New Year's First Winter Trek to Kalavantin Durg

Greetings Wanderers..!!!

Wish you all a very Happy Healthy and prosperous New year.

Last year (2017) was full of ups and downs, well.. that’s life and we have to move on.

Winter was high marking the beginning of 2018 as one of the chilliest winters and so on.

That was a good news for us and we planned a simple Trek to Kalavantin Durg.

Kalavantin Durg

We had already been to these spots and never ever did we find anything Dangerous… unless you have plans to “INTENTIONALLY” do it.
We planned to celebrate the new year with a trek to Kalavantin Durg on 7^th Jan 2018, the 1^st Sunday of the year.

Mouth to mouth publicity led the group to reach a figure of 20. Wow.. that’s amazing.

Since most of them were old timers, we indeed got Freshers as well.

We met at Panvel station and had a tummy filling breakfast at Hotel Sarovar, just opposite bus depot. By the time our wanderers were charging themselves with good breakfast, we quickly managed to bargain with the tumtum guy who charged a nominal fees. Will provide you the name and number in the end for further reference.

It’s a 20 minutes journey towards Thakurwadi, however small cars and bikes go upto a kilometer ahead till the starting point.

Well it was cool in the morning and we decided to walk towards the starting point. We needed to warmup 

The Warmup road

Group pic

The wanderers then “stood in a Straight Circle” for a small round of introduction. 
Most members had already done trekking with us. We had Naresh Chaudhari sir, his family and Varsha, hiren, Tejas, Deepali and 2 more from Idea Group and Hemali, Manil, Swati, Devang, Sukesh, who had earlier done rappelling and Ulhas valley trek last year.

With Kalavantin peak in view we started our trek at 9.15am with much ease. With small breaks at intervals of 15-20 minutes, exploring new routes, we reached Prabal Machi by 11.30am.
Oh my… it was crowded with campers, tents were setup, people taking selfies like crazy near tents… but we all were just enjoying the view and our motive was just 1 thing… trekking.

Helping and caring

The shorter route

Kalavantin Durg from Prabalmachi

Camping at Prabalmachi

I informed Balu dada (Prabalgad Hotel) that we are 20 people and will have lunch once we return. 
And continued further.

To our horror.. there were hell lot of small groups who had already went ahead and were piled up at the peak. 

So we decided to move at our own sweet pace and enjoy the view, 

WE met “Nisargmitra” on our way who had come with areound 50+ kids for higher secondary for trek. They let most people go ahead and started their final climb when most were returning (Pretty nice move).

The Steps

Climbing up was nothing, the challenging part was to decend. Once on top, we checked out the Crowd desperate to climb the pinnacle (Last rock patch) .we kept our distance and only 5 of us led by nilesh went ahead.

The earlier groups were behaving so unprofessionally… wondered how can people take risk of bringing them without any safety gears? Alteast rope is a must for such treks. 
Now since we had to wait for nilesh and others to return, we decided to move down and have our lunch…
The decend begins slowly with each step monitored and with assistance, holding hands and providing support whererver required.

Deepali had some vertigo problem, but we were destined to help her get out of it. Tejas taking the major responsibility to bring her down, I looked after other wanderers.

We reached prabalmachi and had our lunch… veg and nonveg both were super, yummy and Mouthwatering.

Till we finished…. Nilesh and others arrived…

Just had a look at the time and whoa.!!!! We had already finished 80% of the trek by 3pm… what next.?????

After such a tummy filling lunch.. slowly and steadily , one by one started their transition from Vertical posture to Horizontal.

Just imagine… “Jaadakhaali thandgaar saavli, Shen-ane saravlela aangan, gaar vaaryachi angavar haluvar thaap” (Sound like poem). Hahahaah.
End result: all were fast asleep within minutes.

By 3.30pm.. gave a wakeup call and all were standing Fresh and ready to move on.
While decending we made a call to our tumtum guy and he was already there.

Reached Panvel station by 6pm and the trek finished with great memories and promises for new treks.
We would like to thank all the participants to make this trip a success and would love to have your company for upcoming treks.

Till then…
Jai Hind.. Jai Maharashtra.. Jai Shivraay.

Sumya – the Wildwanderer.

Round trip to Plateau of Flowers- Kaas Pathaar

Greetings Wanderers….

Welcome back..!!!!

Monsoons have been awesome this year and I hope every citizen has quenched his thirst of getting drenched in rain.

This year has been really amazing, all the festivals had back to back arrivals leaving September – the month to enjoy post monsoon trips.

We had planned a Bike ride to Kaas Plateau – Satara (Plateau of flowers) which turned out to be a Car drive.Greetings Wanderers….

Welcome back..!!!!

Monsoons have been awesome this year and I hope every citizen has quenched his thirst of getting drenched in rain.

