We had been busy with our Vikatgad Initiative all the past months and we hardly did any exploration of other places these days. I had this plan for Ahupe to Bhimashankar since last two years but it was just a plan, finally we executed it on 1^st-2^nd September 2012. Let me give you a short summary about this trek. Basically Bhimashankar is a place having loads and loads of routes coming from all directions. Ahupe Ghat is an old passing route which connects Deccan and Kokan having Khopivali village at base and Ahupe village at top. Locals also call this pass as Khopivali Ghat. Ahupe and Bhimashankar, both are at almost same heights and Bhimashankar is reachable from Ahupe at distance of roughly 23 km.

Reaching the base of Ahupe Ghat -

We were four of us for this arduous long trek – Myself Dhruwin Charla, Ruchit Savla, Bhushan Gawad and Vijay Parmaar (Vijay Kaka). Since I had done Ahupe Ghat two years back, I knew the routes etc…so not much of planning was required and everything went smoothly. We met at Dadar station on Saturday morning at 5.45 am and took Karjat local scheduled at 5.56 am. When Thane arrived and idli wala boarded into our coach…tempting smell and we could not control..each of us had two plates idli wada…Bhushan however had almost 4 plates ! … you will be hearing more about this guy below with respect to food. We got down at Kalyan station and went to the S.T depo since we had to go to Murbad. The moment we reached the depo a bus for Nagar was leaving, we were lucky to get this bus though we had to travel standing all the way to Murbad. By 8 we reached Murbad and a bus to Khopivali was scheduled at 8.15 am. We took the Khopivali bus and reached the base i.e Khopivali at 9 am. The route goes from Murbad – Mhasa – Narivali (base of Siddhagad) – Dehne (base of Gorakhgad and Machindragad) – Khopivali.

Khopivali to Ahupe –

The moment we got down, Bhushan the every hungry guy started complaining about his empty stomach…no wonder where did he dumped the 4 plates of idli wadas. Anyway, we ignored his complaints and started the trek immediately without wasting anytime. The route initially goes from the village and then from the fields, it’s quite a prominent route except for a one point where a diversion comes. The diversion comes almost after thirty minutes from the village. You have to take left turn from this point. This diversion has a board with an arrow to Gorakhgad. Yes, Gorakhgad can be also climbed from Khopivali making it a bit longer trek. Soon we reached the river which has to be crossed. Here we had our first official break for having food…and to chillax Bhushan. Each of us was carrying snacks, cakes, biscuits, etc. After the break and a quick photo session we kept continuing the arduous trek. The weather was pleasant but since we were in a very dense forest the moisture was taking our toll. Moisture causes humidity and humidity causes problems for climbing on altitude. Since we had loads on our backs too it was a strenuous climb. Ahupe is a route of continuous climb. Once you enter the actual ghat you won’t be able to walk on flat patches, you continuously have to raise your legs. We kept climbing and clicking pictures of nature’s miracles. Behind us – Gorakhgad and Machindragad were standing tall with a crown of black clouds…anyway we were on higher level than them in another one hour. At around 3 we finally reached the top ! Huhhh relief.

Time spent at Ahupe village -

So we reached the top, rested on the green grass for ten minutes and started walking towards the actual village which was another one km roughly. On left side, the majestic valleys and the blue skies tempted us for a quick photo session. Now it started raining and we soon rushed to the village. Ahupe village is a small village like a hamlet on the cliffs. May be 10-15 houses and a Government Ashram school is what Ahupe comprises of. We went to a lady who was sitting outside her home and asked if we can sit in the varanda to have our lunch (which we were carrying), she happily agreed and we settled down. She asked us to come inside but we said its okay we enjoy in open. So we started with our lunch. Each of us was carrying a material required for making sandwiches. Yes, we had sandwiches in our lunch. The moment we started opening our backpacks the village kids gathered us, they were 8-9 of them and they were just looking at us making is feel conscious. We gave them sandwiches, cakes, biscuits, chocolates etc. We asked them form a queue and come one by one..it was really funny but we enjoyed it. We then asked the lady to arrange someone who could come to drop us till the main road which connects Bhimashankar via Kondhwal village. The lady asked her neighbor boy to accompany us and show the route. After the lunch we packed our bags and were ready to set off for next destination which was not yet fixed. Either Bhimashankar or Kondhwal.

Ahupe to Kondhwal –

It was 4.15 pm when we started from Ahupe. It was drizzling nicely and weather was simply pleasant. Our guide boy “Dattatrey Asaavle” was a very sweet guy who chit chatted with us all the way. Since he had to return back before it gets dark we did not take any halts even though we wanted to. We kept hiking towards the main road. The road goes from Ahupe to Bhimashankar via Kondhwal but if we go from the road from Ahupe itself we need to walk extra 4-5 km and so we took shortcut route which Dattatrey showed us. At 6.15 we reached the road end from where we had to say good bye to the guy. In just two hours we became so friendly with this guy that telling him bye was quite a sad part and we felt as if we knew him since long time. He told us about the life they have on the mountains and the way he lives, etc… Anyway we had to leave him now. The moment I removed my purse to pay this guy he just tried to ran off, yes he did not want any money from us ..we caught his hand and told him that we will feel bad if you don’t take money from us. Finally he took..Same happiness he had on his face..we all hugged him and gave a send off. On the way he had told us about his relatives which stay at Kondhwal village and we could do our night halt there. So now our target was to reach Kondhwal village which was another 2 hours walk. The route was awesome and we reached Kondhwal village by 8. We asked about “Shantaraam Kaute” (relative of Dattatrey) in the village and a guy showed us the home. Home sweet Home! Warm welcome by Kaute’s family and we were in.

