I am not Professional trekker… I just like to explore new places … meet peoples… and enjoy the creatures of nature. Actually I like to know myself. This was my fourth trek in this season. And overall it was more than what I expected…. Starting to write about my travel experiences. This is my first travel blog. I don’t know the ‘A’ of blog writing…. Still trying… hope you would like it.
6.00 am : Departure (From Flat Nigadi Pune)
6.30 am : Bus To Nasik from Nasik Phata (Navaneet Join us )
9.30 am : Ale Phata (Breakfast & cached Bus to Kalyan)
11.00 am : Reached Malshej Ghat by Capturing great views of Sayhyandri ranges….
11.30 am :Reached to Khubi Fata… Walked 6 Km along Dam Wall and reached to Khireshwar…..One of the base village to Kille Harishchandra .
12:30 am : Had a coffee and Kande Pohe in small Hotel-cum-House …. Enquire the villagers.
1.00 : Started Actual Trekking…..
Map of Harischchandra Gad and route we followed
Started walking along River Side… and made the biggest mistake in tour…. We were on wrong path…. And we realize this after 1 hour of trek…. Now it was too late to get back to village and start trek again….
The river we walk along in jungle
Then we decide to move forward along river bank… I used GPS and find out exact location we were on….. We decided that if we wouldn’t get on right path up to 4pm we would move back… and we moved towards deeper jungle… towards ‘tolar khind’…..
This mistake offered us fascinating & great views of that small river and jungle… & Fear … & Adventure…..… & One small Green Snake with brown belt on it. Meanwhile we were continuously shouting for any response from other side (Obliviously for Help.. as we were on wrong path )…..
After 2 hr of walking through jungle nearly about 2.45 we heard response to our shouting and JAN me JAN aa gayi yar……. Thanks to ‘Balu bhau’ from Khireshwar village… who responded our Shouting and help us to get on right path…. Just after 500m walking we reached to Toalr Khind… had a Nimbu pani and some photos there … and started walking towards HarishChandragad…
Taken from Tolar Khind, We had walked from the point beyond you can see in snap, along wall of dam
Now I knew that the next 800 feet hard Rock Patch is the one of the most difficult phase of this trek…. Initially there were railings for safety… but only after some distance it was horrible to see that the railing were stolen by villagers… shit to those who have stolen it… it was great experience to cross that 800 feet rock patch… it was very slippery and sharp slope… you can imagine it with following images…. Hats off to “Prithviraj Gaurkhede” despite of his small height he made it through… I was leading & Navneet was busy with helping Saurabh as Saurabh was facing problem with his Shoes…..Rocks were slippery and Saurabh had hard sole to his shoe…
…….Khushi chupaye chupate nahi chupati…. Joy of pride and thrill
About 5.45 we climbed that Rock Patch… and reached @ top of first hill. Had a Nimbu Pani again.. rest for 10 min and started next phase of the trek… now we have to cross Seven small plateau (small hills) we was about 8-9 KM… this hills wear offering us excellent views of Flowers and other hills….Base villages were playing hide and seek with the clouds… now we were walking in clouds… nearly about 3500-3800 feet above sea level….
Hills were offering us excellent views of Flowers
After reaching on second hill the view we got was really unnarratable… it was white & Yellow flowers all over in green Carpet… we took rest for 5 min and started walking again.. then we had a Parathas we had brought with us…
One of the seven plateaus
After crossing 4 plateau one after another…while crossing one medium size Zarna…. Saurabh slipped down in water fall…. He was lucky enough that he had his ‘LIFEBOY’ with him …. Instantly Navneet hold him pulled him out with his bag…… it was navneet who saved him … otherwise he were in 15- 20 feet down Rock… may be claiming his leg or hand….
Saptarshi (one of the rock sculptures)
After crossing again two plateaus we saw one rock sculptures made by putting rocks on one another…. And soon we were able to sea dark upper part of Rocky big temple through the deep layer fog… reached to the ‘HARISHCHANDRESHWAR TEMPLE’ about 6.45 Pm….
Rocky big temple through the deep layer fog. (Harishchandreshwar)
Temple is beautifully crafted by Rocks on side of small Zarna… a beautiful temple of Lord Shiva… Having one Beautiful Ganeshji’s idol… there is one cave- cum-temple of Lord Vitthal inside the temple… 2-3 big Water Tanks….
