NOTE: The Blog had been written right on the trek…. With few adjustments later… The Each Sub Heading specifies the situation when the excerpt was written.

@Train Journey to Karjat

It has been long that ive not trekked… Exactly this thought keeps running thru my mind every weekend and its become even stronger since monsoons have started showering over the Sahyadris … Today all are gonna go to trek Fort Peth aka Kothligad and I dont wanna miss upon yet another trek…

I am in the Ambarnath slow train to thane and the Karjat fast I was supposed to get has just passed by leaving me querying myself if I would missed yet another trek??

Shirish got down at Thakurli as he had my tickets with him… Waiting at Ambarnath station for Karjat train I meet an old friend of mine. Few memories, plans and how about, and Shirish and Me alight for Karjat by the next train.

Reaching Karjat station I felt really bad to keep all waiting for me… All got into tumtum and move towards the base village… The journey way quite slow thanks to our drivers.

@The Night in the Cave at Karjat

It’s quite late now… Few of us have gone out to enjoy fresh air while others are in their dream lands… oh did I mention while am writing all this, few people from the other group are snoring like hell and I feel to screw the hell out of them…. hmm well the trek so far is as good as always… I am trekking again after a long time (Around 7 months) so its quite a good feeling. Tonight menu for dinner was Cheese Pav Bhaji… I kno i kno.. Its quite a pleasure having a cuisine Cheese Pav Bhaji on treks… We would be seeing the fort tomorrow morning… Did i tell you how much am I missing my cam?? Having no words to explain it though!!!! That bloody jerk from the other group is still snoring to his core and i am loosing it since its screwing me… Not his mistake though…

I had 3 failed attempts to get my self a sound sleep. Finally FOUR of us clicked an intense conversation which unexpectedly extended till 4 am… we knew it was quite late and landed ourselves directly to our beddings for the night… my eyes were just about to close while an alarm ringing continually screwed my sleep yet again…

@In the Karjat-Pune Passenger After the Trek

A pleasant morning, but lazy me! Some early packing and we were off to visit the fort while our loving PD was cooking sheera for breakfast. Some hanging around, then visiting the top of the fort, photo sessions, sightseeing and spotting far of forts like Padargad, Bhimashankar, Siddhagad were seen clearly. Some leg pulling sessions atop with the prime target being our Maharaj (Rohit) was fun. Lovely smiling faces around, fun and enthusiasm gave the day a perfect start. Returning back to the cave while the breakfast was still being cooked, all again assembled near the canon, everyone seemed to like the spot so much that we also had our breakfast right there… Not to forget the love amongst each other that routed out through those sheera feeding sessions. Finally we had to leave back to our abodes and resume grinding ourselves in our routine lives. We started our descend after a short cleanliness drive, which is one of the prime TODO mottos for us… and also the need of time. The quick descend witnessed many picnickers going atop. Reaching the base village, we got into the tumtums and moved to Karjat station. This was an unusual moment for me, splitting ways for going to Pune while others leaving for mumbai. Ive found a nice place on the upper berth and gonna sleep nicely for next couple of hours… This was all from me… hoping to join back at Mruggad or any other event on the charts!!! OAO

A long weekend of 24,25 and 26th Jan gave the masses an opportunity to break free from their routines, so did we and covered many places to our liking as mentioned bellow.

PratapGad
Wai cha Dholya Ganpati and KashiVishveshwar Temple
Ajinkyatara Fort
SajjanGad
KalyanGad aka Nandgiri Fort
Kedareshwar Temple
VardhanGad
Jejuri

The Journey…

The day I returned from Goa Trip, I was all ready to go for a long 3 day trek. Though it wasnt a full fledged trek, we had hired a Tavera and targetted Satara region. After unpacking my Goa Bag, I put in few more clothes and the snacks that Tatya had asked me to bring. Around 12.15 am I joined in at the Mankhurd Junction at Ghatkopar. The first destinantion was decided to be PratapGad fort near Mahabaleshwar. The night drive via the Mumbai Goa road with old romantic tracks was relaxing… The Funny part being!! I was going to Mumbai from the same route the earlier night, and the next very night around the same time I was again on the same route!!