Time spent at Kondhwal –

Now this paragraph am not sure whether I will be able to express everything with the words or not. I will try my best… ! So we dried off our clothes and settled down in their home. “Shantaram” – 39 year old, we called him kaka. There were three members in the home – Kaka, Kaki and Kaka’s mom. Kaka Kaki have two children who are studying in secondary section in a Ashram school 20 km away from Kondhwal. Time which we spent here, we will never ever forget. We were treated in a very warm way as if they knew us since ages. We had introduction with Kaka and he told us about him, his life, etc.  We were supposed to have dinner at his home, he asked us if rice and rice bhakri will do..we said yes it will do. Since they dint have any vegetables at home, we asked if they can make onion bhaji. He said yes but they did not knew how to make…I took the opportunity for cooking the onion bhaji that evening. Our friend Bhushan had slept now..he was tired and hungry as well. Me, Ruchit and Vijay kaka however chit chatted with Kaka and made the onion bhaaji. We all together with Kaute’s family then had dinner. Food was lovely, Rice, Rice bhakhri, Dahi and onion bhaji. We kept talking about their life and our life and it was really a nice evening. Then again this Bhushan went to sleep. We three went for a night walk outside the village to digest the food. When we came back, one uncle aunty had come to visit them. So we again chit chatted with them as well. We had conversations on Mumbai life and village life. They told us about animals which are there in their surroundings, the changes in the forest in last 30 years , etc..then at 11.30 we went to sleep.

Next day morning after refreshing we had tea and snacks which we were carrying. After tea we were supposed to leave Kondhwal and head towards Bhimashankar in a jeep. Two jeeps daily leave for Bhimashankar from Kondhwal. Again the sad part, saying good bye to Kaute’s family was a tough part. We were so attached with them in just one night…When I paid Kaka, he said no..we forced them to take the money then he asked his mother to come and take the money. We gave them 500 bucks and some biscuit packets which we had. We and they, both were sad for the goodbye. They invited us saying do come again for sure…we said yes for sure we will !

Kondhwal to Bhimashankar –

Two jeeps daily leave Kondhwal to Bhimashankar. Villagers from Kondhwal and other villages go to Bhimashankar to make their livelihood. Jeeps were already packed when we reached there, me and Ruchit climbed to the roof top and the other two fellows got inside. The ride is of about 10 km which first goes from kacha rasta. We enjoyed the roof top ride like anything. Everything was green green. Suddenly at a point our jeep got a diesel break down. We had to manage into another jeep which was behind us. So now the crowd was double. We two were again on the roof along with some more village guys. Anyway, it was really fun. We reached Bhimashankar at 9 am.

Time spent at Bhimashankar –

We wanted to explore Gupt Bhimashankar this time so we hired a local old fellow who would show us the way. We first did darshan of Bhimashankar temple and then continued till Gupt Bhimashankar. The route goes from behind of the main temple, its marked with arrows and there is no need of any guide. Although we dint knew this and we mistakenly hired this old fellow who kept telling us about himself. Even though we were not interested in listening he kept boring us. In about thirty minutes we reached Gupt Bhimashankar. There is a waterfall and a carved shivlinga on the rock surface. The name itself says “Gupt” means hidden inside the water. We spent some time in the falls and then started for return journey. This old man asked us to pay whatever we wish to and when we gave him 100 bucks he made a bad face saying don’t pay anything..he wanted 200 bucks..50 per head. We did not wanted to see his bad face again, we forcefully gave him that. Just compare Dattatrey or Kaute’s family with this boring old man who will just use this money for drinking alcohol. Yes, he told us that he drinks twice a week…anyway. We were back from Gupt Bhimashankar and now the plan was to have lunch and descend down.

We went to Riddhi hotel and had our lunch there. We had to wait for an hour because lunch was not ready as it was just 11.30..anyway we were happy to wait because we had a decent table and chair to sit and relax. We had our lunch and then started the descend at 1.15 pm.

Bhimashankar to Home -

We started towards Ganesh ghat route which would take us down at Khandas village. We had some short breaks and reached down by 4.15 pm. We had a quick bath at the river parallel to the road and were ready to go back to home. A jeep guy was there who was asking for 700 bucks for dropping us till Karjat station. We said no and we kept walking ahead towards Khandas village. He again came back and asked us he would take us for 225 bucks as he had found some more guys and he would divide the figure in between all us. So we agreed and got into the jeep. At 6.50 we reached Karjat station and missed 6.40 pm CST local. The next train was at 7.30 pm. We had some snacks at the station and tea. We all chit chatted except Bhushan who’s sleep was still incomplete. We did not allow him to sleep..the moment he got sleep we did something or other to wake him up…finally we reached Dadar with all sweet memories we carried in our cameras to home.

Ahupe to Bhimashankar trek is a two days trek and is quite tedious. People who can walk for long hours can do this trek nicely. This place is a dam beauty and a camera is must. You can also do either only Ahupe or Bhimashankar as a single day trek. We all four would never forget this trek…It’s one of the most amazing trek I have done out of my long list of 130+ treks.

We started off from Dadar station at 8 am on Saturday 6^th august 2011 in a local train for Khopoli. Due to less frequency of direct Khopoli trains, this local was too much crowded but we all got seats. The train remained crowded until Karjat station. Train reached Khopoli station by 10.15 am and we headed towards the S.T stand which is 5-10 mins walk from station towards the old Pune highway. We then took a bus going towards Pali scheduled at 10.30 am so as to reach our first destination that was Jambulpada. An hour’s ride on the Khopoli – Pali road costs Rs. 22 per head. We reached Jambulpada at 11 am and then we were supposed to head towards the base village – Bheliv which is around 9 km from Jambulpada. We were waiting for a tumtum rickshaw and after 10 mins we finally got a tumtum (6 seat rickshaw) which was already loaded with 13 people. We somehow managed to get inside and now the total count was 17, 3 times more than the actual capacity. It took another 30 mins to reach Bheliv village.

At 11.45 am we were at the base of Mruggad and now we headed towards the actual village which was 20 mins walk. Weather was cool and pleasant, it was not raining but it was not even hot. There is a nice river flowing by the village road where we did some photo session. Mruggad was semi covered with fog and had a brilliant background of high peaks behind it. The peaks behind are those of Deccan plateau. We could spot many huge waterfalls coming down from those peaks. We then enquired a village school boy for the route of Mruggad and he told us the route nicely. The route goes behind from the village school. When we reached the school, we asked the same boy to come along us to show us the way and he happily agreed to us.

We started our trek at 1 pm and were still doing lot of timepass on the way and enjoyed to the fullest. Our guide, Shubash was a 9^th class school boy and a very decent, smart and matured boy. He guided us nicely through the jungles and interacted with us. The route is quite messy and many paths merge at some points, one can get lost easily. It’s recommended to take a local from the base village.

