Night Trek and Camping at Mrugagad, Khopoli

Greetings fellow Readers,

Its been long time I took to write, but was waiting for some super exciting visit.

It happened last week, my buddy Nilesh Kambli was getting bored sitting at home and even I had to postpone some event due to some reason.

So… we were free to move out. We called up Shraddhesh Jadhav, our friend, partner and guide for this trek.

It was 21^st May, the entire day went hectic with loads of work. What kept us alive was Full moon night.

Since Shraddhesh was to come from Office and that too from Borivali, we had to postpone our timings. After coordination, we decided to meet at “Shree Duttguru snacks, Panvel”

But as I reached early, I took a glimpse of the food available at the stores, unfortunately, these stores close down by 10-10.30 so the only food available is the leftover.

Another reason being upcoming stalls of Chinese food at tea centres.

So we decided to move on and took the Khopoli road… it was almost 9.30pm

The Ride was just incomparable, No Traffic, super clean road, and cool breeze.

We stopped at Chouk Phata. The road here diverts to different location, Left goes to Matheran/ Karjat and straight goes to Pune.

After having “Bhurji Pav and Garma garam Cutting” we moved onto our destination

The road was so smooth we didn’t recognize we were riding @ flat 70kmph.

While on Khopoli Pali road, we had to take a Left for Jambhulpada.

Initial road was very patchy and gave us the feel of OFF-ROAD riding.

The full moon was our Guiding star.

Suddenly Shraddhesh had an Headon collision with a grasshopper. (Hahahahaha)

That gave us an opportunity to stop for a while and we gazed the beautiful moon and stars around for sometime.

One can never get this feeling….. even if you stay in Bungalow worth crores.

Finally reached the base of Mrugagad – Bhelivsave Gaav

It was almost midnight. Parked our bikes and started our search for the Route.

“Durgveer Pratishthan – Seveche Thaai Tatpar, Durgveer Nirantar”

The direction board set up by Durgveer Pratishthan

It is basically a Voluntary group of similar thinking people who strive hard for Preservation and conservation of FORTS of Maharashtra.

This group visits villages around the Forts and conduct Social, Cultural and Educational sessions providing indepth knowledge of the Fort and its importance so that they may extend their helping hand as much as possible.

Nice work Guys….

We found some Boards and arrow marking made by volunteers that took us into a dense forest,

Little moonlight reaching the ground, weird sounds of insects, and specially the horrifying sound of dry leaves being cracked under our feet….. such moments just take your breath away.

With some tricky twists and turns… we neared the top of the fort within an hour.

Now the challenge lies to climb the steep stairs carved in the rocks.

Somehow managed to reach the top and lay down for sometime relaxing with the cool breeze and gazing the lightened Bhelivsave village below.

the little lightened Bhelivsave Village 

Opened up the tent, bolted the ends and put our bags in….

Tent set up

Shraddhesh checking the Space available

Nilesh took out his Nikon, and I took out my Canon (Cameras) and started experimenting on clicking pictures here and there.

Full Moon on the night of Buddha Pournima

Finally, at 3am we decided to call off the day.

tiny little mountains hid under morning Fog

Next morning we woke up at around 6 am….. and waited for Durgveer volunteers to arrive. Small portion of cisterns are yet to be cleaned before monsoons.

We were out of Water and had to wait for them.

Timer pe selfie

Me and Shraddhesh engulfed in brief discussion

the other part of the Fort

till then we thought of visiting the remnants of the forts.

route on top of the fort

remnants of the sitting area on the fort

steps that were hid under pile of mud

These steps were hidden under heap of mud which were dug out by the Volunteers of Durgveer

2 cisterns

thiso ne had steps... wonder if this is connected with the other

shraddhesh checking the tree

Monsson brings life to everything

this cistern was filled with mud till the Top

Many bigger stones had fallen into it. Durgveer has removed most of the stones using Hand pulley

Scenic location

Idols that were unearthed

Stone Pot used to store water

visitor: African bee eater

Steadily we started our decend…

steps were hardly 3 feet in length

the only way to go up and down

a small cave type opening

Enroute we were halted by 2 giant Mango Trees… and then….. there was a shower of unripe Mangoes upon us.

My share of mangoes

Divided the mangoes and started our journey back

Mrugagad is a small Fort surrounded by the Uplifted Lonavala region. Best time to visit is in Monsoon.

