PRABALGAD TREK

Place : PrabalGad
Location: Near panvel
Elevation : 2300 ft
category (Difficulty): medium-
Total Member: 4
Best Time: Rainy/Winter season
Date: 2 july2011, saturday

We wanted to explore the beauty of monsoons with Prabalgad, hence we  planned trek to Prabalgad. Four of us prepared for the trek, Our journey started from vikhroli, we caught a train from Vikhroli to Kurla but unfortunately this train was only for train staff and we started off with a nice punishment of paying a good fine. We then caught the 6.15 train from kurla towards Panvel. Train was not so crowded, we all got seats. We discussed if we would manage both Kalavantin+Prabalgad or only prabalgad etc.

We reached Panvel Raiway station at about 7.05AM from where we went to Panvel ST depot.
We reached at 7.15AM to Panvel ST depot where we came to know that bus from Panvel to Thakurwadi had left already and actual bus time was 7.00 AM, next bus was 8.50AM.
We had 2 option, either wait or look for alternate transport. After bargaining with the auto-driver, he got ready to drive us to Thakurwadi (17KM)  in 200/- while the bus, fare was just 10/- per head. This is again fine for latecomers.

We caught auto at 7.30 n reached Thakurwadi at 8.00AM. after some photo session we moved towards PRABAL-machi. It took 2 hours to reached Prabalmachi n reached at 10.30 AM. way to prabal-machi is quite scenic.

While going towards PrabalMachi..

 While on the move towards PrabalMachi, we had taken a wrong turn but fortunately a farmer was just ahead on this wrong route guided us to correct route.

We found a big rock where we all did photoshoot on the rock. On the top of that rock it feels just like a King.

By now we were very hungry, again fortunately a villager was returning from PrabalMachi after his prays. He distributed “PRASAD” to all of us. We smiled, gleaming at each other on how someone could know that we were hungry.

 On the way we saw idols of Lord Ganesh and Hanuman carved out of the rocks.. During this way, there was no rain at all, wether was a little sunny. We saw small homes of villagers & we breath a sigh of relief as we saw some people sincethere was no other group trekking up with us & we had never attempted Prabalgad before.

At PrabalMachi..

As we reached PrabalMachi at 10.30AM., we noticed ZP(Zilha parishad) school. We just couldn’t imagine a school at such remote place.

We got food service at GOMA’s house, (only this house provides food on this plateau. We had carried Maggie with us, which we gave to cook as our breakfast. After finishing it, we left GOMA’s house at 11.15AM.

GOMA showed the initial route towards Prabalgad, afterwards we continued with our own route. The area surrounded by Prabalgad is a dense forest. Once again we went on a wrong turn, n walk about one hour to search the entry point to Prabalgad. After abt an hour walking on wrong route, we met one granny like lady (fortunately for us, otherwise this area is humanless), she was praying in the dense forest. This Granny told that we r on the wrong route, we thanked her n turned around in search of correct route.

While going from PrabalMachi to Prabalgad..

We carried Binoculars with us n were searching the path from where we should start climbing. The Route was hidden in the Fort’s wall like structure. Finally we got correct entry point at 12.15PM. Once you are on correct entry point, then there is no problem for climb. Route is little steep for climb, occupied with all small and  big  rocks. Some tricky rocks also there, where we enjoyed climbing joyfully.

On the top

We reached on the top at 1.30PM. Top of Prabalgad is a  forest. Don’t expect some manmade fort. It is totally natural. After reaching top, we took a left, as we wanted to go to the northen end from where we could see the Kalavantin Fort. It took us 20 mins and much effort to reach the northern end of the Prabalgad fort.

Northern end is quite open to the sky, from where we can see ranges of  Mountains including Matheran, Vikatgad. We did lots of photography on the top. We started descending at 2.45PM.

Our rate of descent was quite good, n we reached (with our hungry stomachs) at GOMA’s house at 4.00PM.

