Atop at Last...

Getting back to the fitness regime was looking good, with my bike heading back to the gym and everyone back home making a 5:30am spark, the norm. It was good.

I always had this urge to hike up Sinhagad during weekdays and eventually have it as a norm. Riding daily to office or crossing the mutha over bridges would always have my neck turn around trying to spot the historic twin towered hill in the distance. The next day was a Friday and I knew it had to be done. So as me folks back home got ready for their morning walk, 'zipped off with a backpack and some water. The breeze was chill, it was a good thing I wore my monkeycap. The insects and mosquitoes made sure I squint, as I made my way past the country side and eventually rode to the village of Atkarwadi.

The top of Sinhagad was covered in clouds. The foot-hills were calm as I embarked on the ascent (6:20am). The stone riddled initial path has always been an irritating patch for me and many- and it still is the same. The pace was constant- one of the many things you do as a trekker. The weather was cool, but the constant rhythm got the heartbeats high, let the perspiration loose and the breath heavy. I must confess, 'did slow down a few times to get some nice snaps. But in general the pace was constant. Overtook a villager who was guiding his buffalo up the slopes, soon walked past the half mark. (~6:45am)

The clouds were getting close and the distant valley looked beautiful! Soon overtook a couple more people and continued my ascent along the rock riddled path. I was nearing the top as the final 3 nerve wrecking 'U' paths took a start - these are basically simple paths that go parallel to the face and 'U' turn 3 times as you reach the top. Trust me its really nerve wrecking- knowing u are so close yet so far :).

I teamed myself up with a gentle man atop as the trek concluded (7:05am) - 45 mins 6seconds! Unbelievable- its almost a year since my last trek. It felt good to have such good timing. I was soaked wet in sweat and it felt wonderful! Being in clouds and wonderful views of the fogged valley below were stupendous. A few clicks, a quick breather and off I was on my way down. Enroute met many people from some "Environmental" organization hiking up - some hiked good while some were bad, but it felt good to see so many hike up despite their tiredness and not giving up. In about 35mins I was down(7:50am) and astride my bike and zipped back sqinting my eyes back home. (8:15am).

Mt. Baner

The sun was beating down and so were our spirits. We needed some shade some cool some fun. It happened, the clouds went berserk and the blue sky cast grey. The weather was beautiful and the usual timeout at our local tapri did not work the magic. The little hillock stood sweet in the cool shade and we knew what was needed- a little small hike up the Tekdi, affectionately called "Mt. Baner".

Piyush, Sanjay Mandar and myself took the usual road to the base of the hill. This time around, I wanted them to experience the steeper way up. So we took it. Not having exercised for days the climb did mandate a couple of halts. But the tiredness really did not matter as much, since the dark clouds and chill breeze kept the spirits high. Soon we were atop the hill and then made a quick ascent to the little hillock atop to the mandir (temple).

The views were stupendous. A dark cloud the size of Pune city above us, broken off along the periphery lashing water at the distance. The ranges holding Sinhagad and Torna were hidden far back. A quick breather and off we got with the property and money talk.. blah blah blah. The consistent breeze and freshness in the air kept our spirits high, soon Piyush noticed the incoming rain and that had us take a quick descent.

This time around we took the simple route (South face as we call it :D ). Lots of talks and laughs and down we were contemplating for a wadapaav and some tea. Had a lot of it Rohit wadewalle before making a dash back to the little 4x3 pen.

A couple of days later Amit did the magic talk and off we dash-ed to Mt. Baner. It was a quick quick ascent (steep route) and within the blink of an eye we were standing next to the little mandir. All was the same except the weather. It was not cool and cloudy it was wonderful clear skies with the fresh breeze.

Dusk was soon to fall and we decided to take a path that led to the hillock in the distance. Walked some distance and noticed that many trees had been planted along the hillside. Go Green was doing some awesome work atop these gentle slopes. Soon we stopped partway and decided to take in the beautiful golden sun as it set far behind the mountains. Amit pointed out to various buildings and upcoming projects down in the valley and quoted their prices... the market is improving or so he said. Well we loved the view, and we enjoyed it. The distant views of Balewadi Hinjewadi to Sus and many other areas were simply beautiful. Pune has grown.. its huge.

