Kothaligad

Kothaligad Trek (Peth cha Killa)

Date : 11-Jul-2010

Cast : Nilesh Bagwe, Yogesh Limaye, Santosh Keskar, Mayur, Shreenath Kini (guest appearance)

The planning began when I couldn’t get wifey’s approval 🙂 for a Lohagad trek on Saturday with another group. Had to complete some assigned work 🙁 which would free me up only on Sunday.
But I am not someone to give up on a possible trek .. so we (myself, Yogesh, Santosh and Mayur) planned a trek to Peth fort instead.

Mayur, who is from Pune advised us against Lohagad since it would be too crowded on a Sunday and the scanty rainfall in those areas would mean not much greenery. He had already been to Peth more than once and so Peth it had to be ! ..

I was to catch the 06:10 Karjat local from Mulund, with Santosh getting in at Thane and later Yogesh and Mayur at Ambernath and Badlapur respectively. I set an alarm on my mobile phone for 04:45, but it royally ditched me on the morning of the trek and I was totally lost in dreams when my dad kicked me awake @ 05:40. Given that I needed atleast a 10-15 minute buffer to reach Mulund station + buy tickets, the 06:10 local seemed as impossible as Katrina marrying me … but then Flexcube implementors are used to such timelines 😛
A super-sonic sequence later (bath + breakfast + getting ready + rick) I was at Mulund station @ 06:10 and the train was yet to arrive :). I had already asked Santosh to buy my tickets and even then had enough time to buy tickets for myself.

Half an hour later all of us were on board in the planned compartment. The train wasn’t much crowded, as I guess, people had already left on Saturday to make most of the weekend.
We reached Karjat station at 08:00 and after a short tea break and Santosh’s search for Maggi Pichkoo (which was impossible to find in Karjat), we took a TumTum/Dukkar/6-seater rickshaw to the TumTum Stand.

To reach the fort, one needs to reach Ambivli village by ST bus or by TumTum. As we didn’t know the timings for the bus, we asked one of the TumTum guys how much he would charge. As soon as he said Rs 400,
Mayur had almost virtually slapped him back saying “We aren’t asking to buy your TumTum”. Ultimately we settled for a break journey using multiple TumTums.
Station to Stand           (Rs  5 per seat) –  2 mins
Stand   to Kadav   village (Rs 10 per seat) – 20 mins
Kadav   to Kashele village (Rs 10 per seat) – 20 mins
Kashele to Ambivli village (Rs 10 per seat) – 20 mins
[ST bus would have cost us Rs 25 per seat]
These TumTums, though 6-seater, the drivers somehow manage to cram in 11 passengers. So, if you are in a larger group of say 8-10, the Rs 400 charge would work out a bit convenient.
Would also like to add here that there is an alternate route from Neral Station, where you can directly reach Kashele/Ambivli.

We finally managed to reach Ambivli village at 09:00 and stopped for a short tea break at the hotel just at the junction. This is also a good place to have pre-ordered lunch, but would suggest not to have poha here (there’s a better place which I will state later 🙂 ).
Here we met one of our office colleagues Shreenath who had come with his group of 10 from Lalbaug. They had hired the TumTum for Rs 400 and also arranged a pick-up in the evening.
After the customary Hi-Bye we set off for the trek.

The trek to Kothaligad (also known as Peth Fort) consists of 3 parts
– The climb from Ambivli village on a consistent gradient to reach a plateau which gives the first glimpse of Peth.
– The walk along the plateau to reach Peth village at the foothills of Kothaligad.
– The vertical climb to reach the caves and pinnacle.

Glimpse of the same taken from Google Earth is shown below

After a short climb and an unsuccessful attempt at taking a shortcut (Yogesh to be blamed for this), it started raining and we stopped near what looked like a good, but difficult to access, waterfall. After some hesitation we decided against going there
and carried on with the climb once the rain subsided. We continued the uphill trek with intermittent breaks and showers to reach the plateau at around 10:30 . It was very foggy when we reached there, but once the weather cleared, we could see the first glimpse of the fort and the amazing panoramic view of the foothills and Sahyadri ranges. The pics below should be able to describe this to some extent.

