Ghodnandand - - Khadsamble Caves-Nandand
Tamhini region near pune is full of unknown and unexplored routes , Ninad found out two such routes while playing with wikimapia and we decided to explore them.
We left pune early morning , plan was to descend Naan dand ( dand : Marathi for ledge ) and ascend via Ghodnan Dand and visit kahdsamble buddhist caves in between , we reached ekalgaon which is about 80kms from pune , we barged into the village while it was still asleep , we had to wait for the village to wake up and ask if we can get a guide from the village.
We did not have to search much and a young man ( lahu kadam ) agreed to show us the routes for a promised sum of 700rs.
With ghangad at our back , tailbaila to our right we started our way towards Naandand opening , first half hour was a flat walk to reach kivne plateau.
We reached kivne village and we saw our young guide asking for Naandand directions , he was trying to convince us that instead of choosing these difficult routes we should consider easier Naalichi Vaat , but we were adamant on where we had to go and he had to give up. We did ask him if he really knows the route and to our surprise he didnt. Fortunately , Ninad had already mapped the locations on his GPS and that came to our help from this point onward , we were not sure if the lahu was our guide or we were guiding him to the route.
Opening for Naandand is to the right of kivne plateau , we were able to find it using GPS , the opening leads into a thicket the descend is steep but through the forest which makes it safe and pretty.
Within 1 hour we were able to descend Naandand and we were looking at dhangarwada at the base , route for Ghodnandand was to the left of dhangarwada , lahu asserted that he knows the route.
unfortunately lahu did not know the route and we had to depend on GPS , weaker GPS signals meant we did miss our route few times but finally managed to find khadsamble caves.
Khadsamble caves are age old buddhist caves , in old days these caves must have been a large colony of buddhist monks , today they stand neglected and are resting place for trekkers.
The caves were quite and peaceful , the only thing disturbing the silence was lahu's continuously ringing mobile phone , he seemed to be a really busy man , no wonder people in his village call him MLA , but we were not here to listen to his conversations hence Ninad had to ask him to keep quite and let us relax for a while.
As per mapped GPS route nandand wasn't far away and we could afford to take a power nap. Lahu once again assured us that he knows the route and we will be on kivne plateau in less than 2 hours.
The other reason people from his village called him MLA , like all politicians he was a liar , he was unable to find the route , GPS was back to the rescue , after searching for almost an hour we were able to find what looked like to the probable Ghodnandand. The jungle was extremely beautiful , one place was full of butterflies too beautiful for the cameras to capture .
We started our ascend , we were able to cover ground quickly and top was reachable but we were not sure if the route till top is clear or if there are any obstacles. We received unexpected surprise , a stone wall on the final plateau , we had to clear this wall to reach the top else descend back and find other route which could have costed us a lot of time and we had to get out of the jungle before dark.
Foolishly i decided to take on the wall and started climbing , lahu came to my help and together we were able to cover the rock patch but it was too risky , meanwhile others were able to get around and had found the route to the top. I made a mistake of taking hasty decision of climbing stone wall , which could have proved costly , Lahu found joy in what we were able to achieve , but i know how costly it could have been.
After almost 1 hour steep climb we did reach the top and kivne was just few kms walk away. We ascended another small hump and reached kivne plateau.
Ekalgaon was now a flat walk away , we enjoyed the sunset and were back to the village by dawn.
We left pune early morning , plan was to descend Naan dand ( dand : Marathi for ledge ) and ascend via Ghodnan Dand and visit kahdsamble buddhist caves in between , we reached ekalgaon which is about 80kms from pune , we barged into the village while it was still asleep , we had to wait for the village to wake up and ask if we can get a guide from the village.
We did not have to search much and a young man ( lahu kadam ) agreed to show us the routes for a promised sum of 700rs.
With ghangad at our back , tailbaila to our right we started our way towards Naandand opening , first half hour was a flat walk to reach kivne plateau.
