Region: Palghar,Wada.
Difficulty : Medium
Endurance : Medium
Date:14 July2012
Story of 13 July2012.
It
was decided all of a sudden when one fine morning Siddhesh called me
& asked me that he wanted to go for trek. I suggested him options
like Songiri, Kohoj. We opted for Kohoj as the perfect destination. I
collected all the information from the internet. I also got a map for
tracking our journey to reach our destination (Thanks to Trekshitiz).
Kohoj fort is situated in the Wada road. It is on the right side of the
road while going from Wada to Manor or Mastan-Naka. There are lots of
buses available to go to Wada from Thane.Siddhesh & his office
colleagues (Dev,Raj,Himanshu and Prashant) were also ready for the
Kohoj trek. That’s why I decided to stay near to Thane as I was
convinced that Ajit would come for trek after lots of persistance. And
the total number of people for this trek trip was 7.
Story of 14 July2012.
Start Journey
We
all gathered at Thane ST stand at 6.15am. We got the ST bus at
6.30am(Thane-Wada-Boisar). As Kohoj is on the way of Thane-Wada-Boisar
route, we directly reached the base village of Kohoj at 9.00 am i.e.
Waghote. Once we enter the Waghote
village, one can easily notice the heart shaped pond on the right side.
Most of the villagers were busy in harvesting rice in their fields.
After the heart shaped pond, there are two routes ahead. Select
the right side route which will be going through the fields. Now we
wanted to go to visit the dam. We asked the villagers for the route. We
reached the dam @ 9.30 am. Ajit & Siddhesh took lots of pics of
each other (mutual understanding). On the river bank,there were 4-5
villagers fishing during that time. We asked one of the villagers to
come along with us with us to guide the way but he was busy in fishing
only. Then we moved further at the end of the dam, there was a small
hut, where there was only one old man living there. We asked for tea. He
was instantly ready to serve us tea. After we had done with our tea
break ,we left their house at 10.30am.
Entering in Jungle
We
had the map of Kohoj which clearly indicated that the we could climb
from its left end side as it was easier. So we started our journey
through the jungle. We found the marking enroute. We were happy but our
happiness did not exist for longer time as the marking got disappeard in
between. The jungle was densely thick & full of vegetation. We
somehow managed to travel towards left end side & again we could
find the markings, but only one marking was there. We tried almost
every route except the correct one because we were not aware. We decided
to try from the right side also. We moved parallel to the Kohoj
towards the right end side. The path was continuos & the jungle
going to be very dense & the mosquito bites started iritating us.
Please make sure if you planning for Kohoj trek, be prepared for
mosquito bites (use long sleeves shirt & tracks & also use
odomos). We were walking tirelessly through the jungle. We almost
finished half the pradakshina to Kohoj fort, then we found one villager
(gurakhi/cowherd) on the way. He directed us to move ahead & take the left
turn. We kept walking tirelessly, and further we could see the woodcutter (Lakudtoda) at 1300pm. He told us that we were in Aamgaon and there is
also route to climb and go to Kohoj. We asked him to help us and he
showed us the correct path as we started our trekking from Waghote
village where we were very tired.
He
had pity on us & came with us for half an hour. Then he left us
13:30pm because he had his own work to do. We were exhausted like
anything. We sat for breakfast at 13:30pm. Prashant brought Haldiram's
Bhelpuri which was just superb. We had finished having our breakfast
session at 14:00pm. We then moved further, climbing now a little steep
path. After the steep part, we took the right turn and we were on the
Kohoj fort right side end. But actually the bastion & stone man
pinacle is at the opposite end. We settled down on the plateau for
lunch at around 15:30pm.
Lunch time
We
brought all sandwich materials like bread, cucumber, cabbage, mayonise , tomatoes, onions etc. Our entire team was engaged in preparation of sandwiches.One person
started to apply mayonise on the bread. Others started to cut tomatoes
while some others started cutting onions,cucumber, etc. We had 2
mayonise bottles ,one is veg (garlic CHILLY) & other is non-veg
(cucumber). We made first batch of seven sandwiches. We ate
happily to our heart’s content but our happiness did not stay longer as
the mayonise (veg-Garlic Chilly) was too hotttt & spicyyyy that everybody
started crying, whooo whhhaa!!!!!. I guess this is the most enjoyable painful part
of the trek. Fortunately we had Tilgul ladoos which cooled our burning
stomaches. (you can watch video of how much spicy it was). We finished
our lunch session at 1600pm.
