On the Edge of Sahyadris: Karoli ghat trek experience

Karoli ghat Trek Experience

Though we didn’t do Kalsubai yet History created because. 3 deadly difficult treks done in 1 single day.It was more more difficult trek than what we have planned

From Pune,it started as usual.We reached Chinchwad around 6:00 am and we boarded Sinhagad express and reached Kalyan around 8:55 am.By a whisker,we missed the 9:04 am Kasara local but we got the next local around 9:32 am and we reached Asangaon till 10:10 am.We reached Shahapur in 15 minutes and one bus to Dolkhamb was ready to leave.We boarded that bus and in 45 minutes,we reached Dolkhamb.

From Dolkhamb,we can get jeep/bus to Chondhe/Dehne.We got a jeep till Dehne and we reached there till 12:15 pm

Dehne is the starting point of the trek .We wanted to go to Samrad and One local person in Dehne agreed to show us a way.

The route was very difficult .We walked into the thick forests.The route was adjoining the waterfall and below the Baan Lingi pinnacle of Ratangad.We kept on walking through the dense forests.Now finding the route was also difficult because the route was filled with dense bushes.At a first glance,nobody will accept that there is a route but we had to keep aside the bushes with our sticks and proceed.

After 3 hours of walking into the dense forest with humidity we reached below the Baan Lingi pinnacle of Ratangad.Further we started walking away from Baan Lingi with sometimes descending,sometimes climbing up and in more than 1 hour, we reached near a small waterfall.After that,we have to climb us very very steep through loose soil and almost 90 degrees.The soil was very loose that stones started rolling down as we were proceeding further.We covered this patch in 15 minutes.Now it was 4:30 pm and we were able to see a gap between Ratangad and Karoli mountain above a waterfall.

Now the local person accompanied with us wanted to depart back because according to him,it will be very dark to reach his place filled with wild animals hence he returned from here. We kept on walking further and within 30 minutes,we came upto a patch where we have to climb a rock.

After climbing that rock,when we moved ahead,the road was blocked with trees fallen and big rocks and there was no road ahead.The forest was very dense and hence we were not able to find the route and the route told to us by the local person was blocked.

In the dense trees,we were not able to find the route now.It was around 5:45 pm.In humid climate,we were dehydrated completely.We were 25 kms away from the base village and in around 15 to 30 minutes,it would be complete dark.Now what to do? Because the route from which we came from was not at all possible to descend.

We decided that we will descend down through a different route and reach below the waterfall and on beside the river,we will walk and at a suitable place,we will make our camp in the forest because now we cannot reach any village because visibility was decreasing very quickly.We reached below the waterfall in some 30 minutes

The dark night in a dense forest was very difficult.In our torch light and on an near amavasya day,it was difficult for us to walk ahead even few steps because we were dehydrated and till now,we have walked around 30 kms.We started walking into the river to avoid further dehydration.The water somewhere was less deep(few inches) and at some areas, it was around 2 to 3 feets.We walked and came to one point where there were big rocks in between a river.We decided to make our overnight stay here because this was safest point because it was away from dense trees,water flowing with force from all sides of rocks hence no fear of snakes and scorpions coming till us,also we were 30 feets away from dense trees hence wild pigs coming to drink water also couldn’t reach till us.

It was 7:00 pm and the forest was in full flow.We collected wood and grass to light fire in few minutes,we lightened fire now we were able to see various eyes in dark some 100 feets away from us and was difficult to trace but we were knowing that there are many animals coming out of the forests towards the waterfall.Now it was a big question in front of all.

Around 20 kms away from a village,and in between a dense forest with wild animals all nearby us,we were just thinking about that we have to spend 11 hours at this point in darkness.It was around 7:30 pm and we started chanting of RamRaksha stotra around the fire .Now the fire was in in full flow and our Ramraksha ended,suddenly we saw two torch lights in that forest near to us.We flashed our torches and those people started coming near to us. It was one miracle because during day time also nobody goes by this way and now it was dark night so we were eager to know who were they.

They came near to us .They were local tribals who came to catch crabs in river water because it was their tradition that Darsh Amavasya/Sarvapitri Amavasya,it is their tradition to offer crabs in name of their forefathers who are dead.There were two people accompanied with 2 dogs.They also went by same way before us and they also lost their way hence just like us,they also were descending by the waterfall way (Can you imagine that local tribal people who spent their life in these forests also lost their way so how much difficult the trek was)

It was a pair of uncle and nephew and they belonged to village Veloshi near to Sakurli and they told us that we can follow them till their village .It was 7:45 pm and we started to move on in a dark night on banks of a flowing river.To reach their village, we have to climb the whole Karoli mountain and reach the Karoli ghat route and descend it to reach their village Veloshi.Thus it was a big task in front of us because we have already walked 30 kms till now and we were tired,dehydrated and exhausted due to humidity and now we have to climb up around 700 meters from ground and again descend that much distance plus it was around 20 to 25 kms walk in dense forests at night

We started moving along with the flowing river and after 1 hour of walking,we came to a plain area with the river bed widened and water was not deep here but flowing with force. We had a break of 10 to 15 minutes to eat something.We took out khakras, rajgira ladoos etc and after that we crossed this river again(till now, we have crossed this river countlessly).After crossing the river, the steep climb started and the route was getting tougher.At one point,I lost my balance,my legs was entangled in a small stone and I fell down with my head banging on a big rock.

After an 1 to 1.5 hours of climbing, we reached a flat grassy mountain top of Karoli .Now we were able to see traces of many animals.The local person was just telling us to shut down our torches and observe the eyes of animals .based on glittering of eyes of animals,he was telling whether it was Leopard,Neel Gaay,Wild pig etc

We spotted places where leopard and wild pigs just passed nearby few minutes before.There were clear pugmarks of leopards,wild pigs and neel gay.Also we saw few traps laid down by hunters to catch wild pigs

Thus after walking till 11:30 pm we were reached Veloshi village which is inhabited by tribals consisting of 35 houses.After having our food,we just slept by watching the stary sky and we woke up around 6:00 am and after spending time with local people,we left village around 7:30 am to reach Veloshi Fata till 8:30 am.We took the 9:00 am bus to Shahapur and took train to Kalyan and further reached Karjat by local train and around 3:25 pm,we took the Karjat-Pune local to reach Chinchwad at 5:00 pm

This was one of the most difficult trek in Sahyadris and we wiped few impossible things in our trek

We did Sandhan valley crossing,we did Karoli ghat and we did Ratangad Baan Lingi route all these 3 difficult treks in one single day plus walking of around 55 kms in one day and around 6 kms walk on next day

We are extremely thankful to people of Veloshi because it was a strange miracle when we were caught in deep trouble and we didnt have any hope of rescuing ourselves till morning.

I dont have any words to express.

Nothing is Impossible, and Something is Possible and our efforts converted nothing to something

Our starting point of trek.Ajoba Parvat(Right)->Katrabai->Ratangad seen from Dehne village

The trek route

Ratangad pinnacle seen on our way

The trek route

Baan Lingi Pinacle of Ratangad

This was the route where we were supposed to climb.We climbed this whole mountain and at just look at center and towards right top,you will find a small gap.From there we were supposed to reach Samrad but it was blocked by boulders and trees due to rains in recent some 4 days back