I'm not bound by the corporate work week anymore. So when I decide to trek upto Kalsubai, 14-Jan is as good a day for me as any other! And fortunately, because it's a Sunday, I get Kavi's company. Kavi was scheduled to pick me up from Kopar Khairane at 0600 hrs, and she was right on time. Not much to prepare since it was a day trip. We had all the necessary arrangements done on the previous evening, and once I was in the car, all we had to do was drive up to the base village.
At 1640 meters, Kalsubai is the tallest peak in Maharashtra. At the peak is a small temple to the goddess Kalsubai, and a spectacular view of the surrounding areas! The prominent peaks that can be seen from Kalsubai are Madangadh, Kulang, Alang, Ghanchakkar, and Ratangadh. Also visible are Arthur lake (Bhandardara dam) to the south and Belae lake to the north.
Although there are a lot of tracks to get to the peak, the main trekking route starts in the village of Bari. To get there, drive on along NH-3 through Igatpuri upto Ghoti (12 kms from Igatpuri), and take the diversion to Sinnar / Sangamner. Just past the Belae lake which is visible on the left side, the road to Sangamner takes off to the right. The surefire way to not miss this turn is to keep following the signboards to Bhandardara. Bari is about 30 kms from Ghoti along this road.
Negotiating the life-threatening traffic and frustrating traffic jams of NH-3, we reached Bari at around 1100 hours and were promptly hijacked by a local chap waiting to make some money! It's always a good idea to pay a local to look after your vehicle while you are gone, but be circumspect on who you pick for the job. Some of these guys will try to fleece you while generally imposing on you and being a pain in the ass! Anyway, assured that the car is safe, we carried on along the track as directed by the local chap.
A little way on into the trek is the first landmark, a small temple with a courtyard. A nice place to rest (although you would not be tired enough yet!) and get some limbu paani. It's important to stock up on drinking water around here. Once you get a little further up, there's no drinking water available.
The track continues from behind the temple and goes pretty much straight up the mountain. This could be classified as an easy trek, except for a few steep sections. Some portions of the track are also loose stones and gravel making the climb slightly tricky. To aid the climber in the 3 steepest sections are metal ladders that look quite rickety to the eye, but rest assured, can support a reasonable sized human.
Enterprising locals sell limbu paani along the way. We stopped at 2 places to rest and soak in the scenery while sipping on the refreshing juice! Though the locals claimed that it was possible to get to the peak in 2 hours and 30 minutes, it took us a full 3 hours to get there (thanks to Kavi's bad shoes). It's been a year since I've been telling her to get better shoes, and considering that the shoes are finally coming in next week, we should be making another trip to see if she fares any better (Not that I expect a hugely improved performance! As they say in Hindi "Nach na jaane, aangan tedha!" :-p).
Fifteen minutes from the peak is a plateau, pretty spread out, and there's a well here with very cool water. On this plateau is a huge block of basaltic rock which rises up to form the peak of Kalsubai. After splashing ourselves with some water, we moved on to cover the final bit. The block of rock would need some pretty smart climbing if it were not for the ladder installed, and getting to the top is really simple business. 1415 hours we were at the temple.
After checking out the temple and soaking in the scenery, we took out our lunch pack (that's just a loaf of bread, some mint chutney, and a couple of apples). Lunch done, Kavi rested and took in the breeze while I referred to my hand drawn map to try and spot all the landmarks around (I did spot most of the peaks mentioned earlier in the post ... which speaks well for my spotting, as well as my map drawing abilities! :-)).
We did not have too much time as we wanted to get back home for dinner, so we started our walk back at 1500 hours. With the slippery paths, it took us longer than required to get down, but in 2 hours we reached our first landmark of the day - the temple behind the village. Our limbu paani seller's house was right next to the temple and we decided to take his invite for tea. We were served the usual sweet concoction that passes for tea in most of Maharashtra's rural areas (always wondered why they drink that stuff!!!!!), and after a small chat with our friendly hosts, we left to get the car.
It took us a bit to vasool our 20 rupees change from the missing car watcher's father, and it was 1800 hours when we finally started on our way back to Bombay. The sun had already gone down behind Kalsubai and the first half hour's drive was like a dream in pleasant twilight. Dreams seldom last very long though, and we hit NH-3 within the hour!!!
