Anjaneri Trimbakeshwar Brahmagiri forts

I was hoping for Salher trek but from Mumbai,it was not possible because Ahmedabad train stops at stations namely Virar-Dahanu road-Valsad-Vapi-Surat-Bharuch-Baroda-Ahmedabad.
Earlier,it used to halt at Borivali also but now,its stations are reduced.
Now It does not halt at Billimora or Navsari hence it was not convinient because at the last moment,I didnt knew how to reach Salher from Valsad.
At Kalyan ST stand,I asked for Nasik bus and there was one bus at 5:30 am Dombivali-Jalgaon-Yawal which reaches Malegaon and further I will reach Satana and then Taharabad and then further to Vaghambe by changing buses
But sadly,this 5:30 am bus left Kalyan around 6:30 am and reached Nasik around 9:45 am


Now it was a decission time for me.Salher or some other destination???
I thought for a while that even if I get a 10:00 am bus to Satana,I will reach Satana around 12:30 pm amd further to Taharabad in 1 hour and further towards Waghambe was not sure because in morning around 8:00 am to 11:00 am,there are 2 buses from Satana/Malegaon to Unai going via Chinchali in Gujrat the base village for Salher
But I was not sure about the timing from Taharabad to Chinchali unless I reach Satana
The chances were that the whole trip may get spoiled because I was seeing myself reaching Salher base village around 4:00 pm and further climbing will take 3 hours
Hence I dropped it because I was supposed to reach Kalyan on same day and leave for Pune the next day.
Just 1 hour late makes too much difference.The whole plan gets disturbed.If this bus was according to time,I would have reached Slher base village around 12:00 pm which was my worst case scenario but still acceptable but reaching around 4:00 pm was definately not acceptable


Salher though very far from Pune but still very very convinient from here.
From Shivajinagar Pune,there are 3 ST buses between 7 and 9:00 pm to Satana and Nandurbar
the 8:00 pm bus to Nawapur from Shivajinagar Pune reaches Taharabad around 4:30 am in morning and thus,you can reach Salher base village by morning bus or by jeeps
From Taharabad,Salher is 21 kms
I decided that I will do approach Salher from Pune

And right from when I took the St bus to Nasik from Kalyan,I made 2 plans
If Salher plan fails,then I will make it to Anjaneri and Brahmagiri 2mighty forts in one day
It is also a tough one because though these places are well connected by buses still,you have to walk around 25 kms together and plus climbing 2 mountains having height around 1300 meters




Anjaneri the birth place of Hanuman the god of power

Anjaneri(1300 meters) is located near Trimbakeshwar around 25 kms from Nasik and 6 kms before Trimbakeshwar
There are buses from Nasik till Trimbakeshwar almost every 15 minutes and Anjaneri village is on the Nasik Trimbakeshwar road hence no problem in reaching this place
Also this place can be approached from Ghoti on Mumbai Nasik road hence you can bypass Nasik and reach Trimbakeshwar

From village Anjaneri,walk till the end of village,a motorable road goes up 4 kms till the regular steps.From here,you have to follow the steps to reach thePlateau
On Plateau,there is a temple of Anjani Mata,mother of Hanuman .From this temple,you have to walk further towards a small lake and there are two ways.
1)Through dense forests , if you take left from lake and walk approx 1 km,you reach an ashram and further caves which is supposed to be the birth place of Hanuman.Also there is a Datta mandir nearby
2) From the lake,if you follow the route of steps,the steps will lead till the top.The top is very vast and there is a small temple of Hanuman

From base village,Anjaneri is around 550 to 600 meters elevated almost equal to Torna
It takes around 45 minutes to 1 hour to reach the top and around 2 hours minimum to see this fort completely

From the top,you can view the complete Tansa Vaitarna valley and the Igatpuri region

History of Anjaneri fort
Anjaneri fort is even before Ramayana it was earlier known as "Rishi mukh Parvat" during the Ramayan time
This fort was not under Mughal or british rule but it is believed that the steps on fort was constructed by Peshwas

Further,I climbed down Anjaneri and reached village and I decided to walk on main road and take the bus if I see.Basically on this route,you can halt ST bus anywhere.I reached down to the main road and started walking towards Trimbakeshwar and 3 kms later,I met one person who is resident of Trimbakeshwar and climbed Anjaneri fort along with me Mr Chouhan.He dropped me on his bike till Trimbakeshwar.

Further I saw that there was too much rush at the Temple.Right from the ST stand,itself the queue for Temple started.It would take around 6 hours atleast hence I decided to first climb Brahmagiri and after that,if I get time,I will go to the temple

Brahmagiri(1298 meters)
It is west of Trimbakeshwar and this fort has offers commanding of the Jawhar Mokhada region of Thane district
Trimbakeshwar itself is a place of worship because it is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas

From Trimbakeshwar,through regular steps,I reached Ganga dwar and the Gorakshanath cave which was end of Trimbakeshwar
Now again while climbing down,there is a road going towards Brahmagiri towards right.
I followed this route and reached the carved steps in the rocks.The steps are very good even in recent.It was blown off by britishers in 1818 but later on, It was rebuilt somewhere before our country gained independence
From the base village,Brahmagiri is around 450 to 500 meters elevated

From base village,it takes 45 minutes to see Ganga dwar,the gorakshanath caves and 108 swayambhu Mahadev cave and in the halfway while descending,the road towards Brahmagiri takes you till the top in around 45 minutes and almost 2 hours to see the fort completely.There are 2 temples on this fort the place which is believed to be the Origin point of Godavari river.From here,the river flows till Ganga dwar and then towards Kushavart teerth in Trimbakeshwar village

I came back to Trimbakeshwar around 6:30 pm but I saw that it was not possible to make it to the temple because yet,the queue was too much.Still it would take atleast 4 hours

