4500 feet experience! One of the best treks so far. Kulang! Not many groups opt for this trek since its in a very remote area where PTS is not available very easily.
Fri-10:30 PM We started @ around 1030 Friday nyt from Dadar station. It was my first trek wd Urja group, and that too coza Shantanu. Thanks Shantanu. But it was very unfortunate that u dint turn up. As a result all the faces ver new to me and vice versa. The plan was changed @ the last moment. Instead of Dadar-Amritsar express, Yatin (65 treks- the Lead) surprised us by telling that weel be going to Ghoti(Igatpuri) by ST. We waited for bus @ Dadar TT for an hour but cudnt find a vacant bus. To travel standing was not an issue but we dint want to loose our enery ryt from the first hour.
Sat-1:00 AM So we moved to Bombay Central ST depo and tuk a 1 o'clock ST to Nashik. By that time everyone had become familiar wd eachother and guys who already knew eachother were sharing their past experiences. We purposely opted the last seat, so by the time we reached half way mark over ass had got a very gud massage. Courtesy : National Highway's :P.
Sat-5.45 AM Reached Ghoti. It was very dark and quite cold out there. Yatin knew all the shortcuts. We followed him till Ghoti bus depot. But unfortunately we were late by few minutes and we had missed our bus to Ambewadi which is the only bus early morning. A local chai-tapriwala told us that the next bus will be @ 8am. But everyone knew, if we wait for this bus it wud be pretty difficult for us to hike in the afternoon. Luckily Yatin managed to pataofy (convince) a goods carrier to drop us till Ambewadi. Thanks to him! He took us through the shortcuts and man! i tell u it was so foggy out there and these local drivers are gr8! They have amazing skills driving in such a climate. That Schumi dropped us as much close to Kulang fort as he cud.
Sat-9:00 AM We then started marching to Kurangwadi through the tiny tops. We hired two local heroes (Kashinath whom we called Tere Naam for his Sallu ishtlye haircut and his brother from Kurangwadi) to guide us till the top. It was a very tempting view from the bottom but a tough one too, i must say. We started following them. They were moving really very fast. There were couple of reasons for that. Firstly they were from the same village and quite often go to the same forest to get fuel. Secondly, they dint had heavy hump(sacks) on their back and these light-weighted kids had amazing stamina. I am sure they must have got pissed off coz of our regular haults and drink-breaks and must be laughing at us. Anyways, it was fun walking through the forest. After some time we unknowingly got split up into two groups the under 25 and over 25. thats wat we named our groups. :D :D Even after walking and climbing the small patches for about two hours the top was still @ the same height it felt like. Still a long way to go! baby!.. keep moving.. throat had dried up. Biscuits, glucose powder, apples. we tried to keep up the enery level high. After around three hours of marching, we cud see rocky steps and i sighed with relief that its closer now. Those 3 rocky patches gave us a lead of around 500 feet in few minutes. We cud see a gr8 view of Kurangwadi and Ambewadi from that point. Those patches were bit difficult since if one looses his balance @ that point he will straight away fall into the valley and even Tere Naam and his brother wont be able to find out the remains :O
Sat-1:30 PM : It was 1.30pm we reached @ the top. Every fort in Maharashtra has a special Maha-Darwaza (Entry Gate). But this fort was missing the maha-darwaza. I think it must have broken down and someone might have removed it. We removed our tiffins and finished it ASAP like hungry dogs. Those kids who guided us till the top ate few chapatis and returned to their home. We promised them to pay their balance amount when they return the next morning to pick us up.
