My travelogues: Bhandardara

Showing posts with label Bhandardara. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Vishramgadh - where the body can rest but the eyes can't!

12th July 2015

Vishramgadh. Resting fort! The fort is so called because Shivaji Maharaj rested on the fort for more than a month due to some illness. This is the only fort apart from Raigad and Rajgad where Shivaji Maharaj stayed for such a long time. You can find more about the history of the fort on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patta_Fort.

Vishramgadh is at a 1 ½ hrs drive from Kasara en route to Bhandardara and one can find private jeeps filling up travellers on a seat basis going up to Nasik or Bhandardara, costing approximately INR100 per seat. 19 kms before Bhandardara, you need to take a left to reach Pattewadi, the base village of the fort. Pattewadi is a small hamlet of a few huts housing around 200 people. The drive to Pattewadi is scenic as you come across the mammoth blades of windmills swirling to the wind, the huge mountains in the backdrop, cattle grazing lazily and goats being herded by the shepherd who gives you a confused look as you pass him. The forts like Alang, Madan, Kulang, Trimbakgad and Kalsubai are in the vicinity of Vishramgadh.

I had joined a group called Tattva for this trek and we were around 21 people of various shapes, sizes and ages taking this trek. This is a relatively easy trek and one can reach the top in about 1 – ½ hrs at leisure after paying a nominal entry fee at the entrance gate. We, of course took more time as the cameras went click click click after every 15 minutes or so. The expanse of the surroundings is really breathtaking and one would only want to take it all in, in sumptuous gulps. This is one of the forts that the Government has tried to preserve and take under its wings and as you start the trek you come across boards with maps, descriptions and history of the fort. A small toilet is also available for the trekkers and travellers though not very clean. A model elephant, a beautiful one with two small ornamented baby elephants probably symbolizes the hugeness of the fort. There is a canon right behind the elephant and into the distance the eyes feast on a dome shaped structure on one of the cliffs at the far end.

A little ahead is a ‘Laxman Swami Maharaj’ cave and further ahead, a temple of ‘Shri Pattai Ashtabhuja Devi’. Railings have been put across at some of the edges around the temple and they actually spoil the beauty of the mountain, but they are there for a reason. Our villager guide Mr.Gulab informed us that there is a huge crowd visiting the temple and the fort during Shiv Jayanti. People from neighbouring villages throng the place and, the local politician; it seems flies in a helicopter to reach there. We trek and they fly, with the tax payers’ money of course! Words of caution here; there are many monkeys around the temple and they would not think twice to grab your cameras or the bar of chocolate you planned to eat.

Another hour of a bit of huffing and puffing and you are at the top of the plateau and come across a temple or ‘sabhagruh’ dedicated to the great king Shivaji. The interiors are still under construction. To cover the entire fort would probably take around 4 hrs and one needs to decide which part he wants to cover. The fort is spread far and wide; in fact it is more of a plateau than a fort as there are hardly any walls or ‘tattbandi’ barring a few which usually defines a fort, but no one’s complaining; the scenery covers for it all. There are a few doors or ‘darwazas’ and a couple of spacious caves on the fort which can easily accommodate 20 people each. Also, there are many water cisterns on the top and probably these cisterns along with a well are the water source for the village below.

From the temple, we took a right to reach to the zenith of the mountain and what a time we had. Though it was cloudy, the rain evaded us, but the wind was blowing like crazy and it almost swept us off our feet, literally! We had to consciously make some effort to keep grounded and a rock perched at the best location had us pose like supermen and superwomen for many pictures. There are scenes and places that are inexplicable and this was one of them; one has to be there to experience it. The vastness of the fort, the serenity except for the swooshing of the wind, the humble swaying of the grass, a few colourful flowers which had sprouted in the rains, the various shades of intoxicating green, the enticing paddy fields below, the command and strength you feel being at such a height, the puny snaking roads below, all of these and more mesmerizes you beyond words and a thankful feeling rises in your heart for mother Nature and its beauty.

We had lunch at the top with the wind singing to us. Post lunch, we embarked again to another plateau right in front of us, towards the windmills. As I said, every edge of the mountain gives you a different view and from here we could see a couple of lakes or reservoirs. Getting closer to the windmills was another high and we sat there for some time gazing at the lazily rotating blades against the lovely backdrop.

This place definitely is a camper’s delight. After a few games and fun and laughter, we dejectedly decided to get back to the hullabaloo of the city. We walked around the periphery of the mountain and were back in almost an hour for the drive back to Kasara station. A Sunday well spent on a date with nature!

