Vasota - Nageshwar Caves - Wilderness Trek in Koyna Wildlife Sancturay

I had been to Koyna Backwaters twice; first time from Tapola and second time from Bamnoli. It was limited to a boat ride for half an hour. Both the times I felt very mystical looking at the Koyna forest and there was intense desire to visit it once in my life. Finally, I got the opportunity to experience the real thrill of visiting it with Wild Trek Adventure (WTA) group. 

Though this trek was planned by WTA Group in advance, I joined it almost at the last moment. Once I got to know about the cancellation of my trek with Trekdi group to Ghangad-Korigad falling on 17th Mar 2013, I immediately called Sandip of WTA with whom I had done earlier treks of Kalsubai and Rajgad. He told me that already seats were full and asked me to confirm with Prasad. After calling Prasad, he said that as there were already more members, he was thinking to book another vehicle and he confirmed in 15 minutes that vehicle was arranged and I could join them. I was over the moon after this confirmation and packed my backpack to prepare myself for the overnight trek.

Sandip and Mumbai Group who landed the bus from Panvel came to Shivajinagar around 6 PM and I joined the group. Few members joined at Swargate, few at Katraj and finally we started our journey. Other group of 9-10 members were travelling by Sumo. In total, we had a group of around 42 people, a very large number indeed.

We had a nice round of Antakshari as we had to travel for almost 4 hours. Mumbai Group was very enthusiastic and some members started dancing inside the bus. Because of all enthusiastic members, our journey to Tetali village (Next to Bamnoli) turned out to be very pleasant.

After reaching to Tetali, we freshened ourselves and had a dinner of Poli, Batata Bhaji and Amrakhanda.It was delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

After dinner, Prasad and Co. prepared campfire and soon everybody was at the campfire. At the campfire, there was an introductory session and everybody was asked the reason to visit Vasota. Some of the replies were really funny: An uncle told he just loved trekking and even if Vasota would have been Kasota, he would have visited it. Many of the people told that they were planning to visit Vasota since long time and they decided to join WTA as soon as they saw the advertisement.

After campfire, it was past 12AM and it was time to sleep. Some people opted to sleep in the tents while rest of the people preferred to sleep on the mats. There were million of stars shining in the sky and I didn't remember when I slept while gazing at the stars. Many of the people kept on chatting whole night and just had a sleep around 1-2 hours. I slept around 3-4 hours and got up around 5.45 AM.

This was the place where we spent our night:

We were greeted by a fabulous Shivsagar lake view once we woke up early in the morning.

Beautiful trees on other side:

We had a nice breakfast of Poha and Tea.

Finally, it was time for our boats to arrive and there came our two lovely boats. The faint looking mountain in the background is Madhu-Makrand Gad and there is Tapola on the other side.

20 members landed on our boat and other 22 members on other boat.

Our first stop was at Bamnoli where we had to take permission from forest department to visit Vasota.

Finally, our boat journey to Vasota got started with the picturesque setting all around.

Everybody was enjoying the boat journey with spectacular views all around.

There is a dense forest around lake inhabiting many wild animals. Many of these animals come to drink water in this lake. We spotted few animals - some said that these were wild buffaloes; some said that these were domestic buffaloes. I would leave it to you to decide :)

After boat journey of more than an hour, finally Vasota became visible. (Middle in the picture). As you can see, almost 75% of Vasota is covered by dense forest and only 25% is exposed. Views all around were so beautiful and everybody was clicking pictures. The boat which was ahead of us suddenly turned back and started backward journey. We were surprised and asked them what had happened. Thing was that while clicking the pictures, Sachin lost the grip of camera and it went inside the lake and they visited the spot to see whether they could recover it. Poor Sachin!

Finally we reached at MET Indavali village from where we had to start our trek to Vasota.

Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary Gate - Starting point of Vasota Trek:

After entering the above gate, we started our trek to Vasota through the dense forest.

After walking for 5 min, we came across a tiny Hanuman and Ganapati temple and we proceeded after taking blessings.