This year has been really amazing, all the festivals had back to back arrivals leaving September – the month to enjoy post monsoon trips.

We had planned a Bike ride to Kaas Plateau – Satara (Plateau of flowers) which turned out to be a Car drive.

On Saturday 9^th September, we left Mumbai with 12 people i.e. 2 cars and 1 bike.

Since it was an overnight trip, we had kept ourselves equipped with tents and mosquito nets.

Dattaguru snacks was our breakfast point with Missal Pav and Batata Wada.

We had our route marked on a different way… we decided to move via Pali khopoli road where our 1^st halt was Sri Ballaleshwar devasthan, Pali on the Pali khopoli road, Sarasgad is right 

behind this temple.

Sarasgad

Sri Ballaleshwar Devasthan, Pali

From there we were cruising across scenic village roads that went till Mangaon junction and going ahead towards Mahad.

brief halt to recharge ourselves

To the right were GandharPale Buddhist caves. 

Gandharpale or Pala caves are situated on a hill near Mahad- Konkan across the Mumbai-Goa highway at the confluence of Savitri-Gandhari rivers. There is also a mention in an ancient Greek text 'Periplus of Erythraean sea' dt 247 BC where Pale is mentioned as Palaipatyai and Gandhare village.

There are total 31 caves. They are mostly Buddhist viharas located on a hill top. There are stone steps that take you to the top and can be accessed in hardly fifteen minutes.

view from Top

 The caves have a few small stupas located in prayer halls called chaityagrihas.

viharaas

Chaityagriha

There also exist a few carvings of lord Buddha the Bodhisatvas along with attendants on the vihara walls and pillars, but they seem to have abraded with time. There is also a shilalekh in the brahmi script carved on the wall of one cave. 

Inscriptions in Brahmi language

The ambience surrounding these caves is awesome, especially in the monsoons, when the entire hillock gets wrapped by a green blanket and is adorned by several rivulets and water cascades.

We stopped for lunch at local hotel and had Jhunka Bhakar, However we were running behind schedule and got separated so we had our lunch at different places.

We were greeted with unexpected rains near poladpur that delayed our schedule more, but since the roads were in good condition we managed to cover most of the lost time there and reached Pratapgad fort. 

From here the Right turn takes you to Pratapgad Fort and Left towards Mahabaleshwar.

reaching the junction point for Mahabaleshwar and Pratapgad

About the fort: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj commissioned Moropant Trimbak Pingle, his prime minister, to undertake the construction of this fort in order to defend the banks of the Nira and the Koyna rivers, and to defend the Par pass. It was completed in 1656. The Battle of Pratapgarh between Shivaji and Afzal Khan was fought below the ramparts of this fort on November 10, 1659. 

We reached by 4.30pm and were greeted by dense fog where we were unable to see the person standing beside… it was truly a sad state, but we decided to visit the fort, atleast whatever is visible.

Suddenly the fog started to disperse atop and we were able to get the clear view of the tower and the epic picture that represents Pratapgad fort.

the Tower

Southwest side of the fort

the other side

A 17 feet high equestrian bronze statue of Shivaji was unveiled by Jawaharlal Nehru, then Prime Minister of India, on the 30th of November 1957, the same year a road was constructed by the Public Works Department from Kumbhrosi village up to fort. 

Around 6.30 we started our journey back towards mahabaleshwar and decided to have dinner there. The Hotel was Horrible, ambience was so enchanting, but the food was really disappointing.

Nilesh had arranged for stay at Mahu village and we reached there by 11.30. it was dark and we somehow settled and slept in the house.

Farm house

Early morning started with typical village life, birds chirping, old ladies doing their daily chores, kids playing around, greenery around and it was like a “REAL FARM HOUSE”

 With a group selfie we started towards Kaas plateau.

It was almost 66 kms from Mahu via Panchwad and  into Satara. By 10.15 we were near kass plateau. The blooming season had just begun and we were able to capture some stunning images of the shrubs that possess medicinal qualities.

Terda

Malabar Lark

Others were dissatisfied as they were unable to spot the flowers, Me and Nilesh were roaming around with our Cameras while others enjoyed at Kaas lake. 

By 1pm we ramped up and started towards Wai to Visit MahaGanpati (Dholya Ganpati) 

Wai dholya Ganpati devastan

Sri Kashivishweshwar -Wai

Deepstaambh

For lunch we were looking to enjoy the “Tambda Pandhra Rassa Thaali” and hit the Satara Pune road.

We were back in Mumbai by around 10.30pm.

This trip will always be exceptional as the nature has its own role to play. No one can alter the course of nature of blossoming of flowers as per their will, there will be excitements, surprises and disappointments as well. However we have to accept Nature as it is and enjoy it in every form. 

Wo shaam suhaani

Would like to Thank all the people who made this trip a wonderful and memorable one.

Yours WildWanderer
Sumya