We had lunch @ GOMA’s house. Lunch include Rice+Dal+ POTATO bhaji n it cost us 70/- per head. After lunch we took 15 min. rest n afterwards we left GOMA’s house at 5.00

From PrabalMachi to Thakurwadi à Panvel

We moved towards Thakurwadi at 5.00PM from GOMA’s house. This time we were a little fast as we wanted to catch the 6.00pm bus. We reached Thakurwadi at 6.15 and we saw our bus just enter into Thakurwadi from Panvel (lucky for us). Thakurwadi to panvel took half an hour. We were able to reached Panvel Railway station at 7.00PM. We did not get any rain on the full trek

ST timings that we knew :

From Panvel to Thakurwadi = 7.00AM, 8.50AM
From Thakurwadi to Panvel = 6.00PM, 7.15AM, 8.00PM Last bus

Timing diagram:

Panvel Station :7.15AM

Panvel to Thakurwadi:7.30 to 8.00AM

Thakurwadi to PrabalMachi: 8.15AM to 10.30AM

PrabalMachi to PrabalGad: 12.15 to 1.30PM

PrabalGad to PrabalMachi: 2.45 to 4.00PM

PrabalMachi to Thakurwadi: 5.00 to 6.15PM

Thakurwadi to Panvel ST depot: 6.15 to 6.45 PM

Panvel Railway: @ 7.00PM

Actually our plan was to climb both kalavantin n Prabalgad but due to time constraints we only went  for PrabalGad, and we were also not able to explore the southern end of prabalgad.

It is advisable to go with people who know the route to prabalgad, or take a guide from Prabalmachi. 

Participants:

Sachin B.

Michael R.

Pragdutt G.

Abhijit K.

My First TREK : HarishChandra Gad(Unforgettable)

I was planning to write blog for my 1st trek. n here i got opportunity to do this.

Lear group had planned trek on  27 May'2011 Friday.
We left office at 6.00 P.M. n reached at Kalyan on 7.30 PM by office bus.
We had some snacks n biryani at Prashant house (heartly Thanks to prashant ).
We left Prashant house at 9.00 PM and reached Kalyan ST depot.We did some time pass at Kalyan ST depot as Kedar Tambe n Dinesh were going to come. (latecomers)
We caught bus at 12.30AM i.e last bus or we can say 1^st bus of the next day, bus from Kalyan-Nagar.
Khubi-Phata is d stop where we alighted. we reached there around 3.00 AM (morning)
Khubi-phata is 90KM away from Kalyan n ticket fare is around 85RS.

Khireshwar is d base village which is 4KM away from Khubi-phata

Khireshwar Village

it took us 1 hour to reach d base of d fort. we reached the village at 4.00AM. There were small typical villagers’ houses, in front of these houses we put bedsheets (nothing but newspaper) n took rest for 2 hour.
We started climbing the fort at 6.30 n our 1st point was TOLAR khind (9.00 AM)

Tolar Khind

steep



 We managed to check-in into some of the caves where we took rest, n then started preparing Lunch (all time fav. food ) i.e. maggie.

Santosh Tea

Harishchandra temple

We also made tea at 4.00PM. (Don’t need to carry any twigs/burring material for making fire, Coz Vivek was carrying firewoods with him n we found firewoods on the top)n then we moved towards Kokan kada on 5.00 PM n reached there around 5.25PM

camp fire

tent on the rent

We arranged some material for camp fire.

then we started the camp fire, then we ordered dinner from TUKARM (who is a villager living at d fort.

Tukaram was goin to come at 8.30 but he came at 10.15, till then my condition had got very bad due to hunger. (So for breakfast we back calculated .. and told him to come much earlier … considering his reputation)We played a game “horror Stories” around the camp fire, where each person was telling a Horror story when suddenly we heard some odd terrifying sound…. A Kodak Moment .. worth capturing our horrified faces….

Finally we consoled ourselves saying that it was some animal (wild goat or Shekru)that was making such a noise

We slept at 12.00AM, that means on next day.

