Kothaligad - Peth

This trek will be remembered for atleast 2 reasons - 1) I went for it directly after doing night shift. 2) We climbed the fort twice - the second one in record time(obviously on same day).

27th June - Saturday

I purposefully left late from office so as not to disturb Shrikanths sleep. But as I was on the way to his home - got a call about whr was I? He was standing at his door to Welcome me at around 4:30 a.m - a very warm welcome indeed.Took a nap till he got ready and left for Khadki when Ashutosh arrived; picked Amrita on the way.

Our train Singhagad Express was at 6:20 and we reached early by 6:00.Me n Shrikanth had a tea by the time. As we boarded the train found that Abhijeet n Pragnya missing. Glad to know that they had missed the train since got up late n will be coming by S.T directly to Karjat.. (Later on it went too bad). We reached Karjat in 2 hours (Bus stand is just 10 mins rom Railway Station) and then we boarded for Jamkhed S.T which left us at Ambivli which is base to start for Peth. Whole journey I was sleeping (quite obvious after night shift). We reached Ambivli in around 45 mins. There we waited for Abhijeet n Pragya but came to know that they landed somwhr else(seems Amboli) and will be joining at Peth.

So, we started our walk for Peth - its a proper pathway but a climb (sort of ghat). We explored the way a lot by trying each n every shortcut that was visible. The path was very boring to walk so it did helped. Oops forgot to mention the team - me, Shrikanth,Rahul,Kajal,Trupti,Abhilasha,Bhavna,Ashutoshand Amrita. Uwraj n Swarnika were lagging behind so as to make calls(n/w might not be available on top) with Abhijeet n Pragya supposed to be joining at peth.We did break at a plateau from whr a awesome view of Kothaligad was visible. We exchanged lot of snaps meanwhile. It took sweet 2 hours to reach Peth village - thanks to the boring path n time pass public. By the time we received an SMS from Abhijeet that they had started for Mumbai ... after further investigation found out that they had gone too wrong to make it up.

Finally as we were near to the village it rained very heavily and we all literally welcomed the rain and just exclaimed - "Here starts our Monsoon Trek !" At the village we had a tea and did ordered for Lunch and poha as per need so that we can have it after cmn down. With a word from localite we started our journey towards Kothaligad - by the time Uwraj n our future lead Swarnika joined us. While climbing we didnt even recognised whr we went wrong. Instead of going round the hill we climbed it straight. At the top (not even base of the fort) we got stuck as it was a rocky patch and due to rain it was very difficult to climb. Ashutosh Uwraj n me tried from one side while Shrikanth n Rahul from other to find a way up... but it was a very dangerous one. SO we decided to stop then n there.We rested and ate a lot over there and came down with a major disappointment.

Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost .......

After coming down one of the village chap informed us that we might have gone a wrong way .. so Uwraj and Ashutosh imediately put forth a point to start again to which a poll was taken. Me, Shrikanth, Uwraj,Swarnika and Ashutosh took the challenge to complete the trek in stipulated deadline and catch the train (seats were booked) while rest of them directly went to catch the train afetr having snacks. We started at 2:00 and completed the climb injust 45 mins - thanks to our motivator and guide Swarnika ;-). She kept on chittering the whole up and down which really helped us a lot. Ya it did took a lot of us to kept her going up at a steady pace to reach the deadline. Just at the base there is a cave whr an old woman sells lime juice - after this much effort its really worth it. We drank 1 while goin up and 2 after cmn down- each of us. We reached the top and it was just awesome. You can see Bhimashankar , Padargad and more. The view which u get is just awesome.There we roamed around a bit, took some snaps on the edge.

We started our descend at around 3:20 and reached base at 4:00. We had our lunch hurriedly and started our march downward towards Ambivli. We reached just in time before the last bus departure time around 5:30. While coming down lot of things happened. One that our faithful guide, our companion - The DOG accompanied us almost till bus-stop. If at the first time we would have followed him; we wouldnt have gone wrong way. Second due to rain my jeans got wet which made me very difficult to walk - also I changed it to 3/4 in the village but to my horror it didnt had strands :(. I really did hard to keep up the pace holding the pant in one hand and running.We did catched the bus and made in time for the train at Karjat. Tht means we did the difficult - in short We Won .Everybody else greeted the others while I was in such a diffiult situation that ran for my train. Luckily my Train to Mumbai- Koyna express arrived. I just jumped in it - didnt even bothered to buy ticket as the next train was 1.5 hrs later. Rest all went to Pune while I happily(cant explain my situation) went to my home. I reached by around 8:30.

So one more fort conquered. Next in is Kalsubai... wait for it.


Details:

Trek:1 day trek
Members: 11
Route: Karjat-Ambivali-Peth village base-Kothaligad.
Best season: Monsoon / Winter
Approximate Time : Karjat to Ambivalli - 45mins; Ambivalli to Peth village trek - 1 hr quick sprint; Peth base to Kothaligad peak - 1hr ( Subject to the climate )
Endurance: Medium
Difficulty: Easy-Medium ( Based on route chosen)
Bus timings: 08:30 am - Karjat bus stand to Ambivalli; 05:30pm - Ambivalli to Karjat
Train timings: Sinhagad Express : 06:00am ( Pune Station ) ; Deccan Queen : 06:30pm ( Karjat Station )

Important:
The transport is very infrequent as its remote village. The six-seaters are available at the max around 8:00 pm back from the village. The last S.T is at 5:30 p.m. But u can stay at village or in the caves if u want to night-out.

Sarasgad.

