Kalavantin Durg Trekk

Height - 2300ft
Location - Panvel
Base Village -  Thakurwadi
Duration - Thakurwadi to Prabalmachi (1 - 1:30 hrs), Prabalmachi to Kalavantin durg (1-1:30hrs)
Members- Me,Jai,G,Mane, Kalpesh and Nikhil.

After many "YES" and 'NO's" we finally had unanimously given a go ahead nod for Kalavantin Durg.
The below pic taken from GOOGLE  itself would be enough to say why we gave it such a thought.

Dangerous looking but tempting to be scaled at the same time. :-)
Also another reason was Nikhil and Mane had a year back tried to scale the peak but had lost their path due to bad weather, so they wanted to make it this time.
So be it. At decided day we met, reached Panvel through train from Dadar.
Hiring a tum-tum (big rickshaw 10-12 seater) was really tough as we could not find one easily. Almost 1 hour was spent in finding one. Within 30 mins we reached Thakurwadi the base village.
And there is was the ... the Kalavantin durg (fort) peak was visible from far off.
The triangular peak is the Kalavantin Durg and the flat one is the Prabalgad.

Journey began with enthusiasm with the GOOGLE pic of the rock cut steps on the fort in mind.

Climate is pretty cool. But in some 45 mins me and kalpesh are almost dead walking. :-)
Somehow pulling and dragging our legs. The group finally decided to stop for some time and also have a bite.

Jayyu fortunately had carried glucose. That really helped us to cover the distance till Prabalmachi.
On the way we saw a waterfall but decided to halt at it on our way back.

There were stone carved images of Lord Ganesh and Hanuman. Though its a common site to find images and idols of Gods and Goddess on such trek but each time I came across one it just reinforces the feeling of serenity and divinity at such high altitudes.

Soon we reached Prabalmachi. Its a plateau with small houses. Was surprised to see the paddy farms up there.

 

Prabalmachi is the base to Prabalgad and Kalavantin Durg. With some rest and clicking snaps of scenic beauty around we moved ahead to scale Kalavantin durg.

Just as we started scaling the hill to it started raining making the ascent tougher. Getting grip of stones , roots and branches we reached to the top of the hill. Just to find that we had now reached to the base of Kalavantin Durg !!!
Mane , me and Kalpesh were damm fatigued to move ahead. So decided no to take risk in climbing those rock cut steps ( which we had seen on GOOGLE). Thought it looked tempting then but in reality it seemed a bit risky also now that it was drizzling. So we 3 stayed back. Jai, G and Nikhil decided to move climb (which i would say ... decided to take the risk !! )
Jayyu too came down after he moved a few steps up which actually surprised me !! :-P
He was the star trekker of our group ( because never ever had i seen him getting fatigued on all our trekks ).
Now i did not feel bad as Jayyu had decided to stay back .. so for amateur like me it was a perfect decision :-) .
So we 4 stayed back waiting for G and Nikhil. Clicked some snaps and enjoyed to fog covering us with Kalavantin on oneside and Prabalgad on other.

In this pic -
Kalpesh in red with Prabalgad behind, and Jayyu still double minded staring at Kalavantin Durg that should he give it a try to climb those rock - cut steps :-P

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This feeling was really heavenly , we were standing in between two mighty forts and fog and started covering us from all sides.

 G  at the top !!
He is Happy because he made it or Jai dint make it .. he knows better. :-D

 

Pic. taken by Nikhil -
Prabalgad in fog seen from Kalavantin.
Must have felt like Heaven !!!









Pic. taken by Nikhil on his descent ..
Must have felt like Hell !!  to walk down the stairs with 180 degree curve.

By now our path to Prabalmachi was totally wet .. at many places we we struggled to move down.

At Prabalmachi we bought some steamed corn from the villagers. You can get home made veg and non-veg from the vilagers there for a small price.

Now came the waterfall. No need to say how heavenly it felt.
Can be seen from Jayyu's pic.:-D

 Some clicks of the mystic fog covered climate around.

And finally a group pic (with as usual Jai behind the lens).

We caught a bus from Thakurwadi to Panvel stn. at 6:00pm. In an hour reached Panvel stn.
Then from Panvel to Thane in local train and from Thane to Borivali by ST bus , the journey was smooth without any hassle.
Kalavantin was a great experience !!

Lohagad trekk

Height Above Sea Level - 3400ft
Location - Malvali (Next stn. to Lonavala , when going from Mumbai to Pune)
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - 2.5 hrs from Malvali Stn.
Members - Abhishek, Me,Shankar, Kalpesh, Mane (Mahesh - The GOD ), Jayyu and G (gautam).

Kothaligad being our previous trek, this time we wanted the trek to be simpler but much of sight seeing.
Lohagad proved out to be just the perfect one !!
Also it is amongst the few forts of Shivaji which are still in a better state.

So as per our earlier experiences where food was wasted this time we decided to carry only sandwiches. But still Mane  suggested that we go for maggi which we can cook on the fort.

So on the decided day we met at 5:00pm at Borivali. Then we went to Dadar to catch a Pune bound train. We had to get down at Malvali stn. Its next to Lonavala stn. It took us around 1 hour to reach there.