Mruggad is a peculiar mountain which as three major sections. The actual fort is on the middle section and can be accessed from the narrow gulley between the middle and right sections. This gulley is a steep climb with enough hand grips. There are few patches where one needs to take enough care. Also just before this gulley starts, there is a cave entrance engraved on the right section. It can be easily spotted while going towards the gulley. The actual cave comes after crawling into the narrow passage and taking some left and right turns inside – sad our guide, Shubash. We climbed up the gulley safely and reached the spot from where the rock cut steps start.

Those steps are exposed and slippery, take enough care while climbing in the monsoons. There are a lot of hand holds on the mountain’s wall so there is no much issue to climb this patch. These steps are destroyed at some portions where more care has to be taken. After climbing up these steps, we reached the fort’s top where a ruined fort wall (Buruj in Marathi) still stands well.

The top of the fort was covered with tall grass. There is a small holy place which has a Shivlinga, Hanumaan and some more stone idols. Going ahead, there is water tank and a destroyed Fort entrance with a Darwaja. This would be the actual entrance of the fort and possibly destroyed by the Mughals. Now it is in a very bad shape and is filled with rocks. We went more ahead and there were few more water tanks and a nice plain rocky area where we had our lunch along with Shubash. The view from here was fantabulous, we clicked a lot of photos from here and when we wanted to click our group photo, it started pouring heavily and the cameras went inside the bags. We finished our lunch and started the departure. The pouring hardly lasted for 5 mins.

Descending was quicker than ascending and also we were tempted by the river at the base village. We wanted to have more fun in the river so we all descended down quickly and reached back to base by 4.30 pm. When we were about to reach the village school, Subhash deliberately ran away quickly…he was knowing that we were going to pay him money, he did not wanted to take money from us as we treated him like our team member. He was damn matured. We then went to his home and asked where have he gone, and then his friends called him from somewhere. We then gave him money and thanked him.

We left the village and headed towards the spot where tumtum left us in the morning. On the way, we had dips in the river and clicked many pictures. It was now 5.30 pm and when we reached the spot for tumtum, we learned from locals that now we won’t get any tumtum on this route. So we hired a village tumtum for 200 rs who was a very kind person, he dropped us till Parli (Pardi, Purli) and tried his best so that we could get the 6 pm bus for Khopoli, but we got a bit late and we could not get that bus. So he took us to a spot from where we could get tumtum for Khopoli. When we reached the spot, there was only one last tumtum going towards Khopoli, he told that tumtum wala to adjust us four in his tumtum, and that tumtum wala happily agreed. We again were 15 people inside the tumtum. At 6.45 we reached Khopoli. We then headed towards the station in a small rickshaw and reached at 7 pm. Shocked to know that the next train is at 8.15 pm. Anyway, we went outside the station and had a nice meal at a very decent hotel near to the station – Radha Krishna (Pure veg). We had our meals and then went back to the station.

Finally the train for Karjat arrived on station and we got in. It was whole empty and remained empty till Karjat. Reached Karjat and took the connecting train for CST at 9.00, it was a fast train which helped us to get back to our home a bit early. We were at Dadar station at 10.45 and reached home by 11.30 pm.

Due to lack of transportation in these areas, be sure you finish your trek as soon as possible. But also make sure you enjoy itJ. Mruggad can be done via Khopoli as well as from Lonavala side – Lion’s point. There is a route which descends down in the Bheliv village from around Lions point on the Deccan plateaus of Lonavala. Mruggad AKA Bheliv chya Killla is a medium level trek with no technical stuff. But be careful at some patches where they are exposed to valley and have a direct drop of 600+ feet.

Click here to see pictures of Mruggad trek.

The journey started from Mumbai in the Gujarat express train which dropped us to Dahanu road on exact time i.e 7.45 am. Now it was raining which did not stopped till we returned back in evening. We had breakfast outside the station and headed towards S.T stand which is in west side. We got a bus going towards Thane via Charoti naka. We took this bus and had a ride of 45 mins. It’s about 24 km from Dahanu to Charoti naka. Ahead of Charoti naka is Kasegaon (2-3 km) where we left the bus. From Kasegaon we had to reach Saywan (Saiwan/Saiwun whatever you spell it). Saywan is a quite popular junction on this route. We took another S.T bus from Charoti to Saywan which is about 14 km. It was now 10 am and we still had not reached the base. Many locals told us that we won’t be able to do this trek in this season, it will be very difficult and possibly we won’t even find the correct route, also villagers won’t come along with us to show the route. Whole of this region which we had been through while travelling seemed to be over flood due to heavy rains.  A lot of negative things were being bumped on us but we were determined enough and we headed towards the base village that is Rampur – Aslonpada. From Saywan we got a nice rickshaw wala who took us to the base. He asked few youngsters whom we met on the road that if they can guide us for the trek, but no one was ready. Anyway, we reached the base. The base is not an actual village, that rickshaw wala dropped us on an exact location from where the trek starts. This sport is a bit ahead from Rampur – Aslonpada village. Also there is a trek route from the base village which merges up the route we had taken.

At 10.45 am we started our trek and it was still raining. The route first climbs up steadily and then we can see a steep ridge connecting to a plateau ahead. There are two huts at very start of this route, one is within 5 mins, another is after 10-15 mins and both are on left side. These huts can be used to verify the route. Then we climbed up the ridge which is steep and reached the plateau. From here we could see many waterfalls. If you come from Rampur – Aslonpada village, the route will merge up here on the plateau.

Now we have to turn left towards Gambhirgad and there are two paths now. One climbs up a hillock while other goes from left side of hillock which looks very easy. But we took the one which climbed up hillock steeply. Only take this route if you are a hardcore trekker and if you can climb up 70 degree slopes with few or no grips to hold. Yes, that was not the right route but we anyway were unaware of it till now. We reached a spot where we had to climb up a very steep slope to reach a plateau up. Crossing this stretch wasted a lot of time as it was too steep, slippery and we had to make our own way. We then headed ahead on the plateau and got the first glimpse of Gambhirgad which was only visible for less than a minute due to heavy fog. We thought this is the correct route and went on ahead till we reached a dead end. This was spot from where the hardcore trekking had to be done. A wrong step and you go down into the valley. 70 degree slope with slippery rocks and few grass and karvy shrubs to hold. We now knew that we were on the wrong route. We were discussing about what to do and suddenly there was a nice wind flow which blew away the fog above us and we saw the ruined fortification of Gambhirgad above us on the slope where we were currently struggling to climb up. We could see the walls and two bastions of Gambhirgad. Now the situation was very serious and we had to be very careful with each move we took. I won’t be able to express what we had been through, whatever it was we did it safely and successfully. It took us around 1.30 hour to cover around 120 feet. The last move was the most difficult, we had to traverse the two bastions and then climb up where the soil was most loose and very slant slope with no grips at all. And after reaching top we could figure out that this was also a route. Yes it’s a route which is rarely used but not in monsoon of course. Don’t try this route if you are not sure about it because if you are stuck in middle of a slope you won’t be able to go even up and won’t be able to even come back down on such slippery slopes. It’s not impossible but rather it’s too risky and dangerous. Gambhirgad has to be taken seriously as its name also means Serious (Gambhir).