The atmosphere turned golden as the huge orange ball lost itself behind the mountain. We had to head back before dark. This time we descended the steep route and soon were at the base and trotted back to office for fresh snacks.

The tekdi/Mt.Baner is a wonderful gym for nature enthusiasts. Like Amit put it "muscles wagere kahi nahi re.. stamina ahe stamina... biceps wallyana race lavayla saang aplya barober ani kasse phattete bag tyanchi ... " before narrating a story how he easily trotted off ahead against a fit muscle man to the top of Mt. Baner!

GodGiri

I once happened to browse the past trekking albums of VxTrek and came across this stupendous pic. from the "Boratyachi Naal" trek. I was awestruck looking at the degree of steepness and difficulty that was involved in that one pic. The pic. displayed concentration, alertness and definitely the zest that many call irrational moves (and others like me call cool,must-do etc etc.) I did talk to most involved in that trek. Addy was being modest -"Its not that steep and difficult as it appears in that pic. you see, remember "Naalichi Waat" trek- its similar to that". Anpy had a similar modest answer. Gondhya said the trek was great and fantastic and he had all rights to be elated- the pic was taken by him. All shared a common thought "When descending that Naal- it simply does not end, you get tired getting down man!".

Its since that day, I always wanted to do this trek and more so a trek called "RajMargh" which spans all the way from Sinhagad to Raigad covering RajGad, Torana, BoratyachiNaal and LinganaMachi and supposedly lasts for roughly five days.

In the snap from left to right -Anpy-Sanjay-Addy

Put in Gondhya's own words "Chakke Godgiri keli re amhi!"

A fascinating gift...

I always wanted to have one of these bags with a tube jutting off it (Hydration bags). The first time I ever got to see (and sip from) one of these was during my paragliding courses. No sooner did Avi (my instructor) show his hydration pack did we jump like thirsty monsters and almost finished off the whole reserve :). It was a "camelback" hydra-pack I guess.

The concept is really cool. A simply backpack with a 1-2 liter plastic bag that holds the fluid (water/hydration supplements err.. err...) and a tube that comes off it with a rubber stopper like thing at the other end from which you suck the liquid. Its really a handsfree water bottle for that matter.

So ok it looks fascinating, how was it supposed to practically help me other than looking like a showoff item? This backpack can come handy in almost any situation you demand (so long as you don’t feel weird wearing and sucking water off the tube). Practically accepted of course in any adventure/outdoor activity you demand - trekking / bicycling / paragliding / snowboarding / jogging / motor-biking etc etc. I mean if you get too geeky you could sit with one in your office cubicle as you type away... but that’s the reason mentioned the previous list under 'Practically accepted" else you would end up in the wild with hoards of people sucking water in a ration queue or at the bus stop... aggh... my thoughts running wild.

I was meeting Sriram (my cousin) after a long long time. We chatted a lot and he gifted me this backpack and said "you can fill water in this...", I said "oh wow ... its a hydration bag...", he said "yes... here you go". Wow.. I was really happy and am, really, still admiring the bag. It’s a blue "High Sierra" 2 liter Hydration bag. Its amazing - its a very good-go for a small hike (single day) also has a provision to hold you helmet (cycling) and a hook to hang all sorts of things. Really really cool.

Just another reason to get my bums on the saddle again! :)

Mardana hike...

This was pictured about a year or more back with Amty spelling Sagargad in all styles and rhymes. Amty cried again Sagargad and we went on this trek on Saturday with Amty and nike being the drop offs :P

The day started with me shedding some skin and blood to PMC's wonderful work off Ganeshkind road. The delayed start got us off Ady's house by about 6:30am having picked Anpy and Jay from their locations we were soon cruising (err.. going ... the sumo driver was a cautious slow coach :-) ) the expressway. Took our first halt at the food mall post Malawli where we relished on some sumptuous pohe and tea. Anpy always seemed to to get the bigger share of cake :P.

Soon we took the Khopoli exit and took the road towards Pen. The roads were good and they were tolled :(. Soon we rode past Pen got off the NH17 and took on the Alibaugh road. Post some inquiries took the straight road leaving the Alibaugh bifurcation behind (Alibaugh was some 4 kms from here). Few villages later we reached Khanadle and took the kuccha path to the start of the climb.