So,

This all started on Friday 20th June when it was decided to have 2 treks to same location. One on Sunday n one saturday. Obviously I was in Sunday voters.

21 June - Saturday

After lot of additions and deletions what I came up with was 6 people confirmed for Sunday's trek. So getting confirmation from all of them and details from Shrikanth of the Saturday's trek I slept at 11:30 with alarm set at 4.45 a.m.

22 June - Sunday

To my surprise I woke up at the first ring of alarm. Got ready n called Apeksha whether she was ready. (The group list was with her so had to get her :D). First call I got was from Jayraj - who reached by 6.20 and did enquired about the bus. The enquiry was lot easy as we had past experience from saturday group. After reaching Shivaji Nagar bus stand - called rest of them checking about their arrival and then went for a brkfast. When i finished my brkfast n came for bus I found that bus had arrived n all were sitting outside waiting for me n apeksha ;which resulted in we getting backseats (Thought - Allthe Best for a Roller Coaster ride). So finally we were 9 of us with 3 girls in group when only 1 was expected.The team went like this Me, Apeksha, Jayraj,Deepti,Manasa,Uwaraj,Ishwar,Ashutosh and Abhijeet joining later at Khopoli.

The bus started 10 mins early (at 6:50) and everybody was with their own conversations (with their frnds) as everybody was meeting others first time. Abhijeet - even though I told him to reach Khopoli by 8:30 reached there by 7:00 and kept bugging me about whr did we reach n how much time more will be required. The group got alive at Khopoli whn Abhijeet joined in at Khopoli at around 9:00. Discussions started about past treks which had happen with someone or the others absence.

Finally we reached Pali at 10:10. We immediately started our march towards Ganesh temple (Ballaleshwar - one of the eight auspicious Ganpati). I was very happy to start the monsoon season with Lord Ganesh's place. But soon we got a bit disheartened to find that as it was Sankashti there was lot rush to get Ganesh's blessings. So we had to skip the Ganapati Darshan so as to avoid delay in our plan. We then had our breakfast(quite heavy; the one which some of us regretted later) at a nearby hotel taking our own time. Abhijeet got bit nervous about the relaxation and pointed about the situation and insisted on racing towards the peak now as we are already late.I thought this will be a gud one for Girls.

After getting a word about the route from Shrikant(on call) and a localite we started our trek at 11:30. But with lot of enthusiasm and energy in all of us everybody started in their own way. Ishwar,Ashutosh and Uwaraj were way ahead right from start. Getting inspired by them we(Apeksha,Deepti n me) tried to take a shortcut and found ourself engrossed in bushes. But we did managed to get on a path(which wasnt right again). Soon we found out that we were on the side of mountains where the climate was too humid and hardly any breeze blowing. We got exhausted too soon. Deepti was the first to suffer and started feeling uneasiness in stomach. Manasa claimed it next. Finally on the first plateau of the hill we all got together.

We did rest for a while. Here we all got introduced properly with everyone - lots of jokes, snaps and comments were exchanged.

Then we started for the war - united - with instructions to us "Nobody will stop till we conquer the fort". And really nobody stopped until we reached a higher plateau(after that rock steps were to be climbed). The rocky steps and the patch above though simple was too exhaustive to climb and we clicked lot of snaps on the steps(which meant unofficial breaks ).

We reached the peak at 1:00 p.m. Did a survey of fort which is fully destroyed by time and other factors, took some interesting snaps. There is a small shiv mandir over there. Most of us prayed over there. Then after roaming around there we gathered under a tree hosted by "Ashutosh the *****". See the pic

and then choose a name. NOM for Ashutosh ;-). We had our lunch cum snacks. There were some other groups

too - some of who were surprised to see Ashutosh on the tree in such a pose while some praised about his heroic task. The menu for lunch included "Arabi" and paratha from Ishwar, Dairy milk from Jayraj and butter chakli from Manasa.

We started for descend at 2:00 p.m. A couple other groups also did start at same time causing traffic on some of tricky patches. We were lucky enough that they rested on the higher plateau just before the steps (they were really slowing us down). Then it was just a race down till the base.

To add spice to situation Jayraj got his leg sprained(just a bit) and Apeksha tried to imitate me over a unnecessary jump and fell. She got slightly hurt on the left hand palm and right knee. Thought better should have caught her ...... neways at that particular spot we rested for a while till all got together and then started again. We reached the base at 3:00 p.m. We tried lots of juices before going to bus stand - starting from plain lime juice to cocktail of lemon,aawla,tulsi,jaamun(dont know what we call it in english).

Our direct bus was at 4:00 p.m to pune so while waiting there we sorted out the expenses. As the bus came we tried to jump in it with around 50-60 odd people doing the same and managed to save seats for the girls(thanks to Ishwar). Rest all were enjoying the stand out journey. Except Uwaraj we all got a seat at Khopoli who finally sat at Lonavla. We reached Shivaji Nagarby around 7:40 p.m. We parted at around 7:40 p.m to our places. Except bit of chats everybody preferred to take nap while the journey back.

So finally ending a extremely planned and successfull trek. The end results were the usual ones - new frnds, a happy weekend and finally one more peak added in my and ya our list.

Statistics:

Members : 9
Difficulty : Low - just exhaustive thanks to humid climate.
Distance: Approx 115kms as per Shrikanth.
Route: Sivaji Nagar - Pali via Khopoli
Trek time : Upwards: 1.5hrs Downwards: 0.75hrs
Amount: 190/-- BF,Juice,Travel ( Pune <–> Pali )