While cleaning the cisterns, many olden artifacts have been unearthed.

Fort Mrugagad

Somehow MAY is over and Monsoon ready to peek in.

see you soon

Lets meet and enjoy the monsoons in the lap of Mighty Sahyadri

Good bye.. see you soon.

Regards,

Sumeet (Sumya)

Trek to Songiri/ Palasdhari Fort

Hello Fellow trekkers and Adventure Lovers…..

Another day… another trek… to the remote section of Mumbai

Palasdhari, a small station for Pune and khopoli bound trains… but feels like heaven in monsoon.

So Pre-monsoon schedule was initiated with “Trek to SONGIRI Fort” or also known as Palasdhari fort.

Songiri Fort / Palasdhari Fort

To start with… this plan was DERAILED many times considering the immense increasing HEAT in the month of March and April. GOD knows how did it go well in MAY.

I boarded the Indore Pune express from kalyan which was haluled by BLOOD RED WAP4e from BRC (Vadodara). Travelling in Mail/ express trains always keeps u energetic & motivated. 

Indore Pune express with WAP4e

Got down at Karjat and waited for my friends from western line to pick me up.

Till then... to kill time, I had a little “Vadapav and cutting chai” – har ek Mumbaikar ke rag rag me basa.

They arrived in a OMNI… quite comfortable and spacious for 7 of us. Took the car to the Level crossing ahead of Palasdhari station. Got ready and started to move on.

For some time we walked parallel to the Railway tracks till we reached the 1^st Tunnel.

1st tunnel on the Mumbai Pune route

Since this was our first attempt we took the known route of going above the tunnel. Later on, realized that another simple route existed. Whatsoever… kept going on.

Dense vegetation

Within next 15 mins reached the rock-Patch… must be around 35-40 ft, but its simple.

1st Rock Patch

When we reached above… the view was breath-taking - cool breeze, the entire stretch of Karjat khopoli sections with parallel road running to tracks and tiny looking vehicles racing to move ahead.

View from halfway

The Race goes on....

Just then Deccan express emerged out of tunnel with WCAM2p class locomotive and was banked by WAG7 locos

Deccan Express with WCAM2p

From here... the route starts to steep up making us to take careful steps, a small bushy area and we reached the Plateau.

At the Palteau

Took a Break for 10 mins and then started again.

Nearly after another 20-25 mins we reached amidst a heavy jungle area running parallel to the mountain side.

I took the task of climbing it first… but lateron realized that others couldn’t do it. So standing on a rock. I guided them towards the proper route visible from above, and they managed to climb up.

The Rock Patch - DO NOT CLIMB

The route was much steeper than expected

Arriving at the Top

Finally the Bastion of the fort was in front of us…. And “Yess. We did it…” we were at the summit. We had reached here in 3 hrs at leisure pace.

The Top of the fort

Just then, some boys had overtaken us towards the Top… these were from Asmant Trekkers who had taken the initiative to clean the Water Tanks that had weeds grown in it. The tank was totally dry. So we decided to help them with whatever we can do.

The Water tank - totally dried up

Assisting Fellow trekker friends in the Clean-up initiative

Mumbai bound Hyderabad express

A Selfie and a group Photo… we decided to leave.

Mohili Meadows - at Mohili T Wasare

We thought of having our packed lunch somewhere in between, but then decided to have it after finishing the trek.

The Decend started and within half an hour, we were halfway down at the plateau.

And then…. LOST the route… started to move ahead without any clue.. but it was fun

Coz later realized that we were just few steps away from the normal route. But the heat was so horrible, we were all exhausted, looking for a drop of water.. we were just dragging ourselves towards the car.

Finally the Level Crossing Guard provided us with a glass of water each and we felt, for some time – ALIVE.

Having freshened up at the nearby dam, drank plenty of water and felt rejuvenated.

Varne Dam / reservoir

They dropped me at karjat station and we both parted our ways.

Details:

Name: Songiri fort / Palasdhari Fort

Nearest Station: Palasdhari (1^st station on Karjat – khopoli route)

Grade: Easy

Time required: 2-3 hrs max

Route: There are 2 different routes, 1. Via Palasdhari and other via Avalas

Note: Avalas route is generally NOT preferred as it is from the Eastern side and the heat is immense with less trees enroute for shadows

Looking forward for a beautiful monsoon trek to Songiri.

Thanks for reading.... Comments and suggestions awaited.

- Sumeet Rao