Harischandragad Via Nalichi Vaat - Trek of Extremes

Harishchandragad via Nalichi Vaat (Ascend) – Trek of Extremes (24-25 Dec 2011)

As the weekend of Christmas was approaching , I made up my mind to go to Rajgad – Torana trek. But a week earlier, I got a mail from Mumbai Hikers suggesting trek to Harischandragad via Nalichi Vaat. The trek which I decided I should do when it came in my way. The trek was organised by Wild Rangers group, which was quite new to me. I phoned the group leader and he readily welcomed me. Trek schedule suggested that group had to assemble at Kalyan ST Depot on 23 rd Night 10 o clock. Thanks to my boss I got weekend OFF right from Friday evening. Now my immediate target was to reach Kalyan by train from Pune station. After office I rushed to my room, bought some life saving eatables and stuffed it into my bag. My small laptop bag started suffocating after it was filled with unmindful things, then I trimmed down the less preferable things and it said OK. Got to Pune station well before time, Indrayani Express was yet to arrive. After and half an hour wait, the train roared into the station with its tummy full with passengers from southern Maharashtra. My trek started with me standing 3 hours in crowded Indrayani express in an unexplainable position. All types of sellers right from chikki waalas, chai waala to vadapaav waala were moving in the alley which made standee passenger's life difficult. With great patience I managed to reach Kalyan at around 9 o clock and immediately outside the railway station I stopped near ST Depot. I called the group leader Mr. Mayur Phadale and he said there was some more time to go, so we had snacks in a nearby hotel.

As the clock was approaching 11 pm trekkers were assembling one by one in Kalyan ST Depot. Still two of them were stuck in delayed railway traffic of Mumbai. At 11:15 pm we decided to leave the remaining two trekkers and proceed to the base village. And Ohhh my god!!! the ST buses were all full, I thought my suffering ended when I alighted from Indrayani, but the night had some different plans for me. Again 2 hours standing we got down at a village named Savarne, which is at the starting of Malshej Ghat. Trekkers started to flash their torches as it was pitch dark due to Amavasya that night. Another group leader Mr. Prashik was waiting for us at the stop with a guide, who was hired to help us finding route in the trek.  At police station near the stop we had a head count, from which I came to know that we were overall 15 trekkers excluding the two which remain behind. Thereafter in pitch dark night we started our trek to the base village Belpada which was 2 hours away from Savarne. With the help of torch we were moving through the forest on a small stony way. After a climb on small hill and then descend we began to see the lights of Belpada Village. On immediate right of us was a huge wall like structure standing tall against the backdrop of sky. Only the curved shape was visible in the pitch dark night. Some of the trekkers who have been earlier to Harishchandragad, told me that it was the KonkanKada (Kada means “Cliff”). Making probable images of KonkanKada in my mind in the way, we reached the base village Belpada at around 3:30 am in the night. Our halt was in the village school which was very different from the school we have in big cities. We slept in the passage in front of the school, waiting for the god of light to rise and make the view of mountains more clear. At around 6 am in morning my eyes opened and couldn’t believe the awesome view in front of me. It was beautiful, no words to express. Immediately I got my cam from my overstuffed bag (it was difficult to find though) and clicked few pictures of the mountains standing tall with an attitude in front of us. We couldn’t see the sunrise because the mountains were facing west and sun rose right behind them. After getting rid of daily morning activities we had a hearty breakfast of “Chaha – Pohe” made in one of the villagers house. By now sun had rose up and was showing its existence against the mighty mountains. With our water bottles filled and conscience filled with full of determination we were ready to hike the mountain. Prior to start we had an introduction round, by which I came to know that more than half of the trekkers were 10-15 years of experience in trekking. One of the Uncle (was looking around 50 years of age) had 35 years of experience in trekking. Will introducing myself I was feeling small in front of such experienced people, then also I got through the formality quickly. This was my fifth trek since I started trekking regularly from July 2011 and I was feeling confident and comfortable in a trekker’s shoes.

Trek started at around 8 pm and slowly within half an hour we left the base village Belpada behind. The village guy was with us to show the route and according to him the trek can be completed in 4 hours, but that was according to him. We were new to the mountains and I knew we will take more than 4 hours to complete the trek. Right from starting I was with right behind the guide and the guy was hopping stone to stone like a child with only a pair of slipper at his disposal. At the other end all trekkers had best possible shoes in the market to make their walk comfortable through the rocky path. Talking about the route which we chosed to reach Harischandragad was called as “Nalichi Vaat”. It was called so because it resemble as a pipe, like a cut made between two mountains. This cut was made by huge load of water gushing through it in the monsoon. So we were actually hiking the mountain on a route were in monsoon a huge waterfall runs down with brutal force. There were huge stone boulders in the way, which were making our trek difficult, but somehow found way to negotiate them and the whole group was moving further. We had to take intermittent breaks as the hike was really steep and the angle was increasing by every step we took.

