Irshalgad Trek

Whenever I used to pass the Karjat Highway I happen to see a peak with a hole kind of thing. I always wondered what peak is it and  will I be able to go there. One day while passing from there I checked with my fellow traveler and he told me it is called Irshalgad. 
Bas aur kya soch liya ki agla trek Irshalgad hi hoga 


Few days went by and these lines of Jagjit Singh kept playing in my mind ‎'tere bare main jab socha nahi tha... main tanha tha magar, itna nahi tha..'


Luckily for me I saw this event by uth-sut for trek to Irshalgad and quickly joined them.


 So Sunday we all met at Panvel Station.This time my daughter and my nephew also joined me.From Panvel station we all walked to the Panvel ST stand which is hardly 5 mins walk.Here we met other members of the trek and we had a small informal intro and chat.Rajesh our organiser (very simple and humble person) provided us with Vadapav and hot tea so that we all are well awake to do the trek.
We took 8.00 am bus to Chouk.The bus journey from Panvel ST stand to Chouk took around 35 minutes. It was here I was introduced to a very amicable member of trek Sarita Khare with whom I had a long and interesting talk about Himalayan trekking and in no time we reached Chouk.

Crossing railway line at Chouk Station

At Chouk Bus Stop itself we had a brief round of introduction and instruction. For those who want to go on this trek the first phase of this trek starts from behind the bus stop where there is Omkar Lodge and next to that Chouk Railway station. We crossed over to the other side of Railway Station by crossing the railway track (Not recommended but kya kare majboori hai , Railway line toh cross karna padega, Kyo ki bridge banaya hi nahi hai :-p )

Walking on the other side of railway line with Irshalgad  looking  very prominent background

once on the other side keep walking straight for around 5 to 10 minutes and you come at a point where the road splits into two directions you will see one road going to right which will take you to the Morbe Dam and one road goes straight which takes you to the village . I later came to know that this village is called Irshaalwadi.which is also the base village for this trek. one has to cross the entire village and in the end you come to a watertank from where we started our trek.

Deciding our route of the trek

 Standing at the start point of trek one can see Irshaalgad and the prominent  (nedha)  needle hole kind of mountain cut structure.

initial gentle climb

We all started our trek from here which was nice and easy, Shubhankar and Akshita both first time trekker was very happy (they were thinking trek aisa hi rahene wala hai...morning walk karte karte we will be at the top) but here they were in for a rude shock because suddenly the cool walk was abruptly got converted into a climb. 

Climb was getting little steep and heat was torturing us to no end

The path from here to machi is well marked . We all started to climb but as it was June month and rains playing truant the climate was horribly humid and hot.This initial climb was making  us feel tired and thirsty my daughter and my nephew been the youngest and total novice to trekking started feeling the heat more my nephew initially was panting very hard and was desperately looking for rest at every point.Many a time shouting Chachu Rest !! Rest !!

Chachu Break !!!

We kept taking micro breaks so that no one gets tired. One thing I want to mention here that the view during this climb was absolutely fabulous on the right side one can see lovely Morde Dam backwaters and on the left side you see beautiful mountain valley and the saving grace during the climb was the gentle cross breeze which provided the relief which we all were desperately seeking.This portion of climb took us around  30 minutes and we reached the Machi or small village at the foot hold of the mountain..

View of Irshaalgad from Machi

From the village one has to walk straight till you reach a small temple.Take left from the temple , standing at this point you can see the Irshalgad peak right in front of you on the right side.However one has to traverse from left to reach the top.

To reach the Top one has to traverse from left

We kept walking through the bushes and high dry grass. There were lots of Karvanda fruit plants on the way so half the time we were plucking Karvanda fruits and gobbled this sweet pleasure with complete disdain. 

