Trekking, guitar, games and much more: Trek To Kalsubai

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Trek To Kalsubai

First Glimps of Mount Kalsubai

Temple At Top

Trek To Kalsubai :
Kalsubai is the tallest peak of Sahyadri mountain range in Maharashtra.So we decided to capture this one.

Reaching Kalsubai base:
Kalsubai can be reached by road easily, u can reach by train to some extent also but then u have to travel by bus to reach base.
From Mumbai: Mumbai - Kasara - Bari Time : Almost 5-6 hrs. Distance : almost 175 Kms
Take Kasara Local & reach upto kasara, then from kasara u can take a bus. Take the Kasara - Sangamner bus & get down at Bari which is almost 70-75 kms .It is the base village to start climbing Kalsubai, or u can take a bus to Igatpuri & then to Bari. However bus frequency for Kasara - Sangamner is very low so make it Kasara before evening.
From Pune: Pune - Sangamner - Bari Time:Almost 6-7 hrs Distance : Almost 210 Kms
Take bus from shivajinagar till Sangamner, from there u can get busses or jeeps to Bari. Very first bus from Sangamner - Kasara is at 7am & last is 5:30pm.Here the bus frequency is low,so reach Bari before evening.
U can stay at Bari school they charge 100Rs. for a room.Each room can accomodate as many people as u want :-)

Our Experience :
Members: Vinit(myself), Santosh, Alok, Sandeep, Yogesh, Ankush, Amit, Anand
We started our journey from Shivajinagar Pune , We took Pune - Shirdi bus around 8pm & reached Sangamner by 00:30am. We didnt find any room in nearby lodges so we ddecided to spend night at Sangamner ST Stand, it was wonderful experience as each one of us spending entire night in ST stand :-).So we laid down on those cold benches of ST stand. First bus to Bari was at 7:00am so we got up early & got ourself prepared for next journey.Bari is almost 70-75 kms away so we took almost an hour n half to reach there.
Bari is a very small village with very low population, native villagers depend on farming, main crop is rice & taken twice in a year.It has one small school situated in centre of village, there u can find Handpump.Beware there are No small canteens so one cant get anything there u have to carry ur own lunch from home or u can ask any native villager to prepare meal for u in liue approx 25Rs/person.

So we were at Bari & facing mount Kalsubai standing tall in front of us.Sky was clear so that we were able to see the temple situated at top & started calculating time to reach peak :-).We reach upto school & filled up all water bottles from handpump as water is very scarse resource there please use it carefully & there is no water source in between till u reach the top.
After some refreshments we started climbing uphill,many native villagers told us right way.Theres one nice temple situated on the slope of the peak,way goes from behind of temple.In beginning there were plateus & then steep climbs started,But amazingly all the pain went off as beauty of mountain started taking our mind control.Beautiful valleys & long Sahyadri mountain ranges could be seen all around us.Way upwards we got our first ladder, after crossing it shortly we got second ladder,its a biggest ladder after crossing it we thought wolla now we are almost there,but damn we were climbing & climbing , the peak seemed distance apart,finally after 1.5 hrs we were finally at the 3rd ladder :-).Just before 3rd ladder we found 1 well & 2-3 native villagers with their cows.Well water was not so suitable to drink directly so we filtered it with piece of clothe.We rested for a while there & then began to climb 3rd ladder its too steep so we were very slow climbing it.
Wolla we were on Top very first member to reach top was Amit then Sandeep (dev1) & then me(vinit).We were in front of Goddes Kalsubai temple.After some rest we took some pictures & just watched the spectacular mountain beauty.Half hour later the rest of our team arrived & then we had some group photos on top.Wind was blowing very fast so we were carefull on edges of mountain.
On our way down we prepared sandwitches for lunch :-) together we all had a nice time & enjoyed eating sandwitches.After resting a bit we started coming our journey back,coming downhill was lil difficult as we were facing slippery slopes .On reaching down we rested for a while & started our return journey.We had our dinner at Sangamner & then by midnight we were back in Pune.

Places To see around:
If time permits u can visit Bhandardara Dam which is only 8kms away from Bari.

Important Notes:
1.Bari is remote village so water is scarse resource please dont waste it.
2.Even Tea & Vada-pav stalls are not present so eaters carry ur food :-)
3.Dont litter plastic or paper waste in way, keep mountain clean.
4.Use drinking water wisely as No water source is present till you reach the peak.
5.There are chances of leopards being on the prowl so stay in group.

Snaps: