TREMALS - The Trekking Mammals

Trek : Mrigagad, Paaymodi Ghat and Andharban

Participants : Manoj Bhave, Abhijeet Kesarkar, Girish Ganoo, Nikhil Karyekar, Hrushikesh Khare, Imran Vasta

Date : 23rd & 24th Nov 2013

Plan was to trek Mrigagad and Paaymodi ghat on day one and either Dere ghat (Ghutkyachi vaat) or Andharban on day two. The trek turned out to be exhausting due to heat and humidity. Six of us started on 23rd Nov morning by Pali/Thanale S.T. from Khopat Stand, Thane at 6.15 am. Got down at Parli and caught a six-seater for Bheliv which is base village for Mrigagad and also for Paaymodi ghat. At 10 am we started for Mrigagad fort and like my last experience got lost in the bloody jungle. Ascended some trail and then had to tackle a tricky traverse to get to the chimney followed by rock-cut steps. Mrigagad also has an underground cave similar to one in Peb. We explored the fort, saw few water cisterns and then returned back to Bheliv.

At 12.30 pm we started for Paaymodi ghat with 2 guides from Bheliv – Akshay and Subhash (2 Young Guns of the village). Initial 35-40 mins is through the plains before we reached the starting point of the ascent. Although much part of the ascent is through the jungle the afternoon sun burning down on us took a toll on us in this steep ascent. About halfway there is a water tank with potable water in it. But it is located at about couple of mins of deviation from the main route and can be easily missed. At this point we left our guides since the route ahead was single trail without complications. Somewhere around 4.45 pm we completed the ascent but it was not the end of the trek. It takes an hour of traversing and walking on plateau to reach the human civilization. Meanwhile Hrushikesh and Nikhil were left behind, lost the trail and did some rock climbing stunts. We reached a small private road in the interiors and had to walk about 10 mins to reach Fantacy Resort on Lonavala – Amby valley road. This point is somewhere around 3 kms ahead of the Loins point. The ghat lived upto its name and someone has cleverly named it as Paaymodi (Foot-breaking). On the route we met about 3 local villagers who were descending the ghat after finishing a day’s work on the Lonavala hills station. Daily up and down the ghat plus the day’s work for livelihood. Salute to strength and stamina of these guys.

It was about 6.30 pm and dark. First day of the trek was done but we were way behind the schedule since we had grossly miscalculated to reach here at about 4 pm. Girish was to return back to Mumbai from this point since he promised to join us for only one day. Abhijeet also returned with him as he was not feeling feel. They took a lift from a truck and were headed towards Lonavala. The remaining 4 of us sat there re-evaluating our further plans after the delayed finish of day 1’s trek. As per our info the last bus for Bhambarde was at 4.30 pm at this spot and that was way gone. Our initial plan of day 2 was almost down the drains.

So as a change of plan we were pondering to go to Korigad and do our night stay or go to Ambavane and do the Nisanichi vaat on day 2. All this weird plans were going thru our mind as my mobile rang. Girish called up saying he saw an ST passing by and we could catch that one. We all took our sacks and were on alert. After a while the ST arrived and generous driver stopped it as well after our frantic waving of hands. I was ahead and asked the conductor where the ST was heading. The conductor asked us instead where we wanted to go. I thought of saying Ambavane first, but then I took a chance and told him Bhambarde. To our surprise the conductor said hop in. We were pleasantly surprised and jumped into the ST. The conductor said this was the last bus in that region for the day. Its timing is 6 pm from Lonavla and it is resident (Mukami) bus to Barpe with routing as Lonavala-Ambavane-Salter-Tailbala Faata-Bhambarde-Barpe.

This meant we were back on tracks for our day 2 plan. We reached Bhambarde at about 7.30 pm and started for our 3 kms walk on tar road towards Ghutka village. After 1 km Ghutka Faata came and we turned right. As we just moved ahead the resident (mukami) bus of Ghutka (from Swargate) came and we boarded the bus to cover the remaining one and half km. We did night stay in the mandir in Ghutka village. We enquired with the conductor whether this bus (as per our guess) goes to Pimpri and he said no.

So next morning we got up early at 5.15 am and caught this bus which left at 6 am and reached Bhambarde. From Bhambarde we caught the Telbaila- Swargate bus and reached Pimpri at around 7.30 am. We immediately marched towards Andharban. The route starts next to a small water storage dam at about 10 mins distance from Pimpri village. There is a Samadhi of Shri Navji Balkawade on the trail not too far from the start. From Samadhi another trail goes to Siner Khind and till Gothe village behind Siner Khind. Just after the Samadhi we got a breath taking view of the valley and Bhira dam at the end. We crossed few dry streams and soon found one which had a clean water source where we had our breakfast. Andharban route is an easy and pleasant jungle trail from Pimpri to Hirdi village which can be covered in 3 to 4 hours. It is a combination of traverse and plateau with most part of the route covered with jungle and is flat without many ups and downs. There are many streams on the route and should be an exciting trail in monsoon.

We reached Hirdi at about 11 am. We rested there for about an hour, had a cup of tea in the village and started our descend towards Bhira at about noon. It took us about 2 hours to descend and the heat was back to torture us. Reached Bhira dam to mark the end of trek, rested and had our lunch. Found out from locals that the bus service from Bhira to Pali is not operative since last 3-4 days due to some maintenance activity on the road. So in our bid to reach Pali we took six seater to Vile and from Vile another six seater to Nandgaon. Here we luckily got the Koshimbale-Thane S.T. which was late.

