Bike ride and Trek to Kothaligad, Peth cha killa

Greetings..!!!

September is ending, Monsoons are about to vanish for this year, but it seemed to be july, coz of incessant rains.

Our plan for Prabalgad Night Camping was poured down by rain, so decided to go for a One day trek.

After going through various options, Peth, Kothaligad was finalized.

Last visited in 1994 when i was a kid, memories ran down giving a glimpse of all the scenic beauty around Kothaligad and our experience over it.

Since the transportation is very less going towards Ambivali (Base of Peth, Kothaligad) we decided to do a Bike ride.

Me, Nilesh and Jay chalked out a plan and Nilesh shared it with his office colleagues. So in total of 13 participants we met on Sunday morning, 25^th September at Lal chowki temple, Kalyan.

We were so pleased and thanked God for taking rest after raining for 4 consecutive days. But our happiness was shortlived.

As soon as we started by 8.30, again Rain, heavy rains  that drenched us even before reaching Ambarnath... but later the weather was so pleasant... it made our ride smooth.

We halted for breakfast at Neral. And moved on...

Going ahead to Kashele where the routes divert. This is the point where you need to cross check again for route from locals.

Straight road goes to Kothimbe – Ambivali –Jamrung (Our destined route)

The North west turn goes to Khandas for Bhimashankar

The Right goes towards Karjat

So we moved on our route with so many twists and turns. We spotted a small mountain on our right, which was covered under clouds and made sure it was KOTHALIGAD.

We parked our vehicles, booked for Lunch and started our trek by 12noon.

We were already running behind schedule, but the scenic beauty of the post monsoons greeted us.

Walking at own good speed, the Selfie queen kept on delaying our schedule.

The other group members were frustrated by this, but cant help, we have to be in group.

So i asked nilesh to move ahead and carry them along.

Within 1 hour of walking, we reached the plateau that gave us an enormous view of the entire kothaligad and Jambrung village with Kothaligad engulfed in clouds.

Mere Do anmol Ratan

A small photo session and break of 5 minutes we continued with the walk. The path becomes more stable and within 15 minutes we were at Peth village.

Kothaligad engulfed in clouds

Flame Lily

Here you get a nice view of the fort. Moving through the actual trek starts.  Amidst the jungle and steep climbs, it took us almost an hour to reach the top with both girls desperate to get some fresh air.

Exhausted Ladies

Finally we get to see the Bastion of the fort and the 1^st door.

Bastion

Bhairoba cha mandir

Visitng Bhairoba mandir, and cave started to move up through the stairs carved inside the mountain.

At some point you have to be careful as you may suffer Vertigo and can lose out on balance. The steps are quite a good 2 feet high.

steps carved

Rajdhani with Local train

to the left lies the Bhimashankar range and you get to see  a wall of Waterfall over the Vajantri Ghat

Vajantri ghat Waterfall wall

Totally exhausted, the girls were just managing to climbup and finally reached the top.

The view here was breath taking. Forgetting about the tiring journey, Selfie queen started with her photo session. This spread a good laughter wave among all of us. 

So we did a group photo session, some individual, solo pics among the flowers. Realizing that we spent more than 40 minutes in clicking photographs, Now was the time to hurry up with the decend.

That was a challenging part for me as i had to stay with the girls.

Looking at my frustration, Manisha said, “Rajdhani ko Local trains k peeche aana pad raha hai” 

It took us quite some time to get to peth village as It was manisha’s turn as her legs were shivering and she was continuously scared by a dog who was following us (Helping us)

After Peth village, our selfie queen was in her own world with paining toes,  that she totally forgot that we had come for a trek in a group and did it only with 4 people.

Other moved quickly and already Finished with their lunch at 5pm.

Bidding goodbye to the group we waited for the girls to get normal and started our journey back by 6. Within minutes it was dark and we missed a turn and went straight onto Karjat road, taking a U turn we reached Kashele and continuing onwards to Neral and Kalyan.

Luckily we did not get traffic and the day was spent with most amazing memories.

Thanks for accompanying with me here on BLOG, hope to see you soon on another TREK.

Adios, good bye till next trexperience.....

Regards,

Sumya – A wandering trekker