The ride back was uneventful with stops at the back water views of the Nira and photos with Sharayu deciding to let her legs in water at a bridge and enjoy the coolness. We hit the NH-4 via Bhor at 6pm and came home by 7.45pm thoroughly exhausted with the riding. Nice trek!!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sagargad
Fort: Sagargad
Height: 1357 feet (above MSL)
Grade : Easy
Base village: Khandale
Region: Raigad
Missed posting this one from a long time. This was done on June 8th 2008. Myself, Vindya, Addy and Anup did this trek. Pune was as usual climate with the rains just set in with an occasional drizzle or two or drizzling throughout the day.
The monsoons just started so we thought we should do some trek and zeroed in on Sagargad a fort near Alibag. We were expecting heavy showers to hit us there so that we would enjoy the trek thoroughly and we got lucky later!
We started in the morning at 7am in a hired Sumo with Vindy, Anup and Addy picking me up at Chinchwad and we sped towards Khopoli. We took the e-way and stopped at a food mall enroute to have breakfast. Done that we started again. The climate was humid with occasional rains here and there but not much.
We turned off at Khopoli towards Pen and Alibag and went ahead. The roads were quite good all the way. Finally we crossed Pen and got onto the road connecting to Alibag and crossed the NH-17 turn at Vadkhal and went ahead.
There is a toll road ahead here and the road is OK-OK. There was no sign of rain here too but the clouds seemed looming , a sign of rain but when!
We finally reached near Khandale village near Alibag from where to the turn to the fort goes in. We went into the village and went ahead via a kutcha road and ahead. We could see a big waterfall there at a distance. This place also houses the Siddheshwar Math.
We finally got off our vehicle and went ahead on the path to find the steps that lead to the Siddeshwar Math and Sagargad Machi (village) and finally Sagargad ahead. The climb was uneventful but the humidity was at its peak and we were profusely sweating and due to that it made the climb tiring. Anup as usual was the ben johnson and sprinted ahead.
We stopped in between to view the nature around and after having some water to drink we went ahead. Some distance ahead we could see Sagargad Machi a small village at the base of the fort.
We could see Anup also waiting for us. We went ahead from here asking the path to a villager and came across a path via slush and mud. It started raining here.
The rain came down in torrents and went away as soon as it had come. We took the steep path ahead and reached some point where there were some stones indicating the fort entrance or something. Stopping here we took photos and followed the path ahead which got us onto some section of the fort maybe the initial part, we followed another path ahead and went ahead via a narrow ledge like path with a steep fall on the right side. Going ahead we came across a plateau and heard sounds of toads and frogs on top. We could see a huge pool of water formed there and toads were creating a racket there!
We could see the walls of the fort clearly from here and one of the doors of the fort. We could also find karwandache jhaad here and took fancy to it as we all liked it , Anup was collecting them for taking them home and we were eating the fruit like they were peanuts. Going some more distance ahead we went into the fort via a beaten down path and got onto the top. We could see a small temple on top and some remnants of the wada on the fort. There was heavy cloud cover on top of the fort with the rain falling in torrents in between. We went to (or rather thought) to most of the parts of the fort and came to a place which had tree cover and had a great lunch brought by us - discussing stuff of interest while having lunch. Finally winding up we started back down , missing one path while coming down but finally coming back to the plateau and then the path down.
We missed one path and went ahead and Anup took another route, realizing something amiss we called out to Anup who said he was on the right path so we went there and followed him down and we finally reached Sagargad machi and washed ourselves in the stream which had formed there and started to go down there. At a distance we could see the sea as the clouds had parted for sometime.
We came down without incident in about 30mins came to our vehicle and after a change of clothes started back home. We stopped at Vadkhal for some snacks and came home by 8pm.
Nice monsoon trek drenched to the skin!
Height: 1357 feet (above MSL)
Grade : Easy
Base village: Khandale
Region: Raigad
Missed posting this one from a long time. This was done on June 8th 2008. Myself, Vindya, Addy and Anup did this trek. Pune was as usual climate with the rains just set in with an occasional drizzle or two or drizzling throughout the day.
The monsoons just started so we thought we should do some trek and zeroed in on Sagargad a fort near Alibag. We were expecting heavy showers to hit us there so that we would enjoy the trek thoroughly and we got lucky later!
We started in the morning at 7am in a hired Sumo with Vindy, Anup and Addy picking me up at Chinchwad and we sped towards Khopoli. We took the e-way and stopped at a food mall enroute to have breakfast. Done that we started again. The climate was humid with occasional rains here and there but not much.
We turned off at Khopoli towards Pen and Alibag and went ahead. The roads were quite good all the way. Finally we crossed Pen and got onto the road connecting to Alibag and crossed the NH-17 turn at Vadkhal and went ahead.
There is a toll road ahead here and the road is OK-OK. There was no sign of rain here too but the clouds seemed looming , a sign of rain but when!
We finally reached near Khandale village near Alibag from where to the turn to the fort goes in. We went into the village and went ahead via a kutcha road and ahead. We could see a big waterfall there at a distance. This place also houses the Siddheshwar Math.
We finally got off our vehicle and went ahead on the path to find the steps that lead to the Siddeshwar Math and Sagargad Machi (village) and finally Sagargad ahead. The climb was uneventful but the humidity was at its peak and we were profusely sweating and due to that it made the climb tiring. Anup as usual was the ben johnson and sprinted ahead.
We stopped in between to view the nature around and after having some water to drink we went ahead. Some distance ahead we could see Sagargad Machi a small village at the base of the fort.
We could see Anup also waiting for us. We went ahead from here asking the path to a villager and came across a path via slush and mud. It started raining here.
The rain came down in torrents and went away as soon as it had come. We took the steep path ahead and reached some point where there were some stones indicating the fort entrance or something. Stopping here we took photos and followed the path ahead which got us onto some section of the fort maybe the initial part, we followed another path ahead and went ahead via a narrow ledge like path with a steep fall on the right side. Going ahead we came across a plateau and heard sounds of toads and frogs on top. We could see a huge pool of water formed there and toads were creating a racket there!
We could see the walls of the fort clearly from here and one of the doors of the fort. We could also find karwandache jhaad here and took fancy to it as we all liked it , Anup was collecting them for taking them home and we were eating the fruit like they were peanuts. Going some more distance ahead we went into the fort via a beaten down path and got onto the top. We could see a small temple on top and some remnants of the wada on the fort. There was heavy cloud cover on top of the fort with the rain falling in torrents in between. We went to (or rather thought) to most of the parts of the fort and came to a place which had tree cover and had a great lunch brought by us - discussing stuff of interest while having lunch. Finally winding up we started back down , missing one path while coming down but finally coming back to the plateau and then the path down.
We missed one path and went ahead and Anup took another route, realizing something amiss we called out to Anup who said he was on the right path so we went there and followed him down and we finally reached Sagargad machi and washed ourselves in the stream which had formed there and started to go down there. At a distance we could see the sea as the clouds had parted for sometime.
We came down without incident in about 30mins came to our vehicle and after a change of clothes started back home. We stopped at Vadkhal for some snacks and came home by 8pm.
Nice monsoon trek drenched to the skin!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Malhargad aka Sonori
Fort: Malhargad aka Sonori
Height: 3166 feet (above MSL)
Grade: Easy
Base Village : Sonori (near Saswad)
Thought of going to Malhargad this weekend(27th Sep 2008). Had got the route info from Vindy and thought would visit it anyways. Friday night was as usual fun with a movie at esquare and coming back to a friends home slept in the morning at 2am or so. Had to wake up around 6.30 to start from there!
Morning the alarm sounded but i put it to off and went to sleep again. Some time later I woke up oblivious to the fact that I had to go so saw the time and it read 7.20am. Freshened up and bidding adieu to my friend started towards Saswad.
The route read Baner - Pune Camp - Kondhwa - Bopdev ghat - Saswad. Crossing the Bopdev ghat went down and went on towards Saswad. In the middle I was somewhat confused as to whether the turn for the fort is immediately post Bopdev or what as I didnt see Vindy's mail thoroughly as I could see some hill which resembled a fort :) , so when I was around 2km from Saswad called up Vindy to confirm and he told me that I needed to go into Saswad and get onto the road which goes to Hadapsar and had to turn off right at Dive village and continue thereafter. So there were 2 ways to saswad from Pune , one via the Dive ghat and one via the Bopdev ghat and I had to go to the dive ghat road towards Pune after coming into Saswad.
I reached Saswad around 9.15am and as didnt have anything from the morning had a great breakfast of misal and chai at a hotel in Saswad. Saswad seemed like a small quiet town.
Finally satisfied went out and paid the bill and asked the hotel owner about the road to Dive Ghat and was promptly directed to a left turn ahead at the chowk. Took the bike and turned left from there and went ahead crossing the Saswad ST bus stand and ahead. Around 2-3 km ahead found the board for Dive and the primary school which Vindy had talked about where i had to take a right for the village Sonori. Got onto a bad road and went ahead and asked a local there about Sonori who said it was ahead so I convinced I was on the right road rumbled on ahead.
