Chadhwayye Trek IV - Chavand

Back in the monsoon of 2012, we had planned a 2 day trek to Chavand, Naneghat and Jivdhan; and ended up covering just Naneghat. So Chavand and Jivdhan were on the 'to-go destinations' list again. Chavand aka Prasanna Gad was skipped at that time mainly because PK who had suggested this fort, was not gonna be able to make it to the trek.

1st Jan was a holiday for me, PK, PP, and SS. None of us had any major plan for 31st December evening and so we planned for this New Year Day Trek to Chavand. Since others from the group were not available on that day, it was just 4 of us for the trek.

Special appreciation for PP who joined us right after finishing his night shift in the office. THAT is passion, really.

We were off to Junnar by approximately 7 am. It took us 3 hours to reach Junnar. Another half an hour to reach the base of chavand. From Junnar onward till Chavand Wadi, which is the base village of the fort, the road is just terrible. It was a bad surprise for my new little car. The road is in super-bad shape.

 The road to the fort goes from behind the AshramShala, which; does not exist anymore. We had referred to many blogs which give the Ashram Shala reference, but now the said building has been demolished. So the new landmark is a big tree on the left side of the road when you approach, opposite to which is a bore-well (hand-pump) from where the trek route begins.

Chavand/ Prasanna Gad is a relatively smaller fort. The climb isnt too big. It is very simple until you reach the rock patch which poses a decent challenge to you. It is steep. Though there are ladders fixed in the rocks, you cannot simply rely on them. There is also a metal wire fixed in the rocks throughout the rock patch, which proves to be really helpful. PP and myself were taking pictures while we stood on the rocks in some awkward positions, which irritated the hell out of SS who was really finding himself in awkward positions and was super-uncomfortable on the rock patch. The view from the top was really great. Though we felt that since it was too bright and sunny, we could have got some better photos had we been there either in the early morning or around sunset.

After covering the 20-30 feet high rock patch, there are roughly 50 steps until you reach the main door of the fort. The main door is in good condition. So are the steps. We met some forest department people on the way, who had come there to clear the grass that had grown on the steps and on the fort top. Their work was highly appreciable. The steps which were about 2.5 feet wide while we went up, were over 6 ft wide when we came down. It seemed like we re climbing down the steps of the Asiatic library or some monastery in Tibet  Those big steps feel really grand to be standing on; especially when you are looking down at the valley from a height of over 3000 feet.

The fort top is not that interesting. There are ruins of a temple on the left side after you reach the fort top. We did not really roam around on the fort top and decided to climb down after having a look at the surroundings and shooting some pictures.

The descent was relatively quicker, as it always is. We came down, got fresh with the cool water of the bore-well and had some fruits, and biscuits at the base to re-energize ourselves. It was 2 pm in the afternoon and yet, there was cool breeze because of which we never really felt drained and exhausted.

We headed then towards Naneghat via GhaTghar. Since two of us had missed the monsoon trek to Naneghat, we thought we can cover that on this trip. But the road ! the road was so bad again that we were taking way too much time to cover each kilometer; And that affected the mileage of the car. It alarmed us when the fuel gauge stood over empty. 'U turn' and we headed back. A local guy informed us about a person named Mr. Gholap, who sells petrol/diesel in a nearby village. We found his shop and bought us 2 ltrs of fuel. Then we re-filled the tank later at Junnar where we had one of the typical trek foods; Misal, coupled with hot ginger tea.

It turned out to be another very nice and memorable trek. Really a good start of 2013 for us all. We hoped that like the beginning, the year ahead is filled with such nice adventures and travels.