Trek: Kohoj

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.