The road turned from bad to worse but I kept good pace and entered Sonori village and could see the fort at a distance. The fort being small in height isnt visible until you enter the village so I went ahead passing the Sardar Panse wada in between and going ahead on a kutcha road finally could see the fort in front of me. I decided to park my bike at some point and having locked it securely went ahead.
Took out my DSLR and started shooting the fort first. The climb was uneventful and it took all of 15 mins for me to get to the top via a broken part of the wall. Most of the fort walls are intact but majority of them have crumbled and fallen. I traversed the periphery of the fort and saw that the fort had 2 levels , one the outer and the second the inner higher level. I went round and saw the Mahadarwaza and the other door.
I entered the 2nd higher level of the fort and saw there were 2 temples there. One of Lord Shiva with a Shivaling and the other of some God I couldnt identify , maybe Kaalbhairav or something. Not sure. The temple's have been maintained by the locals in good shape. There is nothing much to see on top of the fort other than this and some dry wells :)
The mahadarwaza is a nice piece of architecture like other forts and the view from the top is cool with green everywhere with water bodies in between attributed to the rainfall that was active a few days ago. Now the weather was clear.
Finally done with the fort I started the climb down from the other side of the fort near the door and down going fast and coming down in like 6-7 minutes and got to my bike. The area near the fort is quite barren and occasional small flowers nothing apart from that.
Coming down took my bike and started back. Stopped at the Sardar Panse wada the outer walls of which are intact. Took a look inside, it has a crumbled wada in it and an old temple. There is a small field inside the wada now :)
Getting back was not a problem now as I reached the highway back and came into Pune via the Dive ghat which is a cool ghat with amazing twisties. Finally entered pune and into bad traffic (as usual) and came home by 2pm.
A nice small trek there!
Photos at : http://picasaweb.google.co.in/jayaramk1983/Malhargad?authkey=r2D8QsNibwE
Height: 3166 feet (above MSL)
Grade: Easy
Base Village : Sonori (near Saswad)
Thought of going to Malhargad this weekend(27th Sep 2008). Had got the route info from Vindy and thought would visit it anyways. Friday night was as usual fun with a movie at esquare and coming back to a friends home slept in the morning at 2am or so. Had to wake up around 6.30 to start from there!
Morning the alarm sounded but i put it to off and went to sleep again. Some time later I woke up oblivious to the fact that I had to go so saw the time and it read 7.20am. Freshened up and bidding adieu to my friend started towards Saswad.
The route read Baner - Pune Camp - Kondhwa - Bopdev ghat - Saswad. Crossing the Bopdev ghat went down and went on towards Saswad. In the middle I was somewhat confused as to whether the turn for the fort is immediately post Bopdev or what as I didnt see Vindy's mail thoroughly as I could see some hill which resembled a fort :) , so when I was around 2km from Saswad called up Vindy to confirm and he told me that I needed to go into Saswad and get onto the road which goes to Hadapsar and had to turn off right at Dive village and continue thereafter. So there were 2 ways to saswad from Pune , one via the Dive ghat and one via the Bopdev ghat and I had to go to the dive ghat road towards Pune after coming into Saswad.
I reached Saswad around 9.15am and as didnt have anything from the morning had a great breakfast of misal and chai at a hotel in Saswad. Saswad seemed like a small quiet town.
Finally satisfied went out and paid the bill and asked the hotel owner about the road to Dive Ghat and was promptly directed to a left turn ahead at the chowk. Took the bike and turned left from there and went ahead crossing the Saswad ST bus stand and ahead. Around 2-3 km ahead found the board for Dive and the primary school which Vindy had talked about where i had to take a right for the village Sonori. Got onto a bad road and went ahead and asked a local there about Sonori who said it was ahead so I convinced I was on the right road rumbled on ahead.
The road turned from bad to worse but I kept good pace and entered Sonori village and could see the fort at a distance. The fort being small in height isnt visible until you enter the village so I went ahead passing the Sardar Panse wada in between and going ahead on a kutcha road finally could see the fort in front of me. I decided to park my bike at some point and having locked it securely went ahead.
Took out my DSLR and started shooting the fort first. The climb was uneventful and it took all of 15 mins for me to get to the top via a broken part of the wall. Most of the fort walls are intact but majority of them have crumbled and fallen. I traversed the periphery of the fort and saw that the fort had 2 levels , one the outer and the second the inner higher level. I went round and saw the Mahadarwaza and the other door.
I entered the 2nd higher level of the fort and saw there were 2 temples there. One of Lord Shiva with a Shivaling and the other of some God I couldnt identify , maybe Kaalbhairav or something. Not sure. The temple's have been maintained by the locals in good shape. There is nothing much to see on top of the fort other than this and some dry wells :)
The mahadarwaza is a nice piece of architecture like other forts and the view from the top is cool with green everywhere with water bodies in between attributed to the rainfall that was active a few days ago. Now the weather was clear.
Finally done with the fort I started the climb down from the other side of the fort near the door and down going fast and coming down in like 6-7 minutes and got to my bike. The area near the fort is quite barren and occasional small flowers nothing apart from that.
Coming down took my bike and started back. Stopped at the Sardar Panse wada the outer walls of which are intact. Took a look inside, it has a crumbled wada in it and an old temple. There is a small field inside the wada now :)
Getting back was not a problem now as I reached the highway back and came into Pune via the Dive ghat which is a cool ghat with amazing twisties. Finally entered pune and into bad traffic (as usual) and came home by 2pm.
A nice small trek there!
Photos at : http://picasaweb.google.co.in/jayaramk1983/Malhargad?authkey=r2D8QsNibwE
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Prabalgad and Kalavantin Trek
Fort : Prabalgad and Kalavantin (extension of Prabalgad)
Height : 2300 ft (above MSL)
Base Village : Prabalmachi and Thakurwadi
Grade : Prabalgad (Medium) , Kalavantin (Hard during rains , medium in other season)
We decided on a 2 day trek to Prabalgad and Kalavantin Durg near Panvel (13/14 september 2008). This was a long pending trek so me , purvesh, deepak, tushar, sau , sachin, chhaya and neha decided to do it.
Morning 6am I started on my bike towards Talegaon phata where Deepak and Sau were to meet. Sachin , Tushar, Chhaya and Neha came in at 6.50am at the phata and then Sau and Deepak came in. We started going in at a sedate 60-70kmph because of the wet roads. It was drizzling but continuously.
Sau filled petrol near Wadgaon and we went ahead and crossed Lonavala in no-time. We came across the Rajmachi point and decided to stop there for a dekko at the views there. The nature was amazing there and the view of the waterfall was refreshing. Starting from there we descended the ghat towards Khopoli in thick fog which was persistent all through there.
Once at Khopoli it was the boring NH-4 towards Panvel. Purvesh was to meet us at the toll naka before Panvel (5km before Panvel) as he was to come from Dombivali. We met at a hotel just after the toll naka. Had a great breakfast and started for Shedung from where the route to Thakurwadi goes ahead.
We finally reached Thakurwadi at parked our bikes at a safe location and then started on the trek towards Prabalmachi. The initial route is via a narrow tar road which goes ahead and climbs up from where the tar road vanishes and there is a kuccha path which climbs up.
The views from here are amazing with waterfalls et. all but as it was humid we were getting tired , the path goes via thick bushes and ahead. We could see the wall of Prabalmachi. Finally after 1 hour of climbing we reached the Prabal machi entrance where there are some remnants of the fort walls and as we go ahead there are steps which house a temple of Ganeshji and Maruti raya. Going ahead we got the first look of Kalavantin Durg. It was massive and inviting :)
We went ahead via green patches and into Prabalmachi village where Purvesh already had asked a villager about staying in at his place for the day as we were to do Prabalgad today and then Kalavantin the next day. The atmosphere was cloudy and rainy and rain was falling intermittently all throughout.
We then kept our bags in the house and took small sacks and pouches with some food and water and started towards Prabalgad. The whole area is covered with thick bushes and trees and one can always loose his way if he doesnt get the right path and so we did. We went ahead passing the actual path and then we were lost , Sau and Purvesh went ahead to look at the way to go up and finally found the way so they called us up and we went ahead. The initial path is all mud and stones so it isnt a problem. Once we reach the col like place its huge slippery rocks through which water was flowing because of the rains and it was a slow progress up towards prabalgad. The region witnesses tremendous landslides during rains and it was evident from the loose rocks all around. Once in the col we climbed up on and on when we reach a supposed wall of the fort which is broken and we enter. Again there is a steep kutccha path from here to go above and when we reached the top it was a jungle , a thick one at that.
If one gets lost on top of Prabalgad then the person will never find the way out , the jungle is that thick. We stuck to a path and went ahead and ahead. We found some sculptures on rocks and went ahead. The whole top of Prabalgad is void of any fort remnant just a whole plateau. We finally reached the Kalavantin side of Prabalgad but the clouds were so thick we couldnt get a glimpse of Kalavantin which everyone said was amazing and a must look, but we couldnt see that because the clouds never parted. We had biscuits , chiwada there and did some tp in there before starting back. We were disappointed firstly to see nothing on top and secondly we no view of Kalavantin but then we did Prabalgad. We climbed down via the same path through the slippery rocks and mud. Climbing down was an ordeal just as going up and the rains made it even more difficult. We finally touched the path down in around 50 mins and started towards Prabalmachi.