Siddeshwawadi is nothing more than a collection of a few hutments. This is where our hike took its start(~10:30 am). We already had spotted the Siddheshwar Math waterfall. The path was broad and straightforward. The place was green and the weather was humid. The reptiles and crabs kept dancing around as were moved ahead. A few clicks and some hike later we reached the steps that go up to Siddheswar Math and Sagargad.

These steps really were not a spoiler, it was the weather that seemed to take a toll on us. Up steady incline, a consistent pace and glasses of sweat later we came up to a point from where we got a wonderful view of the waterfall and the twin domes of the Math atop it. This was our first halt for the day. Anpy soon carried on. At this place there was little hump to the right from where we got a stupendous view of the surroundings, unfortunately the day was cloudy but thankfully this place being in the open was windy and kept the humidity at bay. Before we could leave we spotted the racing Anpy atop at a huge distance :) (~11am).

The path ahead was a little forgiving, in the sense there were not much steps and the inclination was not too steady and steep. Very soon we walked through 2 logs of wood (like a gate) and were at the bifurcation. The path ahead (right) led down to the Math and the left going up went to Sagargad. Anpy was missing, we assumed him to be at the Math so went down and called out for him a lot, in response we had two dogs barking back at us from the closed doors of the Math. Well we decided to move on assuming Anpy to be somewhere atop.

The rest of the path was not too inclined and soon we came up to a clearing and saw a few village houses, post some inquiry we got directions and carried forth and passed another few houses and saw Anpy in a distance next to a stream dancing and waving out at us. He had gotten the direction for the fort and so we carried on with his lead. The path went through many paths and then we started following stones with marked arrows and also some locals giving us directions. The path later went into clouds and visibility dropped to a few meters. Soon the path started going down along the edge of the hill.

We reached a place where there was an idol with sindoor tikas all over it, next to it was a dome like stuff out of rubble (we assumed it to be one of the 7 tombs of satichi maal) (~12 pm). The path then went from the right as we followed arrows and went up and reached a plateau with a hump in dense clouds. A little wandering later we went up the hump which seemed to be organized in 2 or 3 layers. A few bells and whizzles later we decided to carry on.

Here again we took a path that went up the right edge and reached the top at a clearing. This plateau was huge, I mean really huge. It was littered with Karwandache jhaad :). We wandered a little and came to this spot where we could hear weird noises "pwan pwanpwan... durr bruuk". And the noise was loud- animated. Thats when we spotted huge I mean huge toads along the little lakes. They were plain noisy man!

Being cloudy with the consistent drizzles we could not spot VanarLingi pinnacle ('arrey ek vanar disat nahi ahe .. tyache lingi kutthun disnaar' as Ady put it :-) ). This is where the major attraction of the trek, as Anpy put it "wassol zhalli ahe", started -Plucking and munching on sweet and sour karwande of the millions hanging off the thousands of trees. This session just never seemed to end, Jay was tossing in the black fruit like he were munching groundnuts! Lots of persuals later we go on to get inside the fortification section. The path was from the left side.

This is when the rain picked up. Inside it was a tick jungle, we had to bend and jump over shrubs and cobwebs a lot. Soon we walked past a couple of good clearings and explored the length and breath of this place. It was just ruins and shrubs all around. Here we picked a spot in the clearing and had our lunch - curd rice, shira parathe ladoo was the menu of the hour. We lazed a little and decided to move on. (~1:30pm).

We explored a little more, but really found nothing other than ruined walls and thickets. backtracking proved to be a tough job too, with the jungle and numerous path ways it was easy. Btw. Anpy had filled in a bag full of karwande by now. I even got to see the fruit the size of a plumb! Mushrooms in this area too were weird, like round balls on the ground looked like dried lemons.

The return hike got us off the hill, clouds and the dhaba dhab rains and we were down on the green plateau. Here we lost Anpy and lots of confusion later we were back together and tracking our way back to the village. Once at the village we spent some time at the stream and had a good time cracking jokes and dancing fools around. Now the clouds had given way and the skys were open. We could spot the Arabian sea in a distance. Oh what a wonderful sight it was! It felt really good and different, I mean you are on a hill fort and you can see the ocean ahead- thats something different. (~2:30pm)

We hiked on and got down to the Siddheshwar Math. The dogs were missing and so were any souls. The place was quit and cool- just the rubbish the idiotic picnic crowds litter around was visible down the slopes and next to the waterfall. The arabian sea again made a wonderful sight from here. Soon left the Math behind and we made a slow cautious descent down the slippery steps to the ground below. The humidity was on.

