Siddhagad : Thrilling , Mesmerizing and Refreshing

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                                        Siddhagad : Thrilling , Mesmerizing and Refreshing 


The monsoon has already arrived ..first the laddakh trip and then temporary relocation to mumbai kept us away from trekking .  But when monsoon reached its peak it is almost impossible to resist the temptation of treeking ...so one fine day i screwed up my project committments and decided to join my friends for siddhagad trek.

Siddhagad complets the famous troica in the Murbad region along with Gorakhgad and Macchindragad . Gorakhgad is first to greet you on reaching the base village Narivali , just 20 kms from Murbad (50 kms from kalyan) .

ST buses operate with a good frequency from kalyan to murbad and then till gorakhgad and it takes less than 2 hrs to reach narivali from kalyan.
It wasnt raining much in mumbai or pune that day , we even fancied going back to lonavla or lohgad as the region was getting heavy rainfall , rainfall on the way to narivalli did help us change our opinions.

At about 12AM started from narivalli towards the fort , one of the villagers agreed to guide us till the half way . Narivali is a small but extremly beautiful village surrounded by rice fields and small water streams.

Gorakhgad

The path lead us through beautiful rice fields with Gorakhgad in the backdrop ...we were completely taken aback by sheer beauty of that place ....rice fields , water streams and rainfall ... recipe of a perfect trek.Crossing water streams , some time waist deep was a great fun



and then came a beautiful river ..we almost decided to cancel the trek and do nothing but to pass time bathing in cold river ...but the beauty of  siddhagad was too tempting,  we moved on.


the canvas was changing now ..rice fields were replaced by dense forests ...water falls and streams were still  keeping our company .

Realisation of the term "Chullu bhar pani main doob marna

Natural beauty by this time has hypnotised us so much that we decided to skip the regular route and follow the water stream instead ..which soon converged into a small river ...no way back now , we had to cross it and it also looked pretty small and harmless.


i volunteered and crossed the river and went ahead to have look at the route ahead ...it was extremely slippery but i was able to cross it after few falls in nice cold water which i didnt mind much :) ... signalled rest of the gang to follow me ... i decide to take a ride in river and let my self off  in what looked like a small and harmless slide ...mistake ...i  underestimated the flow and the depth of the pot hole ....slide from top ...streight into the hole ... it was hardly 8-9 ft deep ..but the flow of water was so great it seized me their itself ...i tried coming out of it ...but it kept pulling me in ...surrounding rocks were too slippery and i wasnt able to hold any . Called my friend sachin for help ..it took him some 2-3 minutes to reach me ..by the time water has soaked all my energy .Tried stretching my legs between the opposite ends of rocks ...this helped , gave me some breather time and sachin was able to pull me out


the river and the small pond

now i know the exact meaning and feeling of "Chullu bhar pani main doob marna " :)

Pond tested waterproofing capability of my Xperia active and my bag ...xperia passed the test ...bag didnt which meant i was left with no spare clothes.

After my near death experience we decided not to test the river any more and get back to our original route ...finding it back took some time.

suddenly in the dense forest me and dnyanesh heard sound of a wild boar and heard something coming towards us ...taking on a angry wild bore in a dense forest is not a great idea for sure ...we ran for cover ASAP ....waited for 2 minutes for the boar to come out ...nothing happened ..just then a langoor jumped out of nowhere and started making cries ...simillar to wild boar :P

reached the top after 2 hrs of steep climb , villagers told us to make a stay in a unused School building , few village boys were already staying their , they allowed us in only after making sure that we will pay them the rent.
villagers did provide us tea and food though for some exchange of money. We were advised not to climb the fort as it is too slippery and risky , we were told that even locals dont dare climbing the top in rainy season ...if locals cant do it there is no other way anyone else can do it ...we decided to start the descend the next morning.

Treated ourselves with hot maggi and boiled corns ..prepared on our portable stove




the descend was fast and easy ..and this time we did take a long halt at the river and immersed all our tiredness in it. And thus ended one of the most thrilling and memorable treks ...siddhagad is worth visiting and worth going back again and again

Agnishika : Insect with fiery colors



even swami's cant resist it :)

Team meeting


Trying to swim in knee deep water is not easy as it looks :)

Comments

  1. Sonik VelingkarAugust 22, 2012 at 12:31 AM

    Waah!! Chhaan! Good compilation of words and photos. Good work, mitra!

    ReplyDelete
  2. vaishali DolasAugust 27, 2012 at 12:55 AM

    1 number KD.. :) khup mast... :):)

    ReplyDelete

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