Kalavantin was looking imposing and like it was calling us to scale it, we could see the steps on it and it was covered in green. Cool view.
We finally reached the village by 4.45pm and they had tea made by the house owner. Tushar,Sachin , Chhaya and Neha were going back home today coz they didnt plan on the 2 day trek , they just wanted to do Prabalgad and went back at around 5.30pm. Me , Purvesh, Sau and Deepak stayed back to do Kalavantin the next day.
Finally dusk arrived and we had our dinner which we had brought from home. After a full dinner and timepass we went to sleep praying that it shouldnt rain the next day and we should be able to do Kalavantin easily. But nature has its own ways !
We woke up early in the morning and after refreshing ourselves and taking water bottles and some snacks we went ahead towards Kalavantin , the route was via the col between Kalavantin and Prabalgad and was a steep route again via slippery rock patches and we lost our way yet again and finally Purvesh and Deepak found the way and me and Saurabh followed them. We reached the col in about 55mins and there was a rock patch to be done after which the steps started.
The rock patch was least inviting and the wind in the col was too much along with the clouds. Visibility was at its lowest. I decided I wouldnt go any further ahead but only upto the steps because I am wary of rock patches and that too wet ones and the rain wouldnt stop, it became intense so I said to purvesh and saurabh that they go ahead with Deepak and I stop here.
I just sat down on the rock for sometime and enjoyed the silence and the sound of the wind and the rain and then climbed down the col with effort (remember it was slippery rock :))
After an hour Saurabh , Deepak and Purvesh came down sucessful from their ascent of Kalavantin , i felt dejected but then thats fine, I could always do Kalavantin afterwards. :)
We had some biscuits at the col and started climbing down. The rain became torrential and everything was flowing down along with the rocks which became loose. The path down was slippery but we anyways made it down. On the way down we met a group going up and we wished them the best :)
We finally came down to the machi and got ready. The rain was in no mood to relent and it was already flooding the surrounding places in there. We wanted to get down as fast as possible so we started after packing our stuff in the bags in the rain. We finally got down the path where huge waterfalls were full and we crossed them and then finally got to the door of Prabalmachi and went down. The view of the waterfalls from the machi were amazing and we went down to Thakurwadi in around an hour.
Finally getting down to Thakurwadi we got our bikes and then started back home bidding goodbyes to Purvesh at the Shedung phata we started at around 2.30pm. I was home by 5pm after a boring ride on NH4 highway :)
So a trek accomplished but Kalavantin evaded me , but ill anyway do it soon. :)
Photo links:
My photos
Photos from other cam
Height : 2300 ft (above MSL)
Base Village : Prabalmachi and Thakurwadi
Grade : Prabalgad (Medium) , Kalavantin (Hard during rains , medium in other season)
We decided on a 2 day trek to Prabalgad and Kalavantin Durg near Panvel (13/14 september 2008). This was a long pending trek so me , purvesh, deepak, tushar, sau , sachin, chhaya and neha decided to do it.
Morning 6am I started on my bike towards Talegaon phata where Deepak and Sau were to meet. Sachin , Tushar, Chhaya and Neha came in at 6.50am at the phata and then Sau and Deepak came in. We started going in at a sedate 60-70kmph because of the wet roads. It was drizzling but continuously.
Sau filled petrol near Wadgaon and we went ahead and crossed Lonavala in no-time. We came across the Rajmachi point and decided to stop there for a dekko at the views there. The nature was amazing there and the view of the waterfall was refreshing. Starting from there we descended the ghat towards Khopoli in thick fog which was persistent all through there.
Once at Khopoli it was the boring NH-4 towards Panvel. Purvesh was to meet us at the toll naka before Panvel (5km before Panvel) as he was to come from Dombivali. We met at a hotel just after the toll naka. Had a great breakfast and started for Shedung from where the route to Thakurwadi goes ahead.
We finally reached Thakurwadi at parked our bikes at a safe location and then started on the trek towards Prabalmachi. The initial route is via a narrow tar road which goes ahead and climbs up from where the tar road vanishes and there is a kuccha path which climbs up.
The views from here are amazing with waterfalls et. all but as it was humid we were getting tired , the path goes via thick bushes and ahead. We could see the wall of Prabalmachi. Finally after 1 hour of climbing we reached the Prabal machi entrance where there are some remnants of the fort walls and as we go ahead there are steps which house a temple of Ganeshji and Maruti raya. Going ahead we got the first look of Kalavantin Durg. It was massive and inviting :)
We went ahead via green patches and into Prabalmachi village where Purvesh already had asked a villager about staying in at his place for the day as we were to do Prabalgad today and then Kalavantin the next day. The atmosphere was cloudy and rainy and rain was falling intermittently all throughout.
We then kept our bags in the house and took small sacks and pouches with some food and water and started towards Prabalgad. The whole area is covered with thick bushes and trees and one can always loose his way if he doesnt get the right path and so we did. We went ahead passing the actual path and then we were lost , Sau and Purvesh went ahead to look at the way to go up and finally found the way so they called us up and we went ahead. The initial path is all mud and stones so it isnt a problem. Once we reach the col like place its huge slippery rocks through which water was flowing because of the rains and it was a slow progress up towards prabalgad. The region witnesses tremendous landslides during rains and it was evident from the loose rocks all around. Once in the col we climbed up on and on when we reach a supposed wall of the fort which is broken and we enter. Again there is a steep kutccha path from here to go above and when we reached the top it was a jungle , a thick one at that.
If one gets lost on top of Prabalgad then the person will never find the way out , the jungle is that thick. We stuck to a path and went ahead and ahead. We found some sculptures on rocks and went ahead. The whole top of Prabalgad is void of any fort remnant just a whole plateau. We finally reached the Kalavantin side of Prabalgad but the clouds were so thick we couldnt get a glimpse of Kalavantin which everyone said was amazing and a must look, but we couldnt see that because the clouds never parted. We had biscuits , chiwada there and did some tp in there before starting back. We were disappointed firstly to see nothing on top and secondly we no view of Kalavantin but then we did Prabalgad. We climbed down via the same path through the slippery rocks and mud. Climbing down was an ordeal just as going up and the rains made it even more difficult. We finally touched the path down in around 50 mins and started towards Prabalmachi.
Kalavantin was looking imposing and like it was calling us to scale it, we could see the steps on it and it was covered in green. Cool view.
We finally reached the village by 4.45pm and they had tea made by the house owner. Tushar,Sachin , Chhaya and Neha were going back home today coz they didnt plan on the 2 day trek , they just wanted to do Prabalgad and went back at around 5.30pm. Me , Purvesh, Sau and Deepak stayed back to do Kalavantin the next day.
Finally dusk arrived and we had our dinner which we had brought from home. After a full dinner and timepass we went to sleep praying that it shouldnt rain the next day and we should be able to do Kalavantin easily. But nature has its own ways !
We woke up early in the morning and after refreshing ourselves and taking water bottles and some snacks we went ahead towards Kalavantin , the route was via the col between Kalavantin and Prabalgad and was a steep route again via slippery rock patches and we lost our way yet again and finally Purvesh and Deepak found the way and me and Saurabh followed them. We reached the col in about 55mins and there was a rock patch to be done after which the steps started.
The rock patch was least inviting and the wind in the col was too much along with the clouds. Visibility was at its lowest. I decided I wouldnt go any further ahead but only upto the steps because I am wary of rock patches and that too wet ones and the rain wouldnt stop, it became intense so I said to purvesh and saurabh that they go ahead with Deepak and I stop here.
I just sat down on the rock for sometime and enjoyed the silence and the sound of the wind and the rain and then climbed down the col with effort (remember it was slippery rock :))
After an hour Saurabh , Deepak and Purvesh came down sucessful from their ascent of Kalavantin , i felt dejected but then thats fine, I could always do Kalavantin afterwards. :)
We had some biscuits at the col and started climbing down. The rain became torrential and everything was flowing down along with the rocks which became loose. The path down was slippery but we anyways made it down. On the way down we met a group going up and we wished them the best :)
We finally came down to the machi and got ready. The rain was in no mood to relent and it was already flooding the surrounding places in there. We wanted to get down as fast as possible so we started after packing our stuff in the bags in the rain. We finally got down the path where huge waterfalls were full and we crossed them and then finally got to the door of Prabalmachi and went down. The view of the waterfalls from the machi were amazing and we went down to Thakurwadi in around an hour.
Finally getting down to Thakurwadi we got our bikes and then started back home bidding goodbyes to Purvesh at the Shedung phata we started at around 2.30pm. I was home by 5pm after a boring ride on NH4 highway :)
So a trek accomplished but Kalavantin evaded me , but ill anyway do it soon. :)
Photo links:
My photos
Photos from other cam
Monday, September 01, 2008
Sarasgad
Fort: Sarasgad
Region: Pali
Height : 1433 feet above MSL
Base Village: Pali
Grade: Medium
We visited fort Sarasgad on Feb 25th 2008. Me,Saurabh, Purvesh , Deepak , Tushar and Avinash. I started early morning 6am and went to get Avinash from Chapekar chowk and found him and we continued ahead to Talegaon our meeting point with Saurabh and Deepak.