Singing songs and yapping all sorts of things and just about anything; we came down to the start of the steps and took the walk back to our parked sumo. Here we changed over to dry clothes and made a move. (~5pm).

Enroute we halted at Pen for some snacks and rode on, spotted many other hill forts on the way back as we hit the expressway via Khalapur. By now we were taking nap breaks as we slowly went by the crowded expressway that we eventually got off and dropped Jay at Chinchwad station and Anpy at his house.

Eventually Ady and me got back home and a hot cup of tea later I slowly and cautiously made my way back home astride the now bruised CBZ.

This was an eventful trek- the accident, the humid climb, the karwande trees , the clouds, the sight of the Arabian sea and so much more! The good news -I am not fractured and the better news -take a week's rest :).

Dehydrated from Bhimashankar to Siddhagad!

Having trekked up to Siddhagad the last weekend with Addy via Narivali up a wrong path and having gone to teh peak and back down, it was decided by me that the next time I come to this palce I would not scale the peak just reach till siddhagdwadi stay at the quiant and friendly village have a refreshing bath at the well and return back.

Well, 2 weekends hence, I was to return back to Siddhagad. This time the path to be taken was via Bhimashanker, and according to the locals at Siddhagadwadi it was presumably just a simple descent for about 4 hours.

After the ritual dropouts only Amit and me were to rock the heat down the trek.

We met at Mayfair(Wakedewadi) at roughly 5:20 and rushed down towards the Shivajinagar ST stand. To out good omen we got the 5:30am ST bound to Bhimashanker just in time. We had to stand till we reached Bhosari from where we got sme place to sit. Cramping out huge bags with the sleeping mat was point of attraction for many of our fellow commuters. Soon we went past Ked ->Manchar eventually took a left towards Bhimashankar. The ST conductor said we had to get off at Kondhawal phta to reach Kondhwal village. So eventually after twisting and twinging the rugged landscape we got into the dense forested section where we evetually alighed at Kondhwal phata.

To out dismay this was a pure tar-road walk all teh way to Kondhwal. Well so we carried along through the road under teh winderful shade of trees and eventully walked into the open and were marching on teh back carpet under the scorching heat. Evetually after a few misses and snaps we spotted Kondhwal village. The village lies to th eleft side of the tar road and cannot be spotted easily from a distance as its hiddent to the left.

Here, at the village, we met one Mr. Pandurang Dhamse who was a suppositedly some chief forest staffer. Had some fresh sweet tea and good time talking t loacals. The village was vibrant for there was an engagement cermony that day. Soon we left the village and took directions for our march towards Siddhagad. We were told to reach this place called "Bhatti", which is offtrack the main path to the left of the bridge. The indication to realize that we were in "Bhatti" was a forest machin /watch tower. Here we did the grave mistake of assuming Bhatti to be a village and that the machan would be easily visible from the track.

SO back on the tar road we continued our steady march towards Kondhwal, which we were told we would reach in about 2- 2 1/2 hours time. Soon we spotted another village to the right and this too was a part of Kondhwal village. Thr tar road eneded at this village and then we were walking on a broad well defined dirt track. All the way we kept meeting a lot of villagers walking towards Kondhwal (they were from "Ahupe" village) to attend the engagement ceremony. Everyone kept asking us where were headed for, where we were from, why we walked so much etc. etc. We wished we had a recoreded message that kept playing back the answers :D.

By now, Amit was geting really tired and his legs started to take a toll for all the tar road walk we had undertaken. His unter shoes were just not the right footware for tar roads. So post many rest breaks we eventually came to this rocky bridge. But not having spotted any Machan from here we though we would have to walk along for more time. So we continued our hike and eventually reached this hillock as the route took a right and the path started to vanish under the thick bushes and trees adn wines. I pursuaded to carry on, but Amit said this might not be the one and we decided to head back to the bridge.