PratapGad

We reached Paratapgad around 5am, but the doors of the fort were still closed and had to wait till some1 opened it… It was about to be sunrise and the doors were opened, as soon as this happened we rushed to capture sunrise.  After capturing too many sunrise pics, We rushed to see the fort…. Pratapgadh provided a lot of protographic opportunities. After some sight seeing, a lite breakfast, little planning as of where to go next and dabba session, We started our journey towards Wai where we were supposed to trek up PandavGad, which is now privately owned by Mapro. We could see Pandavgad while driving down the ghat towards Wai… looking at the height and gradient, it didnt not appeared to be a quickie that we were looking for on this journey.

Wai cha Dholya Ganpati and KashiVishveshwar Temple

We reached Wai and started finding a way to reach the base of Pandavgad. While in process we switched the plan and decided to find an accomadation since it was eident that we would have to stay back at Wai for the night if we trekked Pandavgadh. We decided to think over it while having lunch. After enquiring a bit about the accomadation rates, we went in the Temple preemises, the well known Wai cha Dholya Ganpati and the adjoining Kashivishweshwar temple were a beauty. The temple is ancient and beautifully built. But the bhookads that we are, we quickly entered hotel “MahaGanpati” which served really delicious lunch. Rohit was as happy as getting a treasure after having lunch and so were we. Here we switched to another plan, where we could not only save the accomodation funds, but could also see some more places instead of a single Pandavgadh. Here was the new plan, according to which we had to head to Ajinkyatara Fort in Satara and then to SajjanGadh where we could stay for the night.

Ajinkyatara Fort

A nice drive to Satara, enroute which we could see Chandan-Vandan which was on cards for next day; VairatGad, which was named as SujayGad since we didnot knew its name nor were sure if it was a fort unless we learnt about it from a book the next day, took us to Satara city. Ajinkyatara can be very well distinguished with the two doordarshan towers that it has overlooking the city of Satara. A motorale road takes you straight to the main door of Ajinkyatara. Ajinkyatara is wide spread but has very less remenants existing, except the Doors, fortifications, a temple and place where queen Tarabai stayed. We all almost lost in the beutifull sunset and sky colors at the dusk. Now this is what made Ajinkyatara more memorable for us… We unknowingly breeched the security of the Doordarshan premises and darely taking an exit of their main gate, while we were inturupted by the security who were trashing us with words. Initially they were not that harsh but the moment that they realised that the Tavera ( It had Mumbai DoorDarshan banner ) at the gate was ours, they fired us like hell…. By now I had realised what the problem was… They were in a missconception that some officials from Mumbai Doordarshan were on the fort and they had to tighten their belts which went in vain as their assumption was wrong. But the mistake was ours (mine, who was the first one to jump over the wall) so we had to say sorry for what happened. I was feeling like a fool since, few of us were really scared/hurt by what happened and I was feeling nothing about it.A quick exit from the fort and a drive in the dark took us to SajjanGad.

SajjanGad

From the car parking one has to climb up 250 stairs to reach the top, which is developed as Dharmaday of Samartha Ramdas Swami. The Dharmaday serves luch and dinner to the visitors and also provide an acomadation facility. Nice hot water to get fresh and a nice place to stay was provided to all visitors.A tasty Pitla-Bhat and Pickle was the menu of the night. The people who organsie the things there are pretty well organised and strict with the rules; I am sure that its the key to how they manage the large masses without much trouble. Some planning for the next day, enlisted that we could cover KalyanGad (Nandgiri), VardhanGad and MahimanGad while Jarandeshwar was on cards too. Each of these were quickies excpet Jarandeshwar. The next day morning we saw the more of Sajjangad and left for Kalyangad.