This trek went off schedule and almost went off plan by the fag end of day 1 but was again back on schedule because of Girish’s presence of mind to call us and inform about the passing ST. Thanks a lot Girish. God bless u.

Yours trekkingly

Imran Vasta

AHUPE TO SIDDHAGAD

Date : 5th and 6th October 2013

Participants : Manoj Bhave, Varun Bhosale, Pankaj Singh and Imran Vasta.

On 5th and 6th October we did cross country trek from Ahupe to Siddhagad. Initially we decided to do Vajantri ghat to Bhimashankar. But we changed the plan and instead did this one. This trek could be done either way Ahupe to Siddhagad or vice-versa. We preferred to do Ahupe to Siddhagad since all the ascending part is done on day 1. Day 2 is only cross country and descend. Three of us were supposed to meet at Kalyan at 12 noon on 5th Oct Saturday. But we had last minute entrant Pankaj Singh who called at 11.45 am and said he would be joining the trek. So finally we caught 2 pm bus at Kalyan and went to Murbad. Murbad to Mhasa by Minidor and Mhasa to Khopivali by jeep. We started our trek at 4.30 pm from Khopivali and ascended Ahupe ghat. Reached Ahupe village by 8.15 pm with the aide of torchlights and had our night stay at Vithal mandir in the village with the initial greetings of Hari paath.

Next morning we started at 7.30 am from Ahupe village towards Siddhagad along with a guide Shantaram Asavale of Ahupe village. There are two options – one via Gaaydara ghat and other via Tavli ghat (through Sakhar machi). The guide and the locals told the Tavli ghat is steep and risky with screes at open ends. So we took the safer option. This is a pleasant cross-country experience. We initially took the Ahupe to Kondhval cart route and saw a Shekru (Indian Giant squirrel) on the way. After crossing the Ganesh statue (naturally created on a huge stone), we left this cart trail and took a right turn to ascend to one of the most exotic and isolated plateaus. Also we thanked our decision to take a guide or else we would have been lost for hours searching for the exact trail. After walking for a while we were excited to realize that there were footsteps of deers on our trail. And crossing the dense plantations into a small open stretch we had a glimpse of a pair of deers hurdling towards the jungle.

Just before the end of the plateau we saw a prominent and huge saffron-coloured arrow showing the direction of Yetoba temple which is on the top of the mountain to the right of the plateau. We moved ahead at the end of the plateau to see one of the most scenic views of Sahyadri. Straight ahead Siddhagad stood strong behind the Damdamia hills. On the left was the Gaaydara ghat with the view of entire valley and on the right was Sakhar machi village. Further behind we also had a glimplse of Narivali village. We turned left from this plateau in our bid to reach the mouth of Gaaydara ghat. There were lots of saffron coloured arrows marked on stones on this route. This arrows serves as direction to the local villagers to Yetoba temple.

After 2 hours at around 9.30 am we reached the mouth of Gaaydara ghat. This is the point where the (Bhimashankar to Siddhagad) route coming from Kondhval joins. We descended the ghat and took a left towards Damdamia hills (the right from here takes to Sakhar machi). We traversed along the Damdamia hills and on the top of the mountain right to us above the Sakhar machi we cited the Yetoba temple’s top couple of times amidst the fog. We reach the Darwaza of Siddhagad at around 11.30 am. Here we left our guide and started our descend towards Narivali village. Had our lunch on the way and from Siddhagad pada we marched straight ahead to Uchala village i/o Narivali to mark the end of an exciting cross country experience at around 3.10 pm. The fun was not over yet and after waiting for about an hour for transportation we caught a jeep and traveled standing on the footboard outside for about 10-12 kms upto Mhasa. Pankaj was on the top of jeep doing Chhaiya Chhaiya.

An exhilarating and exhausting trek with memorable experiences of citing a Shekru, a pair of deers, couple of snakes, exotic & isolated flower-laden Sahyadri plateau , the perfect weather with slight drizzle & fog and of course out of the jeep travelling experience.

Yours trekkingly

Imran Vasta

Thanale caves, Waghjai ghat, Telbaila & Savashni ghat.

Date : 3-4 Nov 2012

Participants : Subodh Bhave, Varun Bhosale, Ramkrishna Chauhan, Prashant Salian & Imran Vasta

I want to start by special mention of Manoj Bhave and Kiran Shelar who helped us a lot in planning the itinerary and logistics of this trek. Thanks a lot guys....

We planned to travel to Thanale village by early morning direct ST from Thane. Myself, RK & Prashant met at Thane stn at 5.45 am. Caught a rick and travelled to Khopat ST stand. The 6.15 am bus was already there. Varun also arrived in time and we boarded the bus which was quite empty. On the way at Rabale we picked up Subodh as well. So now hum paanch ready to go. The bus reached Pali at around 9.10 am and conductor announced "Bus will leave at 9.45 am for Thanale." 35 minutes break, hmmmm. But that gave us an opportunity to have break fast also. A very welcome misal paav, vada and tea.....

As scheduled the bus left exactly at 9.45 am from Pali and reached Thanale village at 10.20 am. We went to sarpanch of the village Mr Maruti Phate. He was referred to by Kiran Shelar. He arranged for a local guide Anil who would guide us to Thanale caves and connect us to Waghjai ghat route.....