Glimpses of the fort as the weather cleared

Panoramic view from the plateau

We had an extended photo session here. The other groups had also caught up with us by then. After spending almost half an hour out here, we set off to reach Peth village. This is a normal walk along the plateau and can be completed in 15 mins.
On reaching Peth village, we almost missed the left turn towards the fort, but were ably guided by one of the locals. This path leads to the fort via rice fields and one has to climb over a make-shift barricade of a small tree-trunk to enter.

View of fort from Peth village

Minutes later we were in the heart of the village in front of a Hibiscus tree in full bloom. Honestly, I have never seen this size of a hibiscus tree ( I thought it used to be a plant/shrub) with such huge flowers.
The route to the fort begins from behind this tree and narrows down gradually.

Hibiscus Tree and Flower

Hereon it was a near vertical climb across narrow paths, and tiny rock-cut steps. The entire hill was covered in clouds, so we could not see anything below. After a strenuous one hour climb we reached the top of the fort, where the walls are still visible. The entire route has some helpful arrowmarks to
guide first timers.

Climb to the top and foggy valley below

On th top, just below the finger-like pinnacle, there is a huge rock-cut cave, which also has an inner cave that houses fruit-bats. The outer cave is used by trekkers for overnight stay and also for resting purposes.

Cave on top
There is a small family here which provides lemon juice, tea as refreshments.
Just outside this cave is a Bhairavnath temple, besides which begin the rock-cut steps inside the finger-like pinnacle, which leads to the topmost portion of the fort. These steps are so huge, that they make one wonder how tall were the people who built/used these.

Steps to the fingerlike pinnacle

Some patches of these steps are a bit risky and one has to be vary careful, especially at the topmost end where
one drop can bring you down to Peth village in no time … and with no bones 😛 .

View of Peth village from the peak

It was almost 13:00 and raining as well when we took a break for lunch. Actually it was a forced one by Mayur, who couldn’t stand his hunger-pangs and just opened his bag of parathas holding an umbrella in the other hand.
Soon Yogesh got his lunch out and Santosh also dug out a dabba of freshly made pudina chutney. All in all the combination was mind-blowingly tasty and the way we had it – standing in a circle with an umbrella overhead, grabbing at anything edible – made it more special.
Myself and Mayur then decided to rest there for a while, and Santosh with Yogesh set out to explore the top further.
Minutes later Yogesh returned screaming “Camera de laukar … Saap Saap” … and ran away with the camera. They had found a green tree snake nestled amongst a banana tree. Umpteen snaps later, we decided it was time to climb down.

The journey down was a funny one for me and Yogesh as our legs began to involuntarily vibrate 🙂 … and were more shaky than usual. However, it was a safe one and we reached Peth village by 14:00.
We decided to have a short break here for some water and buy some home made Khoa. There is a small hotel here named Bhairavnath which serves food as well as arranges for overnight stay. The poha we had here was delicious. The thali’s had by another group looked equally tasty 🙂 …
There was a heavy downpour for some time and once it subsided, we set off for our walk back to Ambivli.

We took two short halts on the way, one to watch some amazing waterfalls due to the rains and the another for tasting the wine Yogesh had brought along from Turkey. The after-effects of the wine were so awesome that none of us (except the teetotaller Santosh) realised when we reached the base. The pain in our legs was non-existent .. It actually seemed as if our legs were non-existent 😛 .. !

Waterfalls on the way back
It was 17:00 by the time we reached Ambivli village. There is just one ST back to Karjat from here at 17:30. The other option is the TumTum. We managed to get the ST and an hour later were at the Karjat station boarding the 18:40 local back to Mumbai to be home by 20:30.
End of a budget (total kharcha Rs 150 per head 😀) – yet exciting day of trekking, the after-effects of which would show on our legs for atleast 3 days later 🙁 … waiting for the next monsoon trek of 2010.

Jai Maharashtra !

Map Location

[googlemaps https://maps.google.co.in/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Karjat,+Maharashtra&aq=0&oq=karjat&sll=19.265521,73.173313&sspn=0.024672,0.038581&t=h&g=Ambivli,+Maharashtra&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Karjat,+Raigad,+Maharashtra&ll=18.992225,73.513019&spn=0.003551,0.00456&z=17&output=embed&w=425&h=350]