KalyanGad

Driving towards KalyanGad, we learnt that people know it more as Nandgiri rather than KalyanGad. Also people arent aware that it is a fort. We reached the base of Nandgiri and we could see steps that lead towards the top, but the steps are only in the begining and end of the hike near the main door. The intermediate way is an easy hike of about 40 minutes. The way is well marked and many people visit the fort for the Parshavnath Temple that it has. Enroute we also come across a small cave. Reaching the main door we realised that the stairs near the main door were built just few days earlier. Entering the door and moving straight, we could see a path/stairs leading downwards near a summit to a cave around 30 meters bellow. After entering the cave one has to walk/crouch for around 70 meters. The floor of the way stays wet and there is water filled on the left side. It is risky to enter this place in monsoons. At the end of the path we see Idols of Parshavnath, Datta and Devi. After praying and some photography we made a exit and returned towards main door. After drinking water provided by Guruji who looks after the temple, we proceeded for exploring rest of fort. Kalyangad can be distinguished fom surounding forts with the single huge Banyan tree it has atop. After resting for some time under the shade, we decided the further plan. Sipping herbal tea ( gavti chaha ) we had some talks with Guruji. We had enough of rest and proceeded to decend the fort. A surplus lunch at KalyanGad dhaba at the base of the fort and we were off towards VardhanGad. Enrotue we also visited Kedareshwar Temple at Koregaon.

VardhanGad

Around 5pm we reached the base of VardhanGad where two cannons welcomed us while entering the village. After some “soch vimash” we decided to hike up with our sacks so that we could stay atop. After a hike of about 20-25 mins we reached the main door of the fort. Proceeding from there, a small climb on the hump takes us to the VardhaniDevi Temple which is the best place to stay. It also has electricity connection, charging points and around 20 peaple can easily accomadate in the temple. Enroute we come across two small temples of Shiv and Hanumant; on the left side is a water cristen of potable water. Later it was all about some attempt to night photography and not to talk about the efforts towards cooking our meal for the night “Maggi Rice Noodles” which followed nice sleep. Early rise from sleep with loud bells rang by 2 villagers… Most of the villagers come daily for prayers to the temple. We immediatly proceeded to explore the fort. The fort still has its fortification in good condition. There are two more water cristens on the other side of the fort, one chor darwaja facing the present day highway and a “kabar” in the interior part of the fort. After Vardhangadh we headed towards Pusegaon to visit SevaMaharaj’s Mandir. Since it was  “Somvaari Amvasya” crowds at all the temples was expected. From here we headed towards Jejuri, enroute we took a hault at Lonand where we visited SK’s home.

Jejuri

Reaching Jejuri we noticed that it was too crowded as it was one of the biggest fest at Jejuri. I was pretty excited to witness the festive mood here, which I had always been hearing about. After relaxing and having delicious Pohe at Sagar’s atyas place. We headed towards “Gad Jejuri”; the walk towards the main door was with the crowd, the whole premises of the temple was crowded with people ofering prayers and blowing turmeric powder and pieces of coconut as part of the tradition. All that could be seen had turned yellow with the the layers of turmeric powder and all that could be heard was, “Yelkot Yelkot Jay Malhar” and “Sadnanadacha Yelkot Yelkot” . The experience that we went through couldnot be explained in words…. It was great to be there and we were not in a hurry to leave from the place and skipped Malhargad which was on cards. Some photographic events and the festive mood made our day. A nice bath to wash off the turmeric over our body and we left for Mumbai.

A lot of unforgettable memories, peace of mind with the “trek cum devdarshan” made the most of the long weekend. Few things better be experienced rather than said or heard; yet just an effort to convey our experiences.

The plan for this trek was initially designed to cover 3 less frequently forts Kaladgad, Bhairavgad and Kunjargad, but later during the trek, we decided to climb Sadhle Ghat and the circumstances than concluded our trek as Kaladgad via SadhleGhat and back.