Finally we were on the top of fort and now we headed towards left side. There are group of rocks standing tall like sharp pinnacles, we could not click any pictures of these due to fog and rain. There were two diversions now, one to the left and one to the right of those rocks. The right goes to a small temple built inside the rocks which has some red colored clothe. And the left goes to a cave formed under one of the rock pinnacle. We had some food near the cave. The actual route is also near the cave. The route going downwards from the cave is the actual route for Gambhirgad. It’s the same route which we did not take from the first plateau, the left one from the plateau. You have to take this left route while climbing up.

Then we started descending and in no time we were down on the plateau and found that we took a so wrong turn. If we had took the correct path that was on the left side, we would have saved more than 4 hours. Now it was 5.30 pm and we had to still travel a lot more to reach Dahanu station. We were all sitting between the road and soon a rickshaw came going towards Saywan. There were three kids and one adult already sitting inside the rickshaw and we six adults also got in. The total number of passengers inside the rick was now 11. No wonder only 3 passengers are allowed in Mumbai. After reaching Saywan we headed towards Kasegaon in a jeep. In jeep we had our lunch or dinner whatever you say. After reaching Kasegaon we headed towards Charoti naka junction on NH8. From Charoti another tumtum rickshaw to Dahanu station and finally reached Dahanu station at 7.10 pm. Took tickets for Mumbai and we waited for the 7.45 Dahanu – Virar shuttle. The train arrived on time and luckily it was all empty. We all got relaxed inside the train and we were still in the thriller mood of Gambhirgad.

We reached Virar at 9 pm and took local train to reach our homes. This trek was the scariest trek for all of us but it was equally enjoyed. Anyway, please don’t try the route which we took if you are a normal trekker. Only try it if you are a hardcore freaking trekker and can climb up rock patches nicely. The normal route is a simple one and can be climbed up by any first timer too. There is nothing much to explore on the fort as such.

Click here to see the pictures of Gambhirgad trek.

Four of us started from Mumbai in an alto car at 7.30 am. We reached Panvel intersection and had our breakfast at the famous Datta snacks. Then took the Chowk – Karjat route and headed towards Neral. On the way we encountered many potholes and drunken people. There are many waterfalls on this road, these people go there to enjoy and they drink like anything. Each of them was carrying 1-2 bottles of hard drinks. They go inside waterfalls and drink; they throw plastics and glass bottles and pollute the nature. Also due to badly drunk conditions they also meet accidents and die. Well we moved ahead dodging the potholes and drunken people and took the Matheran road from Neral.

The ride now became really awesome, everything seems so cool now. Monsoon was at its best. But same was here, drunken people polluting the nature. We felt very bad about this. Something should be done about this or else one day it will become worst. We soon reached Jumapatti village and enquired at a shop for the Peb turn.

If you are going to Peb via Matheran and if you don’t want to go till top of Matheran just follow this directions. After crossing the Jumapati village, the toy train track crosses the road for 5 times. At the 5^th crossing, you will spot a sign board of a Ganesh temple on right side. The toy train tracks also goes to left side. We parked our car near the sign board and started walking. The starting point is 134 NM (A unit which counts 100 meters of toy train rail) and the ending point for Peb route is 158 NM. You will see such NM sign boards all over the track route. So it’s about 2.5 km walk on the rail tracks.

The walk was such a pleasant; on left side we had rocky walls of Matheran mountain and on the right side beautiful scenes. There was a lot of fog and even it was drizzling nicely. There are four-five small waterfalls too on this route. In 30 minutes we reached the spot from where we need to descend down on the right side. It’s a clear cut route and can be easily identified with a small gate with a bell. After descending down for two minutes, we came across a small temple built inside a small natural cave. The cave is really a beauty. Whole cave looks like a coral reef formation. We moved ahead and now the route goes towards the ridge between Matheran and Peb. The entire range was covered with fog and we had still not even seen glimpse of Peb. After descending down a certain level, a lot of wind force pushed away the fog and we got the first glimpse of Vikatgad but this lasted for only a minute and again the fog covered the view.

In about 20 minutes after leaving the rail tracks we reached the lowest point of the ridge between Peb and Matheran. On our back was the mighty Matheran and in front was the mountain which we were going to scale. Wind was very strong at this point as it creates a natural pass between the two mountains. We then started climbing up and soon reached the iron ladders. Two ladders are nicely installed on a rock face which can be attempted for rock climb in a dry season. We climbed up the ladders and reached the top of Peb plateau in 3 minutes. Once you cross the ladders, you will come across a diversion, one going directly to top of Peb on left side and one on right side which goes down to a small Shiv temple with few water tanks.

We then started hiking towards the highest point of Vikatgad which is straight up crossing the small ashram of Swami Samarth. After gaining some height we reached a place where the mountain becomes very narrow with steep deep valleys on both sides. There is small ladder installed here as there is a strong force of wind always here. We climbed up and headed towards the Paduka of Swami Samarth. A memorial is built at the top with some holy carvings and a flag post.

We explored this and tried to see the surroundings, but unfortunately the big white blanket of fog had covered everything within it. There is small water tank on left side below the memorial. We then had our food at this spot and then came back down. Then we went on the other end of fort which is towards Matheran. Fog was now going away and we were lucky to see the whole Matheran and the route from where we approached the Peb fort. We had a photo session here and then descended down. Just when we started descending it started raining heavily and even the winds were too strong.

Anyway, we reached down the ladders and crossed the ridge very quickly. Soon climbed up to the rail route and started walking back to the car. We did a lot of timepass while walking back on the tracks. At 3.30 we were back to the car and started downhill. At Jumapatti we had hot vadapavs from a shop and then continued our journey back to home. We reached home by 8 pm.