Reached Talegaon early and waited for the guys to come. As usual Deepak and Tushar turned up late and we left Talegaon for Khopoli where we had to pick up Purvesh who was coming from Dombivali.
We reached Lonavala in 30 mins and went to a hotel for breakfast , the time reading 8.45am. We were done by 9.30am and called up Purvesh to confirm his location and he was already nearing Khopoli!
We started fast and covered the distance to Khopoli in about 30mins , in between Deepak riding Tushar's bike went into the expressway instead of the Khopoli exit and we had to wait for them to come back to the proper exit.
Purvesh was waiting for us at the designated place where we turn off for Pen from Khopoli. We went ahead and were cruising and took the left from the bridge for Pali that is famous for the Ashtavinayak Temple and also the base village for Sarasgad. The weather was getting hotter now and the roads were bad.
We reached Pali by 10.30am and parked our bikes in the parking. We came towards the main road and asked the way to the fort.We had to go behind the Ganpati Temple and follow a path and go ahead. The way was simple but the weather was too humid.
We decided we would take Ganpati darshan while coming back and went ahead. The path was via a narrow strip of mud which goes ahead where we climb to the first plateau and come to a huge mango tree. We missed the obvious path and ended up climbing the first plateau via thorny shrubs and rock patches. We finally came to the first plateau and went ahead.
The road ahead seemed simple and we took a well trodden part. The front side of the fort was now visible and looked amazing. We went ahead to a point and sat down to rest, we were getting tired because of the hot climate but we continued ahead with the fort coming closer. The path gets steeper and we were getting tired because the sun had come out in full force now.
We finally reached the rock patch to be climbed to get to the steps of the fort. The fort is built from a rocky outcrop infact the whole of the front and the back of the fort is rock , solid rock. We went ahead and found a tunnel where we spent some time seeing what was inside.
We went ahead into a narrow gully which has the steps. From far the steps arent visible , you need to go near to see them. The steps are perfect and we went ahead. There is a huge bastion ahead and then the main door is at the left. Inside the main door as we go ahead there is a huge cave where one can sleep if coming for an overnight trek.
Most of the portions of the door and the caves are of solid rock so they still stand. As we go in we encountered a water tank but it had all algae infested water we went ahead and found a cave - tank which had the coolest and the cleanest water. We drank our fill and went ahead to the back side of the fort.
The fort is made up of 3 levels , the balekilla, the middle portion where we were and the lower portion. The view from here was breathtaking and we could see the twin walls of Telbaila and also Sudhagad fort from here.
The balekilla is one huge rock which stands on top like a crown and at the base of the rock there are many chambers cut which must have housed granaries and ammunition dumps. Most of which are still intact. We had our lunch here and lazed around.
We then went to the side where we came from and climbed up the balekilla, the climb is easy with some scree laden part and we come on top which is bare except a huge water body and trees on top. We have a tomb on top and a shiv temple on top. The view from the top of the surroundings and Pali village is amazing. We stopped for sometime on top discussing things and then climbed down again to the 2nd level and came back to the entrance , had some photo sessions and climbed down the steps and the rock patch.
The climate was still hot but we came down and slowly came to the base village. It was around 4pm and we went for the Ganpati Darshan after getting fresh. After Ganpati Darshan we came out and filled our stomachs with snacks and tea and started back. We reached Khopoli at around 6.45pm and it was dark now, we left Purvesh at the station for the 8pm local back and left for Pune from there and reached home at around 8.45pm. All in all a nice trek.
Region: Pali
Height : 1433 feet above MSL
Base Village: Pali
Grade: Medium
We visited fort Sarasgad on Feb 25th 2008. Me,Saurabh, Purvesh , Deepak , Tushar and Avinash. I started early morning 6am and went to get Avinash from Chapekar chowk and found him and we continued ahead to Talegaon our meeting point with Saurabh and Deepak.
Reached Talegaon early and waited for the guys to come. As usual Deepak and Tushar turned up late and we left Talegaon for Khopoli where we had to pick up Purvesh who was coming from Dombivali.
We reached Lonavala in 30 mins and went to a hotel for breakfast , the time reading 8.45am. We were done by 9.30am and called up Purvesh to confirm his location and he was already nearing Khopoli!
We started fast and covered the distance to Khopoli in about 30mins , in between Deepak riding Tushar's bike went into the expressway instead of the Khopoli exit and we had to wait for them to come back to the proper exit.
Purvesh was waiting for us at the designated place where we turn off for Pen from Khopoli. We went ahead and were cruising and took the left from the bridge for Pali that is famous for the Ashtavinayak Temple and also the base village for Sarasgad. The weather was getting hotter now and the roads were bad.
We reached Pali by 10.30am and parked our bikes in the parking. We came towards the main road and asked the way to the fort.We had to go behind the Ganpati Temple and follow a path and go ahead. The way was simple but the weather was too humid.
We decided we would take Ganpati darshan while coming back and went ahead. The path was via a narrow strip of mud which goes ahead where we climb to the first plateau and come to a huge mango tree. We missed the obvious path and ended up climbing the first plateau via thorny shrubs and rock patches. We finally came to the first plateau and went ahead.
The road ahead seemed simple and we took a well trodden part. The front side of the fort was now visible and looked amazing. We went ahead to a point and sat down to rest, we were getting tired because of the hot climate but we continued ahead with the fort coming closer. The path gets steeper and we were getting tired because the sun had come out in full force now.
We finally reached the rock patch to be climbed to get to the steps of the fort. The fort is built from a rocky outcrop infact the whole of the front and the back of the fort is rock , solid rock. We went ahead and found a tunnel where we spent some time seeing what was inside.
We went ahead into a narrow gully which has the steps. From far the steps arent visible , you need to go near to see them. The steps are perfect and we went ahead. There is a huge bastion ahead and then the main door is at the left. Inside the main door as we go ahead there is a huge cave where one can sleep if coming for an overnight trek.
Most of the portions of the door and the caves are of solid rock so they still stand. As we go in we encountered a water tank but it had all algae infested water we went ahead and found a cave - tank which had the coolest and the cleanest water. We drank our fill and went ahead to the back side of the fort.
The fort is made up of 3 levels , the balekilla, the middle portion where we were and the lower portion. The view from here was breathtaking and we could see the twin walls of Telbaila and also Sudhagad fort from here.
The balekilla is one huge rock which stands on top like a crown and at the base of the rock there are many chambers cut which must have housed granaries and ammunition dumps. Most of which are still intact. We had our lunch here and lazed around.
We then went to the side where we came from and climbed up the balekilla, the climb is easy with some scree laden part and we come on top which is bare except a huge water body and trees on top. We have a tomb on top and a shiv temple on top. The view from the top of the surroundings and Pali village is amazing. We stopped for sometime on top discussing things and then climbed down again to the 2nd level and came back to the entrance , had some photo sessions and climbed down the steps and the rock patch.
The climate was still hot but we came down and slowly came to the base village. It was around 4pm and we went for the Ganpati Darshan after getting fresh. After Ganpati Darshan we came out and filled our stomachs with snacks and tea and started back. We reached Khopoli at around 6.45pm and it was dark now, we left Purvesh at the station for the 8pm local back and left for Pune from there and reached home at around 8.45pm. All in all a nice trek.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Ratangad
Fort: Ratangad
Region : Igatpuri
Height : 4255 feet above MSL
Base village: Ratanwadi
Grade : Medium
We visited Ratangad during February 9-10 2008. I did this trek again with trek-di. Seems like I have a special bond with trek-di now, having done almost 10 treks with them.The reporting time to FC gate was 6.00am, i started from home at 4.45am and came to Yogesh's (a friend) home by 5am and kept my bike there and started for FC on his bike. We reached FC by 5.30am and went to the GoodLuck chowk to have some tea and came back. Coming back we found participants already waiting there along with Shridhar kaka (from trek-di) and Hemant and Dhyanesh (both volunteers for trek-di). We joined them and engaged in some conversation.The bus they had hired came by 6.25am and we were on-board soon and started our journey.
The journey was via Nashik Phata - Chakan - Narayangaon - Sangamner - Akole - Rajur - Ratanwadi. Total 220km one side. We stopped at a road side hotel near narayangaon for breakfast and again went ahead , the roads upto sangamner are excellent and after that are somewat ok , we reached Ratanwadi by 2pm with adequate breaks in between. Had lunch which we had brought. Ratanwadi is a small village but with a rich heritage , old era carvings and statues are present there. Also the famous Amruteshwar temple of Satvahan era is located there.
After lunch we started towards Ratangad picking our sacks.The route is via forest and the trail is not clear so we had hired local guides to lead us upto the fort and also carry provisions up because we were to stay for the night there. The sun was shining bright but the route being via thick forest did not feel the heat or tiredness. Some people who had come from Bangalore for the trek, however got tired and were slow. I was with Hemant in the middle and we went chatting and laughing.