Karvanda Fruits which almost took us offtrack

" Sab log karvande dhoondne aur khane me itne busy ho gaye ki raste ka kise ko dyan hi nahi ... so for few minutes we were struggling to find our way Rajesh,Pawan,and myself went ahead to check the route it was very thorny and the way was not clearly marked . We had to spend considerable time to find the way after spending 10-15 mins of climb we realised we are on  a wrong trail.  I can still vividly remember what a sight it was with  Pramod perched at the top of one stone patch and Pawan perched on another stone patch and both thinking ki ab to is ke peech top per jane ko rashta hai...and what I was seeing standing at a distance was that there were further climb ahead. anyhow Rajesh managed to bring them down and we all descended and came to a clearing.We knew that a right turn has to be taken from the clearing to reach the pinnacle but bloody yeh right turn lena kahan se hai yeh samaj me hi nahi aa raha tha...

Micro break 

Actually even after getting down and moving forward I realised that it looked quite different than the lst time when I had come. I told Rajesh it seems that we have overshot our detour to right but luckily for us we saw the wooden ladder at the top, so we decided to move toward it but yet could not find proper way

Even after losing the way everybody is busy with the photo session !!

 but  thankfully we saw a villager who helped us and led us to the proper trail which leads us to that wooden ladder.here we encountered few rock patches but the climb was smooth and thrilling. after climbing the wooden ladder and trekking a few distance we came across a water cistern( This is a potable water so fill up your bottles here as there is no drinkable water source at the Top) 

Guys fill up your water bottles here..last spot to fill up

With in few minutes we reached the nedha(needle). This Spot is called nedhe. It is a unique hole in the rock ,which resembles a lot like a needle hole . This spot soon got converted into a photo shoot session with everyone scrambling to get a good pose at the nedhe. The wind at the nedhe is mind-blowing.  Standing at the nedhe one can see the Irshalgad  Pinnacle, one has to climb into the nedhe and move to the other side and take left traverse to reach the pinnacle.There is a water cistern almost adjacent to the nedhe but the water is not potable.Traversing we reached the top in hardly 2 minutes.The view from top as usual was simply breathtaking.The beauty of this spot is that you over look the valley and Morbe Dam Water.

Lovely View  Morbe Back Water 

 The sight is beyond description.Sitting at the ledge and over looking this kind of scene I can only exclaim "Khao toh jano" kind of thing then only you will understand the pleasure.We all collected here and had a lunch which was nothing short of multi culture cuisine.

All set for the Multi cuisine lunch

 We all rested here for a while and now for all of us it was showtime.Akhir me neeche se lekar upar tak pure trek me Rajesh ka dimag ka raha tha ki upar ja kar Pinnacle climb karege...in fact I also ascertained that he was carrying the rope with him. Yes Showtime here was Pinnacle Climb,

Free climb of the Pinnacle for me

As Rajesh was carrying rope so he got busy making arrangement as usual the lead climber has to go up to fix the rope for the climb. I took my chance  and I was itching to climb so I didn't wait for the setup and took my chance by making the climb sans the rope.

Thankfully I reached the top safely. Later we helped all the members to climb up with the help of rope.

Add caption

I may sound repetitive but the truth is that the pleasure of sitting on the top of the mountain is something out of the world experience.In the meanwhile Pawan climbed up the second pinnacle which was a mistake because it took almost an hour to bring our Spiderman down from there.

Rescue mission to bring Pawan down

Abbe isko koi neeche utaro!!

Ab uttar ja pyare!! 

Finally the time to descend has come,but before that we gave Salami to the mountains and moved forward to the base. The return journey was quick and fast.

Our Team

Thanks to all my team mates and special thanks to Ameya Mulye without whose lovely pics this blog would have been incomplete

Gorakhgad Trek..a thrilling experience !!!

