Siddhagad

Fort : Siddhagad
Height : 3223ft (above MSL)
Base Village(s) : Narivali , Siddhagadwadi (plateau just below the fort)
Grade: Easty upto Siddhagad wadi , Difficult from there to top of fort (loose rocks)

Route(s):
1. Karjat -> Mhasa -> Narivali (vehicles buses come till here) -> Siddhagadwadi (walk from Narivali to Siddhagad wadi)

2. Bhimashankar -> Bhatti (Forest region) Machan -> Valley down (take left at 1 point) circumvent Dhamdamia Dongar -> Siddhagadwadi

3. Mhasa -> Borwadi -> Siddhagadwadi.

We (myself, Vinod and Aditya) started for Siddhagad on a hot saturday afternoon. The plan was to ascend till Siddhagad wadi , stay there for the night and in the morning climb Siddhagad.

We started from Pune -> Chinchwad at around 3.30pm and went via Lonavala -> Khopoli -> Karjat -> Mhase -> Narivali. Narivali is the base village. Here we met 1 Kaluram Bhoir who told us we could park the car at his home and told us the route. He also gave us phone numbers of 1 Tanaji Nemade who lived atop siddhagadwadi so that we could inform them about where we were in case we got lost.

We started off towards Siddhagad. The sun was setting fast. We came to 1 village and crossed it. At one point the sun gone completely and darkness setting in we lost our way. We climbed through the waterfall route dangerously strewn with big rocks. We had missed the route big time. Anyways we got out our torches (mine and aditya's) as vindy had forgotten his. The route was tiring and night was coming swiftly. At one point we thought we should sleep here and not go ahead as we were all getting too tired and the route didnt seem to end. Finally at around 9.55pm in the night we reached the clearing where the plateau of siddhagad wadi starts thanks to Aditya and his compass watch we were able to go to the correct direction. The sense of elation we got when we reached there was blissful and we started walking towards siddhagad wadi. Once in the wadi we crossed a small school on the way where some trekkers from the Nisarg Bhraman group had settled down. Some more distance we asked for Tanaji Nemade and found him sleeping blissfully. Poor chap we woke him up and told our stuff to which he told there was another route very easier with which we could come up in 1.5 hrs. Imagine our level of frustation on hearing it and we were cursing ourselves on missing the route and climbing for 4 hours.

Tanaji gave us a open courtyard for settling down and we had our dinner with tales of other such foolhardy route climbs. My knee was paining at this point and I decided that I could not summit the next day if it worsens so thought OK thats over for me but lets wait for morning and see how the knee behaves.

We slept like logs and in the night a cat drummed on Vindy's face like a drummer and got us all awake and we had our time laughing out. Morning 6.00 we rose and I declared that I was not going to summit as i did not want to worsen my knee condition. Vindy and Aditya started towards the fort for the climb and i roamed the wadi and took photos.

Vindy and Aditya finally came down at around 11am or so and looking at their faces i could sense that the trek was tough up, anyways i was sad at missing out the scenic clouds and other things.

We went to the village well and bathed. It was pure bliss bathing in the hot sun with the cool water. We refreshed instantly.

Then we had a breakfast of usal and bhakri and started down towards Narivali at 11.49am. The sun was already shining high and heat was increasing but due to the tree cover we didnt get affected that much. We now got the correct way for going down and realized how we had hazardously climbed the night before. The way was cakewalk and we got down fast. But now the sun was beating like hell on us as we trudged slowly towards narivali. Once at Narivali we went to Kaluram;s home and rested for say 45 mins and had some water and cool drinks. Then we started towards home. A good trek but sad on missing out the summit. Will do it again.

Trek 14 accomplished.