Tukaram came on Sunday morning getting Poha n tea along with him.
After breakfast we started our climbing down from d Konkan Kada
12.00pm START from top at 3.00 we reached base village n then some delicious food at Aishrya hotel (after an hours wait): DAL ,khichdi, maggie

n  luckily we hitch-hiked a truck at 5.00 PM towards khubi-phata
on reaching khubi-phata we didn’t get any transport towards kalyan hence we took a bus in the opposite direction and reached AALIPHATA (40KM) at abt 6.30, from Aaliphata we got a Nagar-kalyan bus( at7.30) n reached kalyan on 11.00 PM

This was my 1st trek in which i experienced rock patch climb, camp fire. It was really superb experience.




Trek-members

                                                                                                                                                                Vivek Dalvi                       

Abhishek Bavkar       

Kedar Tambe

Dinesh Badkas

Sourav

Santosh Kandarkar

Rasmiranjan Nayak

Abhijit Khadtare

Lohgad Trek

Trek: Lohgad
Location: Malivali, near Lonavala
Elevation : 3450ft
category (Difficulty): Easy
Total Member: 21
Route: Dadar to Lonavala
Best Time: Rainy/Winter season

We recently went for a trek to Lohgad . It was just superb.
Lohgad trek (Near Lonavala, Malivali )

How to reach ?
We caught Indrayni express from dadar (5.51) which departed on time (fortunately). We were 21 people for trek.
We alighted at lonavala and caught the local train towards pune which is on 8.15. Malavali is just next station to lonavala.
at 8.25 we were at Malivali.
We had some snacks (IDLI ) and we moved towards base village of Lohgad which is BHAJE village.
There is a direct road to BHAJE village, In rainy season it is little muddy at some places otherwise
you can go by vehicle to BHAJE village. We preferred walking. It took us 2 hours to reach BHAJE village (9.15 to 11.15).
During travel towards BHAJE village, we came across the beautiful rains 3-4 times. We placed the order in BHAJE village for lunch in advance.

From Base to the top, it took us near about 30-40 min. During this journey, we came across different DARWAJA
like Ganesh darwaja,Hanuman darwaja,Narayan darwaja, Maha darwaja. we encountered monkeys too on the fort.
on the top of the fort, there is a Dargah & a shiva temple. We actually saw WaterUpFall..hehe
I mean it was a waterfall but due to wind, its water flying upward.

Afterwords we moved towards Vinchu Kata the most fascinating part of the fort.It took us 20 min. from Dargah.
Vinchu kata is just awesome.after spending much time on Vinchu kata we started moving down at 2.00PM.

We reached at Base village at 4.00PM, where we had lunch It was too good.
Also planned for Bhaje caves but due to time constraints we skipped the plan as we wanted to catch train from malivali to lonavla at 5.40 as the next train was too late.

We were goin to Dadar by indrayni express which arrives Lonavla at 7.25PM.
We took enough rest at Lonavla plaform as most of the people were in pain.
Train was on time & we reached dadar at 9.45.

Lohgad Info

Top view

VinchuKata

                                                   

A nice article by Swami Vivekananda….

A nice article by Swami Vivekananda….

I once had a friend who grew to be very close to me. Once when we were sitting at the edge of a swimming pool, she filled the palm of her hand with some water and held it before me, and said this:

“You see this water carefully contained on my hand? It symbolizes Love.”

This was how I saw it:

As long as you keep your hand caringly open and allow it to remain there, it will always be there. However, if you attempt to close your fingers round it and try to posses it, it will spill through the first cracks it find. This is the greatest mistake that people do when they meet love…they try to posses it, they demand, they expect… and just like the water spilling out of your hand, love will retrieve from you. For love is meant to be free, you cannot change its nature. If there are people you love, allow them to be free beings.

Give and don’t expect.
Advise, but don’t order.
Ask, but never demand.

It might sound simple, but it is a lesson that may take a lifetime to truly practice. It is the secret to true love. To truly practice it, you must sincerely feel no expectations from those who you love, and yet an unconditional caring.” Passing thought… Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take; but by the moments that take our breath away…..

My 1st blog

Hiiii to all,

This is my 1st blog,
I hope i'll add content frequntly.