Avchitgad Pictures

Some smaller variety of Hibiscus I guess. Dishas Dhaba, Mulshi

A dryer cloudy humid day at Tamhini

The humble beginnings of Konkan Railway near Roha.

The lush landscape Konkan Railway runs through

Kundalika river - Revdanda creek

The sole canon on the fort

The western end of the fort. Our guide reflects.

Avchitgad

We were tired of biking this time around, so we decided to head somewhere far off with a Sumo. After some discussion we headed to Avchitgad. This entire week had been dry and we knew it was going to be tough. As headed towards Tamhini, the non-muddy blue waters of the dam shining in bright sunlight gave us some idea about the hardships ahead. Typically, a good sign is muddy tea waters and little sunlight :p

To get to Avchitgad :
1] Start from Chandni Chouk, take Paud road to Mulshi, get down via Tamhini. At Vile take the right to Kolad instead of left to Mangaon. After reaching NH17. Take a right followed by an immediate left to Roha.
2] Take Expressway-NH4. Take left from Khopoli to Pali. Proceed to Roha. Stop at Medha or Padam before Roha.

There are multiple ways to get onto this fort. One can climb from Medha or a village called Pingasai or a place called Padam. We were adviced by the locals to attempt it from Padam, which though a much lengthier route, proved to be a good decision. From Medha or Pingalsai, the route passes through really dense vegetation and its very likely to loose way unless you have a local to assist you. We met a bunch of fellas from Mumbai who took the route from Medha and lost their way.

We chose to seek some local experts this time. The sun shined brightly, add to the proximity of the creek and sea made things humid and worse for us. After a while as we got onto the top of the mountain by the side of the Roha Paper mill things got cooler. From here one sees the fort far away at the end of this range. Though the walk consists of a flat walk on a plateau and is not that great a deal.

From the top you can spot, Roha, Kundalika river, the backwaters of Revdanda creek the villages of Medha, Pingalsai, the begining of Konkan Railway and miles of lush rice farms. There are good traces of the fortification. Sole Canon. Our guide fellas complained that the villagers in Medha pushed two in valley, probably with the intention to sell it. There is a Mahadev/Shiv Mandir on the top. The villagers have constructed a shelter out here for the same. There are some water tanks. Ones near the temple with potable water. No arrangement to stay on top though. The flower carpet had just begin to set this time around. Typically late August/first week of September is when the numerous wild flowers start to cover the otherwise bare naked mountain slopes of Sahyadris.

The Paper mill at Roha/Padam was closed 25 odd years ago. As you start climbing from Padam, you climb by the guest house of paper mill. Its quite spooky and locals claim has a ghost who calls out to you if you go around that place at night. If you are looking for some ghostly adventure, maybe worth a try. Not my cup of tea, I dont quite get along with ghosts that well :-)
Check out the complete imagestation album here.

Koregad - Korigad - Koraigad Pictures

Waterfalls enroute Ghusalkhamb from Mulshi.

View of the Mulshi Lake. The semi-circular wall is visible.

The tall cloud covered mountains enroute.

Numerous water sources like these empty in Mulshi Lake here

View of the Northern arm of Mulshi Lake.

The steps to Korigad.

One of the numerous wild flowers of Sahyadris.

Saffron

Fortification - Korigad

A mushroom - I caught it inside a hole in the fortification

Koregad A.K.A Korigad A.K.A Koraigad

This weekend since kuch log were too tired of "Sumo Chalana" we decided we headed somewhere nearby on bikes. We thought about Rajmachi, but then considering that we are bunch of old men we thought of something nice, which got us moving to Korigad.

This fort is past INS Shivaji near a village called Peth Shahapur enroute Ambavane where Sahara Amby Valley is located and belongs to Sahara India. Yes they own the fort believe it or not.

To get to this place from Pune essentially one needs to :
1] Travel on NH-4 to Lonavala / Expressway take Lonavala exit. Take the left to Bhushi Dam/INS Shivaji and continue to Amby Valley. Keep looking for Peth Shahapur.
2] Travel to Mulshi. Just before the dam wall, take a right to Ghusalkhamb [ 40Kms from here ]. The road is not so good, though if you need a taste of adventure scenery and greenery. This is the route. When you hit a T with a Chai shop at corner, take a left for Ambavane and look for Peth Shahapur.
3] Travel past Mulshi via Tamhini, past Dongarwadi, there is a bifurcation for Lonavala. This road is super scenic and Sumo worthy. This road would take you to Bhambarde, from here continue to Ambavane and then to Peth Shahapur.

The depressing thoughts of passing Lonavala traffic early morning and search for some adventure found us travelling towards Mulshi at 8.00 in the morning. We chose option 2 as I had not travelled on this route before. After a good amount of timepass, photography we reached the destination.

Since this is a Sahara property and due to the proximity to Lonavala, you always have some company for climb. Sahara chaps have now put a tarmac road right to the base. There are steps to get to the top as well. The fort is huge as such and has fortification in place to great extent. There is a lake, a temple, few canons and marshy land. One can spot the Amby valley right at the base of the fort.