After about 1.5 hours of climb / walk we reached a clearing where there are two paths , one which goes up straight is the path to Ratangad and the other towards the left goes to Harishchandragad via the Katrabai Mountain. Possibility of taking the wrong path here is high because of these diversions if someone who does not know the route comes here. We could see the Khutta Pinnacle at a distance.Khutta is actually a pinnacle near Ratangad and offer good technical climbing (maybe will try one day).
The last part of the climb to Ratangad was easy and we came to the ladders. To climb up the fort at the last part ladders are kept there because the steps which were originally there were blown off and some have fallen down due to erosion so the villagers have put up iron ladders to climb up. Climbed the first ladder and stood at the base of the 2nd helping people to go up and then went up. The fort door is amazing and offers good views. Once on top through the door , one has to again climb a fleet of rock cut steps to gain access to 1 more level up. This level contains the temple of goddess ratanai and a huge cave , where one can stay, and where we had to stay for the night. We put our bags in the cave and started on to explore the fort... From the cave we turn right to come back to the rock cut steps we climbed and pass it towards another door leading to 1 more upper level of the fort.
The views from here are breathtaking and cool. There is a bastion on the top level which offers great views around. Immediately straight we can see the Katrabai mountain and the Ajoba mountain in front. We went towards the west side , passing water tanks (4-5) which contain potable water for drinking. The sunset was awesome from this point , its always awesome :). After sunset we came back to the cave because it was getting dark and cold.After coming back we saw that Shridhar kaka / Hemant and Dhyanesh were preparing dinner. We tried to help them in some way and finally dinner was prepared around 8.30pm after which everyone sat down for dinner and had a nice dinner. Then we had some talk and people were preparing for sleep. I opted to sleep out for 2 reasons i.e I found that the cave could not fit all of us and the second reason being hemant and dhyanesh were sleeping outside. Yogesh too joined me in sometime because he found the snores of some participant disturbing.
The night was cold..brrrr...it was around 4-5 degrees but i had my jacket ON and slept for sometime. I usually dont get sleep properly at such places...:) Morning woke up to find dark clouds towards the east which had arrived mysteriously from somewhere. The sunrise again was awesome and after breakfast of poha and tea we left for visiting the fort. After some group snaps we went around. Ratangad has a vast expanse which we traverse from side to side. First we saw the Kokan darwaza (door) along with the bastions. Little ahead we could see water tanks (8-9) , these also held potable water. Futher ahead we had to climb up to reach the nedhe (needle hole in rock) which is a natural wonder there. The gusts of wind blowing at the nedhe was something I cannot explain, it was pure heaven. Getting down from the nedhe towards the other side was an experience in itself :) for others because of the scree patch there. On this side we could see the forts of Alang , Kulang and Madan and the peak of Kalsubai (the highest in Maharashtra) clearly. We went down to the Trayambak darwaza which offers a cool view and steep steps below..we went down the steps to see the Baan pinnacle , a arrow shaped pinnacle which is famous for climbing.
We came back up via the steps. (Actually there is a route to climb down from this door down but its a long traverse and takes more time than the other one). We then circumnavigated via the other side towards the place from where we started, here we saw a water tank which is supposed to be the origin of the pravara river. The water was crystal clear and tasted sweet. Finally after some more walk we came to the place where we had climbed in. Myself and Hemant climbed down quickly to prepare lunch for others because we knew other would take a lot of time to come down the ladders and also we were short of time. We reached Ratanwadi in 1 hour and started preparing soup and lunch. All the group members were down by 3pm and we had a nice lunch and started for Pune. We reached Pune by 10pm and finally had dinner at GoodLuck before starting for home from there and reached home by 11pm. A great trek I must say.
Region : Igatpuri
Height : 4255 feet above MSL
Base village: Ratanwadi
Grade : Medium
We visited Ratangad during February 9-10 2008. I did this trek again with trek-di. Seems like I have a special bond with trek-di now, having done almost 10 treks with them.The reporting time to FC gate was 6.00am, i started from home at 4.45am and came to Yogesh's (a friend) home by 5am and kept my bike there and started for FC on his bike. We reached FC by 5.30am and went to the GoodLuck chowk to have some tea and came back. Coming back we found participants already waiting there along with Shridhar kaka (from trek-di) and Hemant and Dhyanesh (both volunteers for trek-di). We joined them and engaged in some conversation.The bus they had hired came by 6.25am and we were on-board soon and started our journey.
The journey was via Nashik Phata - Chakan - Narayangaon - Sangamner - Akole - Rajur - Ratanwadi. Total 220km one side. We stopped at a road side hotel near narayangaon for breakfast and again went ahead , the roads upto sangamner are excellent and after that are somewat ok , we reached Ratanwadi by 2pm with adequate breaks in between. Had lunch which we had brought. Ratanwadi is a small village but with a rich heritage , old era carvings and statues are present there. Also the famous Amruteshwar temple of Satvahan era is located there.
After lunch we started towards Ratangad picking our sacks.The route is via forest and the trail is not clear so we had hired local guides to lead us upto the fort and also carry provisions up because we were to stay for the night there. The sun was shining bright but the route being via thick forest did not feel the heat or tiredness. Some people who had come from Bangalore for the trek, however got tired and were slow. I was with Hemant in the middle and we went chatting and laughing.
After about 1.5 hours of climb / walk we reached a clearing where there are two paths , one which goes up straight is the path to Ratangad and the other towards the left goes to Harishchandragad via the Katrabai Mountain. Possibility of taking the wrong path here is high because of these diversions if someone who does not know the route comes here. We could see the Khutta Pinnacle at a distance.Khutta is actually a pinnacle near Ratangad and offer good technical climbing (maybe will try one day).
The last part of the climb to Ratangad was easy and we came to the ladders. To climb up the fort at the last part ladders are kept there because the steps which were originally there were blown off and some have fallen down due to erosion so the villagers have put up iron ladders to climb up. Climbed the first ladder and stood at the base of the 2nd helping people to go up and then went up. The fort door is amazing and offers good views. Once on top through the door , one has to again climb a fleet of rock cut steps to gain access to 1 more level up. This level contains the temple of goddess ratanai and a huge cave , where one can stay, and where we had to stay for the night. We put our bags in the cave and started on to explore the fort... From the cave we turn right to come back to the rock cut steps we climbed and pass it towards another door leading to 1 more upper level of the fort.
The views from here are breathtaking and cool. There is a bastion on the top level which offers great views around. Immediately straight we can see the Katrabai mountain and the Ajoba mountain in front. We went towards the west side , passing water tanks (4-5) which contain potable water for drinking. The sunset was awesome from this point , its always awesome :). After sunset we came back to the cave because it was getting dark and cold.After coming back we saw that Shridhar kaka / Hemant and Dhyanesh were preparing dinner. We tried to help them in some way and finally dinner was prepared around 8.30pm after which everyone sat down for dinner and had a nice dinner. Then we had some talk and people were preparing for sleep. I opted to sleep out for 2 reasons i.e I found that the cave could not fit all of us and the second reason being hemant and dhyanesh were sleeping outside. Yogesh too joined me in sometime because he found the snores of some participant disturbing.
The night was cold..brrrr...it was around 4-5 degrees but i had my jacket ON and slept for sometime. I usually dont get sleep properly at such places...:) Morning woke up to find dark clouds towards the east which had arrived mysteriously from somewhere. The sunrise again was awesome and after breakfast of poha and tea we left for visiting the fort. After some group snaps we went around. Ratangad has a vast expanse which we traverse from side to side. First we saw the Kokan darwaza (door) along with the bastions. Little ahead we could see water tanks (8-9) , these also held potable water. Futher ahead we had to climb up to reach the nedhe (needle hole in rock) which is a natural wonder there. The gusts of wind blowing at the nedhe was something I cannot explain, it was pure heaven. Getting down from the nedhe towards the other side was an experience in itself :) for others because of the scree patch there. On this side we could see the forts of Alang , Kulang and Madan and the peak of Kalsubai (the highest in Maharashtra) clearly. We went down to the Trayambak darwaza which offers a cool view and steep steps below..we went down the steps to see the Baan pinnacle , a arrow shaped pinnacle which is famous for climbing.
We came back up via the steps. (Actually there is a route to climb down from this door down but its a long traverse and takes more time than the other one). We then circumnavigated via the other side towards the place from where we started, here we saw a water tank which is supposed to be the origin of the pravara river. The water was crystal clear and tasted sweet. Finally after some more walk we came to the place where we had climbed in. Myself and Hemant climbed down quickly to prepare lunch for others because we knew other would take a lot of time to come down the ladders and also we were short of time. We reached Ratanwadi in 1 hour and started preparing soup and lunch. All the group members were down by 3pm and we had a nice lunch and started for Pune. We reached Pune by 10pm and finally had dinner at GoodLuck before starting for home from there and reached home by 11pm. A great trek I must say.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Telbaila
Telbaila
Region : Mulshi
Height : 3322 ft (above MSL)
Base Village : Telbaila
Telbaila is basically a watch tower built to guard over the Sahwashni ghat near Pali. It consists of two rock walls , the left and the right clearly differentiated by the col in between. Though not of much historic importance - the rock walls of Telbaila offer great rock climbing opportunities of technical grade.
