Trek: (Ascend) Harishchandragad trek via naalichi vaat
Height: 4655 feet
Height: 4655 feet
(Descend) via Junnar darwaja route.
Grade: Tough
Endurance level: Medium
Trek
date: 12-13th November 2016 (2 days trek starting friday night to
sunday afternoon.)
Base
Village: Walhivale (On Malshej Ghat route)
Participants:
Rahul Basankar (trek leader), Irish Pereira, Ankur Singh, Rohit Naik, Shubham.
Coordinator: Ayudh Adventures
Walhivale village coordinates on Google map
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Walhivale village coordinates on Google map
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It
was a regular weekend and i had decided to spent it trekking in mountains.
There was harishchandragad trek on my list yet to done. My friend Rahul
Basankar of Ayudh Adventures had planned the same trek to harishchandragad to
ascend via naalIchi vaat and descent via junnar darwaja. I called him on friday
morning to check out for any vacant seats, as he needed atleast 8 trekkers to
make an feasible trek. So he confirmed me for the trek and fixed to meet at
kalyan bus depo at 11:30 pm at night . Hence as decided i reached kalyan around
11:45 pm. All thanks to timely central railway, which always has got something
or other wrong everytime i travel. Just then when i met Rahul at depo, i found
out that we were just 5 of us trek as few of trekkers had dropped out at last
minutes. I was happy to be part of small group as smaller the trek group means
more close interaction with trek members and greater is the trek pace. Till bus
arrived we had small introduction round with fellow trekkers. Rahul and myself
had lot to catch up after our last trek of Dhavale village to Chandragad to
Arthurseat point (Mahabaleshwar). It was also arranged and aptly managed by
Ayudh Adventures in March 2016. It was one of the strenous and hectic trek i
have experienced till date.
Just
then last ST bus for malshej ghat arrived at the depo, which we boarded and
waited for it to depart. We departed around 12: 10 pm to reach tokavade fata
around 2 pm. There our other transporter was waiting for us with our guide for
the trek ....Sable mama...an elderly person from nearby savarne village located
in the perimeter of harishchandragad. He has decades of experience guiding
treks around this area and was well acquainted with the topography of the area.
We
after an hour of driving in jeep on potholed roads which is the common thing
seen in all trek base villages, we reached Walivare village around 2:30 am.
There we were to halt at person named dama's places...where some other trekking
group was already halted. So we rested there till morning in his house to get
up at 6 pm. After finishing our morning cores and breakfast of poha and tea, we
started for trek around 7 Am ..
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| Walhivale village - Early Morning |
Assisted by sable mama..through dried meadows
we went .. After sometime we reached
dried riverbed with small boulders...that was our route for the day as i was
told.
 |
| Route through Meadows |
We can see magnificent kokankada towering above us. Thats was our destiny
for the day. Kokankada is a horseshoe shaped curvature ....with a cliff
overhang ....it is unique feature of this fort ...
 |
| Kokankada - Towering over us - Over target for the day |
After an hour of trekking through riverbed we
reached the col between two high rise rock cliffs ...from there we could see
Rohidas pinnacle and the col named 'Makad naal' on our right. After exploring
it feasibility for its future treks, we moved on. We promised to return to
explore it one fine day... we were just below kokankada...there we took left to
ascent the col called 'Naalichi vaat'. It was full of boulders and rocks. In
betwen there were few streches of scree. We managed to reach the kokankada base
ahead of time. As there were many groups due to pass with us on that route, we
intende to enter the naali and finish it before them so as to avoid delay.
We took a short 5 minutes recharge break here.
 |
| Starting point of Naali |
But
we were pinned down by a regular problem with trekking groups this days; a
slow fellow trekker....As a saying goes, "the speed of the herd depends on
speed on the slowest animal of the herd". Plus he being an avid
photographer had carried an additional bag with camera with lenses along with
its tripod stand. He had hard time carrying them up. There we decided to help
him with one of those bags, so that he can manage to cover up the pace with us
and we complete the trek in time. Thats what the teamwork means to us
trekkers....United we stand...
