Chanderi

Fort: Chanderi
Region: Karjat
Height: 2592 ft (above MSL)
Base Village: Chincholi
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 started from Pune by the Sinhagad Express on Saturday morning and got down at Karjat station. Then we took a local to Vangani from Karjat. Alighting at Vangani we waited for a friend who was to come from Dombivili. Once he came we started off towards the road. We were 6 people so we took 2 rickshaws to the phata near Chanderi Dhaba. In 10 mins we reached Chanderi Dhaba. We went inside Chanderi Dhaba and ordered breakfast and waited for the order to come in the meanwhile doing timepass. After having a heavy breakfast we started towards the base village. It was 11.00am and the sun was beating down on us heavily. That was the first fault of ours to start at this time. We reached the base village Chincholi at around 12.00pm after a long walk via tar road. (We made a mistake of not taking bikes this time upto the end of the road which would have saved us more time and energy).

Once we reached the base village we started on the path. The path is via jungle trail with huge bushes around. Some parts are in shade so it was cool but most of the climb was via open and with the sun bearing down on us we got too slow adding to it the weight in our bags made us even slower. In some time we reached an odha where we refreshed ourselves and sat for some time and continued walking. We found out that we had lost our way here and were trying to find a route out. Suddenly 1 villager appeared from far away and we asked him so he gave us the correct directions – we had started to the right side of the odha but we had to take the left side of the odha and continue. We found the correct path and continued via the odha. The odha walk is a nightmare via huge rocks. We were resting every half and hour. The sun was mercilessly beating on us. In sometime we had a small lunch and continued. In all the wrong right path choosing and others it was 4pm now and the col between Chanderi and Mhaismal was still far away till where we had to reach and turn left for Chanderi.

Suddenly, dark clouds gathered around and it started raining heavily. First the sun and now the rain, we were completely wet because we didn’t bring any rain wear thinking it would not rain. The rain continued for another 45 minutes during which we could not even walk as it was very heavy and then stopped. Now the sun was also going down and we were nowhere. The rocks of the odha became too slippery to walk on and we walked on cautiously ahead slipping here and there. We were very tired and now thought we should stop at the odha for the day because it was too far, there was no light – the sun had gone down – we had torches but we didn’t know how far we had to go. But some enthusiastic folks said we would continue. Now at this point we could see white arrow marking to show the directions. We followed the white markings in torchlight and went ahead slipping and falling. Then we made the biggest mistake. We could not find an arrow further (actually there was an arrow on the rock but it was covered with moss and there was a shoe hanging there to show the direction to the right but we missed it and continued straight. We went very far off on the wrong path and then realized that we were nowhere. We had torches but didn’t know when they would go off – we decided we would stop in the middle of the jungle and continue at dawn.

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.

At dawn we decided to go down and see if we could find the arrow marks and then the right direction. We finally found the shoe and the arrow marks covered in moss which we had missed in the dark and continued towards the col. The route was slippery due to the rain and we walked up. At one point we had to climb a mixture of rock and loose mud where I slipped and hurt my hand. But anyways we continued ahead and reached the col where we turned left towards Chanderi. We could see the pinnacle ahead. We had to climb more 45 minutes from the col over rock and scree slowly and finally reach the top at around 8.25am (we started at 7 from the jungle). Once we reached the top we could see great views of surrounding regions – forts like prabalgad, malang-gad, irshaalgad, peth were visible from here and the view was breath-taking. Once we reach the main pinnacle base we need to take a right over a grassy path to reach the caves of Chanderi. The cave is big enough for 15-20 people and had a Shankar mandir inside with a water tank whose water is not good as people have made it very dirty with plastic bags etc.

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: Vani
Range: Satmala
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).

How to go:

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 Malegaon Highway: Saptashrungigad 44km, Vani – 25 km, Saputara – 60km

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 2^nd 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.

Before the main darwaza there are Persian (or maybe Urdu) inscriptions on the wall (as this fort was ruled by Nizam before). The main door is like a tunnel and at the other end there are some more steps to get at the top. There we could see some water tanks, remnants of construction and the huge pinnacle in front. The local who was leading us told us stories about a sadhu baba who climbed the pinnacle like he was climbing steps with a flag in one hand and pooja thali in the other. The pinnacle cannot be climbed without equipments and looks very huge.

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.

I started exploring the fort and went to the rock wall. The wall width is about 3m and it is a plain walk. At one point I came across the gap which I had seen from below and it’s not a small gap it’s a huge 70 X 70 feet gap. A huge hole we can say although it looks like a small drop from below. People say that the Nizam had ordered this gap to be made so that no enemy could attack from the other side although climbing the other side of the wall is also a heavy risk. From here we can see the forts of rawla jawla , markandeya , saptashringigad and the vani hill.

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.

Although it was cold outside the cave, the cave was warm enough to sleep in and was really cozy.

Morning we woke up around 6am and after all activities , went to the east side of the fort to view the sunrise.

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.

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.