It was 2200 hours when I finally got off the car at Airoli bridge and said goodbye to Kavi. A good day's trekking done, I took a bus back home while the blue swift headed off home towards Worli ...
At 1640 meters, Kalsubai is the tallest peak in Maharashtra. At the peak is a small temple to the goddess Kalsubai, and a spectacular view of the surrounding areas! The prominent peaks that can be seen from Kalsubai are Madangadh, Kulang, Alang, Ghanchakkar, and Ratangadh. Also visible are Arthur lake (Bhandardara dam) to the south and Belae lake to the north.
Although there are a lot of tracks to get to the peak, the main trekking route starts in the village of Bari. To get there, drive on along NH-3 through Igatpuri upto Ghoti (12 kms from Igatpuri), and take the diversion to Sinnar / Sangamner. Just past the Belae lake which is visible on the left side, the road to Sangamner takes off to the right. The surefire way to not miss this turn is to keep following the signboards to Bhandardara. Bari is about 30 kms from Ghoti along this road.
Negotiating the life-threatening traffic and frustrating traffic jams of NH-3, we reached Bari at around 1100 hours and were promptly hijacked by a local chap waiting to make some money! It's always a good idea to pay a local to look after your vehicle while you are gone, but be circumspect on who you pick for the job. Some of these guys will try to fleece you while generally imposing on you and being a pain in the ass! Anyway, assured that the car is safe, we carried on along the track as directed by the local chap.
A little way on into the trek is the first landmark, a small temple with a courtyard. A nice place to rest (although you would not be tired enough yet!) and get some limbu paani. It's important to stock up on drinking water around here. Once you get a little further up, there's no drinking water available.
The track continues from behind the temple and goes pretty much straight up the mountain. This could be classified as an easy trek, except for a few steep sections. Some portions of the track are also loose stones and gravel making the climb slightly tricky. To aid the climber in the 3 steepest sections are metal ladders that look quite rickety to the eye, but rest assured, can support a reasonable sized human.
Enterprising locals sell limbu paani along the way. We stopped at 2 places to rest and soak in the scenery while sipping on the refreshing juice! Though the locals claimed that it was possible to get to the peak in 2 hours and 30 minutes, it took us a full 3 hours to get there (thanks to Kavi's bad shoes). It's been a year since I've been telling her to get better shoes, and considering that the shoes are finally coming in next week, we should be making another trip to see if she fares any better (Not that I expect a hugely improved performance! As they say in Hindi "Nach na jaane, aangan tedha!" :-p).
Fifteen minutes from the peak is a plateau, pretty spread out, and there's a well here with very cool water. On this plateau is a huge block of basaltic rock which rises up to form the peak of Kalsubai. After splashing ourselves with some water, we moved on to cover the final bit. The block of rock would need some pretty smart climbing if it were not for the ladder installed, and getting to the top is really simple business. 1415 hours we were at the temple.
After checking out the temple and soaking in the scenery, we took out our lunch pack (that's just a loaf of bread, some mint chutney, and a couple of apples). Lunch done, Kavi rested and took in the breeze while I referred to my hand drawn map to try and spot all the landmarks around (I did spot most of the peaks mentioned earlier in the post ... which speaks well for my spotting, as well as my map drawing abilities! :-)).
We did not have too much time as we wanted to get back home for dinner, so we started our walk back at 1500 hours. With the slippery paths, it took us longer than required to get down, but in 2 hours we reached our first landmark of the day - the temple behind the village. Our limbu paani seller's house was right next to the temple and we decided to take his invite for tea. We were served the usual sweet concoction that passes for tea in most of Maharashtra's rural areas (always wondered why they drink that stuff!!!!!), and after a small chat with our friendly hosts, we left to get the car.
It took us a bit to vasool our 20 rupees change from the missing car watcher's father, and it was 1800 hours when we finally started on our way back to Bombay. The sun had already gone down behind Kalsubai and the first half hour's drive was like a dream in pleasant twilight. Dreams seldom last very long though, and we hit NH-3 within the hour!!!
It was 2200 hours when I finally got off the car at Airoli bridge and said goodbye to Kavi. A good day's trekking done, I took a bus back home while the blue swift headed off home towards Worli ...
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