Well so we backtracked and spotted a lot of cattle near the bridge, from here we took a right and walked towards a rocky fence (this was something like a marked boundary), soon we spotted the machan hidden behind a line of trees in the open ground in front of a litte pond. We were totally exited and knew the village would be somewhere nearby. Soon we we started walking along the rocky fence and realised theer were many such fences going criss cross. We hunted a lot but could spot any village or villager! Eventually we were geting tired and the sun was geting too hard to handle, so we decided to walk back to the machan and have lunch either atop the machan or near the bridge and hope to spot someone who could help us with the directions.

Once atop the machan, it was a lovely feeling siting across this pond and geting a fair view of the surroundings. Here we had our lunch, and decided to go back to the road and wait for someone. By now, we started to contemplate on what our plan of action sould be, should we not find the path. We decided we would return back to Bhimashankar and get down to Khandas teh following day via "Shiddi chi waat". We were also contemplating on various possiblities of a viallage near by, but the place seemed so isolated, and not one human in sight but just some cattle. The cattle made us confident that we spot someone. Just as we were thinking of these possiblities, out of the blues we saw a shepard walking down the ground and towards us. He was smiling and waved his hands as he saw us. Boy were were overjoyed! Soon he came up the machan and said that we were actually on teh right track, and that "Bhatti " was not a village rather just a name for this entire place! WE soon learnt his name was Mr. Lokhande and he was from the "Ahupe" village. For us Mr. Lokahnde was an angel in disguise, had we not spotted him we were to go back to the road and we would never have spotted anyone!

Soon we were done with our lunch and had a very friendly guide with us, hge agreed in showing us the path till a point from where we could never go wrong. The path basically was to walk towards a pinaccle we could see ahead to the right and take the path to the right of the hillock and walk into the jungle towards a well.

Well our guide led the way and we followed him till the well, from there we walked around the well not to the left! and got out into a clearing and from took a right path that led into a jungle. From here we bid farewell to our guide and took the path via the jungle. The path was through a thick jungle, we spotted monkeys and also I guess I heard a barking deer, the path was straighforwards and it climbed up a little till we came to another clearing and through another jungle and were out and could see the rocky footh path going down and a litle dirt track towards the left.

We were stading at the mouth of the valley. Far far below was the village of Uchale and Narivali (noe of them were visible ) and the valley was just too deep, I lost a breath and skipped a couple of heartbeats as we watched in awe down this amazing ravine! We were actally standing at the mouth of a waterfall that went down to Sakharmachi.

From here we took the left dirt path that went down the waterfall. The path was too rocky and we could just image what a site would this be in the monsoons. The descent was pretty steep but was also very comfortable. Soon as we were descending I started geting second thoughts if were along teh right track, as I soon realised we were going towards Sakharmachi and not Siddhagadwadi (at this point I was not aware were were on the right track, and had to take left and traverse mountains to reach Siddhagadwadi, though I did know we had to traverse a lot- but I was not sure it was such a long traverse). Again we started contemplating things, Amit said maybe we had to go down and them climb back up. I was dead sure, this was all wrong and that there would be no ascent involved afer this descent!

So as we were relaxing at one point and discusing on teh next course of action, we met our next Angel! :). WE met this person descending behind us. Hi name was Mr. Bhagwan and was from Uchale and was returning to Uchale. HE said we were on teh right track, and that we had to take a left at one point and that path would lead straight towards siddhagad traversing via a couple of mountaings. We were releived and he gladly showed led us down teh path and towards the point from where we had to take a left. This left was a camoflourged left (I mean it is easily visible, just that its not an obvious left turn!). Here we bid farewell to our Angel no. 2 and too and the path to the left.

The path was straighforward and just as rocky. Soon we crossed onr waterfall and started circumventing the mountain that held "Damdamiya dongar" . "SakaharMachi" was clearly visible from here, and we counted our lucky stars for not returning to Bhimashankar or not going down all the way to Uchale!

Here the path was mostly shady and through a lot of trees, all teh time te valley was to the right and the mountain face was to the left. Soon we crossed another ravine and took a brea at one nice shady spot. Here we had some fruits and soon continued the hike. Afetr a turn Siddhagad made its majestic presence known in a distance, we were releaved and instantly recharged for the hike ahead. Soon we could spot "SiddhachiLingi" as we crossed another ravine (the water fall path we had taken the last time to get up to Siddhgadwadi). The path was pretty straightforward and soon we came to this flat patch where we got rid of our backpacks and took a moment and relaxed- we were on the Siddhgadwadi Patthar with Siddhachi lingi behind us the path ahead went to the main entrance for Siddhagad the valley below went all the way to Narivali and the distand mountain on the other side of the valley held "SakharMachi" !

