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.