Sat-2:30 PM : v finished our lunch. It was a pleasant atmosphere on top. And most of us opted to take a short nap. Few of us moved out to check out the scenes around the fort. Me too accompanied them along wd my cam hoping to capture few clicks for my photoblog. Yatin told us, this is the only fort in Sahyadris from which you will be able to spot out maximum forts in Sahyadris, yes offcourse on a clear day with clear atmosphere. You need to have a gud binocs wd you for that. Yatin did show us Ratangad, Harishchandra gad, Kalsubai, Alang, Madan and Harihar. Actually Alang and Madan are right next to Kulang. There is a route to climb Alang but as per Yatin's information the only way to reach Madan's peak is using a rope way since the base of Madan was destroyed by Britishers and this is not only wd Madan but many other forts in Sahyadri region, since they were skeptical about the Maratha Empire might use these forts to attack Britishers and re-establish its dynasty. It was an amazing experience standing @ the top of tallest fort in the Sahyadris. After we finished exploring the fort and view of its neighbouring forts we started returning to our base camp. We had reached around a km away from our base camp. Our expectations of a sunset cudnt be fulfilled since the blackies had already gathered around the fort and were about to burst. yea.. the rain-clouds. The sun-rays were still piercing from these black snow-balls, portraid an amazing view in the sky. We ran to the cave as fast as we cud. But it neva rained. the clouds just passed away.. leaving back an orange-reddish shade at the horizon. Yatin and Prem started preparing the dinner whereas few of us started collecting fuel for our campfire. It was justa matter of few hours and the blue sky had turned into a dark with twinkling stars which looked a bit saddy saddy since their friend moon was on leave. yeah! it was a no-moon night.
Sat- 8:30 PM : our dinner was ready. The main topic of camp-fire was non-veg jokes.. :P. I too attempted one. But no one laughed on it.. Succha big popat.. :(.. Everyone busy eating the common dish-dinner except Kiran who was trying hard to keep the fire alive. Thanx mate.. :P ...
Sat-10 PM : We decided to go to bed early. The weather becoming more and more cold as the night became younger... Even one slept lika dead body. I was second from the entrance of the cave so you can imagine my condition. Glad that Sharad was the first one. But i remember throughout the entire night Sharad was very uneasy. Continuosly changing his positions and trying to cover his body as much as he cud.
Sun-5:00 AM : Yatin's alarm started ringing. I covered my ears with my bag and again went back to sleep. Suddenly after few minutes i heard someone shouting "Guys come out, Its beautiful view outside." I thought i m dreaming but someone stepped on my hand and tahdaaakk!!! i woke up.. and saw everyone running outa the base camp with their digicams.. My nose had become an ice cream cone. I too ran wd my digicam. Clicked as many clicks as possible of the beautiful sunrise.. But the clouds which had gathered over the Ambewadi village for their morning meeting was a treat to watch. Simply fantabulous... Slowly slowly as the time passed the clouds disappeared.. We had our morning tea and hot Maggi breakfast and prepared our body for the day ahead.
Sun-10:30 AM : Started down hill. The kids dint turn up. Now it was really risky since, now we cud actually see the valley whereas while climbing, the valley was behind us, so we neva noticed that @ what height we are from the base. After reaching the half way mark, we met those kids, they came to take us downhill.. These kids dropped us till the (so called) main road which connects Kurangwadi to Ambewadi.
Sun-2:30 PM : After almost 3-4 kms of walk we reached Ambewadi. waiting for 3 o'clock bus @ the bus stand. Managed to get a glass full of tea from a local villagers house, which was very sweet. But reminded me of tea made in houses in konkan region. As soon as the bus reached the stop we ran towards the bus, which was unnecessary actually coz that was the starting point of the bus so no one was gonna get into the bus apart from us.. :D .. Lil bita of photo session and keeping intact the memories of Kulang in our mind we left Ambewadi and reached Ghoti depo @ around 5 pm..
Sun 5:10PM : Ankush and Yatin managed to arrange a jeep till Kasara. Man!! these guys had amazing bargaining skills.. ;)... that jeep had a broken back door which opened with remote control i guess or with a swipe card as Sid said. :D The handle was missing.. The driver opened the door for us. He touched the jeep @ kasara station @ 5.45pm..
Sun-6:12PM : Kasara local.. By the time Yatin brought vadapaav and bhaji paav as snacks. since we were feeling very very hungry.. Every one got down @ their respective stations starting wd Yatin @ Kalyan, few @ vikhroli, vidyavihar and Ghatkopar, Rohit and i got down @ Dadar. Kishore and Sharad were going till Byculla and Curry road. Reached home @ 10pm. This was one of the best treks in all of my trek's till date. Thankyou all and special thanx to Shantanu. But missed u a lot dude...!!! Waiting for Kulwantini.. somewhere in October.. Rock On!!!!