Soon we walked along teh path and reached the dilapitated steps to the fort entrance to Siddhagad. Once inside we too a right and the broad path went ahead. To the top on teh left was the "Narmata Devi" temple (it basically looked like an old shed. We decided to visit this temple the next day morning. By now I was sure I would not be climbing upto Siddhagad as my shoe soles were way, as for Amit he was pretty tired. We countinued the walk and soon saw a lot of kids playing around breaking mangoes, as we finally reached "Siddhgadwadi".

Here we met Nemade family (We knew them from the last trek), and decided to set camp in the quadrangle of a neighbouring house (no one stayed here now). WE relished on some amazing tea and had a good talk with "Gangubai Nemade", she said "Tanaji", her son, was away for some marriage and other men in the village too were away for various marriages. She also said that the "baba" who stayes partway up the steep climb to the Siddhagad top was away, as he was unwell. We were sogging wet and tired from the long hike, so we decided to have a refreshing bath at the village well. We took along a bucket with a rope tied to its handle to fetch water from the well. Taking bath against the distant sunset with the hazy pinacles of Gorakgad and Damdamiya visible in a distace was an amazing and totally recharding experience. Amit declared he would climb siddhagad the next day morning.

Back at the quadrangle, we laid out our sleeping mats and had some refreshments. At about 8pm We had an amazing dinner of "Dal Bhat and usal" at "Nemade's" house. The food was delicious and pungent :). The village dog, cat hens etc kept roaming around as we had food and had a great time chatting with the members of the house.

Soon dinner was done, and we retreated back for some rest. It was half moon, and the view was excellent. Also the clouds had come in from the Bhimashankar side into the valley. Had some night-photographic moments post which we discussed on teh practicalities for the next days trek. Afetr calculating teh timings it seems it would be about 12 mid night by the time we reach home if we attempted the Siddhagad peak climb, so we decided to ditch the hike.

The night was vibrant with the costant noise of the buffalos muching their grup, farting and what not. Well eventually the sleepy village went al quiet and we were awake the next morning with the alarm at about 6am. The clouds were low in the valley and it was an awsome site! Clouds everywhere, soon we were done with our morning rituals and had some refreshing tea. Post this at about 7am we decided to head back to Nariwali. Amits legs were pretty stiff, and it made our decission easy not to atempt the peak climb.

Dejected and yet satisfied we walked back to teh fort door, on the way we payed a visit to the "Narmata devi" temple. It was an old delapitated hut with lots of rock stones stewn around, all had ancient inscriptions of them. Having taken a look around we headed down to the door.

From here the descent was the immediate left from the door and went down and at times along side a waterfall and it crossed the waterfall a couple of times. Here we spotted a lot of monkeys playing around and saw the Siddhagadwadi grow in hight for every foot of descent. In about an hour we were at the base and on open land, from here we walked along teh left path and eventually we came to a broad path, soon in about abother half hours we came along side rehabilitated village of Siddhagdwadi - " Siddhagad pada". Here we sat uner teh shade of a tree and had our breakfast and tok some timeout to relax. We payed a visit to the village, and Amit got lucky to spot a village pet peacock. We refreshed ourselves a the village pump, and carried on the hike back to the village of Narivali.

In less than half hour we came to the village and we walked past the concrete roads and acros a huge field to the main road where we stopped at a little shop for some refreshments. Soon we got a jeep which was overful with humans :) and in half hour we were at Mahsa. We had to wait for the 12:15 ST from Mahsa to Karjat, finally got the bus to Karjat. From Karjat we took an ST to Khopoli at about 1:30pm. Here we had lunch at a local hotel and then from Khopoli we got an ST to Lonavala at about 2:30pm. We did have a long halt at Lonavala, so we decided to buy some Chikkis etc from the Market. From Lonavala we got the 4:20pm local to Pune-Shivajinagar.

Finally we were back to Mayfair by about 7:15pm and back home by around 8pm.