The trek was simply amazing and such a pleasant one. All of us enjoyed it to the fullest. Peb or Vikatgad can be done in any season. Can be a quite exhaustive in summer if climbed from Neral side. First timers can attempt it but be sure about proper guidance. The Neral route has few small rock stretches where one needs to take enough care. On this route, there are few caves enroot which are being maintained by the Swami Samarth organization’s team.

Click here to see pictures of Vikatgad / Peb fort trek.

We started off in Virar local from Borivali at around 6 am and reached Virar at 6.45 am, we had hot samosas as a part of our breakfast in this journey. Thanks to the team member who brought delicious hot samosas for us. There is quite a good frequency of Shuttle trains running between Palghar and Virar and we took one of them scheduled at 7.15 from Virar. Soon the shuttle started, the speed of this train was damn slow due to some traffic problems and thus we got late in reaching Saphale station. We reached Saphale station at around 7.45 and headed towards the east side.

Its good populated area around the station, we enquired few rickshaw walas for Tandulwadi village (base for Tandulwadi fort) and they were like 300 rs per rickshaw. We did not felt the charge was correct and so we went a bit ahead and finally found a tumtum who would drop us till Tandulwadi village for 10 rs per person. Also we spotted an S.T bus which has its last stop inside Tandulwadi village, it is scheduled at around 8 am. So if you are going to Tandulwadi you can directly go to S.T stand and take this bus or else these tumtums are always the second option.

Tandulwadi village is about 7-8 km from Saphale station and it’s a 30 mins ride. Soon the populated area ended and the road now was going uphill crossing some valleys. We were now able to spot the peculiar Tandulwadi fort from Tumtum. Soon the ride through valleys ended and we were dropped near the school of Tandulwadi village. We went inside the village and enquired few youngsters for the route. They properly guided us and showed us from where the route goes.

We started the trek at around 9.15 am. The route is well arrow marked and quite clear with very less diversions. Its first crosses few fields and then starts climbing up a hillock which connects to a plateau. Now we could see all the sharp features of this mountain clearly. Now the route directly climbs up from left side of the mountain. Its steep and quite exposed at some patches. After climbing all this patches, we reached a flat rock patch where there are enough foot holds and hand holds. One can easily climb this with enough grips. After crossing this patch, we reached near a pass. This pass is formed by the main Tandulwadi fort mountain and the leaning pinnacle type mountain on left side. From this pass, the route goes from right side and climbs up to the flat top of the fort. If you go left side, you will reach the top of the leaning pinnacle in 5 minutes but there is nothing at top of this pinnacle. Its actually not a pinnacle, but when you look at it from far it looks like a sharp pinnacle. Its quite huge and there is no technical climbing in this pinnacle. You can see this pinnacle from NH8 too.

When we reached the top, we were surprised to see a lonely monkey. Yeaah, he was all alone on the entire fort. He followed us everywhere we went and behaved very decently and did not do any mishaps. Whenever we clicked photos he would decently sit in a corner and wait for us. Well he was lonely monkey never seen any such case before. We saw some fort ruins and dry water tanks. Some water tanks had water but not drinkable. We could also see the NH8 and the two rivers Vaitarna and Surya getting merged. This merging point is really worth to watch from top, those two rivers come from such a far distance then finally meet up and become one huge river. After explroing we had a break and took some food which we carried along.

At 1 pm we started descending down. Be careful while descending the steep exposed patches especially in monsoon as they might be quite slippery and risky. It took us an hour and half to reach down the village. We refreshed ourselves at the village with the hand pump and headed towards the road. We could not find any transportation available there so we had to walk for 20 minutes to reach the Tandulwadi phata. From this phata we got a tumtum for Saphale station. At 3.30 we were at station and we had some meals there. Then we took a shuttle back to Virar and then a local train to reach home. We reached home by 5.30 in evening which was quite early as compared to other treks. Western liners have advantage of reaching home early while doing treks in western side.

Tandulwadi fort can be done easily in a day. Except the rocky patch and steep exposed area, the whole trek is easy. One has to be careful on those patches. A first timer can also attempt this trek but be sure to have proper guidance.

Click here to see pictures of Tandulwadi trek.

These are similar to the cave system of Kanheri (Sanjay Gandhi National Park – Borivali) but are very less in numbers as compared to Kanheri which is having almost 120 caves. Some groups use the wall above these caves for rappelling down as in monsoon it gives one a nice experience of waterfall rappelling. These caves have beautiful carvings which depict some stories of ancient times.

We started off from Dadar (central) in Karjat local at early morning of saturday. After crossing Kalyan everything looked so serene and green. We could see Haji Malang gad, Tavli, Navra-Navri pinnacles, Chanderi, Mhasmal, Vikatgad and Matheran on the right hand side. We soon reached Karjat station and had hot vadapavs with tea. After filling up our empty tummies we went outside the station and called up our tumtum rickshaw wala friend who stays near Karjat station and drives tumtum. If anyone wants his number, please comment here or contact us via the contact details.

The base village for Kondana caves is Kondhivde which is also the base for Rajmachi trek. It’s a 30 mins ride from Karjat station to the base village. We could see Dhak Bahiri and Palasdhari along with other mountain ranges on the way. There is nice river flowing by the village where you can have lot of fun after finishing the trek but be careful as its quite huge and can be risky at times. We enquired a villager for the route and started off for the trek.

Weather was pleasant it was drizzling nicely and the mountains were covered with fog. We could even see the Karjat – Pune railway route which climbs over the hills opposite to Rajmachi. The huge train seemed to be like a small toy train climbing over the mountains. The route to the Kondana caves goes from the main road of the village. After walking for approx 10 minutes you will come across a board sign on left sign which says Kondana caves. Thanks to the Archeological Survey of India to put up this board. Take this left road which becomes narrower after walking few steps. The route goes from the right side of an Emu farm, Yeaah! Emus – huge massive birds similar to ostriches. You can easily spot the Emus inside this farm. The route now starts climbing up gradually and is nicely arrow marked. You can’t get lost here and hence there is no need of taking any villager for route guidance.

