A brief report

Our team started from Mumbai on 2nd Feb 2006 night by State Transport bus for Bhor.
The main objective of this expedition was to research on a strategically important mountain ridge route which spreads from one district to another, namely Pune district into Satara district, which was probably used prominently during Shivaji’s regime for defence purposes

Our trekking expedition route was Rairi village (Pune district, Bhor Taluka) -Raireshwar Plateau (fort Raireshwar) –Kenjalgad fort – Asre Khind (Pass) – Amobode Khind (Pass) – Mandhardeo Peak (Satara District, Wai Taluka), around 45 kms over the mountains.

We reached Bhor via Pune early 3rd morning and caught a connecting bus to village Rairi, our base village from where our climb to Raireshwar fort would begin.

We were lucky to experience a local Jatra – a fair, on our arrival. Locals from nearby villages come and set up stalls for the visitors. Stalls of sweets, toys, snacks etc are set up.

After a brief visit to the Jatra, our journey into the mountains began with a steep ascent from the northern side of the fort, which was known as the Sambardaycha Vat.

We had heavy rug sacks and the weight slowed down our climbing speed, along with the scorching sun. But our preparations were good enough to fight all hurdles. We made it to the top of Raireshwar plateau in 4 hours, to find quite a number of huts and the presence of electricity.

We were welcomed by a villager,by offering us butter milk. Due to the increasing number of trekkers on this fort, the innocent villagers have now understood the scope for business and a new way of earning their livelihood apart from the seasonal farming.
They offer food and lodging for the trekkers and pilgrims visiting the ancient 16th century temple, for a paltry sum of money. We talked to villagers and gained a lot of information from them. The evening was spent surveying the massive fort.

Forts like Kenjalgad, Kamalgad can be viewed from the southern side of the fort, along with the Dhom Lake and the Panchgani plateau

As the sun came down, we pitched our tents near the 16th century temple.
Children from the nearby village saw us pitching the tent, and thought it was a parachute which we were assembling.

To photo album

Innocent people, quiet mud houses, golden wheat fields, with the sound of birds chirping and the crickets singing, astounding landscape all around, is what Raireshwar fort plateau is made up of, standing at an height of 4589 ft.

To photo album

Next day 4th Feb morning, after visiting the temple from the inside, we proceeded towards Kenjalgad fort. This route was from the south-east side of the fort, locally called as Sundara or Shwandara. This route ends with rock steps ingeniously cut out of the mountain, camouflaging it, but sadly, now cemented modern day steps are layered over it.
These steps join the ridge which goes to the Kenjalgad fort. This 4.5 km ridge joins Kenjalgad at a height of 4273ft.

After a brief session of rock climbing we reached the top of Kenjalgad from the northern side through rock cut steps. After spending some time on the fort top, we descended to a ridge connecting Kenjalgad from the south-east side.

To photo album

Ascending and descending for around 2kms, over a lot of lonely hills and amazing landscape, we reached to a Pass on a col called Asre Khind. We were around 3000ft on this pass.
We decided to camp here for the night Lot of villagers who came by were surprised to see us and even more surprised to hear our interest in traversing this mountain ridge. I think most of them thought we were crazy carrying 30kg of load on our backs.
We slept watching the stars, the bright moon and the steep hill ascent of around 1000ft which waited for us tomorrow.

To photo album

Day 3, 5th Feb, we started early morning to avoid the afternoon sun and ascended the steep hill to reach an amazing plateau with a small beautiful village called Barshe. Barse in Marathi means to have a richer experience, and we really experienced that. The villagers greeted us with cold water and a cup of tea. They were inquisitive about our expedition and with a lot of interest looked at our Google earth satellite maps. Their inquisition towards us never ended and that showed they were well in connection with the modern world.

The route from here is more or less a plateau walk through hill villages of Dwichewadi, Veruli and Someshwarwadi to Ambode Khind pass.
We decided to camp at Ambode Khind and study the nearby areas. We could see our destination Mandhardeo Peak and the famous Kalubai Temple from our camp site.

To photo album

Ambode Khind or pass cuts through this ridge at a height of around 4000 ft ingeniously to connect roads coming from Bhor in the Pune district, to Wai and Mandhardeo. Now there are good tar roads connecting and plying through the ghats. Ambode Khind becomes a strategic point for both the districts.

To photo album

Day 4, Feb. 6th, we proceeded towards Mandhardeo peak which was at a height of 4508 ft. The 6km route from Ambode Khind gradually climbs to a steep hill where the temple of Kalubai Devi is situated. This seems to be a very important pilgrimage site for people from Pune and Satara Districts. Recently on 25th January 2006, around 1 Lakh pilgrims arrived at this site to pay homage to their favorite goddess. Unfortunately there was a stampede and around 300 people died.
We reached the Mandhardeo peak in 1.5 hours and successfully completed our expedition in 4 days as planned.
The journey back to Mumbai was quite comfortable by bus.
Soon we will be compiling all the information collected and make a consolidated Report on this expedition, to understand the importance of this old route, the forts and villages on top of it. And moreover to understand the love of the people to still stay on these hills for more than 1000 years.

Team members:
Prateek Deo, Glean Gonsalves.
Date: 3rd Feb to 6th Feb 2006
Total approximate distance of trekking: 45 kms
We crossed 2 passes, 7 hills and 2 forts.

A detailed report will be soon uploaded in PDFformat.

For a exciting photographs of the expedition click here

contact
Prateek Deo
10/110, Sahakar Nagar -1,
Chembur, Mumbai – 400071
Maharashtra, India.
Phone: 022 – 25221362
Mobile: 9869158351
Email: prateekdeo@gmail.com