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.