We got down at about 4.00 discussed our options and decided to head back via NH-4. I had been here with B and PN long time ago, that time some stupid a**s sons of GW Bush had stolen the fuel from our bikes. This time I had some weird lady asking 60 bucks aggressively for no reasons to let us park our bikes. Not that 60 bucks was an issue, though the manner in which the bi**ch demanded it was quite shocking. We had run into a drunk man on the way in the morning, I did the honors of asking him for the directions. He was slurring about how the fort belongs to locals etc. etc. Overall the locals around don't quite have a very nice attitude towards visitors. As for these Amby valley morons, they are clearing up quite a piece of forest here for making roads to the very base of the fort. Soon they'll have red carpet laid up all the way up on the steps. Sahara has about 10K acres or more land in this beautiful valley, their golf courses by the huts of the locals and they are killing it for sure. Must visit before they kill this place completely.

Find the complete set of pictures here.

Mangad Pictures

No weekend breaks - A farmer slogging out early morning in Mulshi.

Where the road goes round Plus valley - The Bhira Hydroelectric pipes in Tamhini.

Main range of Sahyadris to the East of Mangad.

A lush Paddy field near Borwadi.

Waterfalls in Tamhini. These thundered the way back.

Water tanks and the farms below - Mangad.

The ruins of fortification

Parsha - [ Parshuram ] the guide at Entrance. Parsha is a good man.

The climb

The Dargah atop Mangad.

Mangad

It started raining heavily from Wednesday, which kind of made me a bit happier. Not that I wasnt going to venture out this weekend. But then a prospect of good outing is always pleasing. If not then there is a weird fun in pushing yourselves to limits. Either case, headcount wise there was addition in form of M and one new found fan on the Peth trek last weekend.

To start with the proposal was to go to infamous Mangad. Last year some ill informed locals around had completely denied that this place existed and we had to hike Kurdugad. It was agreed upon that we all meet at Chandni Chouk at 7.00 with our respective bikes, though on Saturday morning we set off in M's Sail towards Borwadi at 8.00 AM [ again ].

To reach Mangad one has to :
Travel to Tamhini via Paud from Chandni Chouk. Get down the Tamhini Ghats.
Take the left to Mangaon/Nizampur from Vile. From here Nizampur is 15Km.
Take a left in Nizampur towards Pachad - Raigad Ropeway and keep asking for Borwadi.
Borwadi is about 4kms from Nizampur. Park your vehicles in Borwadi, walk to Masadwadi-Mashidwadi. This is the starting point for the climb.

We parked the car at Borwadi, asked the locals about the best route to climb etc and moved towards Masadwadi-Mashidwadi. Yes you are right, the name is derived from Mashid in Marathi meaning Mosque. The fort was apparently constructed by Muslim rulers and there is a fair amount of population around here to prove that too. There is a ancient Shiva temple here which was turned into ruins by the Muslims. Watch out while climbing the rock cut steps. If you are weak"er" at heart this is not for you.

The Maharashtra State Gazetteer says that this is the smallest of the three in the region and is true. We got up on top non-stop within 20 odd minutes. There is a temple midway. There are traces of fortification. Some water tanks, an empty cave and a Dargah. From the top one can spot the main range of Sahyadris which stands much taller than the fort, Kumbha pass and the villages below. We got down at about 4.00 PM amongst heavy rains and decided to hit Tamhini.

The waterfall at the base of Tamhini had soured in size by the time we reached there. We decided to climb up for some raw fun/thrill. After spending an hour and realizing that it had worsened even more, even for making us difficult to get down to the car, we headed back. Enjoying our drive back amongst a series of beautiful waterfalls.

Find the complete imagestation album here.

Kurdugad A.K.A Vishramgad Pictures

The ever beautiful Mulshi lake ..

Tamhini Ghats while climbing Kurdugad ..

Fort Kurdugad from Kurdu Peth ..

Sahyadris south of Tamhini from Kurdu Peth ..

Narrow path round the pinnacle ...Getting down to Kurdu Peth.. Fort Entrance ...
Fort Kurdugad from Umbardi ..Bridge near Umbardi ..background Tamhini range...Sunset at Jite ...

Kurdugad A.K.A Vishramgad

No planning has by now become a regular feature. Although, some groundwork was done beforehand about the possible options. We headed towards Tamhini targetting Mangad/Kurdugad near Nizampur. The team was me, balls and bunch of gultis. After couple of waterfall/lakeside patel photos we got down from Tamhini and hit a sign which showed "Jita" [ Jite ] as 11Kms to left. After asking for Mangad near Borwadi, the local fellas had whats-wrong-with-me expressions on their faces. Although they said there is Kurdugad around, so we decided not to spend much time in R&D as lot of time was already spent in Patel photography and gults were showing signs of uneasiness.

