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.