The trek began at 10.30 am. After first ascend we were walking on a plateau thru jungle. It was pleasant. Halfway thru this plateau we had our first glimpse of Thanale caves on the opposite side of the mountain. We crossed couple of streams and then arrived at a big stream. Here our guide said that this is the point where we will have to come back and go towards Waghjai ghat. I was puzzled since we were suppose to connect to the route from the left side of the cave itself. But Anil said there is no such route exists and we were disheartened. That meant we now had to ascend to Thanale caves, descend back to this point and then walk the other side of the plateau and connect to Waghjai. It meant that we would have to trek 2 hrs more in the heat.....

We decided to leave our sacks here and began the steep ascend and then traversed to the caves. Thanale caves are in pretty good condition. We had our usual photo sessions. Myself and RK decided to explore the route ahead. At the end of the caves there was a traverse going ahead. It was small and due to grass was slippery as well. But it was managable by our trekking standards. RK went ahead and about 7-8 mins later he returned and said that he almost covered 70% of the connecting route to Waghjai. We returned to the caves and informed this to the rest of the guys. But we cannot do anything about it now since we had left our sacks down. Our guide still insisted there is no route there and just after there were 5-6 local adivasis (ghanghars) who came from that route. It just increased our disappointment. I remembered Kiran Shelar's word. He said that the villagers also dont know this route and only local adivasis know it.....

Nevertheless the trek must go on. It was about 12.20 now. We started descending and reached the stream. Picked up our sacks and started to walk the plateau beneath the caves. We reached the Waghjai route and there we bid good bye to our guide. Time now is 1.30 pm. We had some snacks since we decided to have lunch only after completely ascending Waghjai. We began the gruel ascend in the heat. Waghjai is an ancient route and is even older than the Savashni route. The route goes through a ridge and is exposed for most part. We reached a plateau and we landed in trouble. Grass was all around and the trail was lot. After about 40 mins of trail hunting we were back on track. Another deterring factor was the lack of breeze. Seems the Almighty had switched off the fan and not even a single leaf on the tree was moving. We struggled through this part of the trek.....

As we were nearing the top RK and myself ahead, Subodh & Varun called us behind since we missed the Waghjai devi mandir. The mandir is just couple of minutes to the right side of the main trail. We went to the mandir and rested for a while. RK and myself tried to search for a water tank around the mandir which our guide had said. But in vain. We then moved ahead and reached the top of plateau at around 4.30 pm. Phew... On the top there are couple of landmarks which can easily help us to identify the start of the Waghjai route. One is an elecric pole which is also visible from below Thanale village and another is the mango tree.....

We sat beside the tree and decided to have our lunch. Subodh had brought chapati bhaji thanks courtesy Megha Bhave. I also had brought some MUTTON KEBABS. Yummy. Had our lunch and we moved towards Telbaila village which is about half an hour walk on the plateau.... By this time there were clouds in the sky with slight drizzle. The climate had become cool and pleasant. How cruel¿¿ When we were trekking the difficult part the climate was treacherous. We reached the village at about 6 pm. After some enquiry with locals we decided to stay in the school.....

RK and Prashant went to enquire about tea and food. RK had a small argument with one of the locals regarding the cost of the tea. We advised him not to argue with locals since for a trekker they are the first line of help during an emergency. But his effort ensured we had tea and dinner in a nominal rate. We ordered only some dal chaval for dinner since we had carried lot of food stuff ourselves. There was a funny incident late in the evening. Our 3 Maharathis went to answer nature's call. Prashant, Varun and RK. Seems they found an isolated place and sat. But as it turned they were almost on the main trail of the village. Almost half the village passed by them and they were trying to hide themselves....

We had our dinner and retired for the nite. Got up at 7 am in the morning. After refreshments and breakfast we started towards Telbaila summit at about 8 am. It was a really small hike and within half an hour we reached the col. There's a mandir there and also a huge water tank inside. Few young members of Nisarg mitra Panvel had come there for climbing. We watched them for half and admired their climbing skills. Subodh went into nostalgia and remembered his good old climbing days. The young guns were also quite charged up - RK and Prashant. RK was sure that he will take up climbing in near future. From there we also tried to work out the Savashni route and its starting point. We bid goodbye to the climbers and descended towards the village. Reached the village, picked up our sacks and off we set for Savashni....

The time is about 9.50 am now. We start walking on the plateau. And the grassy plateau was making it difficult to find the exact trail. But we managed it some how and reached the starting point of Savashni which is a little rocky. There are the famous seven rock-cut steps here due to which this route is also known as Saat paayrichi vaat. And within 5 minutes the route enters jungle and most of the Savashni route passes thru dense forest. Quite opposite to Waghjai. But again no breeze which again made trekking uneasy.....

After first descend we reached a plateau and were lost in grass. We took a left, walked for a while and realised we were traversing towards Sudhagad. We turned back and did more R&D. We were a little iffy to take a right since we had been advised by Kiran and Manoj that the one of the route on the right goes towards Thanale. Taking left routes we were descending almost on a path made by us. After trekking thru this maze we reached the bottom and quite surprisingly towards the river. Yes we had unintentionally missed Bahirampada village amongst the chaos. The time was around 12.30 pm. We took the welcome dip in the river. All the heat was gone now and we were fresh as ever. Reached Dhondshe, caught bus to Pali and from Pali to Thane. End of trek....

