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.