Andharban - Lend Ghat

We have been visiting  Tamhini ghat more frequently this monsoon than other places , just 60kms from pune , tamhini offer some great monsoon trails , Andharban arguably most visited and know of them all ( thankfully on social media its the only know trail in tamhini).

                  We decided to leave on staturday early morning , Sundays are usually taken by large trekking groups and we wanted to avoid crowd , saturday we expected would be little less crowded. We started at around 5:30AM from pune ,reached pimpri at about 7 , the village has just started to wake up while we got ready for the trek. 

                   It wasnt raining , hovering clouds had managed to create quite a mystique surroundings

 

GPS tracking was started, route wasn’t unknown, in fact with hundreds or people turning in every weekend ,route has more of became a highway, but we have made it a ritual to track GPS anyways for future reference.

Trail starts from pimpri plateau and crosses through rice fields, farmers were busy their activities, it then leads towards kundalika valley, small waterfalls were constant companions.

We crossed few patches of forests but we know the actual andharban was yet to begin, 20 minutes into the trek and we were on the other end of pimpri plateau and we were in for a treat, kundalika valley’s first glimpse.

We crossed few streams, ogled at some massive waterfalls, marked few probable camping sites, “We will come back here when tourist season passes”

After some 40 minutes we entered andharban, as the name suggests a dense forest where light struggles to reach, dark forest. It’s not the densest forest we have seen, even around pune there are areas with thicker forest covering, but name has generated quite a curiosity and garbage in the surrounding so we would be happy not to disclose those locations. The forest is enjoyable nonetheless as it always is.

We even poked Nitin to reach hirdi and take other forest route to Gutke village, Nitin however was firm on his stand “we have to reach bhira and experience that ‘Sakav’ and do lend ghat” , so we marched on and in about 3-4 hrs we had descended into the kundalika river basin and able to see bhira power plant dam, we had to cross river to reach other side and bhira , that’s where “Sakav” would help us , it’s a makeshift bridge created by locals.

After some searching we finally reached the place where we could cross stream and sakav was in sight , just two metal beams nothing else , Kaustubh decided not to use it and crossed from the stream itself , we for the sake of experience gave it a try , the beams were really narrow hence you have to place on foot on each and while you move they would start shaking in opposite directions , great fun.

We were making a good time and we knew we had ample time and could afford a dip in the nearby ponds, cold water was relaxing.

View from Bhira dam wall was amazing , we inquired locals about lend ghat or other probable options , they suggested lend ghat as that would be the quickest way to reach dongarwadi , village about 10-15kms from pimpri where we had our car parked.

Lend ghat is a water pipeline for the power generation and a adjacent rail track used for its maintenance , this could probably be the most modern of all man made ghats in Maharashtra.

We began ascend from the tata power plant colony , we were informed that there would a police check post , someone there would guide us , we did not find anyone in that check post, we marched on crossed Lend pinnacle , ghat is named because of this pinnacle and now we were on the railway rails and steps near the pipelines , the gradient was scary   45-50 degrees probably.

We crossed through tunnels , steps were taking toll on our knees , the view behind however was soothing , after an hour and half we reached the top and were welcomed by few people who were sitting there chatting , one of them looked like a security official.

“Where are you coming from ? did no one told you this route is not for people outside power plant ? I can send you to jail and label you as terrorist, you know that ?” he started barking , clearly drunk , We told them that no one told us not to take this route in fact the security guard in cabin below showed us the route.

“Send these guys back to bhira” one idiot who was probably there just for the drinking session gave an idea, “Yeah sure, try climbing once you asshole, easy for you to say”

“Do you know Tata have secretly constructed this power plant , hidden from Pakistan , deliberately in these mountains , there are cameras everywhere , your footage might have reached chembur by now” person no 3 from drinking gang provided his piece of wisdom , “Yeah sure dude we can see this pipeline on google maps , unless google maps is banned in Pakistan ” we though , we decided to let it go and not to extend this any further , apologized for not knowing the protocols and finally they decided to let us go.

After a walk of around 1km we reached highway got the lift and reached pimpri and thus completed our secret trek, hidden from Pakistan J

NB:- its wise to not take lend ghat as its in Tata’s private property