At Pattewadi, the base village

Pattewadi

Intro time

Grazing to delight

Soldier at the gates

Monday, August 20, 2012

Peth Fort (Kothligad) - The Funnel Shaped Fort

There’s something about Ratangad and me. This is the second time I couldn't traverse and embrace the fort. Out of frustration, I booked a train ticket for Lonavala and decided to take the Lohagad trek all alone. I made Nagesh feel so bad ;) with all my taunts that the guy came up with the idea to go to Peth on Saturday. I obliged, since any trek is fine with me as long as it’s not too scary – not that much of a daredevil, you see!!

So, Peth it was!! The trek to Peth, also known as Kothligad, begins from a village called Ambivali, which is around 30 kms. from Karjat. I missed the 6:14 am train from Thane and finally caught the 6:35 am train to Karjat. Nagesh and Siddhesh joined me in Dombivali in the helicopter dabba. The journey from Karjat to Thane takes around 1 ½ hrs. and during that time, ‘The Times of India’ painted in black & white the story of a dam, planned in the 1980’s with a budget of around 380 crores, being built for the so called benefit of the villagers, was still being built even in 2012 and our efficient politicians, contractors and whoever could have laid their hands on DID lay their hands on and siphoned off arounf 7000 crores. This is our tax money the money that WE pay to the Government. Politicians!! What would we have done without them? It reminds me of the movie Deewar where Amitabh refuses to pay ‘hafta’, wish all of us taxpayers would do something similar one day.

You can get stuffed like a chicken in a tum tum (a big rickshaw) as the driver literally accommodates as many bums as it can, leaving no seat surface area wasted or you can take an ST(State Transport bus) to Amibivali. The ST stand is a 2 minute walk away from Karjat East. We took the bus.

Where it all began - ST Depot, Karjat East

Looking out of the rattling windows of the bus, we caught glimpses of the running paddy fields; the rice crop at some places, just grown to knee height, at others yet to be seen; the bullocks tethered to the ploughs, straining at their necks, going round and round in the fields amidst the shout of the farmer; the scattered whiteness of the cattle egrets, who took you by surprise with their sudden flight; the blackening sky with the rain clouds promising us rain and ensuring a good trek; the mountains keeping pace, now there, now hidden in the curtains of the clouds; the gurgling of the forced rivulets formed by the rains, a surreal experience.

We reached Ambivali by 9:15 am, the bus taking a little more than an hour. The bus halts near a small house, which acts as a hotel as well. The trek to Peth starts from here. The trek is actually divided into 2 parts, the trek to the Peth village being the first, which takes around 2 hrs, and the second one being the trek to the fort from the village.

Start of trek

On the turning away...

Almost at the beginning of the trek, one comes across a fork in the road. Take the left one. The walk to the Peth village is like driving through any of the ghats, all twists and turns. The walk through the muddy scree does take the breath out of you. At every turn and with every step, you hope and wish for a flat path, but the end of the turn discloses just another uphill. The entire trek is up, up and away. It would make you wonder why anyone would want to stay at such a height, so far away from actual civilization and you will have no answers, but am sure the villagers do!! Walking though the mountainous forests is as close as you can get to nature and enjoy the greenery, the tall swaying trees, the invisible teasing and whistling of the birds, the loud buzz of the insects coaxes you to go on.

A hidden waterfall

We took our first halt at a waterfall created by the recent rains. We just saw and heard it from a distance as it was not accessible. From this scenic place, you can see the sliced peak of Padargad; I say sliced because that is how it looked from the distance - layered. After around 1 ½ hours of arduous walking we came to a flat plateau, a grassland and the scenery awaiting us was simply breathtaking. You need to see to believe! Every trek has its’ highlights and this plateau was definitely the one for this trek. I would suggest that even if one doesn’t want to take the entire trek to the fort, reaching and enjoying this view would be just fine. The entire erect and vertical rock surface of the Peth mountain, reminding you of Harishcandragads' Konkan kada, stretching to quite some length, with the inverted funnel shaped fort to the left, marked by numerous waterfalls and the huge and mighty mountain of Bhimashankar in front and the tiny villages below and the landscape spread as far as the eye could see are not something to be written about, they are to be seen, the moment is to be cherished, the greed to capture it all in your eyes is to be strongly felt. It was windy, a relief from the scorching heat we faced till now, the rains still being elusive. This is an ideal spot to pitch your tent and watch the stars or just enjoy the wind. Some village boys were selling corn, nimbu paani, chai in a small open hut. We took bites of the sweet corn while enjoying the panoramic scenery. 2 dogs gave us company and watched our ecstasy without much excitement. We continued on our journey and a few minutes later we were on another plateau which was marked with freshly grown grass everywhere and tiny lakes of clear water. We took turns to cool our faces with this water as the heat had nearly drained us of all our energy. Not a drop of rain till now! ‘Kaale megha, kale megha, Paani to barsao’

