Trekking the Sahyadris: Patta / Vishramgad to Aundha / Awandha Trek

विश्रामगढ़ ,
15/1/2012,
Another weekend,another trek... this time 2 days we had back to back holidays due to Makara Sankranti,,so we decided to make a 2 day trek.. to gain max power from Sun rays from solstice Sun, and to have a scenic view,, we found Patta fort as the best suited ,calm serene place with no much public at all visiting,unlike other forts which are unfortunately ruined by trekkers with no civic sense..Me,Madhav,Shrikanth and Shashikanth were all set for the trek.
We took Tapovan express from Mumbai till Igatpuri,we reached IGP around 8:30-9:00am,,we had breakfast at stn itself, and headed for IGP ST stand nearby,, we took bus around 10-10:30am for Taked village,,reached the base around 11-11:30am and started to walk towards the Patta fort.. many villages came in between,later one villager told us there is a short cut to reach till top plateau instead of taking the tar road route which is way too long and tiring.. the route was between 8 and 9th windmill from the right side when counted,,visibly both windmills are bit extra spaced than others..it was a naal type of route in the ending part and normal ascend trail in its starting section.. keep asking villagers for that short cut..
We then reached the plateau around 3pm.. had fruits and some light food,,and walked through the tar road till Konkanwadi..later found the route to climb upwards behind the village,,its very easy plain trail route,,while ascending,atleast 100-200 cattle were descending from the fort side,, Cattle were too scared to pass us and there was a standoff between us and them,,we later climbed a rock adjacent to the trail route,then one cattle dared to pass us,and seeing it rest followed ,,atleast 15-20 mins got lost for that unscheduled siding we were put into.. we later reached fort top by 5:30pm,, immediately collected firewood for dinner,smoked the out side area of the cave,as inside it was too dirty with cattle dung,,had nice dinner and went to sleep..
Got up early next day,had yoga session on Rising Sun of Sankranti day as background,,nice cool windy weather,,by 9am we wound off things,,explored the fort,took snaps from the peak and left for Aundha..by 1pm we had descended the patta fort from a broken Darwaja route which is big shortcut for going towards aundha,,other route going via Pattawadi takes lots of time..
Total exposure to sun was tiring,,we used to rest beneath the windmill one after the other,finally around 3 pm we reached aundha fort.. we climbed as much we could,as all were tired and time running out,,we later as usual used standard formula for shortest route i.e straight line,,we directly descended the fort through huge rocky slope and reach a small village(not aundhawadi!) on the cliff side of the plateau.. they showed us the path of how to reach Ninavi in shortest time,,,we reached ninavi around 5pm..later luckily we got a tempo going highway side,and reached the highway(ghoti-sinnar road)..we ate something there from dhaba,later hitched hikes transport bus going towards Mumbai from Shirdi side,,we reached Mumbaiby 11pm, by midnight all were home..that ended our trek..

Summary of the trek:-

Maps,imp. pics of the trek:-