We reached kivne village and we saw our young guide asking for Naandand directions , he was trying to convince us that instead of choosing these difficult routes we should consider easier Naalichi Vaat , but we were adamant on where we had to go and he had to give up. We did ask him if he really knows the route and to our surprise he didnt. Fortunately , Ninad had already mapped the locations on his GPS and that came to our help from this point onward , we were not sure if the lahu was our guide or we were guiding him to the route.
Opening for Naandand is to the right of kivne plateau , we were able to find it using GPS , the opening leads into a thicket the descend is steep but through the forest which makes it safe and pretty.
Within 1 hour we were able to descend Naandand and we were looking at dhangarwada at the base , route for Ghodnandand was to the left of dhangarwada , lahu asserted that he knows the route.
unfortunately lahu did not know the route and we had to depend on GPS , weaker GPS signals meant we did miss our route few times but finally managed to find khadsamble caves.
Khadsamble caves are age old buddhist caves , in old days these caves must have been a large colony of buddhist monks , today they stand neglected and are resting place for trekkers.
The caves were quite and peaceful , the only thing disturbing the silence was lahu's continuously ringing mobile phone , he seemed to be a really busy man , no wonder people in his village call him MLA , but we were not here to listen to his conversations hence Ninad had to ask him to keep quite and let us relax for a while.
As per mapped GPS route nandand wasn't far away and we could afford to take a power nap. Lahu once again assured us that he knows the route and we will be on kivne plateau in less than 2 hours.
The other reason people from his village called him MLA , like all politicians he was a liar , he was unable to find the route , GPS was back to the rescue , after searching for almost an hour we were able to find what looked like to the probable Ghodnandand. The jungle was extremely beautiful , one place was full of butterflies too beautiful for the cameras to capture .
We started our ascend , we were able to cover ground quickly and top was reachable but we were not sure if the route till top is clear or if there are any obstacles. We received unexpected surprise , a stone wall on the final plateau , we had to clear this wall to reach the top else descend back and find other route which could have costed us a lot of time and we had to get out of the jungle before dark.
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| rock wall |
Foolishly i decided to take on the wall and started climbing , lahu came to my help and together we were able to cover the rock patch but it was too risky , meanwhile others were able to get around and had found the route to the top. I made a mistake of taking hasty decision of climbing stone wall , which could have proved costly , Lahu found joy in what we were able to achieve , but i know how costly it could have been.
After almost 1 hour steep climb we did reach the top and kivne was just few kms walk away. We ascended another small hump and reached kivne plateau.
Ekalgaon was now a flat walk away , we enjoyed the sunset and were back to the village by dawn.
केदार, लेखन आवडले. तुमचे इतर काही लेखही वाचले. तुम्हाला लिहिण्याची सुंदर शैली अवगत आहे. त्याबद्दल अभिनंदन.
ReplyDeleteमी जितेंद्रचे लेखही वाचत असतो. त्याचेही सुंदर, आणि माहितीपर लेखन आहे.
एक चांगली गोष्ट टाकता येईल.
तुमच्या एका ट्रेक मध्ये तुम्ही जिपिएस चा चांगला वापर केलेला दिसत आहे. पण नक्की कुठून कुठे चढाई-उतराई केली, त्याच्या संदर्भातील उपग्रहाच्या इमेजेस, त्यावर रस्ता आणि खुणा दाखवून, त्याच्या प्रमाणानुसार कुठे खडा चढ आहे ते मांडता येऊ शकते. चालण्याच्या दिशा, वाटेतील खाणाखुणा आणि एका ठिकाणाहून दुसर्या ठिकाणी चालायचे अंतर व लागलेला वेळ हे नमूद करता येऊ शकेल.
(हलकेच घ्या ;) )
Lahu is a real character .Unlike other villagers i have come-across the years ,he seems to be a very big liar.I suggest anyone who visits Ghangad or Ekole please find some other villagers place to eat and sleep and do not ever go to this house. He will try to extract more money than what was decided by telling lies .
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