The
naali seemed rock cut by water flowing during rainy season. There were huge
boulders which we were bypassing to make our way up...After half an hour of
ascend we came across the first of three
critical rock patches on this route...It was somewhat easy to traverse though
...for atleast regular trekker can easily manage to climb it without any rope
support or equipments. We had some fruits recharge here along with biscuits to
top it ....
 |
| First Rock Patch |
We
easily cleared it without any hassles and moved ahead. Now the rocks size was
increasing....also few traverses were there in the way... till we encountered
the second rock patch. It appeared that we will require rope support to climb
it...but our guide Sable mama climbed it with ease...followed by me without
rope support...Then we dropped rope to our fellow trekkers to climb up..within
few minutes we were able to clear the second rock patch with ease.....
Now
the ascend was becoming more steep ..we had to push ourself up a lit bit with
each step .... also sun was draining us of our energies...
 |
| Third Rock Patch |
After
another half an hour we reached the third and most critical rock patch of the
route....sable mama and myself we climbed it with some trials ... and dropped
rope to support our fellows.... it too was climbed upon within minutes and we
were through of the strenous naalichi vaat ...and here were half way
through...from here we could see other groups making their way up through
naalli below ....however very far off ....
The
slowest guy among us was somehow finding it difficult to cope up with our pace
given the steep climb and rock patches... so Rahul assisted...pushed him and
made sure he keeps moving ....this poor guy had miscalculated this trek for
just regular fort trek ....which it is
not!!!! On the contrary, it is one of the toughest and demanding treks in
sahyadris....which test you as a trekker....I pushed the front end whereas
rahul managed to push the backend of the group....collectively we managed to
maintain pace of the trek.
After
a short ascend of half an hour through scree, we halted there for lunch break
...as we had drained lots of calories and needed a recharge.... It was 11:30 Am
by now ....After having stomachful of chapati rolls....puris ....
sandwiches...chocolates.... we took a short nap of 20 minutes ...till here we
had maintained our trek pace and consistency...
Then
after nap we continued our ascend now with few easy rock patches to reach a
small plateau of the fort ....it is covered with dried grass ...after 10
minutes walk we came across a nimbu pani vendor ....it gave us a reason to drop
ourselves there to cool our burning throats .....we took a halt of 20 minutes
and had 2 glasses each of nimbu pani ....it recharged us our body fluids
....Here the nimbu panic guy named vitthal refused to accept 500 rupee note
...all thanks to our always media centred ....an avid headline manager,
viciously enlightened and glorified PM Mr.PM Narendra Modi who has recently
announced demonetisation of 500 and 1000 notes in India. I seriously have no idea how
they aim to hunt black money with their own leaders toping the list. Anyways
we managed to convince him. Still there was half an hour of trek
remaining to be completed.....we completed that too with ease to reach kokankada
at around 1 PM...
We
were thrilled to see ourselves complete the trek before average time ....with
our eyes all towards relishing the magnificent kokankada from top....
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| Kokankada - Side view |
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| Look at route we followed to way up |
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| A view from Kokankada Curve centre |
What a
wonder of nature it is ....you just can't dare to go on the edge .... here we
had a round of photography and selfie's ....then we moved towards our staying
place just near kokankada.... at person named Bhaskar.
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| Bhaskar's shack |
This small hut hotel provides all lunch, dinner and breakfast services to trekkers. Additionally he provides with tents
to stay in for the night. We reached his place at around 2 PM and dropped
ourselves on his clean cow dung plastered verrandah. Oh what a delight it
was! We freshened ourselves and stay put
here ....now evening was free for exploring the fort ....we had tea .... and
rested here till evening .....
In
evening ....we ordered for a tent from bhaskar for night stay ....for 4 pax as
there were no additional tent available.... and set it in the open field
adjoining kokankada..... there were too many trekkers on harishchandragad on
that day ....as many as 20 tents were pitched around us.... we decided to
explore sunset from kokankada at first..decided to climb taramati peak ..but we
had only few minutes left for sunset....so dropped the plan..then dropped it
and moved ahead to cliff end near Rohidas at base of taramati peak.... from
there we could see entire malshej ghat along with traffic moving on it
.....also on left side was pimpalgaon jog dam seen....forts like sindola was
also visible..... but due to fog the clarity was hampered....we 3 Rahul....myself and sable mama spent our time exploring climbing routes to
Rohidas pinnacle .... but the route seemed tough from top view..but there it got
to have a route .....as villagers climb it to offer sacrifices at Rohidas
temple at top...then time was spent clicking pics of surrounding panorama...it
was one of mesmerising view from top .....pin drop silence around. Away from civilisations. That's what touches your soul.....
