Ghargad - Bahula Trek

Fort1 : Ghargad aka Gadgada
Base Village: Ghargad Sankshi
Height: 3180 ft (above MSL)
Grade: Difficult (need technical climbing)

Route:
From Mumbai - take mumbai nashik road - ghodbunder - kalyan - kasara - igatpuri - vadhiware phata - vadhiware - ghargad sankshi (approx 150km)
From Pune - take pune nashik road - sangamner - bhandardara - ghoti - (join mumbai nashik highway) - vadhiware phata - vadhiware - ghargad sankshi (approx 220-240 km).

Fort2: Bahula
Base Village : nearest is Ambe Bahula
Height: 3120 ft (above MSL)
Grade: Easy

Did a trek with Chakram Hikers on 7-8 March 2009. Saurabh and Purvesh had done a trek previously with them and reported good feedback so decided to go for Ghargad and Bahula with them. They are offbeat forts located near Nashik. We (me and Sau) decided to goto Dombivali and join Purvesh and then go for the trek. Plan was to go on bikes from there.

Morning we woke up at 5.15am and post freshening up and calling up Mangesh Deshpande (the leader) that we would meet at the main junction at Kalyan - Nashik road we started at 6.15am only to find Sau's rear tyre punctured. We decided that Sau would take the jeep with the others and me and Purvesh go on the bike. We reached the junction at 6.45am and found the others waiting. Sau then went into the jeep and we went on our bikes. This was NH3 with heavy truck traffic and many diversions as it was being converted into a 4 lane highway.

The going was good as we were on bikes we could easily manuevor between trucks and vehicles fast ahead. It was decided to stop at Latifwadi post Kasara for breakfast. We reached Latifwadi at around 8am and had a nice breakfast of paratha , misal and chai at the same time i got to know the Chakram members.

Post breakfast it was the bad kasara ghat where it was a jam of slow moving trucks and 4 wheelers. But being on the bike has its advantages of going fast bypassing these slow guys. Post kasara ghat the highway was a beauty and I reached igatpuri in no time and further to Ghoti phata. Waited for the jeep to catch up and then trailed the jeep to Vadhiware phata and then to Ghargad Sankshi village. It was 11am now. We parked our bikes at a tree some distance ahead and took water and only pouches and kept the bags in the jeep. The route to the fort was easy and going ahead we reached the first part where there was a well with a shiv temple under the tree. Post some water break we started ahead to climb , Ghargad is a rocky fort and the route to the base is very easy. The sun was shining hard now. Post going to the base we had to traverse to a point from where the rock climb was to begin. Ghargad steps are blown off hence around 125 feet of rock climbing needs to be done to climb to the top. Rope needs to be fixed there for safety.

Reaching the point of the climb we stopped there listening to anecdotes from Vinay, Kiran , Sachin, Uday et all and laughing. Zahir , Anju and Mangesh lead the climb to the top to fix ropes. One by one all of us started for the climb. The climb was not so easy. The first patch is of around 10-12 feet and easy. The 2nd part is a little dicey where you need to get on top through a crack and holds are less, you need to press both ur hands to lift your body up. Here i wasted around 10 mins getting up and realised that I need to reduce my weight if i need to do such climbs easily. Going ahead there is a vertical rock with good hand and foot holds about 20 feet high , climbing that I almost reached the top where Zahir was belaying and Sau,Purvesh, Vinay were there. The top of the fort is almost barren except for some remnants. There are about 6-7 water tanks on top out of which only 4 hold potable water. There are some remnants of structures on top and nothing else. The fort offers a good view of Dangya pinnacle , Pahine pinnacle and some other unknown forts from top.

There is a old entrance below which there are steps ending in mid air. This must have been the actual entrance in old days before the retreating British devastated them. Everyone was on top around 4.30pm and we had our lunch on top comprising of theplas, chapati bhaji, chunda, humus (arabian dish thanks to sachin) and others including sandwich.

We were to rappel down from the entrance. The rappel session was also exciting and we reached the base by 5.45pm. Going down the sun was just setting and we went to our bikes and post everyone coming and getting into the jeep we started for Ambe Bahula village. Reaching Vadhiware phata we had a break of chai/cold-drinks and we needed to go ahead 4-5 towards Nashik to get to Ambe Bahula village. Some 4-5 km ahead there is a right which had a board proclaiming "Ambe Bahula" getting inside around 1-2 km we reached the village and found refuge in the school thanks to a kind villager who offered us water too.

Post settling down we had a nice dinner of khichdi thanks to Mangesh / Anju and Nitin. The night was uneventful and sleep came easily , it became a little cold towards the morning and we all woke up at 6.30am and post freshening up had a nice breakfast of upma/chai and started for the base of Bahula Fort. Some one from the village volunteered to get us to the phata from where we had to turn for the fort. We again go onto the highway and went towards Mumbai and some 3-4 km ahead there was a left turn of kaccha road going in. Some 2-3 km of road was no-road and the bike lurched but carried on. Some distance ahead there was a tar road! we went ahead and post some investigations put the bike into the no-road , off roading was nice and we kept our bikes and the jeep just in front of the fort some distance ahead.

Going up the fort was very easy but there was scree in the middle but there wasnt any problem.There was a water tank just from where the climb path started. We went ahead and the sun was shining now but the going was easy. We had to get into the col and turn right for the fort. Going ahead we had a tricky rock patch which was small. Some distance ahead we could see the massif of Bahula and a cave. Going ahead there were more caves where one can stay. The cave was clean. Some distance ahead there was a crack in the wall which had steep steps going up. There are good handholds to hold while going up. Going up we were on top. The top is very small with 2 dry water tanks. One interesting thing is that this fort is in the firing range of the army at Devlali who practice artillery and gun firing here so army permission is needed but we didnt have any such thing but there wasnt anyone who stopped us. We also found a big artillery shell on top which was unexploded , everyone was posing with the shell and we had group photos and introductions with everyone there.

Post that we started descending down ,the going over the steep steps was slow but we anyway made it , going ahead over the scree was slow and me and purvesh were last climbing down. We were down by 11.20am and had biscuits and jaljira and started back. We had to do Kavnai fort now but I opted to go to Pune skipping it. Took Kiran pillion upto the highway and stopped for 5 mins and then everyone came. Going ahead I took leave after talking to Mangesh I started back to Pune via Ghoti - Bhandardara - Rajur - Kotul - Bhramanwada - Bota - Alephata - Narayangaon - Pune. I took a lunch break before Narayangaon and reached home by 5pm. Nice trek and ride. But missed Kavnai though.