 From here in 20 mins walk we reached place called Baje. The famous Baje caves , from the Buddhist era are located here. If a small diversion is taken on the way to Lohagad we can reach Baje caves. Way to Baje caves is through properly built staircases. But as Baje was not planned we did not go there.

To watch the first ray of sun on the way towards Lohagad was an awesome experience.

So the trek began. The road was pretty simpler also climate as cool. So dint face any heat like we did during Kothaligad trek.

One rare snap in which Jayyu (Gajendra ..) can be seen. :-D and others trailing behind.
This is the first time I coined the word Gajendra ( one with power of elephant) for Jai because on all the trekks he used to just pop in those headphones and walk and walk and walk without stopping as if during trek his legs would get the power of elephants. :-P

Another fort called Visapur was seen on the way.  The locals said its not much visited because most of it is in ruins and also the road up there is through bit dense jungle.

Some rest with Visapur fort in the background.

Now the mighty Lohagad ( Iron-Fort) could be seen in one view. I couldn't resist this view to be captured.

 The mighty walls visible now reinforced the thought that why this fort would have been called as the Iron-Fort or Lohagad.

 The main entrance.

 Interior.

Great architecture and strongly fortified fort. Our camera just went clicks- clicks and clicks.

There were many large and small water cisterns at the top.

We sat at the largest one to have our sandwiches and of course now was the time for our Maggi .

We great effort we some how set a fire because the wind was blowing. Also somehow the Maggi got cooked but thanks to the wind some ashes fell  inside the Maggi. No need to say how the maggi now tasted ( which we till date remember as "Maggi with Raakh ka Tadka" ) :-D







Small temple and and remains of an old dome structure
 

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Then we moved to the tail end part of the fort which is also the most famous one called as Vincchu - Katta (Scorpion's tail) . It looks like the Scorpion's tail from a top view. Used mostly for surveillance i suppose.

Spending another hour relaxing and cliking some mind blowing pics of mountain ranges and valley's we started our return journey.


Group snap.

 Bid Adieu to the Mighty Fort.











For amateur trekkers Lohagad is just the perfect one to start with and get addicted to Trekking !! ;-)

Kothaligad Trekk, Oct 2008

Height Above Sea Level - 1500ft
Location -  Karjat, Maharashtra.
Difficulty - Medium to Easy.
Duration - 2 hours (From Ambivali to the Fort )
Members - Abhishek, Kalpesh, Me, Mahesh, Shankar , Jai ( our cameraman.... rarely would he be found in any sanps . :-) ) and ... ofcourse Gautam ( 'G' as we call him ) . As usual Kinjal ( Kinjada/Kinjadi ) dint come. With his standard reply the day before "AAunga to AAunga!! " we had assumed his absence.

This was our first trekk so the entire gang was excited.
Early that morning woke up each other calling and smsing each other. For food we had carried cakes,chips, sandwiches,biscuits...etc :-) ( This really proved a waste of food and also added to our weight which only we felt later when the trekk had started.)

Journey started at 5:30 am from Borivali stn. From Borivali to Dadar and then to Karjat we reached. Through a tum-tum ( a big size rickshaw ) we reached Ambivali.

The first group snap at the start. ( with Jayuu being behind the lens ).
After some 30 mins of walking we could the wrath of October Heat upon us. We were sweating like anything. Could feel body glucouse being sucked up by the heat . Could see the only fairer sex species amongst us Jayuu turning red.

Soon the jeans got replaced by shorts and three-fourths. The t-shirt by vest.

We had barely covered half the distance but still the peak which was now visible seemed to be very far.

Few seconds of breeze waves felt in between was really soothing out the heat effect.
With little water remaining we finally made it to the base camp of the fort. We rested in a trees shade and ate some sandwiches.

Filling the bottles from the villagers there we moved to scale the small hill.
 It took another 40 - 45 mins from here. Finally reached to fort. There was a villager up there selling lemon juice. So ppl just gulped and gulped glass after glass till we were full. his entire container (small drum) was finished still we wanted more. This is when we saw what water he was using to make the lemon juice. There is a small water cistern on top from where he used to fill the water. After seeing the open cistern with dead leaves, twigs ..etc we did not have the guts to drink more of it !!


The entire fort looks like a pointed dome from outside.
Later from the locals we cam to know that it was used as  watch tower and storage for ammunition during the Maratha regime.

There is a small temple and a chimney like tunnel just besides it which spirals upward.

 Few canons could be seen there lying on the fort. Carvings seen on the wall and pillars.

On our way back in the base village we could see a Bell shaped thing in a courtyard between a few houses.

Which after inquiry we came to know was a Panch Dhatu (5 metals) canon. Few years back some thieves tried to steal it but villagers caught them and buried the canon upside down in concrete so it looks like Bell .

 While reaching Ambivali we faced heavy rains which was really enjoying and relaxed us.

In a local ST we reached Karjat stn. from Ambivali. There was a problem of local trains. So we caught a long-distance train till Dadar.
Though there was not much site seeing on the fort itself the entire journey was pretty good.
Also we learned some tips of trekking like.. which season to choose, food, clothes, etc.
We were confident to do better in our future trekks !!