Harishchandragad via Nalichi Wat and Junnar Darwaja

Yet another long weekend we started planning world tour as usual and ended up deciding to trek instead J

From sinhgad to siddhagad , from alang madan kulang to sandhan valley ,from probable camping sites to virgin beaches in konkan , we had everything on planning papers but like a current ruling government we end up doing nothing written on the planning paper.

Another last minute plan to join offbeat sahyadri gang for Harishchandra gad trek , our last experiences with harshichndragad when few drunkards hijacked our caves and deprived us from natural beauty and peace meant hearts filled with doubts but ascend via “nalichi wat” and descend via never heard” junnar darwaja “ was mind changing. Thus we ended calling zeenath for last minute booking.

Harishchandragad is one of the most trekked forts in Maharashtra. Very soon , unfortunately its becoming a top rated picnic spot for alcohol lovers but the fort is big enough to accommodate all kinds of people . While alcohol addicts prefer route from pachnali which is a small one hour ascend, trekkers are always in search of new difficult routes .Nalichiwat if not most difficult but certainly is one of the difficult routes.

“Nali” in Marathi means a pipe or a narrow waterfall route. Boarded a train to kalyan on Friday evening, zeenath had the vehicles booked to take us to bailpada base village. Reached bailpada at about 1PM and went for a walk in nice cold night, village is amazingly clean and well maintained.

After finishing early morning open air chores and breakfast group of 20 was ready for ascend. Mahesh Subhedar , age 40+ had done this trek 22 years ago told zeenath that they were not able to find the route last time , zeenath “you should have asked laxman (local villager) to guide you” , we had to remind zeenath that laxman was not born 22 years back :P  .At age of 40+ and after 22 years Mahesh’s zeal hadn’t reduced and his energy was embarrassing many youngsters .

Bailpada village provides 360 view of many forts in malshej region , ajoba , naneghat , bhairavgad,jivdhan are some of them . started ascend at about 9:30 am and the route looked nothing but the rock path with konkan kada looking at us all times …”konkan kada ” is a natural rock wall , a concave fall of 900meters.

Group started swiftly but continuous ascend through rocks was slowing them dow , rising sun was soaking their energy rapidly . Reached first rock patch at about 11:30, for rahul , experienced rock climber it was a cake walk .Me , vikram , kedar go-ga-te were also able to cross it without perspiring more but we had to lay rope for others and help them cross the patch.  After some struggle and few bruises others were able to cross is comfortably as well. Me , kedar and vikram went ahead and crossed the second rock patch without much difficulty , third rock patch required rope . Few more hours of ascend and we were on harishchandragad plateau. Few meters more hike and a 30ft rock patch and we were on konkan kada plateau . Konkankada is a mesmerizing place with a cold wind blowing from behind sometimes so strong that a small pebble dropped from the clif , flies back to top.

We were sitting on top of konkan kada feeling like maharajas overlooking their reign and rest of group was way behind …perfect time to treat ourselves with cold buttermilk and dahi.

We had to book the cave and didn’t wanted any citizens of “Bhavda Republic” to gatecrash so had to leave from konkan kada. Few minutes more and we reached harishchandra fort cave. Simple but heavy lunch of bhakri-pithla and sleep is what we needed the most. Cold cave and comforts of sleeping back and we dozed of quickly.

Group reached cave at about 4pm , went back to konkan kada to view a spectacular sunset .Sitting on the top we were overlooking konkan and the forts surrounding it . this is the region from where marathas ruled and held mughals at bay . Britishers were fortunat , Maratha kings , the peshwas were not staying in this hill forts during their reign  else they would have found swimming back to London easier than capturing any of these forts.

 It has started to get cold now which called for a camp fire , few started singing scary bollywood songs . We decided to capture star trails instead and set my camera to capture photos of 30 sec exposure for an hour . Google sky map helped us spot  few stars and we were amazed how clear the sky looked . A small group of 5-6 people from Durgraj prathisthan pune was sharing their trekking experiences , some of them were first timers and looked spell bound , we appreciated their thinking for forts conservation. After an hour or so went back to the cav , warmed our selves near the camp fire and dozed off again.

Started our descend at about 9 Am and small route circling balekilla takes you to junnar darwaja route ,exposed route and a sudden descend via a waterfall route . Instructions were clear to the group , put your cameras inside , concentrate hard , one wrong step and vultures would be feeding on your body , mobiles inside no facebooking . Route is full of scree, which really slowed down the descend , zeenath was leading and soon found the dead end , “where is the route ?? oh shit we took a wrong route , get back guys we need to get back” , zeenath not missing the route means incomplete trek J

Few hours more and we had descended down to the base on khireshwar side we had to take walk to reach khubi village. Zeenath arranged a jeep …20 people in a single jeep 15 inside and 5  outside hanging to the doors and windows J and few tourist passing by got a chance to take out their cameras “my next facebook status” was written all over their face.

Misal , Vada-pav and cutting tea with the group and trek ends …adios amigos till the next trek.

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