Trekking through the forest was thrilling experience as it hosts a lot of wild animals including bears and leopards. As we had quite a large group, there was remote possibility of spotting one.

Bear, where are you hiding?

Finally, we trekked successfully through the dense forest and we then got exposed to scorching sun. But we were almost there then and Vasota top was within the striking distance.

Looking back, view of Shivsagar lake (Koyna Backwaters) was enchanting.

Most of the team members reached to the top in almost in an hour and we had a well deserved rest for 10 minutes in front of Hanuman Temple.

  

We then had a small guided tour of Vasota top led by Prasad. We came on the West side where we witnesseed spectacular views of two peaks - Old Lady's Thumb (nearer peak as seen in the below picture) and peak hosting Nageshwar Caves (remote peak as seen in the below picture). As there is Konkan region on this side (Base Level: 0 to 200m) , all the peaks of this side appear taller.

Chunyacha Ghana on the top:

Small lake on Vasota where members filled their drinking water bottles.

We then proceeded to witness Babu kada (Maharashtra's second highest cliff after KonkanKada of Harischchandra Gad). Babu kada is part of Old Vasota and we were witnessing it from New Vasota.

After coming back from witnessing Babu Kada, we had our packed lunch (Methi Thepale and pickle) in front of Hanuman Temple. After lunch, we visited Mahadev Temple still standing tall since last many centuries.

 We then proceeded towards "Nageshwar Caves" - our next destination.

En route to Nageshwar where forest is more dense than Vasota:

After walking for 15-20 minutes through the thick forest, we were almost at the dead end and we had to walk on the narrow path to reach to Nageshwar.

Route to Nageshwar is a scary one. There is a deep valley on one side. One wrong step and you will be gone to the point of no-return!

I was proceeding smoothly on this route without looking at the deep valley. Suddenly, I had the urge to look down to see how deep it was! And after looking at the infinite height, I lost confidence for a moment to proceed further and stuck on the route for couple of minutes. I deviated my attention to other topic and there I was, again walking smoothly on the walkway!

One of the girls from our group had really a hard time and started crying thinking what would happen to her mother if she fell down!

En route to Nageshwar Caves. See the scary route:

Finally, Nageshwar caves were in sight. What a relief!

Just few more steps for the final frontier!

Absolute wonderful Nageshwar Caves! Carved right through the peak of the mountain! Hats-off to the creator!

Route to Choravane Village in Ratnagiri district. It takes around 4.5 hrs to climb to Nageshwar from this route. This could be one splendid trek.

View from Nageshwar Caves (Courtsey: Prasad Wagh)

Inside Nageshwar Caves:

Finally, it was time to descend and go back to our respective boats! We had two options to reach to the base; the same route from where we came and other route which was through a big stream. Considering the scariness of the first route, we were relieved when we came to know about the alternate route. But alas! This route was more torturous and demanding for all of us!

This was the entry of this alternate route and here, one of the girl members had cramps! After having Glucose water, she felt better and all started descending.

This route literally had thousands and thousands of rocks of various sizes and shapes! We needed to be extra cautious while taking each step to avoid twisting of the legs.

Beautiful route surrounded by dense forest on both sides! Well, beautiful when you are with the group and scary if you are left alone.

There were around 30 minutes of this journey when I was walking alone. Nobody was visible ahead or behind! There was no sound except chirping of birds and my footsteps. I was just imagining the scenario of some wild animal coming my way and how I would react. It was really a thrilling experience. The reason I was stranded in between because I could not match steps with the faster group and I was far ahead of the slower group.

Fortunately, nothing happened and I joined other members soon.

After this point, I joined Sandip who was sitting near the small pond with small fishes. We rested for 15-20 minutes and were waiting for other group which were behind us. These 15-20 minutes were magical and we spotted many different types of birds and butterflies near the pond. Unfortunately, my camera battery was discharged and I could not take photographs of these wonderful birds!

Till we were witnessing these beautiful birds, other group came from behind and joined us. Still, we were not sure how much time would be required to reach to the base. Nobody (including our guide) had visited this route before.