I can still remember very well .. It was my first trek to Karnala a year ago I overheard some one talking about this place called Gorakhgad and they had so many tales to narrate of this trek, its thrilling rock patch,ambience at the top and lovely Malshej Ghat range so since that day I always had this fascination that I too will go and do this trek but destiny has its way Jaana tha Gorakgad aur uske chakkar me pachhis doosre trek kar dale,  a year passed by and I still wasn't able to go to this place.But yesterday as I was chatting when by chance I told Anusha that Iam planning to go to Gorakhgad, she replied she too is doing the same so we thought why not let us go together. This is how this trek atlast happened for me

Sunday morning had its usual bout of excitement and I got ready quickly and dashed out of my house very early because the meeting time at Kalyan ST stand was at 6.30am and Mai Bechare :-(  stay in Andheri so I have to catch atleast 4.39 am train to go to Dadar  and from there catch Badlapur Local of 5.13am so that I be in time for my 6.30 rendezvous.I kept hopping trains and in between kept co-ordinating with Mayur who was to join me in this local. At Kurla Station Mayur along with his friend Pratik joined me, as we were meeting after a long time so we had lots of stories to share and perhaps this was the reason that we never realised how the time went by and we were at Kalyan station.

Our gang all assembled at Kalyan ST Stand

Surprisingly we were the first guys to arrive at Kalyan ST depot Aisa kyo hota hai hai ki door se aane wale hameesha waqt per hote hai...As Pratik and Mayur were hungry so they quickly had a idli dosa breakfast from a roadside vendor...aur kya kare subh 6.30 am kon sa hotel chalu hota hai...


By 7.30 everyone arrived and we took the bus to Murbad.Bus journey from Kalyan to Murbad took around 45 minutes thanks to some adventurous driving by the bus driver."Late hum hog hua per tension lagta hai driver ko thi humara sara time delay apni khatarnak driving se cover karne me laga tha" Each one of was swinging like clothes hung for drying on wire. It was here I got introduced to Ashu,Anjali,Chinmayee,(so thin creature that I was worried she will be blown away in all this swinging act)Gaurav,Shreyas,Rahul ,Yatin all fun loving fellows.Soon our Bus reached Murbad. Now actually we were suppose to move to Dehari from here hence we started to inquire for the ST bus or pvt jeep. we ultimately settled for the jeep. We spoke to few jeep drivers and  inquired the rates for jeep but the price quoted were just too high Sab jeep walo ne pagal bana diya koi bolta hai 1500 Rs toh koi bolta hai 800 Rs lekin trekker bhi toh dedh sanne hote hai na...we took local jeep to Mahsae village.12 ppl went in one jeep and other 5 in other jeep.

Arre yaaro head count toh le lo!!!

 Leaving Murbad we realised that we have not taken head count so we took head count and realised that we are one short..OMG !! kon rah gaya 2 bar wapas count kiya ...ab best part,...... hum log 17 log hi aaye the and we were trying to complete the count of 18ppl ...lolz and believe me this was the indication of the things to come on this trek. Complete craziness, Full of fun and frolic...to put it in right perceptive this trekking group was now total Madhouse...

Mahase Village 

We reached Mahase village within  15-20 min drive. Here we had our garam garam breakfast of Batatwada and Tea to top it.After fooling around for a while we went out to check the connecting jeep to Dahere village.

Photo session at Mahase Village

 Luckily for us one sumo jeep guys agreed to take us all for 350 bucks but with a condition that everyone will have to fit themselves in one jeep. We all jumped in with few guys wanting to hang outside the jeep local trains istyle  as inside the jeep was fully stuffed , however sanity prevailed and everyone adjusted themselves me and driver were sharing the same seat and this situation ensured that I sit in the fear of protecting myself from his vigorous shifting of gears.(Akir me uska hath kahi bhi lag sakta hai ..)

Ladies be ready for the bumpy ride with 17 ppl stuffed in one sumo Van....

Singing shouting and doing whatever possible to make us forget the present position we reached Dehere village. 

Beta itna muskuro mat baki log aakar tumhare upar hi bathane wale hai...Sumo Dhaba pack hone wala hai !!!

