Last time I had been to Shivneri, I always wanted to goto Cawand or Hadsar (as a combined trek). Well that did not work out and to top it off I had already missed the Chawand-NarayanGad VxTrek. Hadsar-Nimgiri was the next trek in the pipeline, and I was not going to miss this!
Five of us (Shash/Asmita/Anpy/Vinayak and myself) rode on the smooth tar off Nasik-Phata, past a couple of tollbooths and finally halted at Narayangaon at about 8 in the morning. Pohe, tea was the menu at a local hotel here, past the halt we went on from here towards Junnar. The wether was sparkle clear, we could see crystal clear views of peaks till the distant horizon in all sharpness, and we sat there cursing ourselves on not getting a camera :(. Well at least Shash, had a mobile camera (something was definitely better than nothing).
Soon we reached the base of Junnar, and took directions from a college kid to go straight on. So the road transformed from good to bad to worse, as we rode on the surface of moon. Post some confirmed enquiries, we seemed to be getting no where, so we enquired a group of people some 10 kms from Junnar and they said we were on a complete wrong route that led to Hatkeshwar, that we had to return back to Junnar and take a left and go on.
Boy was that bad, it was getting late in the day and the sun was picking up, so back we swayed on the ditches, to the Shivaji Putala at Junnar and took a left. Soon we took an immediate left to the road that led to Hadsar. The road wound as we ascended past the dam (Manikdoh).
Everyone was relieved at the site of a board that said Hadsar! Well there was this little hamlet on the right of the road and a strong long rock hill stood behind to its left. That was Hadsar. At first glance it seemed pretty much ok types, post some enquiries we decided to ascent though a narrow rift that led upto the fort.
A quick initial ascent got us to the huge wide plateau and the majestic rock hill in front of us, soon we skirted towards its western end as we reached the start of ascent of a narrow rift that went steep up between two hills upto the distant fort wall. Slowly and quick we started to get up the start of this rift. This path was littered with loose mud and scree. Also bushes bunched all along the way- thick and poky ones.
The sun shone from the spotless blue sky and the rains from the past night made the climb humid. Needless to say I was the numero uno from behind the group, Anpy being Ben Johnson. Past some halts and slips and cautious ascents the twisting path made a straight road, as the two adjoining hills got closer to the top. Once atop there was this rock patch to the right, which went some 15 feet up to the plateau above.
Once up the left hillock, the smaller of the two, had nothing but a stone structure. A set of amazing rock cut steps left along the right hillock to the top of a huge plateau. It’s a true treat to walk up these steps, as its cut along the edge of the rock leaving a huge parapet (~15feet) to the open –so you essentially walk up a vent.
Atop was this vegetation all around, huge blades of grass and mushy soil everywhere and some rock paths here and there. Al little ahead, we could see the temple and a hillock bind that (we had spotted from the road). Anpy was already near its summit, while everyone else halted near the temple and wandered around.
The temple was cool, and had cow-dung camouflage some of its steps :). In front of the temple was this huge pond and diagonally on the opposite bank was a stone structure. All sorts of birds and monkeys played along the plateau. The distant ranges were simply astounding! Sitting in the temple shade held the most reliving feel.
After some chito-chat we decided to get down. This time the path decided was the one from behind using steps. Little did we know that this path was simply very tricky!
We got down the fleet of steps and came to the start of the rift and too the path down in the opposite direction. Here the path was almost the same as what we had seen when coming up, except steps replaced the scree all the way down. It looked amazing, and we felt it would be a bore getting down the fleet.
As the steps came to an end we had to take a left and walk on a thin trail. Soon the trail was just about a foot thick and disappeared at other times. The trail went along the edge with the deep valley to our right. Cactus trees and loose soil made this traverse pretty tough. Soon we came to west most edge of the hill (a little plateau). Shash and Vinayak had raced ahead and were almost down. With help of a local who was seated in a cave above we too the track to the left and went down to a little broader foot track. Finally we came down to the plateau and the point we had taken to get up, and a few minutes later reached our Sumo, which stood along side the road under the shade of a tree.
Here we took some rest, and refreshed ourselves under a hand pump nearby as Shash and Asmita helped a little village girl fill and lift her tin pots. Soon we bid adieu and road under the hot sun searching for a place to eat. It was baking at 12:30.
Soon we halted at an ST-stop for lunch rice, chappatis, bhajis, and eggs etc. etc. made up the heavy lunch menu.
From here we went on in search of Nimgiri, all Shash knew was - they were prominent twin peaks pretty close to Hadsar. So everyone kept alert for something similar. Also some locals said that it was very far. Soon came two prominent peaks –Nimgiri, and the also a white-board that held the same name.
White clouds now started to gather around, but none of them seemed to hold any rain :(, but at least that meant we could have some shade on the way up!