This route was never ending and at one point, we were just exhausted and cursing why we chose this route. After almost walking for 2 hours, finally this route joined to the main route where Nikhil and other members were waiting for us. Finally the ordeal was over and we reached to the boat.

Our first boat was already gone with members who did not visit Nageshwar and our first group of Nageshwar led by Prasad who reached early.

While coming back, we witnessed a partial sunset which was still beautiful. (Photo captured from Sandip's camera).

I made friendship with the boat captain and obtained the permission to sit on top of boat! Cool breeze with mountains in all four directions swept away all the tiredness.

After reaching to Tetali village, we had an amazing dinner of Bhakari, Bhaji, Varan-Bhat. Boy, all were hungry and gorged on the food.

Finally, it was time to return to Pune. We started around 9 PM and reached to Pune around 1.30 AM. I reached home around 2AM safe and sound.

This trek definitely tested our stamina and patience but gave us ineffable sense of joy. Memories of sleeping under the sky full of stars, amazing boat ride amidst the mountains and turquoise water, walking through the dense forest , view of Konkan from the top, towering Babu kada, deadly route to Nageshwar Caves and tortuous and never-ending rocky route while climbing down would remain with me for a long, long time.

Tips for the trekkers:

• You can reach to Vasota via Bamnoli (via Satara) and Tapola (via Mahabaleshwar).
• You need prior permission from forest department to visit Vasota.
• This is the heritage sight and you are not supposed to do anything that will disturb the nature.
• Halting on Vasota is not allowed now-a-days.
• You can halt at Nageshwar Caves.
• Covering Vasota and Nageshwar Caves in a day is quite tough but can be done.
• Carry enough water (at least 3 lit) if you are not comfortable drinking water available on Vasota.
• Carry muscle relief spray.
• Walk in a group and don't be left alone. 

Thanks for reading the blog! Hopefully, you had a great time reading it.

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Rajgad Fort - An Architectural Wonder

Welcome to my blog on Rajgad trek done on 21st and 22nd Feb, 2013!

This was my second trek in the month of February. After coming back from my first trek on Kalsubai, I rested for 3 days. As I was still on vacation, I started planning my second trek. Unfortunately, I was not getting any companion for weekday trekking. No professional group does the trekking on weekdays because of unavailability of people. There was still some time for Ind Vs Aus series to start and I knew I would get bored if I choose to sit at home and watch TV. I had an unfinished book that I finished while resting after Kalsubai Trek. So it was high time for me to get out.

I had told all my trekking friends that I was game for the weekday treks. But nobody was available. I was becoming restless sitting at home. And guess what? My phone started ringing and it was call from one of my trekking friends, Sandip. He is one of the core members of Wild Trek Adventure group. He told me that he had planned an overnight trek to Rajgad with his colleagues from Conginzant and whether I would be interested in joining them. Wow, I said! Fantastic News! I told him that I would confirm in an hour. I called my wife and took the necessary permission for an overnight trek since she had to manage office and my son’s school alone. After 2 calls, I got the permission and there I was! Super excited at the thought of being on the field!

Swargate was the starting point from where we had a bus to Gunjavane (Base village of Rajgad). We decided to meet @ 4.30 PM and I was there 5 min before. After a while, I was surprised to see Nikhil, another member of Wild Trek Adventure group. He came to know about this last moment trek just an hour before and he had directly come from Alandi (where he is a student of MIT). Wow, this is called a passion! Sandip along with 3 of his colleagues came around 5 PM and we sat down in the bus and started our journey around 5.30PM.By the way, Sandip and his friends were coming on the weekday trek because they were sitting on the bench! Wow, there can't be better utilization of your time on the bench!

We reached at Gunjavane around 8PM. By that time, we all were very hungry. Our plan was to spend night at the temple top of Rajgad. So we didn’t want to have dinner before our trekking. We wanted to carry the dinner parcel with us after having a little bit of food which would give us enough energy for climbing. As our bus reached to Gunjavane and we got down, we were shocked to see everything closed down. None of the shops or any food joint was open. There were few people sitting and we asked them where we would get the food and they pointed us to a direction where there was a small house. We went there and asked whether we could get a dinner. That man flatly refused saying that all his staff had gone home and it would not be possible for him to provide us the dinner. Then, he gave us address of Suvela restaurant which was on the other side. Man, we were just counting on this last option; otherwise we would have slept hungry.


