After a long chain of mails flowing from reliance to CGI to Sodexho to ITE …. Fially we decided to trek on 29th June 2008.
Our SES gang was ready to conquer “Pethcha Killa” alias “Kothaligad”.
Type: Hill forts
Fort Range: Karjat
District: Raigad
Grade: Easy
Peth, also known as ‘Kothaligad’, is situated in Shahapur Taluka, approximately 21Km North East of Karjat. This fort stands tall in the company of various other forts like Rajmachi, Dhak, Siddhagad and Bhimashankar, a witness to our illustrious history.
The Cost of the Trek is not more than Rs. 200/- per person. From Borivali.
The cost would include:
• Travel from Borivali to Karjat and back(Rs 50 per head), Karjat station to Ambivali (Rs700 for a 10 seater auto rickshaw booked for the return journey)
• Lunch for the day. (Rs 40 in Peth Gaon – simple maharastrian thali)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kothaligad
It was one damp morning in Mumbai when I set off to Dahisar – to join our gang from Dahisar. In the morning, only three of us turned out at the decided location. Mini(Jasmine’s new pet name) and Vaishali and myself. We got into Borivali –Thane ST bus at 5.00 sharp. Everyone was charged up and the journey started.
We met Amod at Thane bus station. And he was smart – first impression was really good.
He had got our tickets. And we boarded the 6.17am Karjat local, from Thane. We had a good chat in the train. And as a thumb rule says, Amod and myself exchanged our information related to work career, platform n all.
By the time we reached Karjat, I was dying of hunger. I had some Diwadkar’s famous Vada-Paav. They taste too good. Then we hired an auto to Ambivali village near the fort.
In between we had one stop to admire the beauty of the nature. It was all lush green out there and a single lane recently made beautiful black tar road. The scenery was very good. We captured some snaps there.
At Ambivali village we had tea and started the climb. We were greeted with smiles by MSCB workers who were indeed working hard to get electricity to Peth village. Really appreciable engineering works. Slowly and steadily we reached a point from where we could see the Fort for the first time after trekking for more than 1hr30min. And the sight of the fort added more enthusiasm. The point we named as “Awesome Point” .We met a big gang there, who like us were delighted because of sight of the fort.
Then we all marched our way past the muddy roads, small water streams crossing the roads, lush green farms, and cloudy atmosphere, cool breeze (Perfect outing by far).
We reached the base village “Peth”. It is a typical village with slanting red roof homes and people with broad smiles. We ordered food there for our lunch and started the climb.
With atmosphere getting foggy and rains vanished for some time and we all charged up after a short break, were trekking, and enjoying it all. In No time Vaishu was so tired that we took out first break near the ant-fort. With at least dozen halts and one in tears occasions we finally reached the top of the fort.
And the feeling on reaching there was awesome, fantastic, fantabulous……..
We enjoyed the feeling for quite some time there. Shared some experiences and yyaaa we had Good Day biscuits there (And hence named one end of the fort as “Good-Day point”). The Descend was also tough. This time we just realized that with aim of getting to the top of fort was so much of motivating factor, that we had got to the top so easily. It seemed very difficult to get down. But, with help of each other and others we got down to a flat space on the fort.
There is one huge cave and 4 water ponds on the top of the fort. During descend we met a group of 28 from YAHI. Some IIT ’, some school kids and some pro-trekkers.
It was my first trek in yr ’08- starter of the season. Many more to come and Sahyadri main course will be posted next.
For Some snaps visit : http://picasaweb.google.com/suyog.dhake/KothaligadPethchaKillaTrek29thJune2008
My site : http://www.suyog.dhake.4t.com/
You can Write to me at -- suyog@dhake.4t.com / suyog.dhake@gmail.com