Finally after 6 hr of trek, reached Harishchandra Gad
The history of temple is written on the outside the temple…it is 800-850 year old… Great saint Changdev (one who created the epic “Tatvasaar”), used to meditate here in 14th century. The caves are from the same period. The various constructions on the fort and those existing the surrounding region point to the existence of diverse cultures here.
Inside Harishchandreshwar
This temple is marvelous example of the fine art of carving sculptures out of stones that prevailed in ancient India. It is about 16m high from its base. A similar temple is situated in Buddha-Gaya. Here we can see many tombs, in which a typical construction is seen. These are built by arranging stones one over the other. On the left side of the entrance is a Devnagri inscription, which is about saint Changdev.
Rock Scriptures (Dolachi Ghumati) around Harishchanreshwar Temple
When we reached to temple we mate to Bhashkar who was from ‘Pachnai’ the other base village to harishchandragad… he showed us one of the 8 Ganesh caves. It was quite spacious and enough comfortable to sleep… main thing was that, it was completely dry and clean… rather than searching other cave we instantly decide to stay there as it was already dark…. There was other group of trekkers in same cave having big injury to one of them. They had come with one Mumbai based adventure organization. And climbed from ‘Nalichi Wat’ the most difficult approach to fort…. They were having three girls with them!!!!!!
Ganeshji on the Left wall of Harishchandreshwar
We put our bags down… everyone was hungry as we hadn’t any food but one paratha since morning … it was completely dark now and about 7.30pm….we decided to have bath first. We took our torch’s and searched for nearby zarna…… got fresh there…and came back to caves. other group had shifted to other cave. We had enough food with us… still we asked Bhaskar for 4 Bhakari and little Pithala…..I made Sandwiches for all. Saurabh help me in cutting Kakadi and Tomatoes… the Sandwiches was the most delicious I have had ever tested. Navneet had brought Marvadi ‘Desi ghee laddoo’ …..lajawab and behatareen… we were taking real Candle light dinner… the only thing was, we had only one damaged candle broken into 4 pieces.
Photo of the tour, Vishwamitra Mandir
We have had our one of the unforgotten-able dinner there… the best dinner I ever had and I think same is the case with other guys. @ about 10.30 the group of working professionals in TCS from pune came in caves… we were very tiered and got slept about 11 pm… before that Saurabh & I went outside and enjoyed the cold but dense wind… really heavenly smelled environment … we were able to hear the Bhajan out of another caves nearby…. “Dehatichi ti Jodi ”.
Harishchandreshwar Temple from Back side
@ morning we wake up @ 6.30am and quickly done with packing and went the ‘HARISHCHANDRESHWAR TEMPLE’. Then Navneet and pruthvi was very much reluctant to go on TARAMATI peak…
Ha….. Ha…Ha….. Please Don’t Laugh…..
They were not ready to go there… I had very hard task to make them ready for TARAMATI…. Because I was not ready go back without being on SECOND HIGHEST PEAK INMAHARASHTRA…. It was point of self-realization… I suggest them that we should go & watch Konkan Kada first…. Then we would come back to same point where we were… and then we will go to Kedareshwar Caves …which was very near from where we were. Now I had very big task to make them ready to come on Taramati.
On Konkan Kada….
Then we went on Konkan Kada. This is the cliff, which has always fascinated many people from many years. From here, one can have a breathtaking view of the surrounding region & the setting sun. This cliff is not straight, but concave in its topmost approach. This is the highest and biggest Rock Patch in India… It is the 900 meters(approx 4000 feet) huge semicircular rock and concave in shape.
Don’t tell my mother… I did this…..
We have had very own Photo shoot here… in traditional and thrilling poses…. You can imagine it from above pic.
Then we come back to our caves and had a bath there in water fall next to our cave.
Then we moved to Kedareshwar Temple which is 1800 years old according to internet resources… towards the right of Harishchandreshwar temple is the Kedareshwar cave. Within the huge cave sorrounded by waist deep water is a shivling. During monsoons it’s difficult to reach the cave due to the dangerous stream from the cave. There are a few rock cut pillars and carvings made from rock within the cave.
