It
all started with a status message on FB from Mr. Mahesh Gavasane conveying that
they will be exploring Roha-Kundalika Region forts on 12-13 Feb 2013. Initially
some of us were out of equation as there was only one car for the travel and it
was already full. With Sarvesh, Praveen and Myself pouring in for the trek, we
decided that we will be going for one more car and that was mine. Convincing my
Mother was a tough job, but somehow could manage on the promise of driving
slow…hehehehe. Further as the D-day was nearing, there were cancellations and a
total group of 13 was curtailed to 9 people. Call from Mahesh said that we will
be moving by only one car, that was Mr. Chetan Rane’s car (innova). And the
iternary was circulated.
Woke
up early morning on 12th Jan and got into first train to Vashi.
Chetan was coming from Jogeshwari via Chembur, so I decided to join them at
Sanpada.With all my trekking gear I was looking like a alien at Thane station,
which I recognized when I was getting out of my complex and some of dogs
refused to identify me. Anyways, it was around 6:10 AM I got into the car at
Sanpada. It was already filled with 5-6 people, Nilesh Tawade, Prajakt Madkar,
Nilesh Nangare, Mahesh, Avinash Jadhav and ofcourse Chetan (incharge of the
cockpit). On our way to Panvel, we picked up Sarvesh Tawade and Praveen Potdar.
And we nine guys were off to Roha, which is around 90 Kms from Panvel. First
target was to get to Kolad on Mum-Goa Highway and then turn right from Kolad to
Roha – 14 kms.
After
reaching Roha, we asked for directions to Pingalsai Village, which is one of
the base to Avchitgad. Actually Avchitgad has 3-4 base routes, from where you
can hike up. Unaware about the regular ascending route, we kept moving towards
Pingalsai village. At one place we stopped for asking directions, and the
village guy was kind enough to tell us that instead of ascending Avchitgad from
Pingalsai, which is unfriendly and barren land route we should go to Medhe
Village on Roha-Nagothane road. He told us that the route from Medhe was full
of trees and we will be saved from wrath of scorching sun. Thanking the angel
we placed our car on Roha Nagothane route and reached Medhe Village which is
approx 12 kms from Roha. One can also take a right from Nagothane from Mum-Goa
Highway and reach Medhe Village on Roha road instead of doing the other way
round as we did. Reaching Medhe Village, we parked our car in front of a temple
and started the hike. Asking directions to the villagers can help, once you get
to the proper route there is no need of further assistance. While ascending,
the fort is always to your right and route goes through the forest on the
neighboring mountain. The route is a normal but steep hike but as the sun was
coming up it was sucking glucose from us. As I was trekking after three long
weeks, I was quite exhausted but kept going with small sips of water. Atlast
the fortified wall of the fort was visible and we could sense the fort’s main
door approaching. Fort’s main door is a beautiful structure (see the pic below)
and just ahead of the door on left hand side there is a stone kept, on which
there is an imaginary animal carved on it just like Unicorn. Things to see on
the fort are live cannon, water cisterns, some of the remnants of fortified
structure. Just above the water cisterns there is a small Shiv temple near to
which you can see script carved on stone(ShilaLekh).