As decided we met at Kalyan ST depot around 10 pm. Our biggest worry for the initial part was the rush that we were expecting for ST busses on this route at later hours. Somehow at 11.30pm we found the bus which was parked in a corner and suspected to be the bus which would leave at 12.30 and to our surprise, even with its lights off, the bus was already packed and we could only find some place to stand. Within some time… the bus was parked at the stand and more ppl rushed in … Ashutosh and Rupesh who were going to Harishchandragadh with Youngsters, were thr too. The bus was about to leave but Anil was late and some how he managed to reach just before the bus left. Atlast there were 6 of us who left from Kalyan while Hemant and Deepa were gonna come to Savarne from Pune. The journey till Savarne had some intoductions, riddles and Raj’s Leg pulling but the bad part was that we were standing for the whole journey. Ashutosh and Rupesh got a place to sit at Tokavade when a small group who was going to Naneghat made a way. A point that dissapointed us with this group who was heading to Naneghat was that they did not knew where they had to get down for going to Naneghat or any other details and when we told them to move further, when their stop came, they thot we were lieing them so that we could find place to sit. Atlast we reached our destination for the nite Savarne, where we were gonna take a nap for a few hours while waiting for Hemant and Deepa’s arrival. The sleeping mats were layed and blanket were out… within sometime Hemant and Deepa arrived and that left no room for worries and assuring a nice nap.

The morning rays colored the sky and we were ready for our journey. After sipping in some tea and parking Hemant’s bike, we started our walk towards Belpada. The whole route rite from Savarne to Patachi wadi with additional info. has been given in my blog ROUTE: Kaladgad via SadhleGhat. One needs to cross a hill while moving to Belpada while avoiding the vehicle road which takes more time. It was a lil tiresome while crossing this hill for almost all of us… all the sweaters and monkeycaps were packed in and within sometime we reached Belpada. While reaching belpada one gets an awesome view of Kokan Kada towards right. Just before reaching belpada there is a well outside the village, where we refilled our bottles. Here we gotta see many birds and the attraction was a group of around 25-30 parrots flying from one tree to another.It was a nice feeling to see this sight. After moving away from Belpada we were supposed to go straight towards the Napta mountain in front… but involuntarily we moved towards right and this landed in a lott of heavy walking and climbing after some time… the books and maps were out to locate the actual location of Kaladgad the mountain towards right of Kokan Kada was miss interpreted as Kaladgad… tho after some discussions and debates we decided to take on SadhleGhat. the highlight moment of this wrong rout was when Raj climbed up a patch… which was clearly not a way… I was yelling on top of my vocal ability to stop him from going… but he had tuned his ears deaf. RR and Hemant was at rescue but they couldnt find from where he was yelling for help. In the meantime I was at the botom handling his bag…. and big stone rolling down just missed a chance to kiss my head. To go at the right path… was difficult with 2 bags for me. Somehow I made to the place where Anil was awaiting for me and in the process Raj’s bag tumbled down the slope…. and it gave me a chance to thow it further whenever needed . After reaching the top, I had Raj taken care of.
To get on Sadhle, we needed to get alligned with it… for this exact purpose we had to follow a water way which leaded back down to tha plains and then we followed another waterway targetting the V of SadhleGhat. There are too many Nadhe’s that can be viewed on this route.. i spotted 5 different needle holes. After some rigourous climbing we reached a point where some water was available. Here we also met a local who was also going atop SadhleGhat. Mr.Dhamu had rightly gaged that we had missed our way and he showed us the right way that came atop… the place where we were now was junction of the dried waterway, the actual route that headed up from base and the path that headed atop towards Sadhleghat. After quenching our thirst and refilling the bottles, we continued our trek. While we got really near reaching to the V of sadhleGhat, we were aware the we needed to drop one of the plans.. and Kunjargad was in danger zone… Though we kept up with the hope that we could make it.

