Hatlot - Kond Naal - Hatlot

Like many other treks , planning for this began on the google earth, Our GPS expert Ninad Bartakke found near madhu-makrand fort , our trek encyclopedia , Dhamdhere kaka confirmed that this is "Komd Naal", based on this Ninad sketched out a map and the coordinates. The .gpx file can be then imported in My Tracks tool for the point to point navigation. Post good trekking shoes , google earth , wikimapia and the GPS tools have to be the most useful tools ever created for the trekkers.
                          It was decided that few of us would march ahead on saturday afternoon , visit madhu-makrand fort and enquire for the route and guide in the base village Hatlot .The married gang once they get the get pass from home ministry would reach there by sunday morning.
                          We started from pune on saturday afternoon and by the time we reached the base village it was dark hence visiting fort was instantly ruled out. No one in the village as well knew about the kond naal . Few claimed that it was a old route and hasn't been used since ages and hence we should not go there as it would be to risky. Hence with no guide for help we were left to trust our GPS map only.

                    
                       The weather in the Hatlot village was cold , in fact freezing cold at night ( as most of us found out  while sleeping in the corridor of the konkani house , the 10 degrees sleeping bag they were carrying , which are otherwise suitable for other regions in sahyadri were no match for the brutal cold). Villagers were warm and welcoming , we were served tasty food and given few rugs to keep ourselves warm ( trust me these local rugs are far better than the sleeping bags). The village is surrounded by the dense forest , Jawli forest as it is locally known. Sun rays find it hard to reach the ground even during the brightest of the days here , home to many leopards, this forest once served the stronghold of Marath's , even the large mughal army was once reduced to mere numbers here.
                         The married gang arrived by 2AM , none of us could sleep comfortably due to severe cold , it must be 5-6 degrees and wind was adding salt to the injuries.Morning tea provided the much needed warmth and we started our trek at 9AM.

Madhu-Makrand Fort from Hatlot Village

The group - Dattu , Shardul , Tushar, Tidke,Vidyasagar,Kaustub

                            This trek basically completes the revolution round madhu makrand fort , starts from hatlot and ends in hatlot. It took us about hour to reach the base of the fort. Route was through the forest canopy and has to be one of the most scenic forest trails and a great place for HDR photography , but when you are on such trek of the unknown route , photography is a luxury you cannot afford. I had left my camera back at the village itself , Ninad , who was carrying his DSLR for the first time to a trek enjoyed himself with few forest shots.

Xperia ZR clicks

                               After some rest and the quick bite we started towards the opening of Kond naal , while keeping fort to our right we kept moving in parallel with the ridge , the GPS map was serving well , after 40 minutes walk we reached the opening of the gorge and we were left awestruck by its massiveness , the gorge was full of Karvy plants and no animal must have gone in there since ages.

Kond Naal Opening

For a while we thought it would be madness to descend this gorge as because of the thicket it was impossible to gauge its height and the other dangers lying ahead , but we decided to march anyway.Ninad lead the way ( he had no other option :))after struggling for initial hour with the thicket and loose soil we managed to reach the waterfall route , rocks were better than the itchy plants.
                               Only after an hour or so the gorge opened up a bit and we had a full view of it , it was enormous. About 3000ft in length water route, but now we were confident that we can cover it. We did find secretions of leopards ( there are many in this region) , monkeys and even heard sounds of barking deers. The only natural element absent was water , surprising as it sounds as it is a water route , but the monsoons had ended a long time ago and on such heights and slopes its difficult for water not to flow down.
                               Two hours had ended and end was far from visible , but now small ponds have started to appear , much to our relief.We finally manged to reach the point from where complete valley ahead of us was visible and now we knew we were on the right track. We decided to have a rest and breakfast.
                               After a heavy breakfast of eggs, spinach paranths and dry fruits we felt  fresh and ready to go.But the never ending rocks had started to mentally drain us , laughter and jokes were our best mates.

                             Suddenly just when we were getting tired , mother nature decided to show us the glimpse of her beauty , fresh water ponds started appearing regularly and the water was so pure and tasty it was sufficient to charge us all over again. It was difficult to let go the thought of taking the dip in that water but we were short of time and knew we still had to cover the hatlot ghat , was likely to take 4 hours and by no means we wanted to spend the night here in this unforgiving forest.

                           After spending 4 hours in the gorge and what seemed like ages we reached the valley where slope was gradual , GPS map indicated the right turn from here and end our journey in beautiful but threatening Kond naal. GPS was accurate to the point or should i say Ninad was right in his map plotting , we took the right and after few minutes found a rapper of manikchand guthka ,instantly we knew this is the trail frequented by villagers and started towards hatlot via hatlot ghat. After some time we came across the villager who confirmed this notion. "2 hours it takes to reach hatlot from here " the villager said , that means 3 hours for us , we did the maths and started our ascend of the hatlot ghat.
                           The ascend is gradual but unending and lengthy. It is hard to ascend after the massive descend , it seems the descends are easier but they consume your energy without you knowing it  and ascend after it makes you aware of the same.
                              we were about to complete  2 hours of our ascend but the hatlot pass was still not visible, Shardul and Vidyasagar , the young guns of our team , who suffered knee pain during the descend , now had the fresh surge of the energy and were leading ,"did you reach ?" we would call "yes , almost there" they would shout , this went on for almost hour , as it turned out there were many false peaks ( you feel like to are there but not quite there yet). After 2 hours of treacherous ascend we finally managed to reach the pass , journey here on wards was believed to be gradual and easy descend to the hatlot village . The ascend was so draining , even Singh kaka started getting the cramps , this is unusual as singh kaka , even at this age is a marathon runner and on of the fittest. He and Dhamdhere kaka always makes us feel aged , their stamina and resolve is unmatched.

After some much needed rest and some HDR photography in the golden light we started the final stretch of our journey , it was supposed to take 2 more hours. As expected this was a leisure jungle walk with a gradual descend and it turned out that the distance is much lesser than we thought and reached the hatlot village in less than 40 minutes.
                    Now it was time for the villagers to be surprised "you are back ? so early ? even we don't reach before down " , more smiles to end the perfect trek .. we call it a injection trek to test your mental and physical toughness.

Ninad leading the way