I climbed the left inner wall on 19-20 Jan 2008 , with trek-di (an organization which organizes treks). This was my first technical rock climb and I was very excited.
Region : Mulshi
Height : 3322 ft (above MSL)
Base Village : Telbaila
Telbaila is basically a watch tower built to guard over the Sahwashni ghat near Pali. It consists of two rock walls , the left and the right clearly differentiated by the col in between. Though not of much historic importance - the rock walls of Telbaila offer great rock climbing opportunities of technical grade.
I climbed the left inner wall on 19-20 Jan 2008 , with trek-di (an organization which organizes treks). This was my first technical rock climb and I was very excited.
We started on saturday from FC at 3pm towards telbaila in a sumo. We were around 7 participants + the trek leader (Shridhar) from trek-di. Rock climbing experts were to join us at Telbaila village in the evening. We reached Lonavala at 4pm and started towards Telbaila via Amby valley , had some tea at Peth Shahpur and proceeded. The road after Sahara city is a mess with big craters on the road. We reached Tel Bail phata and turned right and went ahead. Here there is a kaccha road upto the village. We reached the village at 5.30pm and got a house veranda to stay. The walls were looking cool from here. I was a little apprehensive about climbing but decided to do it anyway.
Some time later rock climbing experts Bhau Satarkar (who is an expert and has been climbing for almost 20 years now) and Hemant came in. They were to fix ropes for us and help us during the climb. As the sun set the cold started creeping it. We learnt that it was "Urus" time in the village and so the village was very crowded and loudspeakers were blaring at full volume. We had a good dinner of chapati-bhaji and went off to sleep. But we could not sleep because the loudspeakers blared the whole night ... it was like someone used to sing bhajans turn by turn all through the night..it was very irritating but we couldnt do any thing :)
We woke up in the morning at 5.30am and had hot tea and breakfast and then got our harnesses and carabiners from the experts and started for the base of the wall at 7.45am. We reached the base - there is a temple at the base and people from the village come there to pray. There is also a water tank at the base with cool water. We then sat at the base while Bhau and the others went about their task of fixing rope by free climbing. The wall is not very difficult but you cannot climb it free style. The route goes in this manner - the first patch is about 60 feet of rock - after that patch we traverse left and walk over half broken steps and come to a small cave - ahead there are steps again broken and there is a cave next where there is a a water tank. Next patch is about 40 feet but its an overhang with no holds in the rock but small cracks , we have to jumar up holding the rocks and go ahead. Above there are steps again broken upto the top. The top is very narrow about 2-3 m wide and nothing to see on top just rocks and the amazing views all around like Sudhagad , Ghangad and sarasgad and others.
One by one all of the climbers climbed the first patch - some climbed fast - some slow. On my turn i climbed successfully , at some points there was absolutely no foothold and I had to literally pull the rope and get up - but that experience was too good. Got some bruises on my hand but nothing compared to the experience. After the first patch traverse was done from the left over half broken steps and to the 2nd cave. Had a lunch of methi parathas here and waited on my turn to jumar up from here. The jumaring part was a little tricky and Bhau was helping us go up by using a pulley and asking us to jumar...me as i was doing it for the first time did it quite fast and it didnt feel difficult but while climbing I used to get a little frightened but i had faith in the equipment. After the overhang i came to the steps and went ahead and in 10-15 minutes reached the summit at 2.30pm. Reaching the top I was very happy and elated...saw some cool views around. On top there's nothing much and its too narrow so we just sat there for 10 minutes admiring the views and started climbing down the same way till the first patch. Then we rapelled down the first patch - that was also a very great experience coming down. It was around 6.30pm when everyone came down and we started for the village down - it was sunset already but the moon was almost full so we found our way fast.
Coming down we started for Pune at 7.30pm and came home by 10pm.
All in all it was a great first experience of climbing rock patch with all the things attached.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Chanderi
Fort: Chanderi
Region: Karjat
BaseVillage
Grade:Medium upto Fort , Pinnacle:Tough
Region: Karjat
Base
Grade:Medium upto Fort , Pinnacle:Tough
How to reach: get to Karjat (by road/train) – go to Chincholi village via Vangani -> Goregaon (turn left at Chanderi Dhaba) -> Chincholi -> walk from here.
Total time taken: 3-4 hours from base village depending on nature conditions.
We found a small clearing in the jungle and put our bags down, opened our carry mats and had our dinner. We decided to take turns patrolling while others slept as being in the midst of the jungle we didn’t want to take a risk. In the jungle there are weird sounds coming at night which kept us on the edge and every 5-10 minutes I would shine the torch nearby to see if everything was alright. The night was ok and we all had some sleep.
We reached the cave and put our bags there and refreshed ourselves with water from another tank nearby which had good, clear and cool water. We had some breakfast of hot Maggie which we made there and had some rest at the cave. We had decided against climbing the pinnacle as we were tired. Just as we were talking we heard some more trekkers come in with a local guide. We asked the guide about the pinnacle route. He said we could go up and its not that hard. Purvesh, Deepak and Saurabh decided to go along with the guide up the pinnacle and the others and me opted to rest out in the cave as we were battered the day before . We had ropes and stuff but the guide said we don’t need it. The route to the pinnacle is via grassy path from the caves upto the rightmost end. Once you reach there we have to climb thru a gully of rock and go up. The pinnacle route is not that tough but it is exposed. There is scree around and there was a very small ledge to walk and go up. The top is not much just 2 m wide and narrow with grass all around. There is a flag and a statue of shivaji maharaj there. Climbing down is also tricky here. Purvesh and the others came back had lunch and some rest and started climbing down after filling our bottles with water. Coming down took 4 hours due to the rocks in the odha, now they were dry but walking over them was a pain esp. because we were so tired. At one point we were confused about the path to the village, again God helped us this time by bringing another villager who was going home. We followed him till the village and drank water there. We were all very tired but we had to get home so we hired a rickshaw till badlapur and then we parted ways with Mumbai friends , we reached Karjat by local and got an express till lonavala and reached home at 12am on Sunday night – Monday morning.
This was the my second trek where we had lost our way (the first being siddhagad – where we climbed through odhyachi vaat ) but it was an adventure spending the night in the jungle and then making the trek successful by climbing the fort and pinnacle (for those who climbed). The most important thing we learnt is do not start late(the sun can kill), don’t carry unnecessary weight and most importantly we cannot do anything against the forces of nature.
Dhodap
Fort: Dhodap
Height : 4750 ft (above MSL)
Region:
Grade: Medium
Base Village: Hatti,Wadala.
Getting there: Pune – Nashik , from Nashik get onto Malegaon Highway – Pimpalgaon - On Malegaon Highway (after 48km) – Vadalibhoi village – Turn left for Dhodambe (8km) – cross Dhodambe – turn right for Hatti (2km).
ST bus from Pune – Nashik, from Nashik catch a ST bus to Hatti village (very less frequency – guess 2 in a day) OR get down on the main highway and get jeeps to go towards Dhodambe, Hatti (I doubt there would be any as this is a remote area and own conveyance is best)
Distances of places from turn on
Hatti is the base village for Dhodap. It is a small village and one can get food cooked there too – but we had our own cooking stuff so it was not necessary.
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We started on Friday 26/10 from Pune (FC road) at around 11.45pm in the night. We were to travel through the night by bus. After a quick round of introductions – form filling (I had gone through Trek-Di adventures group – so had to fill form and all) we all settled down in the seats and feeling sleepy dozed off – The night was cold and the bus windows were too bad – they used to open on vibrations letting in the chill air and causing the whole bus to get cold inside :). Morning around 5.30am we reached Nashik – the highway is pretty OK but the bus was not OK. Around 7.15am we reached the base village Hatti – we could see Dhodap at a distance – the whole view of the fort is awesome with the pinnacle and the rock cut.
We made a quick breakfast of pohe and chai and started for the climb around – 8.15am. We had hired a local help for carrying the kitchen materials J. The way is pretty ok and climbs gradually via slippery rocks and scree. In about an hours time we reached a plateau. Here is where we saw the first darwaza of the fort. It is in good condition. Looking up it was still a long way to the fort – albeit it looks less. On the plateau we saw small huts (in the books they mention it as sonarwadi – where goldsmiths were living). We can see the ikhara pinnacle at a distance from here; it looks daunting and huge from here.
After the plateau we start climbing up again via bushes and rocks going up and towards the fort. After around 45 minutes we reached a steep rock patch and im wary of rock patches – especially steep ones but usually go up soon and don’t think much – this one was steep albeit cannot define steepness on rock patches and maybe different for different people J , this rock patch will be fun during monsoons – but I wont do it during that time.
