Finally at long last got a chance to head out for a trek. We went to Kothligad which is near Peth village, Karjat. Five of us viz. Me, Antonio, Glen, Hansel and Mandar decided to head off on this trek over the weekend.
On all the treks that I have been on previously we have never really started on time. However for a change, we started on time. At about 5:30 am most of us had gathered at Dadar station. Somehow we managed to just about catch the 5:58 am local to Karjat. We reached Karjat about 2 hours later.After alighting from the station we went to see if we could get one of the “tumtums”, those long 6 seater auto rickshaws. We managed to find one pretty easily, and after haggling on the price we were on the second leg of our journey. We finally reached the point where the trail starts after about an hours ride.
From there the trail climbed up a small hill, snaking it’s way around it to the top. The trail was moderately steep when the climb began and eventually tapered off at the top. At the top, there was a small plateau with a majestic view of the valley below. In the distance we could clearly see the fort.
The trail took us to another larger plateau and finally to Peth village. There we stopped at a small village house for some refreshments. We all had “aam paana”, which is a delicious cooling drink made from green mangos. Just then there was a heavy shower which lasted for about 10 odd minutes. After the shower, we started off to find the trail up, armed with some instructions.
Pretty soon though we had lost the trail and were hard pressed to continue. The trail seemed to head up some rocks that looked formidable. However, with some help from one of the local lads we clambered upwards and soon found the trail. After climbing for a while, we lost the trail again. Following what we thought was the trail, we soon came up the fort but at the wrong end. There was no entrance, just a climb up some rocks to the fort wall (see picture).
The spot though offered a fabulous view of the valley. It was kind of reminiscent of Z-point at Kemmangundi, but without the elevation of Kemmangundi. Faced with no other option we bravely scaled up the rocks to the wall and entered the fort.
The next half hour was spent exploring the fort. The fort resembles the fort of Karnala (one of my favorite monsoon haunts) and has a cave and a water tank. There is a temple at the mouth of the cave. From the fort one can clearly see the side of Sahyadris that meets Bhimashankar, along the east. The fort was constructed during the Saatvaahan era and served as a watch post for soldiers guarding the Bhor Ghat, which was an important trade route between Pune and Kalyan. Inside the fort there is a spiral staircase up the inside of the conical funnel shaped hill of the fort, one the most amazing things I have seen. There is also a disused cannon overlooking the valley.
After roaming around, we decided to have our packed lunches. We were joined by two dogs who had followed us all the way from the village. After lunch, we decided to explore the staircase. Antonio was the point man, and we bravely led us ahead climbing up the funnel on rocks, when the stairs had ended. Pretty soon, he realized that he couldn’t ascend and to his horror he realized that he couldn’t descend either. After much encouragement, he finally managed to find his way down. He was very shaken by the experience.
By then it was time to start descending down to the village. So with a jittery and shaky Antonio in tow, we started on our way down. We just about managed to reach down, when it started raining again. We were lucky that it didn’t rain a little earlier, otherwise descending down the slippery path would have been difficult.
We stopped at the village house again for another round of “aam paana”. Then began our long journey back home. The walk back was much faster though, with most of the journey being downhill. Along the way, we spotted several species of caterpillars and lots of hornets. The two dogs that joined us for lunch had taken some kind of bizarre liking to me (I didn’t even feed them), and they followed me all the way back to the main road.
After that we stopped to drink water, caught an auto rickshaw and went to Neral station. We caught a CST bound train at 6:37 pm. Hansel and Mandar got off at Thane and I got off at Bhandup. Glen and Antonio went onwards and got off their respective stops. On the way back tried some low light photography on the link road. Was decently pleased with the results.
All in all, it was great to hang out with old classmates, re-connect with nature and get some exercise while doing that. Hope to do many more such trips over the coming few months.