Slowly and steadily we were moving towards our first rock patch, which were supposed to climb using ropes. Our guide who was merrily moving around climbed the rock patch at one go and anchored the rope on a huge boulder. I also climbed the rock patch quite comfortably and was quite satisfied with my performance. One by one all trekkers crossed the patch. Further we left behind the stone boulders and we came into a section were there was loose soil. We had to take every step carefully as every movement was making the soil beneath us move and trekkers were slipping over the surface occasionally. Small stones were falling on the trekkers behind and the trekker leading in front was calling for the stone falling from the slip. Meanwhile, I just took out a stone from the rocky surface of the mountain and applied some force between my palm. And too my surprise it crumbled like biscuit, such was the condition of the surface which we were walking upon. And then came the tallest rock patch of the trek, it was around 20 feet tall and way too flat. I was the first trekker to cross the first rock patch, but now I was afraid of the 20 feet wall standing in front of me. Then I decided I better stay behind and watch few trekkers go up by using the rope. Some of the experienced trekkers who had done lot of sessions of rock climbing, climbed the patch without using rope. I was novice to this art so I first watched 2-3 trekkers going up by rope and then decided to give it a go. I climbed the rock patch comfortably by holding onto the rope, but without rope it was not possible for me. I looked down the valley and I got an idea of what difficult path we had negotiated to come up. It was an amazing scene we left behind. 

Further there were two small rock patches, which we climbed without using ropes. We stopped to have lunch in between, but I had already filled my stomach with enough material during the hike so I decided to sleep under the tree. After spending 45 mins resting, we were feeling a bit energetic to climb the last hike. We started and completed the last hike in 15 mins and from that point we could see the amazing view of KonkanKada. It was a overhanging cliff with a shape like snake’s hood spreading over an expanse of almost half a kilometer. By the time we reached in front of Konkankada it was 4:30 pm and the view of cliff was making our dangerous and exhausting hike more satisfied. We just rested on the point to fill our eyes with the amazing view. Far ahead we can see people gathering on the point to watch sunset. It was one more hour to go for sunset. We proceeded further to the Konkankada point to have view of sun going down. Meanwhile suddenly surrounding air was filled with honeybees, my haunting memories of Bhimashankar trek became fresh. But the local guy told us not to run, just stand in one place and honeybees will not harm you. And after some time we got rid of those stinging animals. Talking about the sunset at KonkanKada point, it was a special and different sunset from the ones which we see daily. Sky turned into golden colour and the rays could be seen more sharp and penetrating. Part by part the ball of fire went down way below the horizon and it was a beautiful experience in my life.

After experience a beautiful sunset, we moved towards our night halt. As it was Christmas time, the premises of harischandragad were filled with trekkers and picknickers. We were lucky enough to find a cave to stay in for the night. I quickly made by sleeping arrangement in the centre of the cave supporting the wall. As night came down at harishchandragad, we could see camp fires coming up at different points on the fort. The fort had caves for the people to stay and also 100% pure drinking water. Our leader arranged “Pitla Bhakari” for us and we ate it hurriedly as we all were hungry by the exhaustion we had today. Around 10:30 pm, we submitted to sleep in the cave. The temperature outside was very low and chilling winds were flowing. But inside the cave it was considerably warm and comfortable. Only the surface on which we were sleeping was stony and uneven. But who cares, everybody slept as if they were in coma. Its an amazing fact to know that, in normal circumstances its impossible to sleep on such a surface, but as our body were all exhausted with the hike, we didn’t realized when sleep came.

Morning again came up at 6:30 am and outside the cave now we can see the exact view of the premises of Harischandragad. There was a beautiful temple of Harischandreshwar in the premises and a small pond besides it. I got a few clicks of the view and decided not to enter the temple as I hadn’t bathed since yesterday. That’s how it goes during trek, you don’t get to bath for 2-3 days, that’s abnormal in normal human being’s life but normal in a trekker’s life. 

Thereafter 10-12 trekkers decided to hike the second highest point in Maharashtra i.e. Taramati peak, which was exactly above the cave in which we halted. Some of the trekkers who had earlier hiked to Taramati decided to stay behind and keep watch on our personal belongings. In half an hour we climbed through the sparse forest and were on the Taramati Peak. Again the feeling of “Top of the world” came and I realized for this one moment we made a difficult hike yesterday. But every thing was worth, just worth. We could see few peaks and forts from the top. To my surprise there was “Limboo Pani Waala” on the top of the peak. He showed us some peaks like Naneghat, Kalsubai etc. 

Then we decided to descend the peak and came down to the cave in 20 mins. It was 11 am and we were ready to descend harishchandragad. But now we we decided it to do by another route called as “Tolar Khind – Khireshwar route”. We started and after crossing 2-3 mountains in between we started to descend the steepy route. The route was not as difficult as “Nalichi Vaat”, it was provided by supporting bars at the difficult points and grooves in the rocks were made at steep points. Taking less breaks than the climb we came down to Khireshwar i.e. the base village in 4 hours. We were in Khireshwar around 3 pm and luckily we got bus to the main highway from where we were supposed to catch a bus to Kalyan. The route from Khireshwar to Bankar Fata was amazing, as the road was going besides a huge dam. We got down at Bankar Fata at around 4 pm and got a bus to Kalyan. We were again sitting down on the floor of ST bus back to Kalyan. Overall it was a thrilling experience in real terms. Great adventure and a great challenge that we overcame in two days. Thanks to the Wild Rangers group, they made good arrangements and made our life easy in difficult circumstances. Three Cheers for the Leaders of Wild Rangers !! Thanks for everything. 

                                     -----------------Anurag --------------------