The trek was exciting, exhausting, offbeat and a successful one. As usual it was a wonderful n memorable trek and an enriching experience.

Yours trekkingly

Imran Vasta

Manikgad Trek

Date: 29th Sep 2012

Participants : Imran Vasta, Manoj Bhave, Girish Ganoo, Vijay Bagate, Ramkrishna Chauhan (RK –Krishnaz Chauhan), Mit Shah, Digambar More, Prakash Pathare

Guide : Rahul Jambulkar

As per plan RK, myself and Mit met near Thane station (E) near HDFC ATM. We were well on time at 6 am. Five minutes later Girish also arrived in his car. We then moved toward Rabale police station which was supposed to be our first halt and meeting point. Meanwhile Manoj started from Thane in his car. His first pick-up was Vijay at Kalva naka and second was Digambar at Reliable (Airoli). And then he arrived near Rabale police station. We met, greeted and exchanged pleasantries. And then set off for our last pick Prakash at Juinagar. I had moved to Manoj’s car along with Digambar and Vijay. We were busy cursing our managers and almost passed Juinagar before Girish violently horned and stopped us. We stopped and after searching for a while found Prakash. I was the only one who knew Prakash as I had trekked once with his group 3T (TryTheThrill) and ET (Elite Trekkers). This was first time he was trekking with Tremals. I introduced him to the rest of the members and we set off.

Now we halted at Panvel and had our tea / breakfast (idlis and missal pav). Discussed our trek plans and moved to Vadgaon. We reached Vadgaon at about 8.30 am and there we met our host Atmaram Jambulkar a contractor with Kelkar company. Mr. Atmaram served us tea and breakfast (upma). This was our second breakfast in half an hour. And one we could not turn down due to the warm hospitality of our host. After having our breakfast we seriously cursed ourselves for having our first breakfast in hotel and spending some 280 bucks there. Blame the mismanagement and I being a part of it… Mr Atmaram then introduced to our guide Rahul Jambulkar (I have a separate write-up for this guy). At 9 am we started the trek in the scorching heat. Being closer to Mumbai, the climate here can get as unpleasant as in Mumbai.

The trek can be divided in the three parts. First ascend takes us to a plateau, then about an hour walk on plateau and then the final ascend. So with a very heavy stomach we began our first ascend. Reached the plateau in about 35-40 minutes but we were already exhausted. Took a 15 minutes break and started the plateau walk. About 15 minutes walked on open plateau and then entered the jungle part which was very pleasant. Rahul said that there is a shortcut which the locals use and which takes you to the top in hardly about 25 minutes. But he suggested we do not take this and instead go with the standard route. Also after hearing the route name “Ekaa paayachi vaat” we were not in a mood to take this route. In past I had a NDE (Near Death Experience) when I followed one such route. So we walked the regular route and about an hour later we reached the mandir and the bazarpeth. There were couple of streams on the way. We took our second break here.

Rahul shared some history of the fort with us. We asked him a poser “Why is this fort called as Manikgad?”. Rahul had no answer for that nor did we. At about 11.15 am we began for the most stressful part of the trek – the final ascend. Stressful cause at times it felt like a never ending traverse which went round and round the fort. The young guns (YGs) were now ahead and leading. The old horses Manoj and myself were lagging behind desperately. The YGs also saw a snake on the way. They stayed well ahead of us and kept calling us. We toiled our way to reach the last portion of the fort and found that our YGs had picked up a difficult route and were doing some basic RC (rock climbing) to reach the top. We were in mood to do the honors and instead followed the traditional route and reach the top at about 12.30 am. And just fell flat on the grass.

The wicked part of this fort is there is hardly any shade at the top. Rahul took us near a tree and we called this a one-tree fort. We rested there and had our lunch. Manoj was still dozing and not interested in the food. We ate anything we got our hands on. Was it a thepla, bread, butter, jam, Manchurian rings (tomato & pudina), variety of biscuits, chivdas, matri etc. After relaxing for a while we explored the fort and took snaps at couple of famous stones on the top. Almost all our FB profile pics is now updated with this snap. From the top of the fort we could identify Karnala, Sankshi (Badruddin), Irshalgad, Prabalgad, Kalavantin, Matheran hills..

At about 2.15 pm we began our descent. Now I was ahead along with the YGs as Girish and Prakash stayed behind with Manoj. Within half an hour we reached the mandir and took a 15 minutes break. The afternoon heat was having its effect and Rahul suggested that he can take us to a waterfall at our last descent. We agreed to it and started walking on the plateau. Manoj and myself were struggling and YGs marched ahead. We were coming up with all sorts of excuses for our apathy. We cited the stupid urban lifestyle, the immobile corporate work environment and so on. But the fact was that we are getting old. U know people age faster these days and so were we. And we can safely say that we are ageing quite disgracefully. Hmmm. And height of all this is that Manoj and myself were planning to do HCG (Harishchandragad) via Nalichi Vaat trek during mid October. After this experience I was a bit skeptical, but Manoj is still insisting to do it. I am damn sure we will not survive that trek. Imagine halfway in the Naali we are almost dead. And then we can neither go up or down.