Fri-10:30 PM We started @ around 1030 Friday nyt from Dadar station. It was my first trek wd Urja group, and that too coza Shantanu. Thanks Shantanu. But it was very unfortunate that u dint turn up. As a result all the faces ver new to me and vice versa. The plan was changed @ the last moment. Instead of Dadar-Amritsar express, Yatin (65 treks- the Lead) surprised us by telling that weel be going to Ghoti(Igatpuri) by ST. We waited for bus @ Dadar TT for an hour but cudnt find a vacant bus. To travel standing was not an issue but we dint want to loose our enery ryt from the first hour.
Sat-1:00 AM So we moved to Bombay Central ST depo and tuk a 1 o'clock ST to Nashik. By that time everyone had become familiar wd eachother and guys who already knew eachother were sharing their past experiences. We purposely opted the last seat, so by the time we reached half way mark over ass had got a very gud massage. Courtesy : National Highway's :P.
Sat-5.45 AM Reached Ghoti. It was very dark and quite cold out there. Yatin knew all the shortcuts. We followed him till Ghoti bus depot. But unfortunately we were late by few minutes and we had missed our bus to Ambewadi which is the only bus early morning. A local chai-tapriwala told us that the next bus will be @ 8am. But everyone knew, if we wait for this bus it wud be pretty difficult for us to hike in the afternoon. Luckily Yatin managed to pataofy (convince) a goods carrier to drop us till Ambewadi. Thanks to him! He took us through the shortcuts and man! i tell u it was so foggy out there and these local drivers are gr8! They have amazing skills driving in such a climate. That Schumi dropped us as much close to Kulang fort as he cud.
Sat-9:00 AM We then started marching to Kurangwadi through the tiny tops. We hired two local heroes (Kashinath whom we called Tere Naam for his Sallu ishtlye haircut and his brother from Kurangwadi) to guide us till the top. It was a very tempting view from the bottom but a tough one too, i must say. We started following them. They were moving really very fast. There were couple of reasons for that. Firstly they were from the same village and quite often go to the same forest to get fuel. Secondly, they dint had heavy hump(sacks) on their back and these light-weighted kids had amazing stamina. I am sure they must have got pissed off coz of our regular haults and drink-breaks and must be laughing at us. Anyways, it was fun walking through the forest. After some time we unknowingly got split up into two groups the under 25 and over 25. thats wat we named our groups. :D :D Even after walking and climbing the small patches for about two hours the top was still @ the same height it felt like. Still a long way to go! baby!.. keep moving.. throat had dried up. Biscuits, glucose powder, apples. we tried to keep up the enery level high. After around three hours of marching, we cud see rocky steps and i sighed with relief that its closer now. Those 3 rocky patches gave us a lead of around 500 feet in few minutes. We cud see a gr8 view of Kurangwadi and Ambewadi from that point. Those patches were bit difficult since if one looses his balance @ that point he will straight away fall into the valley and even Tere Naam and his brother wont be able to find out the remains :O
Sat-1:30 PM : It was 1.30pm we reached @ the top. Every fort in Maharashtra has a special Maha-Darwaza (Entry Gate). But this fort was missing the maha-darwaza. I think it must have broken down and someone might have removed it. We removed our tiffins and finished it ASAP like hungry dogs. Those kids who guided us till the top ate few chapatis and returned to their home. We promised them to pay their balance amount when they return the next morning to pick us up.