When we were actually passing thought the Sadhleghat’s passage the view of the Konkan region was great and what was even better was the strong wind that passed through this area. We could actually feel the magnitude/strength of the wind… the honey bees in this passage were a sight to see… they were thrown away by wind and ones who couldnt control their flight, crashed on the rock face. After going up the passage, one has to take the path towards right which than offers a dense forest.. imediately you get two ways; from here one has to take the right diversion.After moving forward we had our lunch for the day… Theplas, Pickle and Puranpolis were out and all gone in seconds. The location of Kaladgad was confirmed to be towards left and not right as misinterpreted earlier. We moved further and then walking on a plain of dried grass we could see HarishchandraGadh to our right. Soon we found ourselves on a wide road that connects Patachiwadi with Pachnai… We moved towards left on the road, along Kaladgad. While walking along the raod… RR got a severe cramp… It was the most deadliest cramp ive ever seen… besides he also had irritation with his one eye. After this incedent the cancellation of Kunjargadh was confirmed and the nite stay was decided to be at Patachiwadi. After some time we reached the approach of Kaladgadh where we made a call that those who wanna stay back can rest here while others would go atop Kaladgadh.

RR and Shirish were the casualties and Anil and Raj stayed back with them while Hemant, Deepa, Vijay and Me rushed up to Kaladgad since the sun was all ready to set. Enroute we met 2 trekkers from Nature Lovers who warned us about the rock patch atop. As one goes up, steps and carved in a rockpatch and one need to be carefull here. We hurried and made sure that we reached atop soon and after clicking some pics at the small temple which is carved in one rock. This temple has various deity idols covered with SHENDUR and in the interior there is 1 deepstambha with 2 Shivpindis. After moving forward from here ( Right Facing the base ) we rushed to the other end of the fort where there are a few more idols and watertank. By this time the sun had changed its colours, giving very beutiful shades to the sky… This was one of the best sunsets that we had witnessed… We wanted to keep on clicking and relish the beauty but we were short of time as we needed to rush down the rockpatch b4 it was dark. We literally ran towards the summit and descended the rockpatch and reached where others were resting. Shirish and RR were still there while others had moved forward to make arrangements for dinner. Rest of us marched towards Patachiwadi were we found our shelter for nite, the courtyard of a villager, Buddha Gawande’s house.

While sharing experiences that we relished atop Kaladgad, soup was being prepared. After gulping in the soup, til laadus and chips the experiments were made with the bread… Bread with some pickle speard on it and some chips formed a nice combo. Within some time our dinner was ready…. we all pounced on it… but were a bit unsatisfied thinking that if we would had put in some efforts instead of asking the villager to make it… would had been better. Though the hungur over took the unsatisfaction and all the food was gulped in…. With some stories from past treks and the present day’s discussions, the sleeping matts and blankets were out… and all were ready to sleep. Next day’s plan of action was to get the bus that leaves Patachiwadi at 6.00 am for Pachnai and most probably also goes to Ambit which is the base village for Bhairavgadh. The alarms were set for 5.00 am and all went asleep. The place was open from 3 sides….. the cold winds took over and it was freezing all thru the nite. Within a nap we could hear the alarms ringing.. but no1 was in a mood to get up… after the earlier days effort of walking from morning 7.00am to around 8.00 pm. Even though by 5.30 am we all were up to pick up our sleeping mats and get into the bus. The villager informed us that the bus had left long back.. around 5.00 am. Hmmmm… quite disappointing isnt it?? We were too… but the happiness of the chance of getting more sleep took over it. After getting up at around 8.00 am, our breakfast was tea and Parle-G… while having breakfast we learnt that thr was another bus at 11.00 am so all were relaxed and raoming here and there…. but around 10.30 am we gotta know that the bus was actually from Pachnai and not from Patachiwadi… so the plan was redesigned to return via SadhleGhat… By this time, Nature Lovers, another trekking group had already left to descend via SadhleGhat.

