सिद्धगड़,
19 /12 /2010.
When ever we visited Bhimashankar,, the view of Siddhagad always fascinated us.. its massive rectangular formation looked like a mammoth in front of its surrounding hills... and hence gave its name 'mammothgad' :D .. It was our first trek as a small group with like minded trekkers, as it was right time of the year for the trek,so we decided to do it first..
We decided to meet at around 9 pm at kalyan stn. took a ST. bus to Murbad around 10 pm which reached murbad in an hour around 11pm. and then the last bus to base village 'Narivali'(the bus goes upto base village of gorakhgad-machindragad names Dahiri).We then in midnight explored almost entire village in hunt of the hanumaan temple to rest for the night,, later a old women helped us in the way to the temple.. it was surprising to see how clean the village was,, roads were 100% clean, each and every house was neat and tidy also each house had a pulsor or some nice bike or car parked in thier garage... very odd for a remote village :)
It was chilling night as it was December end, and Hot tea brought from home by one of the trekkers proved to be 'amrit' for us,, gave life back to the body.. Temperature kept on falling as night passed, must have gone easily in single digit degrees celcius..around 5 am could feel the cold inside sleeping bags too.. later had to make fire from logs of nearby houses :D to save from freezing.. around 6 am,, twilight in sky gave a superb view of the sahyadri walls, of damdama,gorakh-machindragad,siddhagad... got refreshed till 7t am, had breakfast and tea from the shop-cum-home opposite to the temple, and then started the trek at 8:30 am sharp...
Siddhagad is supposed to be one of highest forts from base village and from 0 meters sea level, as the base village is totally at sea level and the fort is well above 3000 feet
After a long 3 hrs walk we reached a temple just beneath the siddhagad. spotted scores of birds,,red-whiskered bulbul,paradise flycatcher, 2 types of drongos, shikra,2 types of shrikes,night heron,pond heron,cattle eagret, sunbird,flowerpeckers,etc..
that temple is good place to rest for a while..later we started our trek,,there is a tricky left turn which takes us to the fort fromt he road going to siddhagadwadi,we have to be alert ,as the left turn can be missed easily, as the path is narrow, and no markings to show the way to the fort,its just around 20-25 meters before the first house of the village siddhagadwadi. later main tough route of the fort begins,, there is an odd sort of cave-house which is supposed to be home of some foreigner devotee of shiva, who is supposed to have done some tapasya there for many years before he disappeared or went back to his country, this place comes enroute to the fort top.later the route is bit risky and slippery with due to mud, narrow path and exposed on one side all the way till top. apart from few areas, rest can be done with ease with rookie trekkers.once we reached top,, view was simple superb,,, as it was december, sky was clear and visibility very good, we can see as far as matheran-tavli range to mahuli,gorakhgad,alang-madan-kulang,ajoba,bhimashankar,kothaligad,padargad etc.. the length of the fort is very long, half a kilometer atleast. but the width is small, and the top is full of tall grass, water quality very poor, and tanks are bit tricky to access, and water level is low and dirty. for camping its a very good place.it has got a bale killa.. has a chor darwaja.with little fortifications still left since British onslaught on it in early 20th century.
while descending there isn't much probs.. as we use the same route till narivali. it took us around 3 hrs even though we walked non stop... there is a bus at 6 pm, which i think is the last bus of the day for murbad..we can then reach kalyan by 9 pm from murbad by ST bus.
Summary of the trek:-
Maps,imp. pics of the trek:-
The gate from where the siddhagad machi starts. the route from the waterfalls and the plateau meets here.
Schedules to follow,tips and planning the trek:-(a) U need to go to the base village of narivli. preferably one night before itself
(b) Take the last bus from Murbad which is at midnight,the bus goes to vill. daheri(base of gorakh-macchindragad) narivili is one stop before daheri.
(c) There is a big hanuman temple in the village, where u can rest for the night,it can easily accommodate 50 ppl.tc in winters, its very cold there, take warm clothing.
(d) Breakfast, tea u can get in vill itself. a house opposite to the temple provide it.they are very cooperative and nice clean vill.
(e) It takes 5 hrs to reach top from the base vill. its long walk. so be ready.water is scarce in winter, u get only at the waterfalls which falls on the route,near the temple at foothill of the fort.on top of fort water is of bad quality.
(f) Ask villagers to show u the route till the village end. once the route starts its just straight walk. don't go here and there or any other offshoot route that doesn't seem to be going straight to the fort.
in between one small village with 10-12 houses also comes after a hour walk from narivili.
(g) once u cross the waterfalls.as the route is same,through waterfalls. if u can rock climb,towards the left,u can reach and big plateau,from there also u can reach the fortified ruined gate where the waterfalls route connect.its worth going to that plateau,some old ruins of temple is there.
(h)once u reach the machi of the fort, one ganesha temple comes on the way. and then after 10-15 mins walk, u MUST take the correct left turn. for more accuracy to find the route, best tip is, once u see the siddhagadwadi village visible, then start looking at left while walking, its small left turn that goes to the fort top.
(i)Descend:-It takes 3 hrs to come back to the base.
(j)last bus for murbad is at 6 pm from narivili. u can then reach kalyan by 9:30 pm :) from Murbad,where u get plenty of buses and other transports.
Things to be taken care of:-
Once the main fort climb starts,u need to be careful, its very slippery, and one side is always exposed. thorny plants,cactus on entire route and at awkward spots(as usual) where u need to hold something to cross over. the steps sometimes are small. but any level trekker should manage it :)
happy trekking.
Approx. expenses for the trek:-
40/- from kalyan to murbad to narivili,so total 80/- to and fro,from kalyan to kalyan.
food etc 15-20/-
should not cost over 110/- per head.
Happy Trekking
"Keep the forts clean,do not litter around,keep trekking commercial free"
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