Trek to Kothaligad (Karjat)
Just after finishing loads of Exams, “Trek assavismay” planned for kothaligad near to Karjat. Kothaligad is also known as “पेठ चा किल्ला”. Kothali means empty funnel in Marathi language. It was 13th March 09 when we decided to stay at kothaligad for one day and Night. It was Friday and the All Trekkers was enthusiastic.
We started off from Mumbai at around 10.30 PM catching train to Karjat from Dadar. We reached Karjat station at around1.45 Am. And now we headed towards to S.T bus depot to stay for that night and also in morning catch a bus for the base villages, Ambivali. Ambivali is situated around 35 Km’s from Karjat station. When we reached the S.T depot, we came to know that the first bus for Ambivali is at 6.30 AM. So we decided to have some fun there. We had hot tea and Vadapav’s. We played Antakshari whole night seating around fire. We also danced. After lots of fun we went to sleep in depot.
Next day Devya who is one of the coordinator of Trek Assavismay group, woke up to whole group in early morning And then the bus arrived. We all got into the bus. We reached Ambivali at around 8.00 AM. We already know the Sawant Uncle who is resident of that village they have hotel or dhaba whatever, We asked to them for the way towards Peth. As he told we followed the way. Peth is again another village which can be said as perfect base for the trek. It takes around 2 hours to reach Peth village from Ambivali. The way is not a perfect road, its rocky and mudy and is continuously slight climbing. It was a hot day with sun at our heads and we were very dehydrated. But we reached Peth village at 10.30 AM. When we were entered in village all kids are gathered to welcome and see to us, we really impressed my friend and who also good social worker Pravin played some kids plays with that all kids and we bought some chocolates and distribute in to kids.
After some rest in Peth village, now we asked villagers for the way, they showed us and we followed it. The trek is very simple and takes only 30 to 45 mins. to reach at top. We had lots of photo sessions here. From Peth village itself you can see the whole Bhimashankar range. At 12.30 PMwe reached at the top of Kothaligad. We saw some caves there. We first cleaned all cave then at 1.30 PM took lunch. After lunch we all tiered so got first sleep till 3.00 PM.
Cordinators decides we see the fort after 3.00 PM. We went to see fort, Coordinators tells the features and history of this forts to all group members. We saw some water tanks , . Those tanks contain awesome chilled water. They are carved in rocks. Then we went to the top through the carved in steps. This whole structure is like a funnel which means Kothali. These steps are 2 feet each in height. At top, there are two water tanks which supply water to the Peth village for some duration. From here, you can see valleys on all four sides. We can see Matheran range, Bhimashankar range, Padar killa, and whole Peth village. It was not raining, so we were able to spot all of these as there was no fog. This evening was memorable forever. Then suddenly coordinators give instruction about dinner cooking, because after some time everything will be covered by dark. So all members were returned to cave at 6.30 PM.
Everyone started their job as per coordinators distributed; we cooked rice and potatoes-tomatos gravy. Till 8.30 PM all dinner was ready. At 7.30 PM to 9.00 PM Trek Assavismay conducted a session on subject “शिवाजी कोण होता?”. After very serious session all hungry trekkers were jump to the dinner. That dinner was really incomparable with any dinner taken in to hotel. Because we were taking dinner in candlelight with our friends. After that dinner we did fun with dance and songs.
Next Sunday morning all trekker woke up at 5.30 AM and started day with new experience that’s was Trek Assavismay held the program to clean fort from plastic garbage as well as rubout the names and messages which were written on the walls of fort. These all things which have make Trek Assavismay group different from another trekking group. After that activity we done some breakfast and leave fort at 11.00 AM. Now we were at Peth village and we had some cold drinks here in a small hotel. Soon we started getting down towards the Ambivali villageWe reach Ambivali at 3.00 PM. We were waiting for tumtum rickshaw or a bus towards Karjat. Finally we got a tumtum rickshaw towards Karjat station.
We were at Karjat station at around 5 PM, we had some snacks here. Vadapavs with hot tea.We then got CST train from Karjat station but hopefully we were lucky that we all got seats. We Kothaligad is a good trek for starters and can be done as a one day trek without any local guide. We got lots of friends and refreshment from this trek.