We reached at Suvela restaurant after walking for 2 min (actually restaurant is a very fancy term) if you look at the picture below. Let us call it a food joint. Fortunately this food joint was open and its owner happily agreed to feed us.

Restaurant where we had snacks and packed dinner:

We ordered for Omelette for a quick bite and Zunka-Bhakar for 3 vegetarians and Chicken-Bhakari for 3 non-vegetarians. Omelette was delicious and we just had enough of it (not less, not more). Owner packed our dinner very nicely and after paying our bill, we started our trek around 9.30PM.

Well, we had prepared us for the dark night trek being unaware of the moon phase. But we were pleasantly surprised to see moon glowing above.

So our night trek was now pleasantly getting turned into moonlight trek. We gradually started our ascent; there were bhajans going in one of the temples of Gunjavane. Moon with millions of stars above, bhajans playing in the background and cool breeze! I couldn’t have asked for a better setting for a trek.

After climbing for an half hour, we had a rest of around 5 min. I and Nikhil had come ahead and Sandip was encouraging his friends to keep climbing. Apparently, they did not have any prior trekking experience and they were out of breath only after climbing for 15 min! Poor fellows! There were many times in the trek where we had 2 groups (Nikhil and me ahead) and poor Sandip lagging behind with his friends making sure that they came along and did not give up!

Finally, after climbing for another 30-40 minutes, we almost could see the top of Rajgad. Only couple of rock patches to overcome but it was a steep climb. Well, after negotiating these rocky patches successfully, we entered Rajgad through Chordarvaja and there we were! On top of Rajgad; beautiful Rajgad. The same Rajgad where Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj spent 25 years of his short life; birthplace of Chatrapati Rajaram; where Saibai took her last breath. We all shouted slogans of “Jai Bhavani, Jai Shivaji” once on top and proceeded to Padmavati Temple, our halting destination for the night.

After relaxing for 5-10 minutes, we made seating arrangement for dinner at the back of the temple. We were very hungry then; omelette was digested a long time back and we started our dinner around 11.45PM. It was an amazing setting for the dinner; moonlight,twinkling stars, cold breeze and cattle grazing around. Definitely, this was the most heavenly dinner I ever had in my life.

We finished our dinner around 12.15AM and proceeded towards the temple. Initially, we had thought of sleeping under the sky; but we started shivering after our dinner and there were plenty of cattle and dogs who were outnumbering us. We were only 6 people on Rajgad that night. This is the advantage of doing the treks on weekdays! You have the exclusive access to all the facilities on the fort!

Well, I was the first one to go to sleep and other people chatted for a while outside. I had set an alarm for 6AM since I didn’t want to miss the sunrise. What is the point in coming on top if you miss the sunrise! I was fast asleep within few minutes that too on the hard surface, with temple light on. I even didn’t notice when my other friends came inside and slept.
Alarm clock in my cell started ringing at 6AM and I was awake. I opened the windows of the temple and it was still dark outside. All my other friends were still asleep; some were snoring like anything. Wow, here were the guys who are so accustomed to luxuries of life and they were having so much of a sound sleep on a hard surface with bare minimum sheets to pull over.

It was just before the sunrise that I came out of temple. I was greeted with the following beautiful views:

I woke up Nikhil and Sandip and co. around 6.15AM. It was just before the sunrise and sunrise would be starting anytime. We proceeded towards the sunrise point which was just 2 min walk from the temple. And there was sun rising slowly and steadily! Sun rising from the back of Purandar with vast water body of Bhatghar dam in the background was a spectacular sight.

After the sunrise, we planned to visit Bale Killa and Suvela Machi. Sandip’s three friends were still exhausted and they preferred to save their energy for climbing down.

We, 3 of us, then proceeded towards the Bale Killa - Pride of Maharashtra.It was looking enticing and I was very eager to visit it.