Since we all knew that we had hell lot of time, all were relaxed as we knew the way back. Some of us had a problem walking a few more km.s via the normal road and asked Mr. Buddha for a shortcut to reach SadhleGhat…. So he took us from the other side of Kaladgadh… We thought that we would reach just before the passage and then we could take the normal route. But to our surprise… the place where we reached was ^&%^&%*^*$#% (no words to explain). It was a naturally formed NALI that fell right down… and is the 1st towards LEFT when 1 climbs up SadhleGhat. This surely added some zing to the trek… Carefully we started descending down… Mr. buddha waved us BYE… and we were at our own will. We continued moving down untill we reached a patch which had around 20ft fall. Some quotes like ” it was worthless to take a shortcut… and all” crept in… but cant help its a human tendency. The call had to be made… either to climb up back or descend with the rope that we had… Surely no1 wanted to climb up back.. so the rope was at work… Anil was the one to descend initially and then…. he instructed others who followed. The major attractions here were… Hemant’s insistence of decending in his own style… but Anil did put him on a rt track. But the actual show stealer was Mr. Shirish Thorat… who was jumping while descending….. RR was the last to descend and further we had to descend 1 more rockpatch.. but this time it was without rope… and all fared well. Soon while moving left, the path was found… and our effort of taking a shortcut proved to be a longer than expected but surely added a lot of things to boast about this trek. By now we were at the right track. Soon we recahed the place where water was available while climbing up…. Here a Bread-Jam session was accomplished. The bottles were refilled and instead of taking any risks and going thru the waterway, we took the right route shown by Mr. Dhamu, the earlier day. Within notime we were at the plains and marched towards Belpada. By this time Shirish was all gone… Sun was getting ready to set and the rays hit Kokan kada rockface uninterrupted. Watching Kokan Kada in evening is a nice treat. Further after reaching Belpada, few villagers informed us about a kokankada climb in progress. We turned ON our digital zooms and clicked the instance of the climb. He had almost made it… and it must be a great feeling to achieve that goal.

We soon rushed towards Savarne… and it was dark by the time we made it to the destination. After sipping in some tea and hafta vasooli, Hemant and Deepa rode back to Pune on the bike. The Nature Lovers who had made it a long before us.. were still waiting at the bus-stop waiving for lift from every vehicle that passed by. RR and me were just talkin about a chance that “If they get a vehicle now… wen we are so near to the stop… and the vehicle leaves” how would be that feeling???? Ooopps… the same thing happened… we rushed towards the stop and didnt let the opportunity go.. [:)] It was tempo loaded with wooden logs. A few sat in with the driver… while we all sat atop the tempo which dropped us at Murbad. From Murbad we took a jeep in which we were dumped like animals… to reach Kalyan. Shirish and Me were the last to get down @ Kalyan others all had their places on the way.

All in all a trek full of thrill and raw adventure…. making our own routes… navigating thru the mountains and forests… a very nice learning experience, a lot to write about and a lot of memories.

Route: KaladGadh via SadhleGhat
This blog has been written for a sole purpose of guiding thru the route of Sadhle Ghat. One can also go through my another blog which narrates our experience on Kaladgadh via Sadhle ghat trek.

SadhleGhat (2990 ft abv. MSL) is situated in the neighbourhood of KokanKada ( Harishchandra Ghad ). After ascending via Sadhle Ghat, one can approch HarishchandraGadh towards right within an hours time. Also a motarable road towards right takes one to Pachnai, while left towards Kaldagadh and further to Patachiwadi. Bhairavgadh (Ambit), Ghanchakkar also lie in proximity.

The above map should be refered with this article for better understanding of the route and locations. To approach SadhleGhat one can take a ST bus from Kalyan goin towards Malshej Ghat and get down at Savarne, a village on highway, just before MalshejGhat starts.

Savarne to Belpada:

Savarne to Belpada is a popular route with the people who has already done Nali chi vaat route for HarishchandraGadh. Nite stay can be made at School at Savarne which can accommodate around 12-15 people; otherwise one can managed at some villagers place.

