Chanderi trek via Vangani side

चंदेरी,

19/6/2011.

    If ur travelling by train on the karjat-kalyan route,, u cant miss the magnificent view of this fort,when train nears vangani... in monsoons its always covered with clouds for most of the season..although it looks so near from stn. its like,"so near,yet so far".Each time when we went karjat side for treks,we would get interest in trekking to this lovely fort.. and finally we decided to annex it on 19th june '11.We went to vangani by the last train to karjat,which comes around 12:55 am ,i.e sat night. it reaches vangani around 2:30am. later we walked all the way till a hotel named chanderi, which is at kasgaon,around 5 kms along the highway towards badlapur.the hotel is just opposite to the road which we have to take to reach the base village of chinchavli. as it was around 3:30am,, hotel owner did respond to us waiting outside the gate,, so had to intrude by jumping over the gates,a dog was barking breathlessly,which became very friendly after we gave it something to eat, later knocked his door, and asked for some shelter and morning breakfast.. he showed us a small place with proper roof, where we rested till 7 am,its nice shelter but with huge swarm of mosquitoes..later morning hotel guy didnt get up,so we got fresh, and later moved on to trek.took us 2 hrs to reach the base village of chinchavli,,and then we kept walking for the fort,, the route is just superb..basically in short, we have to take the route by waterfalls to reach till the ridge connecting mhaisamal pinnacles and the chanderi fort. its very tricky as 3-4 waterfalls would be meeting at a point, and we have to decide which way to go.. till the waterfalls, the route is bit easy, as there are plenty of arrow marks, and typical foot path.one formula of finding the correct waterfall to climb is that,, extreme left comes from side of chanderi, extreme right from mhaisamal.. so whatever waterfall is right ahead, or straight,is the right path.. if u find it very hard to climb, then u in a wrong path.
once u reach the ridge,wind will become cyclonic rough,, light weight ppl may feel they would get blown away in air.later its just around 15 mins walk from the ridge junction where route towards panvel and route towards vangani meet at the ridge. its like chowki,to the fort. fort has got a nice cave beneath. where we can even night stay.. its bit cold there.its got a tank but would prefer water from waterfalls enroute,than the stagnant water there.going to the top of the fort is impossible in monsoons, can go only in dry season.
later around 1 pm we start descending down, took 3 hrs to reach the base vill. took nice bath in the waterfalls, enjoyed the place.then took rick to vangani,, 20/- per seat,, we were 7 ppl.dont pay them more than that.took  5:45 fast for cst.thus ends the trek...
Summary of the trek:-
Maps,Imp. pics of the trek:-

                                                           A Gaint Water bug spotted 

                                                   Yellow path is the easier path
                                                   Orange path is the waterfalls climb,,keep to your 'left' always,,follow                                                      the markers..

*take food for the day from home itself there is no food available in the base.
*its a long walk.so plan accordingly, if u want to walk all the way to top.its 10+ kms from vangani stn.
*trek has plenty of birds like brahminy myna, drongos, white cheek-red whiskered-bulbul, rufous-jungle babbler.
*its snakes den.. crabs every 10 metre.
Approx. expenses for the trek:-
Cheapest Trek ever possible.. wont cost more than 30-40/- if u take rickshaw from Vangani Stn. till base Chinchawli.

Happy Trekking

"Keep the forts clean,do not litter around,keep trekking commercial free"