It was a fantastic trek, a trek to cherish for a long time to come!

Enjoy the snaps!

These were the time lines and expenditure for the trek:
The Trek Path (descent portion from Sakharmachi waterfall to Siddhagad wadi)

Day1:
Travel : Pune - Bhimashankar
Trek : Kondhwal Phatta -(3kms)- Kondhwal -(4kms)- Bhatti -(~4kms)- Siddhagadwadi

->05:30am : bus from Shivajinagar to Bhimashankar. (~90/- per head)
->09:20am : reach Kondhawal phata
->10:30am : reach Kondhwal village
->11:00am : leave from Kondhwal village
->12:50pm : Lost near Bhatti
->13:15pm : spot the machan
->14:45pm : March via Bhatti towards Siddhagad/Sakharmachi descent (50/- for the help)
->15:20pm : Reach the mouth of the Konkan valley
->17:20pm : Reach the Siddhgadwadi plateau.
->17:50pm : Reach Siddhagadwadi base village.

Day2:
Trek : Siddhagadwadi -(~5kms)- Narivali
Travel : Narivali - Mahasa - Karjat - Khopoli - Lonavala - Pune

->07:00am : Start from Siddhagadwadi (100/- for stay + dinner)
->07:15am : Visit Narmata devi temple
->07:25am : Start the descent
->08:15am : Reach the base
->08:45am : Reach the rehabilated Siddhagadwadi village, have breakfast.
->10:15am : Start off from the village
->11:00am : Reach Narivali
->11:45am : Reach by jeep to Mahsa (7/- per head)
->13:30pm : Reach by ST to Karjat (30/- per head)
->14:30pm : Reach by ST to Khopoli (11/- per head + 78/- for lunch)
->16:30pm : Reach by ST to Lonavala (10/- per head)
->07:00pm : Reach by local to Pune(Shivajinagar) (13/- per head)

Total expenditure ~550/-
Total travel expenditure ~161/- per head.

SweaTrek (Hadsar-Nimgiri)

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.

No Madhu but MakrandGad

Its been quiet a while since I really trekked as in TREK! Shash had already started the new monsoon season for VxTreks. Madhu-MakrandGad was next on the hitlist! This is one trek I wanted to do, since I had heard so much about this from many friends. The mails floated around, and finalised 6 of us for the trek!
Saturday (19th Aug) morning at roughly 6:30 am all of us (Shash/Anpy/Amty/Nike/Vipin and myself) departed from MayFair, enroute Mandy called in so we picked him up at Padmavati and off went the seven of us into the dark clouds via Katraj Ghat, leaving the city dry behind.

The breakfast had its routiene halt at Natraj, idlis wadas uttapas upit tea and coffee is how the menu looked. Soon we departed from here and we hit the highway. Taking a turn at the Wai phata we left the hightway behind and entered the wet country roard as it twisted through green medows lined with trees on either side.

Soon we entered the first ghat section, enroute Mahableshwar. Boy was the driver on steroids every twist and turn put some sleep others had heavy heads and me ented up with a lousy stomach :(. Well whatever we went on through Panchgani then Mahableshwar and finally through another wierd twisty twiny ghat. Fianlly we took a left at the end of this ghat as we started twist-ascending :) another hill. Finally post some enquiries, and dirty track driving we arrived at out destination -Hatlot village.

There was no sign of MakrandGad from here, but the pros knew the track and the villagers helped us get on the right one. So on we hiked up a set of steps then went over an iron bridge and finally hiked through beautiful green fields. From here we the terrain kep climbing up as we got up one step field next to a bufallow and into the jungle.

From here, the path was all covered with mud and and red soild mix types, thus making it pretty slippery. If this was not enough , the inclination of the climb too was pretty steep. Well I decided to keep a brisk pace initially, but realized it was too steep for the speed I took, and that got me tired. Eventually the path went through a thing jungle with a graduall path. Finally again after a few steep inclinations, we came up to an opening.

Here we had to walk along a green medow atop the plateau, and finally we came upto this house like structure. Basically we had arrived on the backside of Ghonaspur village (according to Amty and Mandy). The house structure basically was the village temple on its outskits. Inside, there was this hge quadrangle with some strtuctures here and there.