Hence I decided to move back again
There was a Trimbakeshwar-Mumbai Semi Luxury bus waiting on bus stand going via Nasik-Shahapur-Bhiwandi-Thane
The bus moved by around 7:15 pm and around 10:30 it reached Bhiwandi from where,I took an bus to Kalyan and reached Kalyan around 11:15 pm
Thus a long long marathon hike from Anjaneri till Trimbakeshwar commenced succesfully






Here are the photos
After getting down from Bus at Anjaneri village.The fort is not visible yet.You have to walk 2 kms on this road and after that the fort is visible



Anjaneri fort(Left side highest point) from Anjaneri village.There is 6 km motorable road till the steps


The route to Anjaneri(Actually the motorable road is 6 kms whereas by this route,your2 kms are saved)


Anjaneri fort coming in picture now






Steps to reach the top


Steps


Steep climb into a gully to reach the plateau


After reaching the Plateau



The temple of Anjani Mata,Mother of Hanuman on the Plateau(The mountain seen back is the topmost point and is the birth place of Hanuman)


Lake near the temple


The dense trees to the right of lake,there is a ashram and it is believed that during Ramayana,Sita met Anjani Mata at this place.This place is also called Sita Goofa
या  ठिकाणी जंगलातल्या आश्रमाजवळ रामरक्षा स्तोत्र म्हणून पहा तुम्हाला अगदी चालेंज वर सांगतो  वज्र हनुमान मारुती कोठेतरी इथेच असल्याचे वाटेल
इथे एक घटना अशी घडली कि तलावाच्या काठाने मी आश्रमाकडे  चाललो होतो चौफेर दाट अरण्य १.५ किलोमीटर ची जंगलातून वाट आणि असे झाले कि जंगलात  वाळलेल्या पानावरून चालतांना जो आवाज होई त्याने चरणारे १० ते १२ गाय म्हैस एकदम बिथरले आणि इकडे तिकडे पळू लागले आणि थोड्या वेळात एका ठिकाणी जमा झाले . २ ते ३ डझन माकडे त्यांना अजून बिथरवत  होती त्यामुळे १० ते १२ गाय म्हैस  २ ते ३ डझन माकडे इत्यादी सगळे एकदम माझ्यावर हल्ला करण्याचा तयारीत होते पण मनात रामाचे नाव घेत मी पुढे चाललो होतो आणि त्या आश्रमाजवळ राम रक्षा पठन करण्याचा माझा इरादा होता आणि म्हणून मी पुढे चालू लागलो आणि म्होरक्या असलेल्या  एका गाय च्या कपाळाला  हात लावला आणि मग सगळे शांत झाले .गाय म्हैस आपलाल्या काहीही धोका नाही असे समजून आपापल्या कामाला मार्गी झाल्या आणि आपले मनसुबे काही यशस्वी होणार नाहीत हे जाणून माकडांनी आपला मोर्चा इतरत्र वळवला  आणि थोड्या वेळात आश्रमाजवळ पोहोचलो
या आश्रमात काही साधू शांततेत तप करत होते . त्यांना व्यत्यय नको म्हणून मी फोटो सुद्धा काढला नाही कारण कॅमेरा ची क्लिक सुद्धा शांतता भंग करत होती त्यामुळे तप मध्ये बाधा नको म्हणून मी आश्रमाबाहेर आलो, bag मधून राम रक्षा चे पुस्तक काढले bag आश्रमाबाहेर ठेवली आणि एका झाडाखाली रामरक्षा वाचू लागलो (पाच वेळा)
खाली तलावाच्या उजव्या बाजूला जे दिसते ते दाट जंगलात हा आश्रम आहे आणि तप करणारे साधू येथे राहतात

                                            While climbing Anjaneri top

                                               View of Sita Goofa while climbing Anjaneri
येथे दाट झाडीतून ऋषीमुख पर्वताकडे रस्ता जातो असे मानले जाते कि सीता माता आणि अंजनी माता यांची भेट रामायण काळात येथे झाली होती

                                      Temple of Hanuman on top of Anjaneri

                                         A small cave on Anjaneri

Trimbakeshwar

                                       Brahmagiri fort seen from Trimbakeshwar(You have to go to extreme right of this mountain for Gorakshanath guha and then after coming down,in halfway,you have to take right and climb the top of Brahmagiri hence it is also an exhausting climb)

                                      
                                          Ganga Dwar while climbing Brahmagiri

               108 Swayambhu Mahadev caves.Gautam rishi did his tapasya here to bring Godavari on earth)

                                   Way to Brahmagiri all along the steps carved in rocks

                                         I Reached the entrance door

                                          After first entrance dor,steps are more and more steep

                                       Second and final door of Brahmagiri

                                      After climbing from the second door

                                        Scene from Brahmagiri top.Harihar fort and Fani dongar near Jawhar Mokhada

                            A view of Vaitarna dam the  major water supplier to Mumbai

                                          Trimbakeshwar from the top of Brahmagiri

                                       Brahmagiri and Anjaneri (seen far away)

While coming towards Pune from Murbad-Karjat road

For trek Enthusiasts,here are some snaps of Siddhagad-Bhimashankar area on Karjat-Murbad road.I am just showing snaps of how this area looks,well if any plan to go to Bhimashankar,let me know.I have a plan from Karjat route.But before that,see the photos and decide whoever wants to come.

 From Left to right View of Ahupe ghat-> Damdamia-Siddhagad(The front high projection) and Bhimashankar(Extreme right)

A broader view of Bhimashankar from Kashele near Karjat on Murbad road.The lrightmost part is Bhimashankar and the long plateau is Ghonemal which is extended till Ahupe ghat