Rohidas Trek

                                          Rohidas as seen from Waghachi wadi village.
रोहिदास ,
20/12/2015.
     Least visited fort of Sahyadris undoubtedly though being so close to famous forts around it and famous Malshej ghat nearby.. We planned all of the sudden as winter had approached nicely,so Hemant contacted sable mama at Thitbi village for guiding us through the path till top.,fixed our date as 20,dec 2015,, and kept Kalyan ST stand as meeting spot... Took last ST passing through Malshej ghat,which is around 12:30am at the stand heading for Ahmednagar..
   We reached Savarne village around 3 am,and started to walk towards Thitbi via tar road. reach thitbi in around 20-25 mins,and slept out side Sable mama's house,,which is first house on the left as soon as u enter the village.. we decided to get up by 6am,and start the trek by 6:30am,,so we had less than 1.5hrs to sleep,, village cocks kept on snoozing right from the time we slept,,couple of dog sleepers found hard to sleep,,we got up at 6 am sharp,, and tried out our new ready made breakfast of MTR poha,,which is very easy to prep.. just add hot water to the mixture.. and done.... we later had black tea,and as sable mama was unavailable, his relative fixed us with a guide from another village on path named Waghachi wadi..
   Most surprising pleasant news was only once a year those villagers go to the top of the fort for performing puja at the peak in a temple meant for Kaalbhairav,,and the day we were hiking was that very day!.Felt like Kaalbhairav himself wanted us as special guest from city side!
   We started to hike around 7:15am from that village,around 1 km+ route is pure cake walk through normal clear trail path.. we reached the rohidas naal around 7:45am,and now starts the real bone tiring trek....
   we started to walk from the naal path,and target was to reach topmost part of the naal. after 2 hrs of high acrobatics ,bouldering ,climbing through huge rocks, traversing through sides of the naal with scree on one side,,we reached 25% of the desired target of the naal... saw lots of spiders,rare birds which we couldn't identify by their calls,few common ones like paradise flycatchers,bee eaters,drongos,etc.. saw plenty of giant forest spiders ,signature spiders etc who usually make webs right across the path we walk at our face level,,,careless on path would mean them sticking to ones face :D ,,we noted the region where these spider webs were in maximum,as it would be dark while we would return through the same path..after around 2 hrs from base waghachiwadi,we reached a spot on the naal where water was available.filled up our bottles , drank rested for few mins and started the hike.. this was the last spot where we get water,ahead there is no source for water at all,not even a small stream..
     As we reached 50% of the naal,huge boulders on the path made our speed reduce and was very tiring,boulders kept on coming for atleast 1 hr more,, later when abt 75-80% of naal got covered ,we traversed on left side(beneath rohidas side),and now new hurdles of karvandha tree and another thorny bush started to trouble,,as there is no route,the villagers who went to the top has freshly cut through the path,yet the terrain of slippery mud,occasional dangerous traverse through slippery route with naal on one side made us worry how it would be while descending.
    Soon around 11:30am that naal ended.. we sat at a spot from where naalichi vaat of Hgad was visible,,even large part of KK was visible,,lingi pinnacle was just stone's throw distance away from us across the gap(kol) between both forts,,after resting for few mins and taking few snaps,we started walking again..
    Route becomes more difficult now,body tired, Sun on top,hunger ,muscle fatigue makes things worse..few traverses and we reach a small plateau,and then to a spot where villagers left their bags,slippers etc behind and headed for the peak..from that spot again climbing began with even more dangerous small rock patches,slippery trail,and lots of acrobats,we reached the topmost small plateau,we left our bags behind at a spot,and went from the last 30 mins ascend.the path narrowed down in the end,both side scree ,with same kind of slippery route,,fragrance of karvi plant's flower buds all around,we finally were few meters away from the peak.. just about few feet before the peak there is a quite a big gap in between the path ,,we have to jump across it,,it was like the snake in snakes and ladder game at 99,which would send u back to square one,,after crossing that gap,we finally reached the peak,,its very small peak,hardly few feet across,with small makeshift kind of temple for kaalbhairav on top.. view of Hgad was amazing from the top. we spent few mins on top clicking pics,and performed prayers too for kaalbhairav as it was special day for the temple too.. Time was around 2:15pm when we started to descend .
      Reached to the spot where we had left our bags,, had lunch,and started to walk ,it was nearing 3pm,, we reached the plateau where the villagers leave their slippers etc, and spotted sambar deer,we had seen its scats on the path,and also spotted civet cat scats in same area.. clean serene place away from filth of western civilization becoz of least number of people visiting that place.
    we reached the kol around 4pm,and was getting dark already as the naal is surrounded by high mountains, after a long walk through the jungle,we reached the naal around 5pm. fatigue,tired legs,cramps due to dehydration could be felt,,kept dragging till we reached the water source spot,, it was at 50% distance of the naal,rested there for many minutes,filled up bottles,became fresh and started to descend again,time was around 6:30-7pm, fully dark,with torch lights and head lamps rest of the trek was finished,,we reached waghachiwadi and the guide left us,, and we reached thitbi by 9:15pm late by 1 hour. due to the day being sunday,and non availability of convenient buses from savarne to kalyan,we decided to stay at thitbi itself for the night,we had poha and dal rice and slept till next day 6am,later after getting fresh,we took truck which ferried all villagers going to savarne. we got bus around 7 am from savarne till kalyan,,reached kalyan st stand by 9:15,that ended our trek..
IMPORTANT:-,, this trek is not meant for beginners,with less than 15-20 trek exp. it requires high endurance and many places have very dangerous path,, plz make note of this.. good luck
Happy Trekking.

Summary of the trek:-
Maps,Imp. pics of the trek:-

                                                              Kaalbhairav and me

                                                       Naal which we walked

                                                             Hood of konkankada

                                                                       Naal route

                                                              Only source of water

                                                     highly acrobatic route,,very tough

                                                                      Lingi pinnacle

                                                        entire view of naalichi vaat Hgad

                                                                     Civet cat scat

                                                            Taramati and kokankada

                                                                Kaalbhairav temple

 Huge gap just few feet from the peak,,highly dangerous,,as i mentioned in the blog,,its like snake at 99 which would send u to 0 in the game of snakes and ladders.

                                                                         The route
Things to be taken care of:-
    Trek is very very difficult,,very tiring,the worst ever in my experience... its total of 14 hrs trek. 7 hrs to climb,7 hrs to descend back to village.. so plan accordingly.. guide is must.. there is no open route as hardly anyone hikes there.. carry minimum 4 liters of water,and wear good shoes and socks,,as i personally first time experienced blister on both the foot sole which delayed our target of 14 hrs to 15 hrs...some traverses are very dangerous,,we didnt use ropes but u may require.. there are minimum 10-15 such traverses.. there is no water once u cross the middle of naal.. no shady place also,,so best time is peak of winter.. monsoons dont even imagine going there.
"Keep the forts clean,do not litter around,keep trekking commercial free"