The route crosses three or four small streams from which one is quite spacious and has a nice waterfall. We were not lucky to enjoy in these streams as it was not raining heavily yet and so these streams were not flowing in full fledge. We reached the steps of the Kondana caves in less than an hour. We had nice photo session of the caves. There were many trekkers and visitors at this place. Some of them were going to climb up to the Rajmachi and some were going to descend down back like us. Route for Rajmachi goes from the right side of the steps. Its arrow marked and can be easily spotted. Rajmachi is a flat plateau having a small village and twin forts of Shrivardhan and Manoranjan.

After exploration and photography we had our lunch which we carried along with us. We were too fast while ascending as per plan and so we had an hour to do something. We played few games in the caves and then descended down at 1.30 pm. We soon crossed the streams and reached down the base village. Finally when the trek ended it was now raining heavily. We were expecting this rain while trekking uphill. Anyway, we enjoyed those moments. We took a tumtum from Kondhivde to Karjat station and reached station at 3.30 pm. We took CST fast local and reached home with sweet memories from a small trek of Kondana caves.

Kondana caves can be done in any season and is a small trek with no technical difficulties. You can also go there with your family and kids.

To see pictures of Kondana caves trek click here.

Tungareshwar is a hill with plateau at top situated between Virar and Vasai area. Its dense forest region and is a reserved sanctuary nowadays. There is a Shiv temple and an Aashram over there for which it’s famous and has more likely became as a picnic spot. We knew this and therefore we took the Virar route via ascending. This route is quite rare and very less people use this route due to its lengthy climb of 12 kms, whereas the route from Vasai is just 7 kms. All though, jeeps can go till top from both the routes.

We started in Virar local at 6.30 am on Sunday 5^th June 2011. At 7.15 am we reached Virar and had breakfast outside station. We then asked to rickshaw wala for Ussgaon – Tungareshwar phata, and they said Rs. 300 for each rickshaw and we were 12 so we needed two rickshaws. We went ahead and bargained with another rickshaw wala, he agreed at Rs. 180 per rickshaw. The journey was pleasant, the weather was awesome, but no signs of rains yet. It’s around 30 mins from Virar station till Ussgaon – Tungareshwar phata. If you are coming from NH 8, take the turn of Vrajeshwari and after around 5 kms, you will see the Tungareshwar welcome gate on right side.

We started our trek at around 8.30 am. This was going to be more like a picnic and so we all were in timepass mood. We clicked lot of snaps in beginning itself. We encountered many crabs, chameleons, lizards, birds, and a baby snake too.  There are few water hand pumps installed on the way.  The route is fun if you have a nice group. It’s simple walking similar to Matheran. To make it thrilling, we took three shortcuts in midway. Those shortcuts were really challenging for the first timers, extremely steep and slippery with very less grips. This was the only part where we did some sort of climbing.

We were expecting heavy rains, but it didn’t rain at all. The weather was nice, drizzling happened sometimes, but it went away as fast as it had come. There was no one on this entire route except 12 of us and it was fun. We took almost 3 hours to reach a place called as “Parshuram Kund”. This is located at very top, just before the Ashram. A small pathway with a gate on right side of the main route can be easily spotted. There are some water tanks similar to those on forts. A little ahead of these tanks there is a beautiful cliff with lovely views. We all enjoyed here on the cliff. We could see whole Virar from here and even the weather was superb. Fog was covering the hills around us like crowns and it was slightly drizzling. Even cool breeze was flowing. We had lots of photo session here and also had snacks which we carried with us.

After a long break, we moved ahead towards the Ashram at top. You can get lunch, dinner etc at this Ashram. We quickly had a look at the Ashram and moved ahead towards Vasai side. We dint even come to know that we reached top and now it’s time to descend..lol. There are lots of shrubs of wild turmeric all over this mountain. We were now going down the hill and so gravitational force was along us. We were playing games, talking about nature, and had photo sessions all the way till Shiv temple below. We reached the Shiv temple at around 4 pm and then had our lunch there which we carried with us. Time went very quickly and we dint even noticed this. After having our lunch we still had to go more down till Chinchavli phata which was at least an hour far from this temple. We started walking down and we were singing songs. Now we could see lots of tourists and youngsters on the way. There is a waterfall below known as Chincoti falls. We did not get chance to enjoy there, as there was very less water and also there were drunk people around there. We went ahead and crossed some village and then crossed NH 8. Finally we reached Chinchavli phata and we quickly got a bus going towards Nalasopara which was already packed and so we had to go standing all the way. It was an hour’s ride and we reached station at 6.30 pm. We took Churchgate train and hopefully it was empty. We checked our photos that we clicked in our digicams. We reached home around 8 pm.

This trek is more like a picnic, if you want to go to this place, make sure you take Virar route via ascending or else it won’t be much fun. Try not to do this trek in summer season, it will be exhausting and you won’t enjoy.

Click here to see pictures of Tungareshwar trek.

The day started with journey from Mumbai to Lonavala in Indryani express in the morning 5.50 am. We travelled in the reserved coach. We were standing near the door and enjoyed the beautiful scenes of valleys which can be seen after Karjat. At 8.25 we reached Lonavala station and we had to rush to S.T stand as the first bus for Bhamburde – base for the trek is at 8.30 am. If you miss this bus, you have to wait till 12.30 pm. We ran towards the S.T stand and luckily did not miss the bus this time. It’s a beautiful journey from Lonavala to Bhamburde. It goes from Sahara – Ambey valley road and just before the Ambey valley it takes right turn. The road now becomes more thinner and the area is now more dense. It goes from mountains and small villages. Bhamburde is the last stop of the bus and we need to get down there for doing Ghangad.

At 10 am we reached Bhamburde. You can now see Ghangad (left) and Teilbaila (right). For Ghangad we have to go to Ekole village which is about a one kilo meter walk from Bhamburde through fields. After getting down at Bhamburde, you can see the temple of Ekole village. Just keep the aim of this temple and head towards the village through fields. There is a tar road too, but that goes circling from fields and its very long cut. As soon you reach Ekole you will see a tar road, walk on the road until you reach some huts. This tar road walk is about 15 minutes. Just before the huts 50-70 feet, you will be able to see a path from grass on left side. This is a very prominent path marked with arrows. This way will take you to the Garjai mandir. The temple of Garjai can be seen white colored from village on the Ghangad mountain.

