Kohoj Fort - Dilwala Trek
कोहोज - दिल वाला ट्रेक
Height : 3200 Feet Date : 29th Nov 2014
Nature of Trek : Simple Duration : 1 day
Author & Photos - Amol
Kohoj fort is in Thane
district of Maharashtra. It’s Base village is Vaghote. It is situated on
Wada-Palghar (or Manor) road. So Mumbai trekkers coming from Central side can
come via Thane/Kalyan – Wada-Vaghote route and people coming from Western side
can come from Palghar. Situated at
altitude of 3200 ft, with Difficulty level “Simple” and Endurance level “Simple
to Medium”, it is ideal one day trek for trekkers from Mumbai and around.
Flowing through Mumbai’s
Life line (Suburban trains) and rural arteries (S.T. Buses), (with some blockages
;-) ) we reached to Vaghote (Via Kalyan-Wada) and started our trek by 9.40 am.
Nice winter morning breeze and warm sun was providing perfect setup for the trek.
Tasty breakfast of hot poha that we had at Kalyan (Thanks to Bharat, for
arranging it on time) provided us enough fuel to leap ahead.
Within 5 min. of walk, we
came across a pond. This is first heart because pond is heart shaped. After 10
min. of walk on this trail, took right to climb on small hillock which is built
to create small dam. It has formed beautiful water body on its other side, Co-incidentally,
this water body too is heart shaped. This view was perfect start for trek.
After moving across dam
wall, trail starts climbing and enters into jungle. Though initially it is
prominent, later it has multiple bifurcations at multiple places, like any
other trail in the jungle. Hence it is necessary to keep judging to see if we
are on right trail in this patch. Whole trail circumvents the fort mountain
(that is visible from base) from left. From dam wall, we start moving towards
its left and in jungle trail, we move further to left. Till half way of the
jungle patch it keep on moving towards left and then bit straight and then
gradually starts moving towards right. Climb is gradual and through forest
which reduces exposure to sun and in-turn exertion. After 1 -1.30 hr. climb, we
reached to pass (Khind) in the mountain. After crossing this pass, trail
moves to back side of the mountain and now sets its direction further towards
right. Another half an hour climb brings us on big plateau.
This plateau is exactly at
the back side of the mountain face which is visible from base. Big span of plateau
is bit of surprise at such height in the mountain. On Mountain there is Shiva
temple. There are couple of water tanks in front of it. Few more water tanks
are there towards left side of temple. From here Kohoj fort’s famous “Human”
structures on top are visible. Fortification is also visible on the way.
From here, 10-15 min. climb
towards top takes us to small Hanuman temple and water tanks. Water in this
tanks is clear and potable. We decided to have “Lunch Break” here. We had
variety of items for lunch from every one, Jam, Bread, Ketchup, boiled eggs but
among all, Idli and Chutney that Bhal brought was hit. After having tummy full,
some of us had idea of resting (read “sleeping”) there. But as we were running
short of time, I again had to enter into the role of “Dusht Trek Leader”
and deprive them of that pleasure by restricting it to mere 15 min. rest.
From these tanks, one trail
moves towards right (while facing towards rock). It merely leads towards edge
of mountain. Not much to see here but view of valley from this point is awesome.
You can see Wada-Manor road, both heart shaped pond and lake. And yes, Like
most forts, there is Mowgli point (my term for Rock Protruding from
mountain face with nothing but deep valley below (a.k.a. Jungle book)). Nothing
can beat the experience of sitting on it. But since we were running short of
time, we quickly clicked few snaps and came back to our lunch point.
Trail that moves towards
left from here goes to Citadel (Balekilla), Any fort’s top most point and
most secure area. As you pass through entrance (Darwaja) which is in dilapidated
state, there is small temple near the entrance. From here, a trail towards
right, takes us to “Human” structures. 
This is the top most point of
the fort. There are two natural rock formation which looks like Human figure.
This is amazing natural wonder. As you circumvent these two “Human” figures,
from each direction, it looks different. As if he is inviting you with wide
open arms in Shahrukh’s DDLJ style….. Trail further leads to small Krishna
temple. We reached at this point, captured the panorama in our heart (No camera
can capture the beauty truly) and turned back.
Humming Tuze dekha to…..,
we bid adieu to Kohoj’s hero, started our descend. En route refilled our
bottles from water tanks. Moving slowly and steadily, with couple of occasions
of trail searching and fall, all reached down to lake safely before sunset (which
was the goal). It was very tempting to take long break here to absorb the
serenity of the place. But we have to restrict that break to 10 min. as it was already
getting dark.