There is a motorable road that goes to Belpada from Savarne…. but it can be quite long and time consuming. To bypass this constraints, one can follow a straight path and then cross over the hill. This crossing can be a gud warmup for all. It would take 45 mins. to reach Belpada via this route also one gets a nice view of Kokan Kada while reaching Belpada. Water bottles should be refilled here since there is no water avaibility all through the way.

Belpada to SadlheGhat [ Part 1 ]:

Now our map comes in play… while walkin till Belpada you must have been praising the mighty Kokan Kada towards your right, and a vew of Nappta hill (point 2 in our map) straight in front. SadhleGhat summit cannot be seen untill u get closer towards the Nappta Hill. The most important caution here is not to turn right at any point while walking towards the Nappta Hill. Diverting right would take u on the plateaus and small

hills where you can have a tough time finding the way out of the mess. As seen in this image….. start moving right slowly from now…. there are some small hills in front tooo… so dont cross them to get tooo close to the Napta Hill.

Point 3 is a temple shaped pinncle which lies at the end of Kokankada curvature, while Point 4 is another pinacle which luks a little simillar and has

needle hole at the top. Make sure that you dont move towards right at all. The safest deal would be to go to Kelewadi after Belpada and from there, the SadhleGhat col can be identified. One can also go along the path shown in map but with utmost care of not diverting right unless the SadhleGhat col is identified. By this time you must have left both point3 and pont 4 behind and the Sadhle Ghat col is clearly visible as shown in the image besides. Now slowly start marching along the prominant paths taking you towards the Sadhle Col. On the way you cross over dry streams a few times. Around 2 hours hike from here would take you to the SadhleGhat pass. The SadhleGhat passsge had scrumbling rocks and one should be carefull here. Moving towards right will bring u in a dense forest.

SadhleGhat to Motorable Road [ Part 2 ]:

Here one path moves towards left and other towards right. Move towards right again and keep moving along the path. After you come out of the tree covers,and start walkin over a plain land, from here one can see HarishchandraGadh towards right and Kaldgadh’s Kombda ( also termed as Kalad cha Angtha) towards straight-left. Moving alog the prominent path leaves you on a motorable road.

Moving towards right along this raod can take one to Pachnai in around an hour or two while one has to move left along the road to reach Kaladgadh or Patachiwadi (Pethechi wadi).

To Kaladgadh or Patachi wadi [ Part 3 ]:

Moving along the road towards left for some time, you will see Kaladgadh standing to your left adjoing the road. But the approach is at other end and marked exactly on the map. The road ends at Patachiwadi where one can take shelter either in the school or any villagers place.

Kaladgadh approach is well marked in the map provided here. The initial hike is normal but the final part has a rock patch with small steps carved in at some places. One needs to be carefull here coz it mught be a little tricky to deal with this patch while decsending for the rookie trekkers. Immediately after ascending the rockpatch, there is a temple carved in singlerock in the ground. Various carvings can be seen here. Moving towards left from here, the path leads straight to the other end of the fort where few more idols can be seen imediatly after the water tank. This is all the sightseeing atop Kaladgadh. Also one gets an awesome view of sun setting over Dhom mountain towards the west. One also gets a gud view of Bhairavgadh and Ghanchakkar from Pethechi wadi and enroute Pethechiwadi.

I believe that keeping this article and map with you should guide you properly. For further details or querries you can contact me.