Around 20-30 mins hiking takes us to the Garjai mandir. We took some rest here and had fruits. There is way from left side which goes straight upwards. We started climbing up from the left side of temple and reached the point where the ladder has been installed. There are some caves before the ladder. If you see on left side, you can see a huge rock which is a must see site on the fort. This huge rock is inclined on the wall of Ghangad and created a very nice shade beneath it. There are some idols too under the shade. Ahead of this huge rock, a little tricky route of two minutes from the edge you can get to a water tank. It’s a small water tank under the walls of the mountain. Water here was about to finish. So don’t be dependent on this tank if you are going after mid feb.

Then we climbed up the ladder and came across some more water tanks and caves. The water in this tank is badly polluted and is not drinkable. Going up from here, the climb becomes little more steep. After around 5-7 minutes, we came across the door of Ghangad. We now entered the fort and explored the top.

There is nothing much to explore. We just went on all the sides and had some photo session. You can see Sudhagad, Sarasgad, Teilbaila, Korigad and many more. There are some ruined walls of the fort at top.

Then we started the descend. It was a very quick descend. We needed to reach Bhamburde by 2 pm because the last bus from Bhamburde to Lonavala is at 2. If you miss this bus, you mostly have to spend the night there only. We had a short lunch break near Garjai mandir and quickly got down and reached before the bus arrived. Soon the bus came and we reached Lonavala by 3.30 pm. Had a decent food at Lonavala and then went to station.

We got into Decan express and reached Mumbai by 8 pm. This trek was really a unique one and we enjoyed it very much. Lot of photo sessions and very smooth trek. After doing this trek in January, we again did it in February  as a surprise birthday trek for a team member of TryTheThrill.

The ladder is just installed one year ago, before that the trek was difficult as the rock patch of 15 feet had to be climbed. The patch is not that tough but not for starters. Anyway, now Ghangad is easy trek and thrilling at times. It’s a short trek, takes maximum one hour from base for ascend. But be sure about the bus timings.

Click here to see pictures of Ghangad trek.

We ended the year 2010 with lot of thrills and the last trek we did was Ulhas valley on 25^th Dec 2010. It was now time to begin 2011 with some good trek. We decided to summit the fort of Songiri this time. The fort is also known as Palasdhari and is situated near Palasdhari station on the central railway line after Karjat station on the Khopoli line.

So the plan was made and bags were ready. Total we were 11 people for this trek. 8 of us were going to travel by train and the rest of 3 members were going to meet us directly at the base village of Songiri by a private vehicle.

According to our schedule, 8 of us started from Mumbai – Dadar in the local train to Karjat. This was a really chilling journey after crossing Kalyan. We reached Karjat and now we had to board the Khopoli train which was scheduled at 8.15 am from Karjat. In the time gap we had awesome tasty vadapavs of Karjat with hot tea. Then we boarded the train and reached Palasdhari station by 8.25 am.

The station of Palasdhari is a very cute one. Very small one and surrounded by trees and bushes. We enquired some people for the way to the base village of Songiri that is known as Nevali gaon. Its about 2.5 km walk from Palasdhari station to Nevali gaon. Walk for about 5 mins from Palasdhari station towards Khopoli side and on left side you will spot a small way which later turns into a tar road. We enjoyed this trail, it goes from small villages and fields. A small bunch of birds were also spotted by us on the way. You can see the Palasdhari or Songiri fort right from the railway station. It looks too small as in height wise but it has good climb at the last patch.

We reached the Nevali gaon and in about 10 minutes our other team members who were coming in car also joined us. A quick round of introduction about ourselves and trek was done and then we started the trek. There is a small hillock adjoining Songiri, here there are few houses. The way goes from these houses. We took a gang of local kids with us to show the way till top. They were three small kids who were leading a gang of 11 trekkers. Few of our members were new comers and for them this was very tiresome. Lot of breaks was taken while climbing up, anyway some group motivation and lot of inspiration leaded them to climb along with us at nice tempo. After climbing for around an hour we come across a plateau and straight ahead of us we can see the main part of the Songiri. The way now goes circling from right side. After about 15 mins trek we came to the most thrilling part of the trek. Totally scree patch with valley below. Moreover the area is burnt so no grips of bushes or grasses too. Those kids were climbing up like monkeys. From 11 of us, only 5 people climbed up this patch. All girls did not climbed up. It was really a slippery patch and for new comers it would be very difficult. This patch is of around 60-80 feet and directly leads to the top of Songiri. We 5 climbed up and reached the top with lot of efforts. We roamed from one end to another end and had a short break to have some bananas. There is nothing on fort to see except a water tank. You can see Irshalgad, Matheran, Prabalgad, Kalavantin, Rajmachi and Dhak Bahiri from here. Also down below you can see the Khopoli railway line.

As our other members were waiting down the patch we decided to descend quickly. After a quick round of group photo session at top, we started the descending. More slippery and dangerous then ascending. But with enough care and proper grips we all descended nicely. Do check the pictures of this patch. We met out other members down the patch and then we all together started the way back down to the base village. We all were hungry now. At around 2.30 pm we reached down and quickly refreshed ourselves and all sat for the lunch. We all had carried something from our homes; we shared it with each other and had a decent lunch. After lunch it was time to say good bye to our car members. They left us and we left Nevali village. There is a junction ahead of Nevali village which adjoins Kondhivde road. We went there and luckily got a tumtum rickshaw for Karjat station for 100 bucks. This was good option for us, we did not needed to walk to Palasdhari station and wait for a local from Khopoli to carry us till Karjat. And moreover those trains are having very low frequency, say like a train after 2-3 hours.

We reached Karjat station by 4 pm and we got fast local for CST. All of us settled inside the train and we had some biscuits and fruits. We saw pictures that we clicked in our cameras and then finally time to say good bye to each other.

This trek is a good trek for sort of small thrill. The last portion of the trek is steep and with no or very less grips. First timers can also do this trek only if you don’t have fear of scree and steepness.

Click here to see the pictures of Songiri trek.

So according to plan, we all reached Lonavala by Indrayani express train in morning at 8.15 am. We then headed towards S.T stand and we came to know that the first bus towards the base of Ghangad has already left and the next bus is at 12 pm. So we decided to do something else rather then Ghangad, as there is no other option to reach the base except the S.T bus which we already missed. Jeeps also communicate but the frequency is too low. We decided to check out the Canyon valley of Maharashtra, Ulhas valley or Tiger valley.