In essence, to reach here -
1] Get down from Tamhini, on the way to Mangaon - 4km before Nizampur [ the one before you hit NH-17, There is hell lot of confusion Kapadia has caused about this place in his book ] you see a sign which shows a diversion to Jite. Reach Jite which is 11km s from the diversion, and walk to Kurdu Peth. There is some landslide there enroute, so you could also proceed to Umbardi [ Ooo-mb-ar-dee] and climb to Kurdu Peth.
2] Reach Dhamanohol/Dhamanvahal via Dasve [ Lavasa lake city ] there is some temple and a high tension electricity tower get down from there to Kurdugad.

Though it had rained cats and dogs in Pune the previous night, these areas showed no trace of rainfall. It was very humid and hot. We sought help of a guide who chose to run away after 5/10 minutes for unknown reasons. After lot of turmoil we reached 50 mtrs from Kurdu Peth. By then except for me and a first timer determined gult, rest of the junta was so tired that they decided to call it quits at the same point. Had it not been for a particularly nice snake to show up. So after Mr Nice snake showed up everyone covered the distance fast and some of gultis and balls decided to rest in the shades of the trees at Kurdu Peth while me, the determined-first-timer-gult and one more individual sought help of a local to show us around the fort.

The fort is not a big affair once you reach Kurdu Peth. Its a massive pinnacle at a lower height from the main range of Sahyadris. Is more of a outpost than a conventional fort. The final pinnacle requires rock climbing. There is walk involved going about the pinnacle which takes about half and hour and thats all that is there. There is a "fashi" point. Where apparently they used to hang the criminals. This point is where the pinnacle joins the main range. There is a big cave dug under the pinnacle, the guide Datta said it was an attempt to have the pinnacle removed from the mountain. Which kind of felt stupid to me. Because looking at the way it was dug the guys digging,would crush and die beneath it.

Per locals there was a landslide two years ago which got rid of most of the stone-soil around the pinnacle. Going around the pinnacle is a really tricky affair. Be "extremely" careful here. Locals told me that apparently long time ago there was a huge landslide which seperated one part of pinnacle [ you can see it resting on the main pinnacle ] under which all the men on fort died. Also there was fortification which collapsed into valley due to which the populace living there left. At the base of fort near Umbardi as well there are traces of stone wall. Similar to the Golkonda fortification inside which it has a whole big population as such.

When we got down, we got to hear couple of interesting stories about ghosts/an ancient temple [ To visit we had no time ] which apparently has some gold inside it/Some King's palace which again has gold etc. Ghosts interest me, I dont know why people in Konkan get abducted by ghosts more than others. Something like the way aliens prefer americans more than people of other nationality.

Check out the complete Imagestation album here

Kangori - Mangalgad Pictures

Bridge on Neera river on Pune Satara Highway !!

Fireball !!Neera river on the way to Varandha from Bhor !!

Neera Devghar Dam enroute Mahad !!

Varandha ghat !!

Kawlya fort [ At the base is Shivthar Ghal ] !!

Kangori - Mangalgad Fort !!

Wildfire on Goa Highway !!

Savitri river by Goa highway near Mahad !!

Kangori A.K.A Mangalgad

Life has been pretty uneventful on the trekking front from September. AB just bought a new digicam recently so he was more interested in an adventure. It turned out on judgement day that it was only two of us. We still decided to go ahead. We biked till Bhor turn, had some breakfast and then brainstormed on the destination. Options were Vairatgad or Kangori A.K.A Mangalgad. We agreed on Kangori since that involved getting down Varandha ghat [ If you have been here, you would agree, the tricky turns and the sheer drop in Konkan..pure thrill ]. What we did not know was the distance was an issue for one dayer.

There are two ways to reach this place from Pune - Both 300Kms odd to and fro.
1] Take a right turn to Bhor from Pune Satara Highway and after crossing Bhor take a right to Mahad. The road is a pretty scenic with Neera-Devghar dam waters to the left and vegetation on the right. After getting down from Varandha ghat take a left to Pimpalwadi from a place called Dhalkathi [17kms of a mix of bad/good road from here] and climb the fort.
2] Travel from Tamhini - Mangaon - Mahad take a left turn to Varandha on Goa highway reach Dhalkathi take a right to Pimpalwadi and then proceed to fort. Option 2 is preferable considering there is some help available if you needed it. Option 1 if your locomotion breaks down in the middle, then Mahad is 36 and Bhor is 42Kms away with no signs of civilization.

We started our climb at 12.50 [ blame it on option 1 ] almost made it and then lost our way and then gave up to reach the base at about 3.00. Back at the village one lady told us about a how some girl died a tragic death while getting down from this fort. The news was there is accomodation on fort. Thought of taking some local's help but considering we had to travel 150 odd Kms via Tamhini and time we had on our hands etc dropped the idea.

On the way back spotted some wildfire on Goa highway near Mahad, wondered why noone knew about *this* road to Pune via Tamhini from there. Either case, heaven than spending those lazy weekends at home. Check out the complete imagestation album here.

Mulshi

Drive to Mulshi on a lazy weekend !!

A *blue* whale there ;-)

View of the lake !!

Shot by Karthik !!