Base: Kurvande
Distance : 75 Kms approx from Pune(By Road), 125 kms from Mumbai
(By Road)
Route:Pune-NH4-Lonavala-Kurvande
Its been such a long time that a posted on my blog that I nearly forgot I had one. Lot of water has flown down the Ganges, but my passion for trekking keeps going stong. So what compelled me to write down after so many days - it was just a picture I took out from my camera. It compelled me to put down the story of this trek. I call it the The Haunt of the Baba, more on that as you read on.
The best part about staying in Pune is that you are never short of trekking options, this was one which I really wanted to do, especially after reading about the valor of the marathas in the battle fought at this very place. Also because this was one of those battles in which Shivaji Maharaj himself fought. After several failed attempts to plan this trek, it finally needed a cancelled plan of range trek to Nasik to convert this trek to frutification.
We were initially a group of 10 folks - me, Anoop and his 2 friends, Anupam, Athiappan,Gauravi, Nilanjan, Prashant and Shreya. As with most plans there are last minute drop outs and this one was no different. Nilanjan and Athiappan could not make it.
We decided to do this trek using public transport, the Pune Lonavala local was our choice of ride.
I had already called up our contact in Kurvande Village to make arrangements for our breakfast and packed lunch. He was generous enough in helping to arrange for a vehicle to pick us from Lonavla station. We reached Chinchwad station on time for the 6.57 local, all of us boarded from the same location except for Gauravi who boarded from Pune Station. 26th January being a Public holiday, the local was mostly empty except for some passengers a few other trekkers who were going on treks in Lonavala region.
We reached Lonavala in about an hour and I called our driver for pick up, he was going to take another 10 mins to reach, so we had hot wada pav in the meantime near Lonavala station. The Sumo for our pick-up reached in time and we proceeded to Kurvande, it took about 15 minutes for us to reach there. We were dropped at our host, Vilas Borkar's house. He had already prepared Kande Pohe for us, after completing a heavy breakfast, he provided us with packed food in his own containers. I had already asked all the participants to bring empty tiffin boxes and everyone was not amused on carrying the empty boxes needlessly.
He also arranged the guide named Kailas for our trek, we enquired about the availability of water on the route, to which his reply was negative. We loaded our sacks with additional water bottles and proceeded for the trek.
The route for the trek is same as Duke's nose(also known as Nagphani) uptil a point. We need to take a left turn and follow the route parallel to INS Shivaji Fence.
The route is a sharp descent and full of scree. We treaded the route with utmost safety. Wherever possible we took breaks for photography. I had carried the National Flag for celebrating Republic Day. We took our group photo with the flag at the First plateau.
All of us took out our footwear and dipped our feet in the cool water. I kept photographing the place and the people. After I while our guide was back and he asked us to pack and get a move as we still had a fair bit to cover. We packed and continued towards the village - Chavni (called so as Shivaji maharaj had camped here during the battle). Going further we found a bullock cart, I couldn't help captuirng it. Sometimes really simple things provide us so much joy.
Continuing further we came accross a flat mud track and everyone walked briskly I stopped a while to take out more pics and kept looking towards Duke's nose.
I turned around and was startled to find and old man standing behind me. For a moment it scared me, then I realised that it was just a curious villager. He had a very expressive face and something that would compel you to photograph him. He continued to haunt me for some time after taking his picture.
He didn't say a word even after asking him, as I had fallen back, I left him on his own and proceeded further. Everyone was waiting for me at the school in chavani village. We had the packed lunch of chapati and potato sabji. Refilled our bottle at the handpump, which are quite a few in chavani. The distance from Chavani to Shemdi phata(the Pali-Khopoli road ) is 5.5 kms, and we discovered later that it was the most challenging part of our journey. From Chavani onwards it is a walk on bad tar road. After a walk of around 2kms, we reached our destination - The Umberkhind Smarak.
We paid our respects here with a Jaighosh for Shivaji Maharaj, as I shouted Jai Bhavani - there was a reply of Jai Shivaji not only from my team members but from faraway as well, such is the power of Shivray that random people will also stop to pay their respect.
A little further ahead it was becoming increasing difficult to walk in the sun on the tarred road, there is very little shade on the road. It drained all of us, the girls especially Shreya was reluctant to walk. I had difficult time pushing her. Not her fault really, it was indeed difficult for me as well. I and her were the last people in the group, with greatest of difficulty we reached GAIL terminal. a little further ahead was the main road where we could get a vehicle for Khopoli.
To our surprise, our guide, Anupam and Prashant brought a six seater to pick us up, all smiles.
We reached khopoli in another 20 minutes or so. Everyone bought bottles of cold water and then had lassi to cool themselves.
It was around 3.30 p.m when we reached Khopoli bus stand, bus to Lonavala was due anytime. We boarded the bus as soon as it came, almost all of us managed to get a seat. We reached Lonvala and then took the next available local to reach home. Inside the local we all opened our foot wear, I discovered I had blisters on my feet, really painful experience for next couple of days. Nonetheless we all sang and played antakshri in the local, I don't remember who won in the end.
It was a season of good byes after the singing ended in Chinchwad. A trek accomplished safely once again.