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Avchit Gad from Base Village Medhe |
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Way to AvchitGad |
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Avchitgad Entrance |
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Imaginary Animal Carved on Stone |
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AvchitGad |
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Avchitgad |
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Cannon At AvchitGad |
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AvchitGad |
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Devi Idol at Avchitgad |
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Water Cisterns at Avchitgad |
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Wooden Bridge joining two mountains at Avchitgad |
Explored the fort for 45
mins and then we were descending the fort. Around 10 mins after descending, we
can see triangular carved rocks in various shapes, which are mistaken for deity
idols by people. But Mahesh told us that they were actually “Veerghals”, the
memorials made for the martyrs who died while fighting on the fort. Highest the
rank of the soldier died, big was the “Veerghal”(see the pic below). We
ascended the fort in less than 30 mins and we were moving towards our next
destination “Birwadi Fort”
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VeerGhal's at Avchitgad |
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ShilaLekh At AvchitGad |
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Mahesh giving info |
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Temple at Avchitgad |
Birwadi
Fort is on Roha Murud Highway, near to a village named “Chanera” which is 20
kms from Roha. So from Medhe village we came back to Roha and moved our car in
direction of Murud. 40 minutes down we were at Chanera asking for directions to
Birwadi fort. One of the localite pointed his finger towards a mountain to the
left side of Roha-Murud Road, which was a bell shaped mountain. 2 kms left from
Chanera you will get to the fort, on the way there is huge left which is to be
ignored and keep right. At the base of birwadi fort there is a nice and clean
temple, adjacent to it there is a statue of Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj. It was
1:30 pm and we all were hungry, so we decided to carry our food to the top and
have it there. Ascend is very easy, only at one place it gets a bit tricky with
a rock patch but not difficult. In 15 mins we were on top and exploring. There is
not much to see at the top only few water cisterns and remnants of fortified
structure. We couldn’t even find a proper shade for having food, so we decided
to descend down and have food near the temple. Within 10 mins we descended the
fort and had our lunch. In the whole Roha-Kundalika range, Birwadi is only the
fort which is off track i.e. far from the circle. And there is not much to see
on the fort, but just to complete your range, visit to this fort is must.
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Temple at the base of Birwadi Fort |
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Ascending Birwadi Fort |
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Shivaji Maharaj's Idol at Birwadi Fort Base |
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Birwadi Fort |
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Birwadi Fort |
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Tricky Rock Patch at Birwadi Fort |
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Water Cisterns at Birwadi Fort |
Now
reaching back to Roha was must, to visit our next target Ghosalgad
From
Chanera you get back to Roha and then you again ask for directions to Ghosala,
which is the base village of Ghosalgad. Roha – Ghosala is approx 10 kms.
Reaching the base village you can see the fort overlooking the village. It was
around 3:30 pm when we reached Ghosala and started ascending the fort. Route is
all marked and there is no need of assistance. 15 mins hike and you can reach
the top. The mountain is shoe shaped with a plateau on one side and you can
still find the “Machi” well fortified. The main door of the fort is not in
existence, still you can find some pieces of the same lying there. Further
there is a cave on left side and on right side you can walk over the periphery
of the fortified plateau. Hiking up after the stairs there are two ways, if you
chose the right one you will get to a dead end after walking for 2 mins. On the
way you go through few water cisterns. The way to the top is from left hand
side, take left and start ascending upwards immediately. On top you can find a
cannon and chor darwaza. Descending from the opposite end you can directly come
down to the village. Overall it is a nice fort to explore.
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Ghosalgad from Base village "Ghosala" |
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Carvings on Ghosalgad |
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Ghosalgad |
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Ghosalgad Entrance |
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Small cave at Ghosalgad |
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Ghosalgad |
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Machi at Ghosalgad |
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Honey Ladder for Honey Hunters |
When we got into our
car, it was around 5:30 pm and we went to Indapur on Mum-Goa Highway, where our
night stay was arranged. After a tiring day it was time to say good night and
all the trekkers were eager for the coming day to visit 3 more places.
Left
Indapur early morning around 6 am, our target was to reach Talagad before
Sunrise. Base village to Talagad is Tala Village. Seeing from far, Talagad
looks high and seems like it will take atleast 90 mins to ascend. But as you
come near, your car moves through the narrow streets of Tala village right up
to the actual base of the fort and from there the ascend is of hardly 30 mins.
God of fire was also ascending with us and every bit in the atmosphere was
turning gold. We had an extended photography session in that beautiful light
and moved further. Talagad is a beautiful fort with lot of fortifications still
visible. You can also see remnants of housing structures, lot of water
cisterns, fortified structures just like those on Raigad. It’s a pin shaped
fort and there are lot of things to explore on the fort. In short, Talagad is a
must visit fort in this range.
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Talagad from Base village |
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Talagad |
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Talagad |
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Talgad |
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Steps up to Talagad |
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Talagad |
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Storage Structure at Talagad |
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Water Cisterns At Talagad |
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Machi at Talagad |
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Our rocking group at Talagad |
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Shivling at Talagad |
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Talgad from Base |
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Avinash in Stunt Mode |
Descended in a happy mood and came to our car in
less than 15 mins. Near the base there is a temple of Chattrapati Shivaji
Maharaj, which are very less in Maharashtra.