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| Rohidas Pinnacle |
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| Malshej Ghat wrapped in Fog |
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| Our tent |
By
now it was almost dark .....we returned to tent .....had some discussion on
mountaineering courses rahul has taken up with Himalyan Mountaineering Institute .....all options available
in that courses... it was around 7 pm till then ....we all were hungry after
strenuous trekking....and decided to fill our bellies..... or else there was lot
of crowd expected at bhaskar's place for dinner ....so we went to have dinner
early......
So
after dinner we after some more trek discussions slept in cold chilly weather..
It is too cold at this place. As tent allotted was small, we left our 4 mates in
it and myself and rahul we stay put at bhaskar's verrandah for night.
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| First Ray of Sun ...as it struck my Lens |
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| Our group for the trek |
We
woke up at around 6 am and after morning chores we had breakfast at bhaskars.
Then we started return journey at around 8 am and halted at kedareshwar temple
on the way. After few clicks we started for return journey enroute balekilla (
top of the fort) After encircling balekilla we came to steep nalli called
Junnar darwaja... which is called 'Rajmarg' or kings route...
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| Rahul - our trek lead with Ballekilla (top of the fort) in the backdrop |
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| Rajmarg ....Junnar Darwaja route as it is popularly Known |
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| That steep descend facing Pimpalgaon Jog Dam |
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| Route towards Khubi Fata |
It is fastest
route to descend the fort facing south towards khubi fata near malshej ghat...
should take not more than 2.5 hours for experienced trekker. But as stated
earlier we had a sort of beginer trekker with load of luggage which hampered
our decsending speed. Here we also discussed emerging route through 'Taramati
Ghal' which is more difficult and challenging than 'Naalichi vaat' . Rahul and
myself we a conducted top recce and decided to plan for such a trek in near
future.
So with all such nuances we reached khubi
fata at around 1pm and had hearty lunch at one of the hotels there and
waited for bus. But to our dismay...none of the bus halted at this point, so
after waiting for an hour or so ..We got a bus to tokavade fata which is on the
way from there we took a bus to kalyan. Here we were done with the trek.
Few
points of advice to trekkers planning for this trek:
1)
It is difficult grade trek with medium endurance....so beginers strictly avoid
such trek (get some experience and then try for it).
2)
It is very cold out there especially in months of November and December...so
carry extra pair of woolen / thermal clothes.
3)
Carry a sleeping bag if possible....
4)
Carrying a tent is advisable as you are required to halt at fort for atleast
one night. Alternatively bhaskar, who is based near kokankada on fort provides
for tent on rent.
5)
Avoid smoking on the way... as there are honey bees and hornets on the way in
karvy bushes....with sight of smoke they get panicked and may attack on you...
which could be fatal ... we have seen one such case in this trek...poor guy was
stung at innumerable places on body ...had lost his senses....so beware...Trek
leaders please mention 'no smoking' it upfront on the trek itenerary. As due to
one rowdy trekker, so group may have to suffer.
6)
Carry atleast 3 litres of water each ..... as you tend to dehydrate more as you
gain height on steep rocks...no fresh water source between from base village
till top of the fort...
About
Trek leader: Rahul Basankar of Ayudh Adventures is avid trek leader, who is
well acquainted, well researched and networked to conduct any spectrum of treks
from easy to difficult, low to high endurance treks. High empathy along with
patience with trekkers is what sets him apart from other trek leaders. He has
eye for smallest details and is caring for each trekker in his team.
Along
with hard-core trekking activites, he also arranges for corporate treks and
leisure trips.
Rahul
Basankar mobile : 93 20 309636
Website
: ayudhadventures.com
Trek
guide: Mr.Sable ( sable mama as popularly known) has quite good experience
guiding treks around this area and was well acquainted with the topography of
the area.
His
is based in savarne village. He can be contacted to arrange and guide treks
around malshej ghat, Ahmednagar district and around bhandardara. Moreover he
also arranges for logistics like jeeps from nodal points to base villages.
Sable
mama Mobile : 84 08 032072
Food
facilities on the fort: Mr. Bhaskar provides for all food (breakfast, lunch and
dinner) needs on the fort. Also provides for tent on rent and localised help in
case of emergency.
Bhaskar
mobile : 8308081939
Happy Trekking, Keep Exploring!!!!
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