We reached the end of the plateau and reach a small Thakurwadi at about 4 pm. Rahul told us that how there were so many houses here about 15 to 20 years ago. But now most of people have moved downhill and very few houses remain. From here we moved on for the waterfall. After walking for about 15-20 minutes on a proper foot trail we were now supposed to descend on a grassy ridge with no trail. We did that, created our own trail and everyone slipped atleast 4 to 5 times. But all was worth since we reached a small waterfall. We just jumped into it and was such a cooling effect (jannat) after all the exhaustion. From here the village was just 10 minutes walk. In the village we were again served with tea and biscuits. We did the trek costing. Girish who works in the nearby Kelkar factory said how he always used to come out during after the lunch time and used to gaze the fort. Now he has a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment.

On the return journey myself, Vijay and Prakash were in Manoj’s car. That night Prakash was to join Shikhar Vedh for Ahupe Ghat trek. And then next he wishes to do Lonavala to Bhimashankar with Offbeat and a week after HCG via Nalichi Vaat again with them. We called Prakash a “Serial Trekker”. Jab tak shaadi nahi hoti bacchu trekking ke jee bhar ke maze le lo. At about 8 pm I was home.

All in all it was a successful trek. A wonderful place, a passionate guide, stressful (heat) moments and most importantly wonderful set of people. We had lots of high grasses all throughout the trek and also on the top of the fort. Would suggest this place will be awesome during the monsoons.

Yours trekkingly

Imran Vasta

Chondeghat - Devighat Trek

Date : 18th Aug 2013

Participants : Imran Vasta, Subodh Bhave, Dhanidutt Bhat, Varun Bhosale, Pankaj Singh, Bhushan Shetty, Viraj Hadkar, Prashant Salian, Nikhil Karyekar, Kamran Shaikh, Shahebaaz Momin, Sanket Dalvi, Deepak Jagwani, Ashish Karmokar

A superb trek, jisme comedy hain, tragedy hain, thrill hain, emotion hain !!

Well, start of the week I had made myself available for the trek but from last couple of days before the trek, I was having hard time to decide between trek and office outing I’d made up my mind to ditch both plans, but thanks to last moment news – office plan was called off:) Immediately, confirmed my participation on WhatsAp (all are addicted to this app, so am I) to Imran.

Speaking of trek, plan was to ascend Chondeghat and descend via Devighat in the Ghatghar region. As per schedule, all had to catch first local to Kasara. It was a Bhaag Milka Bhaag moment for me to catch the train on time, as no rick was available early in the morning, and it would have been a near miss. Missing the train meant missing the trek – to which three proved it. The best part of the joke – one guy had set the alarm time as that of the train time which he needed to board from Vidyavihar station – ha ha ha ha!! Rest got along the train from their respective stations. So finally, 17 people made it to Asangaon from where we had already arranged for two Max jeep. Still waiting for the vehicles to arrive, we (namely Bhusy, Varun and myself) couldn’t resist the smell of the garma garam vada pav and chai coming from a nearby stall, so we slowly slipped in and fulfilled our taste buds and stomach. Few others too followed us. To our disgrace, a small verbal altercation was created by local rickshaw drivers who didn’t allowed us to board our vehicle from the starting point, which forced us to walk about half a km.

The group got adjusted in two vehicles and were on our way to Ghatghar Dam. The group comprised of regular trekkers and many newcomers. Few from Viraj’s group circle, and few from Prashant’s friend circle (in fact one was forced to join the trek, who I am sure would have cursed Prashant for d trek – kyu?? Aage pata chalega ). We started off the trek with small round of intro session, followed by trek plan. The starting point was Ghatghar Hydro Electric Plant which was quite fascinating and soon the cameras were in action. FYI, this plant is one of a kind, wherein water released from the dam is again pumped into the dam. Everyone chipped in to capture snaps of the dam and adjoining sceneries. At 8.00 am, we started our trek with ascend of Chondeghat which was a pretty descent climb, wherein everyone started with a lot of enthusiasm (especially the senior members by age – a catchy logo on one T’shirt speaks for itself – “Too energetic to be lazy”;). Along the way, we enjoyed couple of streams and had many snaps as possible. Soon we reached a plateau which was atop the ghat, where we rested for a while and had a view of the beautiful valley. This completed our first part of the trek. Interestingly, everyone felt this was a cake walk, and adding to this was Dhanidutt’s comment – Trek kiya aisa laga hi nahin !! Would have loved to hear his comment after we descended Devighat .

Next, we headed towards the Ghatghar village which was half an hour plain walk from the plateau wherein we had our packed lunch under a well-made shelter near Ghatadevi Mandir. Everyone enjoyed the menu –chapattis, vegetable, chicken, idli, bhurji, jilebi, cheese butter bread. There was a nearby picnic point which gave a great panoramic view of the region. As suggested by Subodh (trek planner) this trek was supposed to be an offbeat trek in remote area, but having observed the picnic crowd and well-settled village, Bhushan commented – “Ye trek mein kya remote hain”. Again, this was proved by the second phase of our trek. Everyone made sure to capture the scenic view in their camera to make their profile photo. Of special mention, everyone was fascinated about Viraj’s hair style which was imitating Mangal Pandey’s look. Strong wind, distant waterfall, beautiful valley view made a perfect place for picnic getaway. We had spotted out final destination from the top itself which was through a thick jungle and stony descend.