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Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj Mandir at Talagad Base |
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Idol of Maharaj at Talagad Base |
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Fish Market at Tala |
Thereafter
we reached Kuda Caves, 11 kms from Tala village. On the way you need to keep
asking for directions to avoid missing left turn from Kulkarni Farms. Kuda
caves are been protected by Archeological Society of India (ASI) and are well
maintained. There are 26 caves in the premises dating back 1st
Century BC – 3rd Century AD. The carvings on the stone are
masterpiece arts. Elephant carved near the entrance of one of the cave look as
if it is alive.
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Kuda Caves |
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Kuda Caves |
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Kuda Caves |
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Kuda Caves |
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Kuda Caves |
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Kuda Caves |
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Kuda Caves |
Explored the caves for 30 mins and were back to our car. Now we
had only one place remaining in our schedule i.e. GheraSurgad on Mum-Goa
Highway. As there was lot of time at our disposal, we were thinking of doing
Sarasgad after GheraSurgad. But our plan was destroyed by a flat tyre of our
car on Roha-Kolad Road. We wasted more than 90 minutes to fix the tyre.
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Tyre bust of our Car on Roha-Kolad Road |
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Mission Possible |
For
GheraSurgad you need to come to Kolad from Roha, distance of which is 14 kms
and then move towards Khamb village in direction of Mumbai. At Khamb, towards
right you can see a board installed by “Durgaveer Pratisthan” indicating the
road to Surgad. Durgaveer Pratisthan is a group which does maintenance work on
forts, the aim of which is to preserve the precious forts for future
generations to come. At the base, we were lucky to meet Mr. Santosh Hasurkar,
leader of Durgaveer Pratisthan and his group who had just completed their 2
days maintenance work on the fort. Got directions from Santosh and we were off
to the trek. Thanks to Durgaveer Pratisthan, the path is well marked with
arrows and occasional display boards. There are three ways to ascend this fort.
One is the regular route, first going through forest and then traversing the
big rock. Second is through the scree for which we need to maintain a single
direction till we reach up. And third is from the fortified structure at the
opposite end of the fort. We chosed the second one, as it is the shortest and
takes you on top immediately within 15 mins. Moving towards the scree you need
to climb a rock patch which is to be climbed very carefully. Then from the
scree, you keep climbing right and move towards the top. Immediately above the
scree you will find Lord Hanuman’s unique idol on the right hand side. Further
you get a snake view of the Kundalika river from the top which is beautiful and
serene. There is shiv temple further and a dilapidated storage structure
“Kothar” adjacent to it. Lot of things to explore on this fort but the special
one is the “ShilaLekh”- script carved on the rectangular structure. Moving to
the opposite end you get to the last fortified structure on the fort and from
there you can descend down. While descending we had problems with identifying
the proper route as lot of dry leaves covered the route. Somehow we got to the
main route after missing it for some time. On the way in forest there was
cannon at one place which may have felled from the fort. Further to that there
is Ansai Devi Mandir.
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Ghera Surgad from Base |
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Path to the fort |
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Moving through the scree up to GheraSurgad |
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Mahesh and Nilesh moving up the rock patch at Ghera Surgad |
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Hanuman Idol at Ghera Surgad |
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Snake View of Kundalika River from GheraSurgad |
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Dilapidated Storage Structure at Ghera Surgad |
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Shivling at Ghera Surgad |
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Ghera Surgad |
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Water cisterns at Ghera Surgad |
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Shilalekh at Ghera Surgad |
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Descending Ghera Surgad |
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Ansai Devi Mandir |
Descend takes less than 30 minutes. Back to the base
village, we realized that we had completed the range and it was time to get
back to Mumbai. Left Khamb at around 5:30 pm and reached Mumbai at 9.30 pm.
Overall it were a great 2 days with 8 strong trekkers, we had great fun
together and supported each other in best possible way. Thanks to all of You,
you were great, special thanks to Mr. Chetan Rane to bring his car for the
trek. Jai Shivaji !!! Jai Bhavani !!!
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Our group of Nine for the Trek |