Sunday, January 16, 2011

Chandragad To Arthur's Seat (Mahabaleshwar) किल्ले चंद्रगड ते आर्थर्स सीट (महाबळेश्वर)

The year 2010 was fantastic for us (Me, Chaitanya, Amar & Laxmikant). We have visited lot of forts. Now, for 2011, we were thinking of starting with bang and I suggested all to go for "Chandragad to Arthur's Seat" trek. Arthur's seat also known as "Madhimahal" in marathi. Finally we decided to went on 15th Jan 2011 Saturday night by last S.T bus from swargate to Poladpur. But Unfortunately, Amar was late while returning from the office and we missed that bus.

Finally, I suggested all to go by Cab. This time, Mayur also joined us for this trek. Mayur & me called up to several transport vendors for cab and finally i got success. We got one cab from my contact (a.k.a "Mama"). He is very nice person. Even though, we were 5 in numbers, he never complained us as it is indica. After lots of adjustments, we finally settled in our indica and move towards Poladpur via Mahabaleshwar.


To Approach Chandragad, one has to go towards Poladpur. Pune people can go to Poladpur via Mahabaleshwar and for Mumbai, it's via Mumbai-Goa highway. Just before, Poladpur, there is one diversion called "Kapade phata". From Kapade phata, one needs to go towards "Dhawale village" (base village of Chandragad).


After reaching in Ambenali ghat, Mama told us that, we can have some sleep somewhere. And we suddenly find one temple on road side. We had some sleep for 2 hours then I woke up to ask for Kapade phata, but no one is there near temple. Then suddenly i saw, in one of the home, nice marathi bhajan was playing. I went there, and the person in home told me proper direction of Kapade phata.


Then we started towards Kapade phata, soon we took diversion from Kapade phata and moved towards "Dhawale village". Before reaching Dhawale, we encountered "Umarath" village at 7:15 A.M. A village of brave warrior "Tanaji Malusare" & "Shelar Mama". We reached in Umarath. In Umarath, one person shows us "Tanaji Malusare Smarak".



Then he showed us sword & Patta from Shivaji Maharaj's era. That's lifetime exp for us. We held that sword & Patta. It was amazing exp.



Then villager told us that, there is one cave which can accommodate 100+ people. He showed us those cave from the base. We don't had enough time to go on that mountain and see that cave. So, we took the picture of that cave from base itself.
Then we proceeded towards Dhawale village. Dhawale village is one can say a "Dead-end" of the road and surrounded by mountains on all direction. Simply amazing.
We reached in Dhawale village. We hired guide (Ravi More, Pappu Kadam) for further route to Arthur's seat. One needs to hire a guide if you want to go towards Arthur's seat. If you are first-timer, then it's compulsory. The route is very much long, confusing, tiring.


Then we had tea in Ravi's house.



Without wasting any time, we started for climbing Chandragad around 8:50 A.M.
That's Chandragad.
While proceeding towards top, one will encounter "Om Namah Shivay" boards.
From this board, the route towards top bcomes steeper and steeper.

After climbing, we had took our first halt.

Then we proceeded towards last part of climbing. That was risky & quite exposed to valley.

After crossing this patch, one can go directly on top of the fort. After reaching on top, one can see Shivlinga & Nandi

From top of fort, Surrounding of Mahabaleshwar hills range looks awesome and dangerous too.
There are some water cisterns on valley side. But they are not approachable.



Again, we moved towards topmost of part of the fort. On the way, one can see small amount of fortification and one water cistern (Not for drinking)


Then we reached on western side of the fort. This is the main area from which one can see huge area in one blink. One can see "Nakhinda, Mangalgad, Makarandgad, Pratapgad.


Here, there is one water cistern, which holds pure & cold water.
We had our morning breakfast here and started decending Chandragad.

Now, to go towards Arthur's seat, one has to descend Chandragad half and there is one small diversion goes towards one Colony which descends directly up to the base of adjecent mountain. The way from this colony is through dense jungle.


After descending the col, one small way on the right side goes into the jungle and from here one has to face steep climb and then traverse the huge mountain in order to reach first milestone on the way "Bahirichi Ghumati"
Chandragad (Zoom-in) from Traverse.
After traverse, we reached near first milestone "Bahirichi Ghumati"
The way near "Bahirichi Ghumati" goes to "Jor village" and adjecent route goes to "Arthur's seat". On the way towards Arthur's Seat, we encountered second milestone "Jor-che-paani", a pair of water cistern which hold pure & cold water. We reached there. Filled our bottles. Had a lunch and rested for half an hour. It was around 3:30 P.M. when we reached here.

Our guide left us here and now we are proceeded towards further journey up to Arthur's seat on our own. We proceeded towards "Gadhwacha Maal" from there one can see first sight of "Arthur's seat".
 Chandragad on the way towards Gadhwacha Maal.
We reached on Gadhavacha Maal. From here, we were able to see Arthur's seat.



Then we slowly walking on the ridge parallel to arthur's seat and finally we encountered final small rock-patch. We climbed that patch successfully and reached on Arthur's seat point.






Mama, also present there with his indica at parking. People present on point cheered us. Some people was staring at us like we are mad. We reached Arthur's sear parking.

Then, we proceeded towards Pune. Thanks to wonderful jugalbandi between Mayur & Laxmikant. Ultimately it was a wonderful trek of 9 hours.



You can find entire photos of this trek at
https://picasaweb.google.com/prasadpardeshi23/ChandragadToArthurSSeatMahabaleshwar#

Enjoy!!!!!

5 comments:

  1. Please provide your contact number, we want to do this trek this weekend...
    Purushottam thakar ,
    Pune

    ReplyDelete
  2. very good information...is it possible to go this trek in rainy season...?

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  3. do u have contact no. of ravi more and pappu kadam(guide)?

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Please share the guide's contact number if anybody has it.

    ReplyDelete