Sat-2:30 PM : v finished our lunch. It was a pleasant atmosphere on top. And most of us opted to take a short nap. Few of us moved out to check out the scenes around the fort. Me too accompanied them along wd my cam hoping to capture few clicks for my photoblog. Yatin told us, this is the only fort in Sahyadris from which you will be able to spot out maximum forts in Sahyadris, yes offcourse on a clear day with clear atmosphere. You need to have a gud binocs wd you for that. Yatin did show us Ratangad, Harishchandra gad, Kalsubai, Alang, Madan and Harihar. Actually Alang and Madan are right next to Kulang. There is a route to climb Alang but as per Yatin's information the only way to reach Madan's peak is using a rope way since the base of Madan was destroyed by Britishers and this is not only wd Madan but many other forts in Sahyadri region, since they were skeptical about the Maratha Empire might use these forts to attack Britishers and re-establish its dynasty. It was an amazing experience standing @ the top of tallest fort in the Sahyadris. After we finished exploring the fort and view of its neighbouring forts we started returning to our base camp. We had reached around a km away from our base camp. Our expectations of a sunset cudnt be fulfilled since the blackies had already gathered around the fort and were about to burst. yea.. the rain-clouds. The sun-rays were still piercing from these black snow-balls, portraid an amazing view in the sky. We ran to the cave as fast as we cud. But it neva rained. the clouds just passed away.. leaving back an orange-reddish shade at the horizon. Yatin and Prem started preparing the dinner whereas few of us started collecting fuel for our campfire. It was justa matter of few hours and the blue sky had turned into a dark with twinkling stars which looked a bit saddy saddy since their friend moon was on leave. yeah! it was a no-moon night.
Sat- 8:30 PM : our dinner was ready. The main topic of camp-fire was non-veg jokes.. :P. I too attempted one. But no one laughed on it.. Succha big popat.. :(.. Everyone busy eating the common dish-dinner except Kiran who was trying hard to keep the fire alive. Thanx mate.. :P ...
Sat-10 PM : We decided to go to bed early. The weather becoming more and more cold as the night became younger... Even one slept lika dead body. I was second from the entrance of the cave so you can imagine my condition. Glad that Sharad was the first one. But i remember throughout the entire night Sharad was very uneasy. Continuosly changing his positions and trying to cover his body as much as he cud.
Sun-5:00 AM : Yatin's alarm started ringing. I covered my ears with my bag and again went back to sleep. Suddenly after few minutes i heard someone shouting "Guys come out, Its beautiful view outside." I thought i m dreaming but someone stepped on my hand and tahdaaakk!!! i woke up.. and saw everyone running outa the base camp with their digicams.. My nose had become an ice cream cone. I too ran wd my digicam. Clicked as many clicks as possible of the beautiful sunrise.. But the clouds which had gathered over the Ambewadi village for their morning meeting was a treat to watch. Simply fantabulous... Slowly slowly as the time passed the clouds disappeared.. We had our morning tea and hot Maggi breakfast and prepared our body for the day ahead.
Sun-10:30 AM : Started down hill. The kids dint turn up. Now it was really risky since, now we cud actually see the valley whereas while climbing, the valley was behind us, so we neva noticed that @ what height we are from the base. After reaching the half way mark, we met those kids, they came to take us downhill.. These kids dropped us till the (so called) main road which connects Kurangwadi to Ambewadi.
Sun-2:30 PM : After almost 3-4 kms of walk we reached Ambewadi. waiting for 3 o'clock bus @ the bus stand. Managed to get a glass full of tea from a local villagers house, which was very sweet. But reminded me of tea made in houses in konkan region. As soon as the bus reached the stop we ran towards the bus, which was unnecessary actually coz that was the starting point of the bus so no one was gonna get into the bus apart from us.. :D .. Lil bita of photo session and keeping intact the memories of Kulang in our mind we left Ambewadi and reached Ghoti depo @ around 5 pm..
Sun 5:10PM : Ankush and Yatin managed to arrange a jeep till Kasara. Man!! these guys had amazing bargaining skills.. ;)... that jeep had a broken back door which opened with remote control i guess or with a swipe card as Sid said. :D The handle was missing.. The driver opened the door for us. He touched the jeep @ kasara station @ 5.45pm..
Sun-6:12PM : Kasara local.. By the time Yatin brought vadapaav and bhaji paav as snacks. since we were feeling very very hungry.. Every one got down @ their respective stations starting wd Yatin @ Kalyan, few @ vikhroli, vidyavihar and Ghatkopar, Rohit and i got down @ Dadar. Kishore and Sharad were going till Byculla and Curry road. Reached home @ 10pm. This was one of the best treks in all of my trek's till date. Thankyou all and special thanx to Shantanu. But missed u a lot dude...!!! Waiting for Kulwantini.. somewhere in October.. Rock On!!!!