The huge rock face like Konkan Kada

Coming Soon : Bhimashankar, Starring Nagesh and Siddesh

The beautiful plateau - a window to the scenery

A little ahead, we encountered farmers working with their bullocks in the paddy fields. 10 mins later we were in the village of Peth. The village of Peth is nothing but a cluster of few huts and fields. We came across some cute giggling kids below a fully bloomed Jaswand tree and they posed for a photo. The rain gave a short visit and then disappeared, leaving us unquenched. There is a hotel in Peth where you can have your tea, snacks, lunch and buy food for your trek. We started our trek and in the initial lap itself, got to know what an ordeal we had on our hands, rather legs. After the first 5-10 mins you come to a spot where you get to see the whole rock face of the mountain and you are at a loss at how you will climb it. It is a bit scary and jittery and needs self convincing and a lot of prodding to go on. From here, there is no visible path to be seen and it seems that the entire trek would be a rock climbing affair, but it isn’t so. Though it is just an hour long trek, it might feel like eternity as it is completely uphill. Won’t lie, I did feel like giving up and needed some encouragement from my associates to go on. The absence of showers and the heat was impeding the climb. There are two tricky rock patches out there, the moss making it slippery. One of them definitely is the path of a waterfall and would be very dangerous and difficult to traverse when the rains are in full force. One slip of the foot and you will tumble all your way to the base in no time, with a promised bunch of broken bones and torn flesh. Midway, you are most likely to take a wrong path. Wrong as in, not a different route but a difficult one missing the usual route. It’s always better to be accompanied by a localite. A small carefree kid showed us the right path. The last stretch has a few steps cut in the rock surface. There was another guy like me, who was having a very hard time and needed a lot of push from his friends to carry on. Staggering behind, we took our own sweet time and lots of rest before we waddled our next few steps. Phew!! Finally there!

Farmer of Peth - Kothligad in the background

Kothligad is not much of a fort, but feels more like a watch tower. At the entrance itself, as you put your head through the opening in the wall, you see rocky steps leading to the summit. Below that is a cistern of water called a ‘taake’. The temple of Lord Bhairoba is to the left of it and next to it is a cave, good enough to accommodate at least 40 people. There is another idol of Goddess Janai with a bell hanging from the roof of the cave. The cave has engraved pillars, giving a glimpse of the Buddhist architecture and few windows opening up to the delight of the scenery below. At the further end of the cave, you can might see bats hanging from the roof. To the right of the rocky stairs, is a small flat plateau having a small canon and needless to say the sight from here was nothing short of a beautifully and creatively crafted dream sequence. We saw the dancing of the clouds like never before, the windmills of Bhandardara and Ghoti in the distance, their blades rotating lazily, the robust peak of Bhimashankar visible when the clouds were done with their embrace. We could see the path we had taken.

Temple of Lord Bhairoba

Cave on the fort

Rock stairs to the pinnacle

The pinnacle of Kothligad

The crowds were coming in swarms. The inflow never stopped while we were there and kept coming when we were descending as well. I was a little shaken thinking about those 2 rock patches but with help from my friends managed well and am here to tell you the tale. As usual, it took much less time to descend. At the top, while descending and while we were having lunch, we came across a few know all irritating, hectoring, loud ladies from different groups telling not only their group members, but needlessly trying to instruct others as well and as a result were averted by everyone…Baithe kyun ho, chalo abhi bahut timepaas ho gaya, do this, don’t do that, sit here, stand there, whats for lunch, ye kiya toh wo hoga, woh kiya to ye hoga, what's wrong with you, itna kyu kha rahe ho, itna kam kyu kha rahe ho…inke bhais ko anda maru!! - Reminded us of aunty.

We had lunch at the hotel in the village. A thali of rice bhaakris, a tasty bhaji of mixed vegetables, daal, papad, achar and kanda. We were too hungry and feasted on it (Thali cost – INR 80). As we continued on our journey post lunch, finally it started raining! At the flat plateau, some guys ahead of us were taking a different route and we followed them and it turned out to be a shorter route saving at least 15-20 mins of walk – just walk along the flat plateau, keeping to the left.

We were lucky to get a tum-tum and didn’t have to wait for the ST.

A nice trip, a beautiful memory!!

Some useful information:

Morning train timings to Karjat: http://www.greenkarjat.com/2008/06/karjat-train-time-table.html
Bus timings from Karjat East to Ambivali : 8:30 am (first bus - not much frequency of buses). Alternate mode of transport is a tum-tum. Buses from Ambivali are at 2:30 pm and 5:30 pm, so plan accordingly if you are to take the bus
Places to eat: Karjat, Peth (the base village). You will get some tidbits en-route.
History of Kothligad: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kothaligad