Got up the rock patch in around 3-4 minutes (wow ,fast eh) and then up towards the ridge and the 2nd darwaza of the fort – some remnants to be seen here and hanuman taaki – a big tank for water , the water was not potable here. Stood here for sometime as others were climbing up the rock patch slowly. The sun had finally come out in full force and I was beginning to feel the heat but most of the climb was over and it would be only a matter of 20 minutes to reach the fort. Finally when everyone had come we started again. After this plateau there is a gentle climb which leads to the final steps and the main door of the fort – the buruj and tatbandi can be seen from here and is in fairly good shape.
From this point we go to the left side of the pinnacle and keep walking for 5-10 minutes and we reach the caves. The caves are really huge and we stayed in one of them. It was cosy in there and there was a devi mata mandir too here. Nearby there is a shivling too and a water tank. The water is potable here and is available in monsoon/winter and summer too. We refreshed ourselves with the cool water and it was heaven. We reached the top at around 11.15 am (a climb of 3 hours). Finally we started with making lunch – cutting vegetables – cooking dal-rice. We had a sumptuous meal of dal rice with vegetables and mind you the food was too good... it was a wholly satiating meal and we had a good time there. Finally everyone stretched a bit – some people went off to explore the fort and others were just relaxing.
Finally coming back I went to the back side of the pinnacle base and saw some half finished caves and came back to our cave place. It was tea time now and we had some refreshing tea and some Timepass discussions. Finally we went off once again to explore the fort on the entrance side – we found huge caves and more water inside them there. At this point Darshan a volunteer started climbing the pinnacle free-style and within minutes he was near the top – but retreated back as the top 10-15 feet was full scree and rock and there was no one to guide him up there so he came back. I looked in awe at this fellow who climbed the pinnacle free-style and that too so fast!
We came back from the adventure and it was sunset time so we went towards the rock wall side to the west. The view of the sunset is something one can never explain – its too good. A cold wind had started blowing all around and in a matter of minutes it was dark and we reached the cave. Time for dinner preparation – here we prepared dinner of rassa bhaji – all the while singing songs and doing faltu Timepass. The dinner was good and after that we went out to just do Timepass. Some people were on the phone as we had range of airtel and idea here on top too!
The moon had risen and as it was poornima 2 days back everything was lit in moon-light and looked great. We all sat outside and sang old kishore kumar songs and marathi songs esp. sandeep khare ones. It was cold outside and we were in our jackets. Sometime later when everyone was feeling sleepy we opened our sleeping bags and everybody started settling down.
Coming back we started making breakfast of chai and missal. After having breakfast and a round of checking all equipments and baggage we started again down this time. At the rock patch again tense moments were witnessed but this time I descended the patch without problems – one enthu group of people from Nashik were just coming up that time. Finally we descended down the path to the plateau and went to see the temples on the other side. There are 3 temples there, 1 of shiva, and 2 of Devi mata.
After some time we came back to the house on the plateau and rested for 10-15 minutes. Soon we found out that the people there in the house make khawa and sell, so we had some khawa and mind you it was mouth-watering and the taste was so nice after adding sugar, it melted in the mouth. Starting once again we descended the plateau and onto the final path to the village – the sun was beating down albeit it was only 11am and we slowly trudged back to the village. There after refreshing ourselves at the pipe we settled down in the bus once again and started for Pune at 12pm. Found out that there is a puncture and fixed it losing an hour in this process. Halted in between at a dhaba (the great Punjab dhaba) and had a good lunch.
Finally we reached around 9pm to Pune thanks to the habit of the driver in following slow trucks at 20kmph. We were very irritated with the driver but no one had the strength to talk to him.
The highlight of the trek was a 73 old person from Pune, Mr.Vinayak Dandekar who came with us on the trek. He has been trekking from around 35-40 years and has loads of experience in this field and also stories from his trek. He has been on Himalayan treks as well and last year he had been to Chota Kailash in the Himalayas. A truly great person. We (atleast I am) are nothing in front of him as even at his age he is the fittest person.
Kalsubai
Kalsubai
Region - Igatpuri
Base Village : Bari
Height : 5400 ft (above MSL)
I went to Kalsubai the highest point in Maharashtra on 9th December 2007. I had gone with the trek-di group. We were a group of 40 people and started from Pune at 11pm on 8th December 07. The route is via Pune -> Nashik Phata -> Bhosari -> Moshi -> Chakan -> Rajgurunagar -> Khed ->Manchar ->Narayangaon -> Alephata -> Sangamner -> Rajur -> Akole -> Bari
At around 2.ooam we reached the Sangamner turn for Rajur. Here we had hot tea and refreshed ourselves. Manali (a leader from trek-di) was trying to pull out sugarcanes from a sugarcane laden truck and it was a truly hilarious sight to see that..soon everyone started pulling the sugarcanes :)
We started again in 15 minutes towards our destination. The roads were good and we made good time. The road is via ghats and hence has to be negotiated carefully. In between there is a turn for the Bhandardara dam but we continued straight ahead and reached the outskirts of Bari around 4.45am. It was damn cold outside and we found a school to sleep in -- some people slept in the bus. We had to get up at 6am -- however I couldn't sleep due to some over enthusiastic guys from the group who had got onto the roof of the bus to sleep and we rocking the whole bus :-)
We got up at 6am and tea was being prepared. We could see the peak of Kalsubai towering and it was an awesome sight.Breakfast was bread , butter / jam and we had our share along with piping hot tea which was a relief and we got fresh. We started again from that place to the village where we had Kunal, Amit and Chaitanya already present (they had come on bike becoz there was no place in the bus). We got down with our sacks and lunch (paratha packets) were distributed to everyone for eating once we reached the top. We had a quick round of introductions and started on our trek.
At the first halt there is a small temple where people stopped for a breather. The view was starting to get awesome from here. We climbed on till the first ladder (over the rock patch). The ladder was rusty and looked like would fall any moment but we made through it up and climbed. Here there were many rock patches to be climbed but they were easy. We used to climb up and wait for others to come and then would start again.
One by one we climbed the 3 ladders over the rock patches and reached the base plateau of the mountain but we still had a lot to go to reach the highest point. The route was scree laden and was slipping but we got through it and reach a point where there is a well.Here everyone refreshed themselves and we could see the kalsubai peak getting nearer and could see the last rock formation which is the highest point - we reached the peak by climbing a last ladder.
It took us around 3 hours from base to climb till here. The views from the top are amazing - we can see the fort of Ratangad far away towards the south side - on the west side we can see the forts of Alang , Madan and Kulang and other mountains.
There is no other mountain near Kalsubai hence we can see everything clearly from top. On the top there is a small temple of Kalsubai mata. After enjoying the views we sat down for lunch and took our packed paranthas out and had a great lunch with everyone sitting round and enjoying parathas , dahi , pickles and other stuff.
After lunch we laid down in the cool shade of the temple and had a small siesta :). Sometime later we had our photo sessions with the group and then started preparing for our climb down. The climb down was equally interesting and adventurous. Due to the loose mud , scree and rocks we had to climb down with care. We reached the base village in about 2 hours and waited for all others to come.
We had bhel for the evening snacks and started by bus back home. We reached Nashik phata at around 11pm in the night where I alighted and went home.
A great trek thus ended.
Region - Igatpuri
Base Village : Bari
Height : 5400 ft (above MSL)
I went to Kalsubai the highest point in Maharashtra on 9th December 2007. I had gone with the trek-di group. We were a group of 40 people and started from Pune at 11pm on 8th December 07. The route is via Pune -> Nashik Phata -> Bhosari -> Moshi -> Chakan -> Rajgurunagar -> Khed ->Manchar ->Narayangaon -> Alephata -> Sangamner -> Rajur -> Akole -> Bari
At around 2.ooam we reached the Sangamner turn for Rajur. Here we had hot tea and refreshed ourselves. Manali (a leader from trek-di) was trying to pull out sugarcanes from a sugarcane laden truck and it was a truly hilarious sight to see that..soon everyone started pulling the sugarcanes :)
We started again in 15 minutes towards our destination. The roads were good and we made good time. The road is via ghats and hence has to be negotiated carefully. In between there is a turn for the Bhandardara dam but we continued straight ahead and reached the outskirts of Bari around 4.45am. It was damn cold outside and we found a school to sleep in -- some people slept in the bus. We had to get up at 6am -- however I couldn't sleep due to some over enthusiastic guys from the group who had got onto the roof of the bus to sleep and we rocking the whole bus :-)
We got up at 6am and tea was being prepared. We could see the peak of Kalsubai towering and it was an awesome sight.Breakfast was bread , butter / jam and we had our share along with piping hot tea which was a relief and we got fresh. We started again from that place to the village where we had Kunal, Amit and Chaitanya already present (they had come on bike becoz there was no place in the bus). We got down with our sacks and lunch (paratha packets) were distributed to everyone for eating once we reached the top. We had a quick round of introductions and started on our trek.
At the first halt there is a small temple where people stopped for a breather. The view was starting to get awesome from here. We climbed on till the first ladder (over the rock patch). The ladder was rusty and looked like would fall any moment but we made through it up and climbed. Here there were many rock patches to be climbed but they were easy. We used to climb up and wait for others to come and then would start again.