As we were approaching Dehere village we could clearly see Gorakhgad and Machindragad right in front of us.

First view of the Gorakhgad peak from our jeep

Once reaching the Village we assembled at the Village shop and told him that we would be having tea on our way back in the evening. and those who wanted to buy buicuits did so here. The reason I am mentioning this here is that don't worry if you forget anything the village has a shop so you can buy whatever you need here.

Village Shop from where you can buy dry snacks

The route to the Gorakhgad trek starts from behind the temple from the right hand side. We all assembled here had a introduction round and the fun was on with crazy photo session

Crazy Photo session

.We all started to climb the hill through the muddy way created by the cascading water. The climb from the very beginning is little steep and as there was no rains so we could feel the pressure of climb.There is thick vegetation but the route is easily identified. After walking for 15 -20 minutes one could see the village below surrounded by the lush green fields. 

View of Village surrounded by lush green fields

The climb for me in this trek was completely different experience because as there were no organiser so we used to take break whenever we wanted and that whenever was too often. 

Frequent photo breaks

The reason was not the fatigue but the frequent bout of photo session.and this whole craziness started just because Mayur was a game for photography clicking everyone all the time. "aur hamare trekker dost poore ustad koi ped pakad ke latak jata hai toh koi pattar per jakar baith jata tha...kasam se sab ke sab pagal hogaye the....I once felt ki yeh trek pura bi hoga kya."

Abbe pose marna band karo abhi bahut trek baki hai !!!

After trekking for sometime we reached a plateau.The climb from the first plateau to the next plateau is little tricky as there is lots of muddy section so one has to climb taking help of tree roots or branches.while walking through this portion one can see the lovely valley on the right side and towering Gorakhgad peak on the right side.

View of the top from Plateau

We move through lots of grassy section and almost through forest like area. the walk is gentle here and one reach a base of the hill.

Tango with Mayur

Gorakhgad ke trek ka aasli maza ab shru hota hai leaving behind the hut at the plateau we take left to start our climb here you come across stone cut steps.

Steep climb

The climb is nearly at 60 degree some 1st timer had a weird look on their faces as if to ask" are you crazy"  "are we suppose to climb that" But to be honest I was really surprised to note that all of them happily did the climb without fussing..

Climbing  with a smile

Hey guys I love you for that !!!

I saw a small cave painted in orange color entrance  at the top which I assumed to be top

And I thought Ki Top Aa Gaya Hai!!! LOLZ!!
(premature celebration)

 but upon reaching here I realised that this was not the Top but one has to go through this cave, climbing the rocky staircase inside and resume the climb further. By God yeh kya ho raha hai !!!

Rocky ladder from the cave

 Climbing out of this cave we come to a plain section the view from here is to die for...Ek nazar aur dil wahi rook jata hai...Everyone was happy that finally the climb is over and we have reached the top but I was told "Sirji thodo aur aage aap ko chalna hai"  so one more climb :-( ...I heard some one say Papaji ai khatam hi nahi hoonda(I hope you remember Maruti ad of Sardar Kid) 

Beautiful view of malshej valley

Atlast we almost reached the top, the pinnacle of the Gorakgad was standing right in front of us. We take a  left turn from the pinnacle and see a amall temple cut into the pinnacle and a water tank just ahead.as there was nothing much to see so we came back and moved towards the right hand side of the pinnacle which took us to the big cave( big enough to hold 50 people atleast) adjacent to this cave are water tanks but the water is not potable.( advise to trekkers please carry atleast 3 ltrs water because water availability at the top is not reliable. 

Cave at the top with water tanks on the right

As many people has yet to reach the top so I stole this moment to sit in solitary and take in the beauty of nature. The 20 minutes sitting all alone by myself at the rock on the edge for me was one of the high point of this trek.

just stand and enjoy the beauty

The lush green valley in front of me,beautiful clouds enveloping the mountain range and the majestic Machindragad peak now what more  I can ask for on a lazy sunday. 