From here we took a little road that went up to a village. The twin peaks looked as though 2 rice bowls were inverted on top a hillock. There was this steep green path from in between the two peaks. A villager confirmed that the path went straight up that steep patch. The heat, heavy lunch and tired from the previous trek I was in no mood really to get up such steep ascents. But we had to do it, and finish it in style :D.
The initial path was simply walking along side paddy fields and via little huts till we gradually reached a little plateau. By now Asmita decided to stay down and do some bird watching (in the literal sense :D). Now we were near the base of the right edge of the peaks. The path then gradually picked up and went along a hill twisting and twining and of course with more than regular breaks to the rift-path in-between the peaks.
Yes everyone was dead tired, but Ben Johnson kept flying ahead, while the rest of us kept taking regular breaks. The path then went curling along upwards through the rift (I should say the inclination was near 50-60 degrees). Every time we found some shade it gave us more than an excuse to rest. Pretty slow and unsteady we slowly made our way up. More than one occasion I felt like giving up and getting back down or simply wait. But the heat and the simple will to get up kept pushing us up.
Soon in about 45 minutes time were at the base of the two peaks right on top. Boy were we flushed out! By now Anpy, Shash and Vinayak were atop the right peak (that had steps) and me preferred to rest at the base of the two peaks (but not for long since a cloud gave way for the pin-rays of the sun). Soon I teamed up with the rest on the steps and we rested there for a long time.
Bang in front of us (the opposite side from which we had climbed), on the other side of the valley was this wonderful mountain. It had this perfect ‘U’ shape cut on its top and a more or less flat plateau on either sides. Far behind the ‘U’ cut- beyond its valley- we could see a flat mountain with thick white cotton clods (possibly that was Harishchandragad). This ‘U’ cut mountain is called ‘Shindolya’.
Also Shash mentioned something like he was planning on a trek: Hadsar-Nimgiri-Shindolya! Everyone had a hearty laugh, given our current condition and the weather!
After some rest we went up to the plateau of the peak, which had nothing but some lakes and a lone cow standing there staring at us! No one was in a mood to get near it :D. Soon, after washing up at the water cisterns, we decided to get down.
Getting down this time did not seem to pose any issue, as usual Shash and Vinayak were racing ahead of us:). While Anpy gave slow-me company :D. We quickly and steadily got down the twist and twines down the rift and finally were at the start of the initial hillock. Here we blundered our path. We knew we had to get down, so simply start sliding down.
In about 10 minutes were at the base plateau, making our way though thickets and thorny bushes and added some bruises and finally after searching our path through the paddy fields we arrived at the Sumo. Here we went to a near by brook and refreshed ourselves before hitting the road.
The drive back was pretty shaky (the road conditions and the drive conditions), as we drove via Hadsar and eventually reached Junnar and finally halted at Narayangaon at the same hotel. Uttapa, misalpaav, dosa tea and soda was how the menu looked here. From here the drive went on the smooth road with the sky changing its color from normal to orange to shades of re to purple and finally from gray to black. Post som traffic jams we arrived at Nasik Phata, bid our good byes to Vinayak, and finally reached Mayfair by about 8:30pm.
It was an amazing day, a truly great trek. Given the fact that we did two similar treks under such hot conditions was and experience in it self. It was an end of another amazing day!
Enjoy the pics.Labels: Trek
The initial twists of the ghats were surprisingly empty all one way, this meant just one thing that came to be true in no time. There was a bad traffic jam ahead… a score of vehicles stood ahead of us, the little 4 wheels trying to overtake the giant trucks! Two wheelers kept whizzing past us at many occasions. Soon the problems were discovered, Part of the so called road was being repaired and huge trailers were on the path, so the traffic was being blocked/de-blocked at various spots, also the overtaking saga added to the drama. At one instant the Ghat full of vehicles felt so silent you could hear a pin drop, basically all the vehicles shut down as people waited for endless amount of time for the a meter to move.
For a wonder I never exceeded the 100kmph limit at any given point in time, that was a rewarding relief for my passengers’ hahaa. The weather was all-dark and the rain gods were just waiting for a deep spray, and they did so just before Khambatki Ghat. The visibility fell down to a bare few feet as vehicle kept following blinkers or taillights, This was a cloud burst (first of many to follow) and we went wiz past the ghat very soon. 
The situation was getting dark- the clock was ticking at around 5:30pm. We took a couple of halts enroute to get a feel of the awesome surroundings. The Ghat roads went up and down and through twists around the steep hill sloes into and off the clouds- it was one heavenly experience.
Soon we came went past ThoseGhar and reached Chalkewadi at the waterfalls parking lot. From here took a short hike and then descended down steps to a concrete platform from where we could see the waterfalls, three in all. It was drizzling continuously. The view was awesome and there was this cloud in a distance that emerged out of the valley. Post some Kodak moments we decided to head back.
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