Trek: Kalavantin durg
/ Pinnacle
Base village: Thakurwadi
near Panvel
Height: 2,300
feet
Grade:
Medium
Trek coordinator:
Shikhar Vedh
Trek lead:
Jagdish Patil
Trek Dates: 7th June 2014
It
was a casual weekend in month of June and as usual i was looking out for a quick one day trek. As rains were delayed, it was kind of hot climate. By then i
happened to come across a trekking event organised by Jagdish Patil's trekking
group Shikhar Vedh. It was a one day trek to Kalavantin Durg near panvel which
i eventually chose to participate in. It is 15 kms south from panvel to be very
precise.
Kalavantin
is cone shaped pinnacle adjoining Prabalgad. It is just
a part of Prabalgad fort, and trekking can be arranged to reach the peaks of
both these forts. As given to know that
this pinnacle derives it name from a popular dancer who used to reside there
during ancient period. It is basicallt not a fort as it 's name suggest, but it
was a type of watch tower.
The
main features of this pinnacle are its stee rock cut steps.The step are well
cut and are still in good shape so that one can reach the top of pinnacle
without any artificial rock climbing equipments.
As
planned we trekkers were to reach Panvel ST depo by 7 Am. Now this panvel ST
depo is at 5 minutes walking distance from panvel railway station towards west.
After meeting our trekking group at depo, we moved to a hotel visava nearby for
breakfast. There after sumptous breakfast of medu vada dosa, misal and tea we
were already to move to base village.
There
we boarded the 8 seater tumtum rickshaws to reach shedung; it took us 30 mins
flat to reach there. The roads for an exception were kind of in good shape.
There Our trek lead Jagdish briefed us about the trek and with our introduction
round we begun trek around 8:30 am.
As
near to Mumbai this place is good road network. There is tar road till the base
of prabalmachi. Now this trek is divided into 2 parts. First is to reach
prabalmachi which is a kind of plateau common to both kalavantin pinnacle and
Prabalgad. Second is to climb the rock cut steps to reach kalavantin top.
 |
| Muddy Trail - Kalavantin durg in backdrop |
As the tar road ends start mud trail which is clear and well defined leading to prabalmachi. So
after trekking around an hour and half
we reached prabalmachi.
 |
| Myself with Base village in background |
 |
| Prabalmachi entrance |
It is a wide plateau area with a small village residing
on it. The locals have set up various refreshments shacks where we chose to rest
at. It was a good cement concrete plastered floor shack. The sun had just
started spewing its heat and left us all sweating. We were in month of June but there was clear hot sun shining as rains were delayed. There we had limbu
pani. Also we had some tang to recharge ourselves of the fatique. We waited
there till our other trekmates to join us.
 |
| Food shack with mud plastered floors |
 |
| Tang Break |
The
village has both mud thatched as well as concrete houses. More important is
that they have their own source of water till end summer.
 |
| Green cover at village |
Then passing through village towards east, we came across steep climb through bushes. The climb here is strenous and trekking on scree makes it more tough. There we came a cross roads,the straight route goes upto kalavantun pinnacle base and the route towards right goes to prabalgad.
 |
| Way through bushes |
 |
| At Base of Kalavantin durg |
Around
11am we reached base of kalavantin pinnacle.
Initial climbing steps are slightly tricky. Then there are rock cut steps
which are well defined. One has to carefully balance their bodies to prevent
slipons on the rock cut steps. It takes
30- 45 minutes to reach top.
 |
| Climbing the Rock cut steps |
To reach top one has to negotiate a steep
10-15 feet rock patch. It requires rope support. Amateurs trekkers need some
support to climb the same.
So
we reached the top of kalavantin pinnacle at 12: 30 pm. The view from the top
was just awesome. We could also see our trekmates at the base of pinnacle who were late to climb.
 |
| Trekkers in valley below |
 |
| Prabalmachi along with our route - as seen from top |
We can see Chanderi pinnacle, Malang gad near kalyan towards north. It was somewhat foggy so we could not see most of the topography. We can see prabalgad from very close. Towards east we can see most of
Matheran from Kalavantin top. We can see
Louisa point and other points of Matheran.
 |
| Facing Prabalgad |
 |
| Myself at the Top |
 |
| Chanderi and Malang gad from kalavantin top |
There
we had few photo clicks here and waited for our entire group to reach top with
us.
Then
after clicks we sat down for lunch and enjoyed variety of dishes. After lunch
we rested for 30 minutes more and then started our journey back. Descending is always pleasing and with cheerful trekmates it is a great fun.
 |
| Crazy trek mates |
 |
| Our trek group |
At prabalmachi we clicked our group photo. It took 1 and
half hours to reach the base point. There we waited for our transporter to
arrive. Then after half an hour our tumtum to take us to panvel at 5 pm.
In
short it was a memorable one day trip with very friendly group of trekkers.
About
Shikhar Vedh:
Shikhar
vedh is a trekking and adventure group founded by Mr. Jagdish Patil who is an
avid trekker himself.
Mr.
Jagadish Patil
Mobile
No: 09869369836 / 09702121373
No comments:
Post a Comment