Atop
We
kept moving in the right direction & found the temple of God
Shankar and also we could see the stone man from the temple. We found
the proper marking there at 1700pm. Himasnu got cramp in his leg hence
he was unable to join further. We hurried towards the top of the
temple, climbing was easy and fully supported by marking. There were
steps to the top in between the two bastions. From the temple, it is not
clearly visible. But the route is quite walkable condition. On entering
between the 2 bastions on the right side there is Hanuman temple. Take
the right turn towards stone man pinacle. At the top, there is also one
more temple. So there were total 3 temples, but they were small in size.
On Kohoj atop,there was no such place where we could take shelter.
Views
from the top freshen our mind & expelled our tiredness. Indeed I
didn't want to go from that place so quickly, but considering the forest
route, we moved from atop at 6.00pm.
Descend
On
the descending journey, we encountered some trekker’s cautionary board.
On enroute Dev got cramp in his leg followed by Raj. In the morning
where we missed our route, we noticed our mistake. The correct route was
little hidden because of the thick forest & big stone overhead. But
you could find out as it is near one tall tree [it is hint for you].
We reached half way at 7.00pm. The sunlight was almost dim. We didn't have torch also.
We
were unable to find our way. As time goes on, the darkness was
increasing & our diffculties too. I realised that it could be
troublesome situation for us.
Fortunately
Himansu, Dev & Raj had torch options in their mobile. Something is
better than nothing. It was useless to keep thinking about the route.
It was now time to action. There were 2-3 paths going somewhere in the
thick vegetation. Confusion was building like storm. Everyone felt like
Man vs Wild. We did similar kind of thing to solve this confusion. We
found small water path going downwards. We decided to proceed alongwith
this water path way.
We
all 7 members jumping, running through this water path in darkness .
Dev, Himansu, Raj was doing gymnastic steps. At 7.40pm, we noticed some
marking location on stone & everyone became joyful as we were on the
correct path. At 08.00pm, we reached the hut near the dam. We cleared
the forest successfully with really great team effort. We were under the
clear sky with huge sigh of relief.
Aferwards
we discussed about whether to stay in that hut or to continue for
Waghote. Then the decision was taken that we should continue.
Journey from DAM to Waghote:
We
started at 08.15pm, by tracing the route, with the lights we somehow
managed to reach at 09.00pm. Since it was too dark & only heavy
vehicles were travelling on the highways. It was very difficult to get
transport till Palghar.At 10.30pm,we managed to get truck till Mastan
Naka. Mastan naka is the junction point on NH8 near to Palghar Railway
station. Everyone was badly hungry. Mastan hotel was famous for biryani.
We reached Mastan Naka at 11.15pm. We then went to Mastan hotel and
filled our empty stomaches. After finishing lunch, we again had to wait
at Mastan naka for lift. Luckily we got lift at 00:00AM till Palghar
in Tempo. The tempo driver seemed to be a pilot. But he landed us safely
at Palghar.
We
reached Palghar at 00.45am. We saw there was train from Palghar at
1.50am. Still we had time to take rest. Everyone was relaxed.
At 1.50am, we caught the train from Palghar which dropped me at Vasai at 2.50am.
Summary:
Eventhough
we were lost, but we able to find our way through the jungle
.Eventhough,we ate horrible spicy sandwich but still it was really
enjoyble and it was life time experience for all of us.
Keep trekking.
Timing Diagram:
6:30AM- caught ST bus from Thane (Thane-wada-boisar). (90/- per head)
09:00- Reached waghote.
10:00- Reached end of Dam, drunk tea. (40/-)
1030-Entered in jungle
17:00- Reached shankar mandir, near to ATOP
17:25- Reached Atop
18:00- Start Descen
20:00- Reached End of jungle I.e. near to DAM start
21:00- Reached Waghote, Main road
22:30- got lift till Mastan Naka (70/-)
23:15- Reached Mastan Naka
00:00- Got lift from Mastan Naka till Palghar (70/-)
00:45- Reached Palghar
0150: Caught Train from Palghar
0250: Reached Vasai station.