We met a local, who said that it made no sense attepting Madhu peak, as it would not offer any views(accroding to him one ca see the coast of Ratnagiri from here! .. wOWOW!). Also he said that going to the water cistern -which basically was a steep descent from the top- was pretty risky and left it upto us. So what he seemed to say is "why the hell are u guyz here at this time" :)). But he was a sweet inqusitive old-man. Finally we bid our farewell, as we made our was from temple to the top of the fort.

The climb again was pretty steep, and went along a thing trail. It twisted and twined to teh top of a little hunch. From here we could see we had gained some height. Then goin on to the right up we could see the first fort wall, everyone though thats where we are supposed to go! So snapped some patel shots before embarking on the climb.

The climb was gradual, as we skirted along the right side of the fort wall and then tok a steep left upwards, just to realize we had to climb some more (over another hunch with simillar morphology). So on we walked, in a simillar totpography and once up we had a graduall ascent and a finally steep step to teh top.

Anpy was up there next to a carved stone, greeting us tail-enders.Top the hunch was not that huge , straigh ahead was this temple. We ran stright to it. Got rid of our shoes and sat on the wet floor. Out came the tiffins and we relished on chappatis, bhajjis, rice and eggs! Wow was it a mouthfull, amazing food after a loong break!

Well after some rest, we planned on attmpting the water cistern and Madhu peak. The path went from behing the temple and to the right. Shash and Anpy were amongst the first ones to go down the steep descent, but just return with bad news that it was too steep and too far.

So we decided on attempting Madhu peak. The walk to the peak was throgh some thick growth on the backside of the temple, then when hump ended and thare was these little ups and downs over the top extremely narrow (just say over 40 cms wide at places) ridge opping off 100s of feet on either side. Anpy led the way, but we decided to stop just before the Madhu hump(we presume it was that), since the path was geting extremely slippery and way too dangerous. So we took a few deep breaths before heading back to the temple.

At the temple we picked our sacks, and did some TP exploration atop before geting down the narrow steep slippery path to Ghonaspur. Enroute we met a villager who directed us the path, very slow and cautious steps (and a couple of really close calls for me) got us to the village down below.

By now the clouds gave some clearence, so we could visualize the Makarand part of the fort.:). The walk continued along the plain, alomg side the gren field and little streams. We met a villager enroute, who as the other few we met earlier (some I did not mention) was surprised at the fact that we were climbing without raincoats in such weather :).

Soon as the walk continued the jungle came in, by now Nike raced off much ahead. For some reason the descent seemed pretty ok for me. Eventually Shash too sped off and I was left trailing alone. Soon enough Anup was fast behind me, but decided to wait for the others to catch up as I head for the clearing down after the jungle.

The descent was triky at times, especialy at the steep points. But everyone went through with no hiches. The sumo could be spotted in a distace parked at the village. As I was crosing the iron bridge I noticed Nike and Shash changing to fresh clotes by the river. That when I wanted to have a bath in the chill waters. Soon tooka bath and changed to clean and dry clothes. Everyone teamed in and got fresh, some changd to better clothes.

Back in the Sumo the drive retraced its path via the various Ghats to the Ghat full of wateralls (This time I took the front seat -thanks Nike). At this Ghat we took a little haly near a waterfall to have some roasted corn and hot tea. The views of the aterfalls were amazing, and in the distance we could spot PratapGad. People were dancing all over the waterfall and making a fool of themselves as were munched on corn and enjoyed their shown over a hot cup of tea.

From here the drive continued on, and we took a halt at Mahableshwar at Mapro Garden. Here we had some of the best grilled sandwiches, and amazing ice-cream and coffee. Everyone purchces their bulk of Mapro products (jams, surups, juices sweets etc. etc.).

Furthur on the drive continued throuugh the Ghats, we took a halt enroute to capture some picterisque moments, and play a round of musical chairs as people on the were geting a churning stomach. The driver only knew the road and the wheel, he did not carefor the potholes or the passengers in the car, what was more a prank caller managed to get him off his nerve and drive at neck-breaking speeds.

For most o the drive I dozed of, so did the others I presume. All of this was broken as we neared Pune, via Katraj Ghat to Mayfair as the potholes managed to lay the welcome carpet for the city of Pune. :)

It was about 8:30pm when we were back at MayFair, and bid our goodbyes!

Enjoy the snaps