One by one we climbed the 3 ladders over the rock patches and reached the base plateau of the mountain but we still had a lot to go to reach the highest point. The route was scree laden and was slipping but we got through it and reach a point where there is a well.Here everyone refreshed themselves and we could see the kalsubai peak getting nearer and could see the last rock formation which is the highest point - we reached the peak by climbing a last ladder.
It took us around 3 hours from base to climb till here. The views from the top are amazing - we can see the fort of Ratangad far away towards the south side - on the west side we can see the forts of Alang , Madan and Kulang and other mountains.
There is no other mountain near Kalsubai hence we can see everything clearly from top. On the top there is a small temple of Kalsubai mata. After enjoying the views we sat down for lunch and took our packed paranthas out and had a great lunch with everyone sitting round and enjoying parathas , dahi , pickles and other stuff.
After lunch we laid down in the cool shade of the temple and had a small siesta :). Sometime later we had our photo sessions with the group and then started preparing for our climb down. The climb down was equally interesting and adventurous. Due to the loose mud , scree and rocks we had to climb down with care. We reached the base village in about 2 hours and waited for all others to come.
We had bhel for the evening snacks and started by bus back home. We reached Nashik phata at around 11pm in the night where I alighted and went home.
A great trek thus ended.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Vasota-Nageshwar
Region: Javali (satara) - Koyna backwaters
Fort:Vasota
Base Village:MetIndawli
Height: 3842 ft (above MSL)
Grade: Medium
On the weekend of 15-16 December 2007 we had been to Vasota-Nageshwar for trek. I had gone with the group called as trek-di. Vasota was my dream come true and i had longed to go there from a long time but the forest permission and other stuff were a deterrent for my plans to go there but I took this opportunity with trek-di.
We started from Swargate at 7.10am in the morning total 49 people in a privately hired ST bus. Before that I and my friend had come on bike from home. I had a large group this time around with my BCS friends and ours was a large group there.
We reached Shirval at around 8.15 or so and had vada-paav and tea there and again started towards Satara enroute Bamnoli the place where we have to get the boat for vasota base camp (Met Indawli). After Satara the road is via ghats and truly scenic.
We reached Bamnoli at 10.30am and Pinakin and Chaitanya were already there and had booked the launches and had got permission for the forest camp.
We climbed into our boats (20-22) people in 1 boat and started towards Vasota base camp Metindawli. The boat ride was superb with amazing views all around of the koyna backwaters and the islands. Finally we reached Met Indawli at 12.30pm and kept our bags there and rested for sometime and had our lunch there which we had brought.
After lunch we assembled and had a short round of introductions and finally started for the vasota fort. The forest was dense and cool - even though it was afternoon we did not feel the heat at all. We reached the first point a stream where we filled our bottles and continued ahead towards the fort.
The route is simple but in the end there is a lot of scree which one has to negotiate. Finally we reached the fort in the afternoon at 3.30pm after 1.5 hours of trek. We could see amazing views from the top of the nature all around.
We went to the Babu kada side and had a view. The Babu kada is a U shaped cut in the mountain of Old Vasota - Old Vasota is a hill fort in front of New Vasota (where we were) but permission is not given to go to old vasota fort and the routes also are in dilapidated condition there.
The views from here are too good and scenic. We spent some time resting and came back to a spot where there are 2 water tanks. One is potable and the other is not. We had snacks here and had a look around the fort. There are 2 temples on the fort 1 of Hanuman and the other of Mahadev.
We had a look at the other side of the fort too. There we could see Mhatari cha angtha (old woman's thumb) a structure shaped like a thumb and Nageshwar Pinnacle at a distance. The view was awesome here too.
Finally it was time for us to start down from the fort and we started climbing down. Again due to scree our progress was somewhat slow but we came down quickly and in some time it started getting dark as we were nearing our camp. Once again at the stream we filled our water bottles and came to the camp around 6.45pm , it was pitch dark now. We had got a tent so we put our bags outside and rested for a while in the tent. We drank some tea which was refreshing and waited for dinner to be served.
Dinner was simple with usal and chapatis which we relished and then settled down in our tent. All the people in the tent did some timepass upto 10.30pm and then we slept.
Early morning it started getting cold and we woke up at 5.30am and refreshed ourselves and prepared ourselves for Nageshwar trek. We had a breakfast of upma and started towards Nageshwar. The route was via the stream path and we had to walk over stones of the stream. It was a slow trod over the stones and I went far ahead. In about 1.5 hours I could see the peak of Nageshwar at the end of the stream route.
There is a slight climb ahead and we reach the place in 15 minutes. There are a series of caves at the base of the peak where there is a Shiv Mandir - the view of Konkan from this point is awesome. The way to top of peak is a little risky one as we can go up easily but while coming down the route is full of scree and mud - hence while coming down we have to sit , look and come.
After visiting Nageshwar we returned back , this time taking a different route back to the camp via the jungle , this route meets the route to the fort vasota and then climbs down. We reached the camp at 12.45pm and had a great lunch of pulav , papad and achar and then one by one others too came in. After a hearty lunch we waited for the launches and they arrived at 2.30pm. Once more after a journey of 1.25 hours we were back to Bamnoli and in the ST bus - we reached Pune at 8.30pm.
Fort:Vasota
Base Village:MetIndawli
Height: 3842 ft (above MSL)
Grade: Medium
On the weekend of 15-16 December 2007 we had been to Vasota-Nageshwar for trek. I had gone with the group called as trek-di. Vasota was my dream come true and i had longed to go there from a long time but the forest permission and other stuff were a deterrent for my plans to go there but I took this opportunity with trek-di.
We started from Swargate at 7.10am in the morning total 49 people in a privately hired ST bus. Before that I and my friend had come on bike from home. I had a large group this time around with my BCS friends and ours was a large group there.
We reached Shirval at around 8.15 or so and had vada-paav and tea there and again started towards Satara enroute Bamnoli the place where we have to get the boat for vasota base camp (Met Indawli). After Satara the road is via ghats and truly scenic.
We reached Bamnoli at 10.30am and Pinakin and Chaitanya were already there and had booked the launches and had got permission for the forest camp.
We climbed into our boats (20-22) people in 1 boat and started towards Vasota base camp Metindawli. The boat ride was superb with amazing views all around of the koyna backwaters and the islands. Finally we reached Met Indawli at 12.30pm and kept our bags there and rested for sometime and had our lunch there which we had brought.
After lunch we assembled and had a short round of introductions and finally started for the vasota fort. The forest was dense and cool - even though it was afternoon we did not feel the heat at all. We reached the first point a stream where we filled our bottles and continued ahead towards the fort.
The route is simple but in the end there is a lot of scree which one has to negotiate. Finally we reached the fort in the afternoon at 3.30pm after 1.5 hours of trek. We could see amazing views from the top of the nature all around.
We went to the Babu kada side and had a view. The Babu kada is a U shaped cut in the mountain of Old Vasota - Old Vasota is a hill fort in front of New Vasota (where we were) but permission is not given to go to old vasota fort and the routes also are in dilapidated condition there.
The views from here are too good and scenic. We spent some time resting and came back to a spot where there are 2 water tanks. One is potable and the other is not. We had snacks here and had a look around the fort. There are 2 temples on the fort 1 of Hanuman and the other of Mahadev.
We had a look at the other side of the fort too. There we could see Mhatari cha angtha (old woman's thumb) a structure shaped like a thumb and Nageshwar Pinnacle at a distance. The view was awesome here too.
Finally it was time for us to start down from the fort and we started climbing down. Again due to scree our progress was somewhat slow but we came down quickly and in some time it started getting dark as we were nearing our camp. Once again at the stream we filled our water bottles and came to the camp around 6.45pm , it was pitch dark now. We had got a tent so we put our bags outside and rested for a while in the tent. We drank some tea which was refreshing and waited for dinner to be served.
Dinner was simple with usal and chapatis which we relished and then settled down in our tent. All the people in the tent did some timepass upto 10.30pm and then we slept.
Early morning it started getting cold and we woke up at 5.30am and refreshed ourselves and prepared ourselves for Nageshwar trek. We had a breakfast of upma and started towards Nageshwar. The route was via the stream path and we had to walk over stones of the stream. It was a slow trod over the stones and I went far ahead. In about 1.5 hours I could see the peak of Nageshwar at the end of the stream route.
There is a slight climb ahead and we reach the place in 15 minutes. There are a series of caves at the base of the peak where there is a Shiv Mandir - the view of Konkan from this point is awesome. The way to top of peak is a little risky one as we can go up easily but while coming down the route is full of scree and mud - hence while coming down we have to sit , look and come.
After visiting Nageshwar we returned back , this time taking a different route back to the camp via the jungle , this route meets the route to the fort vasota and then climbs down. We reached the camp at 12.45pm and had a great lunch of pulav , papad and achar and then one by one others too came in. After a hearty lunch we waited for the launches and they arrived at 2.30pm. Once more after a journey of 1.25 hours we were back to Bamnoli and in the ST bus - we reached Pune at 8.30pm.
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