Here comes the most memorable part of the trek – after an easy ascend via Chondeghat, descend via Devighat proved to be a challenging part where many had slip/fall here and there, twice we lost and found our way. At first instance, we got on right track after a quick re-work, but the second mishap tested our endurance and experience which we proved to ourselves. We spent almost one and half an hour at a point searching for the right track. We tried all the possible trails in search of the correct path, but were disappointed as we were surrounded by river streams on two sides and mountain one side. Me and Bhusy too gave a try but didn’t succeed. To our amuse was Bhusy’s comment - “nadi ke raaste se jayenge toh basti milega” which he inherited from Bear Grylls - Man vs. Wild episode on Discovery channel. Doston – ye Sahayadri hain, na ki Bear Gryll’s ka US locations. Every path lead to a dead end, so we decided to move backwards to a small plateau – a point where quick plan was initiated by Imran, Dhani, Subodh and Prashant to find out the correct path. It was like – aadhe left mein jayenge, aadhe right mein jayenge, baaki sab jagah par rest karenge.

In the meanwhile, many thoughts began to run into newcomers’ mind – ye kaha phash gaye, aaj raat yehi pe kaatni padegi, and so on. Many called up their dear ones and updated their status. All negative thoughts were put to end when positive news came from Imran about the right track. Soon everyone moved along, and felt happy to be again on track.

While crossing the ghat we had a great laugh, Bhusy suggested to change the name of Devighat to “Imran Ghat” as he explored the route and saved us from the nightmare of getting lost in the jungle. Finally we spotted a local villager who guided us all the way to the village – Math, where our vehicles were waiting. We checked in one home and quickly changed to dry clothes and had a cup of hot tea offered by the villagers, and soon we were enroute to Asangaon and caught 8.35 pm local to Mumbai, and reached our sweet home safely.

Thanks to everyone for making this a memorable trek. Special thanks to Subodh, Prashant and Imran for planning this offbeat trek. Looking forward for yet another challenging trek.

Yours trekkingly

Pankaj Singh

Kohoj Night Trek

(Himmat hai to pura write-up padhke dikhao)

Date : 28 th April 2013

Venue : Kohoj

Participants : Dhanidutt Bhatt, Gautam Gaikwad, Subodh Bhave, Varun Bhosale, Abhijeet Kesarkar, Girish Ganoo, Imran Vasta

First of all let me introduce you to Dhanidutt Bhatt. He is my first trekking buddy along with Viraj Hadkar who introduced both of us to trekking. Till date we thank and curse Viraj for doing so. Although we thank him more. Viraj is our first trekking guru and we also have couple of others. Viraj is one of the most resourceful trekkers. Dhani and myself started trekking together and Dhani was my regular trekking partner in the my initial trekking expeditions. Both Dhani and Viraj have a special place in my heart as trekking buddies. My first trekking buddies (somewhat like first love).

But hang on, whenever Dhani and myself get together for a trek craziest of things seems to happen. Not just during the treks but also during traveling part also. To start with we were never comfortable trekking with trek groups, so we always planned and did treks on our own. We plan meticulously but some how the execution seems to go haywire. Sometimes from haywire to extreme horror. And sometimes to the extent of NDE (Near Death Experience). Keeping this in mind read the below experience of this trek.

It all started with Subodh, Varun and myself decided to do a baby trek in this sweltering heat. Date chosen was 28 th April and venue selected was Karnala. But an unfortunate incident of bee attack happened in Karnala a week before and so we changed the venue to Kohoj. So a single day trek to Kohoj was planned and we would travel by Girish’s car. If required Varun will bring his bike.

Just couple of days before the trek on 26 th April I was returning home from night shift and in the early hours of the dawn I saw the full moon and immediately a wild idea struck my mind to do a night trek. Since Dhani had already done Kohoj before it would help us in this cause. I immediately messaged Subodh and if it was all right with him to change the Kohoj trek to night trek. But since Girish was not available on Saturday meant the plan was not workable. And even others were not too positive with the idea.

I was a bit disappointed but not for too long. Enter Dhani. He agreed and so we both decided to go ahead with the night trek on the night of 27 th April and others would come on 28 th April early morning as planned. To add to our pleasure, Gauti also agreed to join us for the night venture.

On the evening of 27 th April Dhani and I met at Thane ST stand to catch a bus for Palghar. Gauti who stays in Nalla Sopara was to approach from the western side and would meet us at Mastan (Manor) Naka. The last Palghar bus was supposed to leave at 6.45 pm at Thane, but it didn’t happen since the bus never arrived. Meanwhile at 7.15 pm a Boisar bus arrived and since it was routed to go from Mastan naka we caught that bus. I asked the routine of the bus and as per my guess the bus would pass from Vaghote (base village of Kohoj). The conductor confirmed it and that was the last bit of happy news we got that day. I immediately messaged Gauti to come directly to Vaghote from Mastan naka since we had got direct bus to Vaghote from Thane.

The bus started and the fun began. I asked conductor ticket for Vaghote but conductor said he was going to issue ticket only upto Bhiwandi. Why, coz they would ask for diesel at Bhiwandi stand and if those people refuse to give then the bus would terminate at Bhiwandi itself. OMIGOD. Bet this is the first case of its kind and you would have never imagined of such a thing could happen. But don’t be surprise (read 2 nd paragraph of this write-up carefully). The bus reached Bhiwandi and in the meantime Gauti was already at Vaghote. Poor fellow had to wait there all alone for about hour and a half in absolute solitude and dark wilderness.