So I made some phone calls to my trek mates who had done Ulhas valley trek before for the guidance of route etc.  All information was gathered and we headed towards the base point which is in Kune gaon, 6.5 km away from Lonavala station on the highway towards Mumbai. We asked some rickshaw walas near the station for how much it will cost till Kune gaon, and they said 300-400 Rs. which was too high. So we decided to move on towards the highway and check if we get any lift or something. On the highway near kumar resorts, we got a rickshaw which dropped us till Kune gaon junction for 10 rs per seat. Cool man, this was it which I wanted.

So we were now on the old highway and in front of us was the flyover of new highway. Below the flyover there is a mud road going to Kune village. We went ahead of this road and as per my friends guidance we looked for a tiled road on left side of this mud road which climbs up to a private property. Soon we came across this road and headed upwards, after gaining a certain height we come across a flat land on left side which we need to walk on now. We left the tile road and went ahead on this flat land. We now have to go ahead on this flat land until we reach a set of pine trees. There is a big plateau over here which has its edges sharply going down in the Ulhas valley. We could now see the vast waterfall of Ulhas valley right down, in front was the express highway, and behind in the background was the Duke’s nose. This is the base for Ulhas valley trek.

So now, we had to search for a dry waterfall on this plateau ahead which slowly goes down in the valley. We got this waterfall which was almost dry, we started the trek now. I guess this was the first time someone was doing a trek of Ulhas valley via this route after monsoons. The way was completely gone and was full of spider and their huge webs. It’s a very dense place and really dangerous for newbie.

This waterfall which is not much steep ends into a small rivulet which runs downhill slowly and then gets converted into waterfall. The rocks were getting huger as we moved down. After coming down almost an hour, we reached a spot from where this waterfall falls into the deep valley right below directly 90 degrees. From this spot you can see Kumshet tunnel in front of you and the waterfall of ulhas valley is on left side down in the valley. Dukes nose can be also seen from here.

The route now goes from the left side of this spot through forest. The way was fully covered with spiders; we somehow managed to cross it. After walking about 5-10 mins, a dry  waterfall comes, now we have to get down in the valley using this fall. There are few rock patches where one needs to be extremely careful. This waterfall was completely dry as compared to the previous one which had loads of water.

This waterfall climbs down steeply and we reached the bottom of valley from here in about 45 mins, it was about 12.30 pm. The place where we were right now was just awesome. From here we needed to walk on the sides of river to reach the point where the main waterfall of ulhas valley takes place. We started walking towards the left and after a turn we could see the mighty waterfall. Its noise was like crazy. The decent till here was very thrilling and awesome one. We had lot of photo sessions in the background of this huge fall. We were not in mood to get wet as it was a dangerous place, full of slippery moss and a big pond which deep enough to sink us down. We had our lunch here which was a unique one, we had sandwiches filled up with crack jack biscuits, fruits and butter chutney.

It was an awesome moment, sitting on a big rock near the waterfall and having such lovely sandwiches in the awesome atmosphere. We finished with our lunch at about 1.15 pm and we packed our bags for the ascend. This trek is that’s why unique, usually we climb up first and then get down, but here in the valley you first need to get down and climb up when your tummies are finally filled up…lol.

It’s a bit tough to climb up with heavy tummies, and so we all got slow now, even the hot sun was making us more exhaust. Soon we reached the point from where we needed to leave the river and climb up the dry waterfall. We were climbing nicely and after about 45 mins, we found that something is wrong, because we never saw such parts while coming down. The waterfall was no more a waterfall and it was fully covered with buses full of thorns and loose gravels which made climbing up more difficult. We stopped here and thought what to do now, we were climbing up correctly upto some extent but we were missing something right below somewhere. So we decided to get down a bit and see if we can get our way back. But no way was found, infact we had clicked a mushroom while getting down which was spotted here and it was still here, so we were on correct waterfall route. So we again started climbing up the same thing, we again reached the loose gravels and the thorny bushes, well this was never seen while coming down. But the mushroom thing was a confirm case. So now we had to take a decision, and we decided to climb up from these thorny bushes.

Okay so now the condition was, 4 pm, soon its going to be dark in this jungle, very less water, no torch, and no route to climb up. We were figuring what and where to go and climbing was started. We reached a place from where the top plateau of Kune was right above us 60-70 feet but it was right 90 degrees which we can’t climb up anyway.  This was like a dead end. Okay so now some other way, we went more ahead upwards from the sharp edge which was very difficult to take grip, we were literally catching the thorny bushes and taking hand grips, it was a sloping area of about 70 degrees with loose gravels and these thorny bushes. Okay now it seemed like it would be possible to get out from here somehow as we could see a small gulley ahead which might be climbable. But when we reached the gulley, it was like almost impossible. So again a dead end, we tried a kind of rock climbing here but no it was not enough. But if we were able to climb this, we could have reached the top flat plateau in very short time.

Anyway, now we decided to get down on right side in the jungle. Getting down was more difficult, vey less grips and full of loose gravels which are worst in grips. After getting down for some time, we were able to hear a noise of waterfall, and we headed towards it, right now we had only some 100 ml of water and we needed it the most. Finally we reached that waterfall and at least one tension was over, the water was filled up and we refreshed ourselves.  We decided to move ahead using this waterfall as it was heading upwards.

After few minutes we all were thinking that this is the same waterfall which we used to get down initially from the plateau. And we all got some proofs where we had done photo sessions and yes it was sure that we were back on the right route. All happy, and no tension of getting dark. It was now 4.45 pm and we reached up the plateau finally. We had some more photo sessions here and then headed towards the highway. So basically what we did was, we bypassed the spot where this waterfall drops down into valley straight 90 degrees.

Anyway when we reached the old highway junction we quickly got a rickshaw for Lonavala market and we had a very good food in a hotel. Then we went to station and took intercity express to get back to Mumbai. Ulhas valley was done finally, it was one of my dream trek and I did it nicely. People say it needs technical equipments to do this trek, but I did not found any such patches. Yeah there are some patches where good tricky rock climbing is needed, but they are not too difficult that you need ropes.

We all enjoyed this trek very much, specially the superb sandwiches which are actually invented by us. The waterfall down in the valley is just awesome and one can see it from highway itself. It drops from a very huge height and hence the noise is also like crazy.

Click here to see pictures of Ulhas valley trek.