Just after Tringalwadi, Hemant and I decided to go for a trek or an outing on next weekend. The planning for Saturday the 19th January included all options from Torna to Bhivgad. But our basic aim was to get more room for expermentation with our CAMs at the same time a location which would be near, less hectic and where we could do as much as TP that we dont get to do during normal treks.Soon Pinak and Tanu joined in for the plan and the location was decided rathe finalised as Karnala Fort and Karnala Bird Sanctuary, Panvel. By Friday our list of members grew to 15 but only 7 of us could make for this event.
As decided, Pinak along with his friends would meet us at panvel and Hemant, Tanu and I along with Shirish & other who didnt turn up for the trek; were gonna try to get the Thane-Vashi local scheduled at Thane for 6.10 am. Tanu was the only person who witnessed the 6.10 local… while Hemant and I were late by few minutes and managed to miss the local . As per original plan we boarded the 6.30 am Thane Vashi Local and reached Sanpada within next 25 minutes. From Sanpada we took a Local going to Panvel where we were supposed to meet Pinak at the ST stand. The whole journey from Thane to Panvel was royal. We got places to sit at our liesure and discussions relating college/work/examinations haunted thru the journey.

We were there at Panvel station waiting for the Kalyankars to arrive. After they arrived, to our surprise there was a ST starting from Panvel just waiting for us. The journey began from here to our actual destination with some introdutions and jokes. The highlight of this journey was the discussion about Pinak’s style for making bhel. Especially the 1c for cutting onions… for more details contact Pinak. We made it to our detination well before the targetted time and entered the sanctuary… but there was a reason for Hemant and me to not be happy about…. a group of kids shouting on top of their voices and scared the birds away. It happened a few times that we had our focus set and by the time we actually clicked the subject flew away. These kids also followed the same route for some time of climb. Finally we had to scold them and report to their gaurdian.Even then we could hear their yells for some time.

Our 1st pit stop indulged Hemant and me into some serious photography with the flower that Tanu carried with her. Others moved forward while we folowed them after wasting too many clicks experimenting. The second pit stop included some heavy teasing with Tanu and Pinak. Within few minutes we reached the ridge and Pinak guided us tward the main entrance of the fort avoidin the conventional way… The door seems to be destroyed and no 1 could say that it was the main entrance to the fort. Further we went to and unknown water tank which didnt have water… but after peeing in we did find a couple of BATS…. Then we moved up through a scree path where we found so more remains of steps which may be another door, hidden under the scree. Aftter reaching the top… the snacks were out at the door itself and every1 was in relaxing mood. Here we practised various techninques for opening the crown/cap of the chutney bottle…. Finally my teeth did the needfull. After some rest we headed the upper deck of the fort, when we noticed a crowd heading towards the fort. The clicking process was on and we noticed 2 climbers climbing up the pinnacle. After observing them for some time, We headed forward and see the rest of fort. The fort still has most of its fortification intact and gives an impression of hw strong and comanding it should had been in its golden days. One of the Doors on the other side has the royal symbol of Yadavas carved on its both sides. After some sight seeing and running behind bhoongas for its closeup shots, all headed to find a place to sit so that we could prepare bhel. The Basation at the base of pinnacle whihc had enough shadow and proximity to water tank was finalised and all bags were dumped there. One gets a commanding view of Mumbai-Goa/Pen/Alibaug highway passing through the santuary from here. All the Onions, tamatoes, chutneys were out and the amazing part being that we had got a sack full of Kurmuras ( app. 2.5 KG ) we could had sold bhel there… the idea didnt click there ) The bhel was prepared but none of us had much of it. After clearing the bhelly mess it was time for some relaxation. Shirish who buncked this trek was called and taken care of and the discussions targetted various alcohols, mocktails and cuisine preparations; watering my mouth.

Around 2.00 pm we were all set to wave a good bye to the fort. On our way down, we took a longer route which was less steep. This route also offered us to enjoy natural swings and witness a large group of monkeys. Within some time we were back to the cages at the base. Here we had some cold-drinks and relaxed ourselves. On the way back to the main road…. we clicked gud closeups of monkeys, ducks and langoors….. gotta ST to Panvel and then from Panvel,after having some snacks, the Kalyankars took ST towards Kalyan and Hemant, Tanu and I went to Panvel station and took the same route back. The return journey was quite a sleepy one but had a lot of memories to cherish.