Trekking, guitar, games and much more: Katraj

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Katraj - Sinhgad Night Trek

Katraj Sinhgad Night trek

Amazing………. A worth trek to have each trekker with him. This time we were 10 friends to enjoy this one.

Vinit (Me), Amit, Dev1, Anand, Nachiket, Vipul, Santosh, Sagar, Sushant & Ankush.

How to go:

Catch PMT bus of “Kondhanpur” from Shahu Maharaj PMT bus stop which is exactly opposite of Swargate bus stand. Bus is after every hour; last bus is at 11:30pm. Get down after Katraj tunnel. Start climbing upwards the tunnel & always follow red blinking light.

Our experience:

We boarded on bus at around 10pm & we get down at Katraj tunnel by 10:40pm & immediately started walking over the tunnel mountain. Initial road was much straightforward on very short distance we visited one temple of some native goddess. Road was almost straightforward & all of us following only 2 rules.

1.Stick together closely

2.Take left route or always stay at left

After an hour we saw blinking light of tower from sinhgad, which was only our hope & direction J. Then for whole time we were following that blinker sometimes keeping mountains at our left or right. After 2-3 hours we took our first break & had some food & then again started walking. After some distance we started seeing white arrow marks which was sign of success. Probably we crossed 3-4 mountains & many hills. But it seems like sinhgad is at same distance as it was when we saw first time. We continued our journey by watching Red blinker. At around 2-3am we were about to get sure that we are lost, but without rest & wasting time we tried another way & then atlas there were only 2 mountains standing between us & sinhgad. It was almost 4am we took a break of 10mis & had some food again & headed towards those two mountains. By 6:30am we reached to tar road of sinhgad ghat. We got lift from a jeep & reached on top of sinhgad, thank god or we had to walk more 3kms from that tar road.

Nothing to be write anymore cause it was total dark so unable to give some details about landmarks. Only help is those white arrows & blinking red light. White arrows can be seen only after 4-5 hrs. For that time only blinker is our help.

Summary:

It took almost 8 hrs i.e. 10:40pm to 6:30am walking to reach destination. Water was about to finish though all of us had 2 bottles each. Its no man lands even a single bird or animal was seen. It was my first night trek.

Things to remember:

Carry heavy duty torches
Good supply of water
Some food
Good shoes as all area is dry land & with lots of thorny bushes around
Good wear, jeans is recommended due to lots of slippery surfaces & thorny bushes
Some bandages & medicines in case of emergency
In case of serious injury abort trek by getting down to nearby villages which can be seen to both way of mountains obviously they are at longer distance but its good to get down instead of traveling back.
There are possibilities of leopards in that area so is prepared.