Meanwhile after a heated argument between buswala and Bhiwandi stand wala, they agreed to give diesel and we thought our luck has changed. At about 10.30 we reach Vaghote and met Gauti who was waiting for us restlessly. Three of us immediately set of for the trek with Dhani leading the trail. Our first target was to find the second lake from where the actual trail for the fort starts. We couldn’t find the lake and we managed to reach a Shelta village which is far ahead. We tried to find someone in the village to ask for directions. An impossible task in late night as villagers retire for the day early. Almost all the houses had TV set on but when we knocked the door and asked if anyone is there, nobody responded. It reminded us of Aahat scene.

But soon we found couple of good Samaritans sleeping outside their house. We cordially woke them up to their bemusement. Asked for the directions and thanked them for their help. We turned towards the direction specified by them. We found a hand pump nearby and filled our extra 5 liter water bottles. Both Dhani and myself had carried almost about 9-10 liters of water each, since no water would be available on fort during this season. As we moved ahead a snake crossed our path. It was small maybe around 2 & ½ feet but Dhani said the snake was definitely poisonous since it had a tapering head. Thanks Dhani for that information in that late night.

Soon we found the second lake and we were now on the right trail. But something was fishy since we were ascending and zigzagging around a water path and every now and then we were going off trail. We found some villagers around the path, but they were not in a cooperative mood. Guess they were on their hunting expedition and didn’t trust us. We reached the first plateau into the dense jungle and reach a resting point among the boulders which Dhani identified and was sure he knew the path thereafter. But this good news would soon turned bad news.

We had some idlis during the break. Dhani picked up a path and we tried to move ahead but soon the trail ended. Dhani was adamant this was the correct direction and there exists a traverse somewhere above and we should keep ascending. So in the heart of the night we were ascending a non-existing trail in search of a non-existing traverse. We were climbing the rocks and scrambling through screes of mud and stones. And as we moved up the difficulty left level also moved up. And in the end we were on the base of a 150 feet rock wall staring right in front of us.

This was it. Now we had no option but to return. Dhani and Gauti insisted that we should spend the night there and maybe descend back to the plateau after the sunrise. Maybe there were already over-worked and exhausted. But I was not going to spend the remainder of the night sitting and holding on the edge of a scree. And so we moved down which was also not an easy task. After a lot of slipping, sliding and bum trekking we reached back to the plateau. But now we were not able to find that resting point from where we had started. After searching it for a while we picked up another spot and decided to rest there. Right in the heart of the jungle and in open. It was already 4 am now and time to have dinner brought by Dhani. Chappatis and batate ki sabzi.

We slept for a while and sun was soon out 6 am. Subodh also called to inform that they had reached the base village Vaghote by car. So somewhere around 6.15 am Subodh, Girish, Abhi and Varun started their trek. We, on the other hand decided to prepare some black tea. After 45 minutes of struggle we managed to prepare the black tea which tasted more like Dadimaa ka kadwa Kaada. Yes the generous Dhani had put all the tea powder which he had brought in the tea.

About 7.15 am we were almost ready to re-start our adventure but now in the daylight. Received call for Subodh and they were already on the plateau and by the look of the things they were ahead of us. We started to walk on the plateau leftwards and soon we found the resting spot and the actual trail also which we missed last night. We kept marching ahead and soon we heard the voices of our co-trekkers. After ascending a bit we met our 4 friends and it rejuvenated us. We shared previous night experience and screw-ups much to their amusements. We then moved ahead and were on the top plateau by around 9.30 am. On the way 4-5 honey bees were pestering us (especially Gauti) and unwantingly we could relate this to the Karnala incident and tried to get away from them.

On the top we reached the mandir, rested and had some refreshments. We then moved along the plateau for some well-earned sight seeing and photography. The heat was on and time to trek back. The descent in the heat was exhausting and about 11.30 am we reached the lake. We took a dip in the lake to have a much needed cool down. Around 12.30 we were back in Vaghote marking the end of the trek.

I learned a few lessons learned during the trek.

1. Always trek wearing shoes. I was trekking on floaters and the dense jungle made me nervous. Also in the scree patches during the many slips my feet had suffered immensely.

2. Never do a night trek with less number of people. Somehow we felt during the night that 3 was too little count for a night trek.

3. As much as possible avoid ascending/descending patches where no trails exists.

4. Dhani’s night vision is not good. So do not ask him to lead trails during the night.

The very idea to do a night trek was to do some Kidaagiri with a simple and straight forward trek. The end result turned out that way as well. But it was a stunning and memorable experience for three of us. Every now and then we have this craving for the unknown and desire to challenge our own self. To come out of the comfort zone and daily routines of life and do some thing out of the ordinary. This was one such event.

A VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO DHANI AND GAUTI !!!! God bless u

Yours trekkingly

Imran Vasta

Waghjai Ghat & Hirdi Ghat trek report

Participants: Manoj Bhave, Imran Vasta, Mayur Athalye, Avinash Patil, Swati Chalke, Ramkrishna Chauhan, Gautam Gaikwad, Vishal Dsouza

Date : 15 - 16th June 2013

Manoj and myself decided the date 15-16 June for the trek. We initially proposed to do Mangad-Kumbhe Ghat-Bocheghol Naal-Raigad trek. But this was subject to monsoon and since the monsoon was heavy we did not go ahead with this trek. Instead we planned the Waghjai ghat & Gutkyachi vaat trek in Pali-Lonavla region. This region is very well known to us since we have done extensive trekking in this region. But Gutkyachi vaat was unknown to us with zero information on the internet. It’s a local village route used by the villagers of Aasanwadi & Gutka to descend to Nagshet village. We had a nerdy hunch that this route might not be operative during monsoons. I spent couple of days trying to get the contact number of Telbaila village for food arrangement. Dimesh Patel provided the contact number of Waman. Thanks Dimesh. God bless u. It meant we did not have to carry any meal for Saturday.

So as decided we met at Khopat S.T. stand in Thane on 15 th June morning and caught 6.15 am bus to Thanale village. Swati caught the bus from Kalwa naka. We only managed to get the last seats since the bus was full and cursed ourselves as we could have easily booked the tickets online. We thought the bus won’t be crowded. Anyways this was not the only minor setback at the start of the trek. The other one being Mr Avinash Patil (German) did not bring the Theplas which was supposed to be our Sunday’s meal. We reached Thanale village around 10.30 am and began our trek.

The climate was awesome giving us an excellent feel of monsoon. It was drizzling constantly and in between became heavier. Around 1.00 pm we reached Waghjai temple and immediately set our foot in the waterfall behind the temple. Had a fun filled session in the waterfall. Saw a small green snake nearby. We then moved up to cover the final 10 mins of the ascent and reached the Telbaila plateau. It was now quite foggy and we were not able to see Telbaila walls as well. While walking on the way to the Telbaila village there was another distraction – Karvande. All of us were around the trees, plucking and eating the fruit. The sight was reminiscent of herd of sheep devouring leaves from the trees. We reached Telbaila village at 2.30 pm.

We had our lunch at Waman’s house and enquired about the Gutkyachi vaat with the local villages. All the initial indications were negative but we still preferred to go ahead and find out. We had an elaborate session thereafter on how to reach Gutka village – whether to walk, or catch a late evening bus upto Gutka faata or to hire Waman’s Bolero (but he was not very cooperative in this matter). The rain was now heavy and it was foggy as well. The visibility was poor and we could not take the foot trail or else we may get lost or even drowned in the fields of water. After having tea we set off walking at 4.15 pm to cover the 11 km long walk on the rough tar road from Telbaila to Gutka. But the climate was such that we hardly took break and covered this patch in 2 hrs 15 mins. We had only few glimpses of Ghangad since it was covered with dense fog and we hardly managed to see Sudhagad. We had to cross few small streams on the way as well.

We reached Gutka village at 6.30 pm and enquired about the Gutkyachi vaat which we were supposed to do on Sunday. But the answer was a firm no and that the route cannot be attempted in monsoon since it was very risky. Instead they suggested us to go to Hirdi village (7 kms away from Gutka) and descend the Hirdi ghat to Nagshet village. We took shelter in the Aanganwadi (temple) which was very warm and cozy. And more importantly dry in this wet weather. Enjoyed the tea provided by the cooperative local villager. We had carried chapatti and Bhaji from Waman’s house and had this for our dinner. Also during the course of evening and morning we had about 4 to 5 voting sessions on whether to proceed with the trek on Sunday or return back by bus (there was a resident ST in Gutka village which was supposed to go to Swargate early morning). The continuously heavy rains was creating strong doubts in our mind.

Sunday morning we woke up and saw the ST leave. Though we had doubts of proceeding with the trek and also it rained heavily the entire night, the trekker deep inside us wanted to proceed. Also no one showed any urgency or made any serious attempts to catch the bus. The trekker won and we proceeded with the trek. The entire 7 km walk was through a cart trail and after first 1.5 kms we crossed Aasanwadi (Dhangarwadi) from where Gutkyachi vaat descends. These villagers also confirmed we cannot trek this route and we proceeded on the cart route to Hirdi. On the way we saw numerous waterfalls and crossed many streams big and small. We had to make a human chain to cross one of the bigger streams. We lost the count of how many streams we had crossed. The cart trail also reminded the Lonavla to Rajmachi route. The jungle we passed through was very dense and since Andhaarban was close in the vicinity it appeared this jungle was a glimpse of Andhaarban. We also saw couple of small snakes on the way and big Swati accidentally stepped on one of them –Poor snaky, but it survived.

Half an hour before the Hirdi village we came across the magnificent Hirdi waterfalls. The waterfall was awesome and exotic. This sight was worth walking miles and so we did. At about 10.00 am we reached Hirdi village. We rested for a while in one of the house in the village and had tea and delicious laddoos (thanks Gauti). We had another brainstorming session here – whether to move to Bhira or descend to Nagshet. And we began the final part of this trek, the Hirdi ghat descend.

At 1.15 pm reached Nagshet village and marked the end of trek. Had sandwiches for lunch and we waited for the Koshimbale-Thane bus to come. A local boy came with a news that the bridge nearby was over flown by river water and it was not sure that when the bus would come. Finally the bus came around 2.45 pm.

I must appreciate and compliment the team for doing such wonderful trailing since it was difficult to locate trails with water everywhere. Literally we made way in water. Even the local villagers were surprised how we managed to find our way in the heavy rainfall and complimented us for accomplishing it. It was indeed an achievement of sorts to receive such compliments from the local villagers. Well done team. Another highlight of this trek was the pedometer brought by Avi. We were counting the steps all through the trek and in total we had completed 52000 steps from Thanale to Nagshet. Also nice to trek with Mayur after 5 years.

AN AWESOME START TO THIS MONSOON !!!!

Yours trekkingly

Imran Vasta