There are few patches which are steep and you need to take help of the railings to climb up.

Finally, after 15-20 min of climb, Bale Killa Mahadarvaja was in sight. What a beautiful structure! There is a small cave in the bottom. There are 3 such caves on Rajgad - one under the bastion of Padmavati Maachi, second one while climbing Bale Killa (as seen in the below picture) and third is near Bramheshwar. It is said that thousand years ago, many ancient Rishis have done deep meditation sitting in these caves.

After entering Balekilla from the Mahadarvaja, you need to climb few steps to go to Bramheshar Temple.

Remnants on Bale Killa. Wonder, how beautiful the life had been for the people staying when these structures were intact!

This is a small and beautiful Brahmeshwar Temple.

In front of Brameshwar temple, there is a beautiful ChandraTale.

We spent around half an hour on top of Bale Killa and we were just spellbound with the beauty around. Rajgad is situated on top of a beautiful hill named Murumbdev which has 3 trunks in 3 directions.

View was quite clear and we were able to spot many forts from the top – Torna, Lingana, Raigad, Sinhagad, Purandar and many more which I could not recognize due to lack of expertize in this area. One can rarely get to see so much of forts; we were plain lucky to have such a clear weather. Last time when I was on Rajgad, there was fog everywhere and there was hardly any visibility from the top.

View of Sanjeevani Machi from top of Bale Killa was just breathtaking. What a lovely piece of architecture! It starts from the base of vertical cliff of Balekilla and runs around 0.75KM in length.

 No wonder, Rajgad is recently awarded as the best fort in the world.

After witnessing the magic for over 30 min, we then climbed down from Bale Killa and proceeded towards the Suvela Maachi. Backside of Balekilla was looking pretty from the way.

We came across a tiny Hanuman Temple on the way.

Finally Suvela Machi was visible. Another architectural wonder!

It is written by Historians that these two maachis are the most beautiful maachis among the 350+ forts. I have not seen all the maachis on all forts but I can’t agree more on this observation.

Due to lack of time, we did not go to the end of the Suvela Maachi. Instead we visited Nedhe- Giant Hole in the mountain formed due to natural erosion.

On the way to Nedhe, there is a small Ganapati idol carved in the wall.

We needed to overcome a small rock patch to reach to Nedhe.

And finally we were sitting in the Nedhe and we witnessed another fantastic view! It was a majestic feeling sitting and just witnessing the beauty around.

We came back to Padmavati temple and had a wonderful breakfast of Poha and Tea in front of a small house near Padmavati Temple.

It was almost 10AM now and we had our bus to Pune at 11AM. So we had 1 hour to catch our bus. Next direct bus to Pune was after 5 hours so we just couldn’t afford to miss this bus. So immediately after the breakfast, we started climbing down.

I was pretty confident of reaching to the bottom within an hour so I didn’t miss any opportunity of capturing the scenes that I could not capture while trekking at night.

View of Padmavati Lake:

View of Nedhe where we had the privilege to visit and sit inside:

Beautiful trail while climbing down:

Some beautiful views captured while descending::

Some time with villagers:

Sandip and Nikhil came down in 30 min. I was the second one to reach in 50 min. Still, there were no signs of our 3 friends who were lagging behind. Finally, it was 11AM and bus was about to depart and there came our 3 friends almost running and panting.

Finally, it was time to say good bye! Rajgad queen was waiting for us to drop us to Pune.

Overall, this trek was a wonderful experience. Memories of Trekking in moonlight, staying in Padmavati Temple, witnessing beautiful sunrise, breathtaking mountain views from the top of Balekilla, marvelous Sanjeevani and Suvela Maachis will remain with me for a long, long time.

Well, despite having so many stunning moments, I can’t say that I had enough of Rajgad. There is still so much to explore – to enter Rajgad through other gates – Palidarvaja and Aludarvaja, actually visiting Sanjeevani Machi, exploring the caves, witnessing the sunset and experiencing beauty of Rajgad on a clear day in the rainy season! Many more reasons to visit Rajgad again and again!

Hope you enjoyed reading the blog!

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