Kedareshwar Cave and Shivling waist in Ice Cold deep Water
Meanwhile I had made Navneet and Prithvi ready for TARAMATI peak. Then we again approached to bhashkar and asked him about the route to TARAMATI Peak… he explained the route and told the main difficulty. Up to midway there is route… after 2-3 km it’s become very difficult to predict the route & and it’s very common to get diverted from original route as its deep jungle in between. If ones lost in it… it’s very difficult to get back on the track due to dark fog and clouds… he told us that no one had been there in this season… we convinced him to come up with us…
Taken on way to Taramati
We crossed 4 10-15 feet rock patches and walked nearly half hour through thick Jungle… the upper 500 m route was of less than 10 feet width of which on side 1000 feet valley and 3000 feet @ other side.
Nearly about 11.40 am we reached @ Taramati Peak.
“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves”
-Sir Edmund Hillary
It was thick fog there… wind was blowing with very high speed and loud sound. We have had conquered the TARAMATI… everyone was shouting… with joy …& with pride…. Bhashkar told us that one can see all side almost up to 100 km from here when sky is clean… there is small Shivling and some Crafted Rocks around it…. Bhaskar told us that this is assumed as starting point of River ‘Mutha’… it was almost half hour we were there taking photos and some videos suddenly wind increased its speed. This wind takes out the fog with it. Previously we were assuming that we are in cloud but actually we were 1000 feet above cloud. The view we were watching was fabulous and heavenly crafted by nature. It was just like hugging the heaven. We were @ the door step of Heaven. You must have seen Ramayan & Mahabharata on doordarshan, and Narad muni walking in sky above clouds. The seen we were watching was the same. It was really awesome to see that white clouds spread all over the sky from upper side… I was feeling like “Aaj mai upper … Asama Niche”…
Clouds were almost 1000 feet below us
Bhashkar had pointed out the window in clouds. It was the window made in cloud which was offering us the view of some part of Malshej ghat and nearby fields and one small river. That was really awesome. You can’t imagine the beauty of that place without being there. We got similar kind of window 3-4 times again. In one of the window we got to see the dam along the wall of which we came from, almost 20 km away from there. No one was ready to leave out of that place. But we had to. The feeling of place we were on and the views we watched will never be erased from our memories. After being there for hour and half we move back to Harischandreshwar temple. While on return journey Prithvi slipped twice.
…..Enjoying angelic beauty
We started our return journey to base village Khireshwar @ 1.00 pm. We crossed all seven hills in less than hour. Now there was most difficult phase of trek. We had to crossed the Rock patches we had climbed while forward journey. We hadn’t imagined that the return journey would be this much hectic and thrilling. It was raining. And because of that rock patches were became more slippery than what we had climbed previous day. It took us hour and half to get down of that 800feet rock patches. After that in tolar khind near ‘WyaghraShilp’ we took our breakfast cum Lunch. We had some sandwich material remained with us.
…on return Journey
Then again we had to travel nearly 8 km to reach base village. After traveling for half hour we got a group of 8-9 people in 50’s. They were drinking alcohol and were enjoying sukhi bhel with that as a chakna. They offer us chakna. Some of them even asked us to drink with them. They have requested us to take them down the hill as some of them were not in condition to walk. We took them down the hill by literally holding theirs hand. It was the group of highly educated and high profile people who came there to swim in Dam and to enjoy drinks. They had hobby to visit different places and drink there. Group had one big tax consultant, one CA, municipal Corporator, PWD’s Section engineer, and one renowned personality in Ahamednagar MAMA. They have offered us their mutton biryani, as Navneet and I are vegetarian one of them asked us to finish his lunchbox having Mataki and chapatti. Saurabh and Prithvi enjoyed Mutton Biryani. The group was the live example of ‘friendship & thrill doesn’t have the limitation of age’. They offered us the lift in their traveler van up to Khireshwar from base of hill. Cab doesn’t had the place to accommodate us in it. We have had to seat on the upper carrier of the cab. And this was again very great experience to travel on the top.
They drop us in mid-way. Again we started walking towards highway where we had to catch bus for Ale phata. We wait almost half hour for bus or any private vehicle. One mini truck driver agreed to take us up to Ale Phata for 20rs per head (actual bus ticket was 50 Rs). That was lottery to our thrill, almost 50 km travel in the truck and that too in carrier. About 7.45 we reached to Ale Phata. We Had snacks and hot Malai Milk there and catch Private travels to pune.
The people we met there were really selfless. I could feel that. There were many times when I was afraid. So many thoughts, Which used to bring fear in me.
I remember the line in one movie.... ‘BLACK NIGHT’.
“Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the presence of fear, yet the will to move on”