Distance : 75 Kms approx from Pune(By Road), 125 kms from Mumbai
(By Road)
Route:Pune-NH4-Lonavala-Kurvande
Its been such a long time that a posted on my blog that I nearly forgot I had one. Lot of water has flown down the Ganges, but my passion for trekking keeps going stong. So what compelled me to write down after so many days - it was just a picture I took out from my camera. It compelled me to put down the story of this trek. I call it the The Haunt of the Baba, more on that as you read on.
The best part about staying in Pune is that you are never short of trekking options, this was one which I really wanted to do, especially after reading about the valor of the marathas in the battle fought at this very place. Also because this was one of those battles in which Shivaji Maharaj himself fought. After several failed attempts to plan this trek, it finally needed a cancelled plan of range trek to Nasik to convert this trek to frutification.
We were initially a group of 10 folks - me, Anoop and his 2 friends, Anupam, Athiappan,Gauravi, Nilanjan, Prashant and Shreya. As with most plans there are last minute drop outs and this one was no different. Nilanjan and Athiappan could not make it.
We decided to do this trek using public transport, the Pune Lonavala local was our choice of ride.
I had already called up our contact in Kurvande Village to make arrangements for our breakfast and packed lunch. He was generous enough in helping to arrange for a vehicle to pick us from Lonavla station. We reached Chinchwad station on time for the 6.57 local, all of us boarded from the same location except for Gauravi who boarded from Pune Station. 26th January being a Public holiday, the local was mostly empty except for some passengers a few other trekkers who were going on treks in Lonavala region.
We reached Lonavala in about an hour and I called our driver for pick up, he was going to take another 10 mins to reach, so we had hot wada pav in the meantime near Lonavala station. The Sumo for our pick-up reached in time and we proceeded to Kurvande, it took about 15 minutes for us to reach there. We were dropped at our host, Vilas Borkar's house. He had already prepared Kande Pohe for us, after completing a heavy breakfast, he provided us with packed food in his own containers. I had already asked all the participants to bring empty tiffin boxes and everyone was not amused on carrying the empty boxes needlessly.
He also arranged the guide named Kailas for our trek, we enquired about the availability of water on the route, to which his reply was negative. We loaded our sacks with additional water bottles and proceeded for the trek.
The route for the trek is same as Duke's nose(also known as Nagphani) uptil a point. We need to take a left turn and follow the route parallel to INS Shivaji Fence.
The trek was going to be a long and arduous one, I knew I had to encounter two of my greatest enemies in trek - scree and humidity. It was around 9.30 and we were already feeling the harsh sun, we kept chatting and keeping the spirits up. Anoop and I punted on who will slip on the trail, Pooja was the first to slip, followed by Shreya. These two kept slipping quite a few times, although they didn't get hurt much, it was kind of funny. Back of my mind, I knew, I was always the next candidate, but that was not be - not atleast today. Next to slide was Nishant, he actually hurt his bum quite a bit, we thought it was hillarious. We kept following our guide on the trail, he narrated the story of Shivaji Maharaj and his army defeating Mughal army on this ghat. Further on the route we met one villager who was ascending towards Kurvande, he asked us about our plan and told that he was going to Kurvande and then to Lonavala for shopping and we were over awed.
We were all sweaty climbing down and here was one guy who hardly broke a sweat climbing up. The ruggedness of our Village folk keeps surprising me time and again.
We reached the base by 11.30 a.m, it was going to take another 20 mins to reach the village, we crossed a few dry river beds on our way, couldn't help imagining how difficult this route could be during monsoons. After walking a few more minutes, we reached a water body, this was our small piece of paradise, we took a break here. Our guide, Kailas asked us to wait here while he visited one of the adivasi houses. Such an amazing and quite place.
He didn't say a word even after asking him, as I had fallen back, I left him on his own and proceeded further. Everyone was waiting for me at the school in chavani village. We had the packed lunch of chapati and potato sabji. Refilled our bottle at the handpump, which are quite a few in chavani. The distance from Chavani to Shemdi phata(the Pali-Khopoli road ) is 5.5 kms, and we discovered later that it was the most challenging part of our journey. From Chavani onwards it is a walk on bad tar road. After a walk of around 2kms, we reached our destination - The Umberkhind Smarak.
A little further ahead it was becoming increasing difficult to walk in the sun on the tarred road, there is very little shade on the road. It drained all of us, the girls especially Shreya was reluctant to walk. I had difficult time pushing her. Not her fault really, it was indeed difficult for me as well. I and her were the last people in the group, with greatest of difficulty we reached GAIL terminal. a little further ahead was the main road where we could get a vehicle for Khopoli.
To our surprise, our guide, Anupam and Prashant brought a six seater to pick us up, all smiles.
We reached khopoli in another 20 minutes or so. Everyone bought bottles of cold water and then had lassi to cool themselves.
It was around 3.30 p.m when we reached Khopoli bus stand, bus to Lonavala was due anytime. We boarded the bus as soon as it came, almost all of us managed to get a seat. We reached Lonvala and then took the next available local to reach home. Inside the local we all opened our foot wear, I discovered I had blisters on my feet, really painful experience for next couple of days. Nonetheless we all sang and played antakshri in the local, I don't remember who won in the end.
It was a season of good byes after the singing ended in Chinchwad. A trek accomplished safely once again.