Machindragad peak

After this lovely sojourn I went to join everyone in the caves but what is this koi bi nahi tha udhar only trekking bags neatly stacked up I came out of the cave and saw rahul,gaurav and yatin napping on the stone!!! (Kamal hai trek per bi aakar log kaise neend nikal lete hai) outside the cave. I enquired with them as to where everyone has gone I was informed that they have gone behind the pinnacle to explore so I thought let them explore I will rest for a while now that the trek is over per yeh kya  I see Krishna coming from behind the  pinnacle and  He asks me aashish sir aap nahi aa rahe ho I said yaar ab bahut hoga I will rest akhir me top aa gaya na...he smiled and said sirji abhi picture baki hai...

We traverse from here to reach behind the pinnacle for the final summit to the topmost point of  Gorakhgad

I exclaimed What !! @#%&*. Yeh baat sunte hi  I was all alert like a soldier and followed him traversing from the right ,threading carefully along the water tank because one slip from here and you will be a lost dead body.

Stone cut stairs

Anyway once I reached behind the pinnacle I was surprised to see a very steep staircase carved in the stone pinnacle. Standing below one is left wondering as to how one will climb but what again surprise me to no end is the way the trekker attempt anything and manage to come winner. So taking the strength from the guys who were ahead of me I too started to climb threading carefully 

I was climbing very cautiously because a slip here and you are a lost dead body

 I finally managed to reach the final top I took a brief survey of the entire top plateau to ensure myself that no one drops another bomb and tell me sirjee abhi picture baki hai and one more climb. But thankfully this was indeed the final top. 

Show Time !!!                                                                                 Now take your pick of Spiderman,Superman or Batman

At the Top there is a small temple painted in orange with a lingi inside and nandi idol outside. Top being the pinnacle point is not very large so most of us was almost together. As usual we had photo session  and enjoyed the view from top. After spending sometime we decided to move down.

I must say this was one of the best trek I did and my co-trekkers were just awesome

If climbing up was scary getting down was doubly scary specially when you look down you don't see any support but the valley. People having height phobia must be very careful. Bhushan and Anusha managed very well here helping the people get down

You almost do not see anything under your feet but the Valley below !!! Scary!!!,Scary!!!

 I reached the bottom first because I knew while climbing this rock patch there is 7- 8 free hand rock climb and then the actual climb starts so naturally while getting down this could be trouble spot  so I helped the participant at getting down along with Bhushan. 

Helping friends to get down.

Everyone managed to come down safely.After coming down we sat in a circle had our lunch beating the world's greatest buffet with so much variety of dishes ranging from chapatis,theplas,omlettes.boiled egg,pickle,curd rice,stuffed sandwich,bread-butter,soyamilk, chocolate cake, till gud ladoo and upteem variety of farshan and Cadbury bar.It was indeed a lunch to remember !!!
We rested for a while and started the decend rumbling,tumbling we all reached the base temple at 3.30.

Finally at the Base village

Soon we all came to the village shop had lots of water and tea. We were told not to take jeep instead wait for the bus to Murbad. As there was  one hour for the bus to come so we waited under the village chowk in the meanwhile Anusha and Swapnali sneaked to nearby village park to have masti on swing , some of us moved around only to be confronted by a small snake , seeing gaurav holding the snake in his hand and shouting to mayur to take his pic fast before the snake bite him was really hilarious.The Minibus to murbad arrived we all jumped in to get the best place after all it was a hard and grueling day at the office.

Maaja and masti in Minibus!!!

The chit chatting went on and we soon reached Murbad from where we changed our bus to Kalyan.We reached Kalyan at 7.00pm at Kalyan station and took the local train back home. But just see the intensity of this small group that even after such grueling trek participants were busy making plans for a dinner feast at thane.Hats off to the energy of these kids and special thanks to Anusha and Krishna for initiating this outing.