Soon we reached to highway.
In true trekker style instead of waiting for ST bus, hitched the ride on Truck,
who dropped us at Bhiwandi (some of us, who were travelling in truck for first
time, enjoyed it most :-) ).
From there Kalyan and back to Mumbai.
WoW,
One more, Satisfying and Memorable trek !!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author : Navin
Photos : Amol
A day started with a
subhrabatham Alarm at 3.30 am.This time I was very excited to trek to Kohoj,As
i was missed last trek to
Tandulwadi because i
suffered from cold.
I Quickly got freshen up and
wasting no time i ate banana and drunk glass of milk ,left home as i have to
catch first local which will be arrived at 4.10 am from kharghar station.
Unfortunately i missed the
first train ,i immediately called up Amol(our Trek Organizer and a wonderful
human being)
This is the first time i
missed train during going for trek ,i usually very particular about the time
whenever i go somewhere.
I took a another train and
got down at kurla then i met amol in kurla Station.Amol was bit Angry because i
was late by 25 mins.
Amol told me his friends
were waiting since half hour ,Amol's friends were also coming to trek with us.
In Kanjur Marg ,Amol's friends
were boarded train ,Amol introduced Bhal ,Deepak ,Ishaan to me.
They were very funny and
teasing amol all the time for being late,
And Amol convince them due to me he got late .
We reached Kalyan station
,Bharat and chandan joined us,We took a ST bus from Kalyan to Wada,In bus we
had Poha which bharat has brought for us.
Thanks to BHarat i was
starving like anything.After having Poha ,i got re energize.
We got down at Wada and took
a bus to Vagote ,this is the place where Kohoj Fort is located.
Before start a trek ,Amol
has given us few do's and don'ts to follow during the trek e.g Follow him ,dont
talk loudly,be vigilent ,dont throw waste during
trek this are few basic
guideline amol use to give before trek and he maintain very discipline throughout
the trek as usual.
We started the trek with a
Loud shout of'Ganapati Bappa Morya' for a positive start and to make folks enthusiastic.
We six people had followed Amol as per instruction.
There were 2 km walking
distance which was a plateau surface to do a Actual trekking, Along the way we
saw one amazing heart shaped Pond so we started our photo session over there:).
We started a climbing
mountain which is full of trees all over and there was just narrow way to
walk.At one point we had not found the way to go further so we took a rest.And
As usual Amol is going here and there to find a way .Till the time amol found
the way, we were having homemade tasty chakli's which Bhal has brought from his
home.We were shouting Amol every few minute just to ensure that he is alright
and we telling amol to find a way very slowly as we were getting more time to
relax.
Eventually amol has not
found prominent way to go further ,then Bharat has suggested to see the google
Locator.When we saw the google locator ,surprisingly
it prompted correct way to
reach a fort. After seeing this google Locator path ,amol also got convince
with the Google loctor path as we dont have any other option.
During the climbing ,
Inshaan and Deepak was continuously cracking extra hilarious jokes on Amol And
Amol sportively taking that joke.
Bhal was coming very slowly
,and his slowness has proved as a advantage for us excluding Amol because we
were getting more to take a rest till he sync with us then he took rest and
again we got another 5 mins rest :) .After climbing the mountain Halfway ,Bharat
come over with giddiness,after few
minutes ,bharat recovered from
and he replied with his
famous dialog......arre jawalach aahe ,chala ..thambu naka........thamshil tar
ajun thakaila hoil.
We reached a plateau surface
, where we saw Lord Shankar temple and 2 man were having their lunch besides temple.
And we also seated next to them.And i asked one of the person How much time he
would climb the mountain? He said "20 - 25 mins" :o .i was thinking
we took 3 1/2 hour and we still not reached the actual fort.
And we started climbing
towards fort, we saw Lord Krishna temple .We again took a 2 mins rest there and
we started walking.
There were few people
already having party (Non veg & Drink Party :) ).its very disappoint to see
the surface has plastic bottles,wrappers ,beer bottles at some places. Finally
we found the place to have lunch ...and we had good lunch .....took 15 mins nap
at Lord Hanuman temple.
After that we moved towards
fort place...its again disappointed to see names written with oil paint all
over fort ....i don’t understand why people are not preserving our historical
monuments which is like a god gift for us :( .It was so amazing to see
beautiful scenery from a fort. We all started taking pics in different
angle...surprisingly Amol also asked to take his pic.this was the first time i
ever heard from Amol.
Amol is known for taking
pics of Sceneries, birds, animal. It’s very rear that Amol has taken pics of
human being except group photo.
After roaming the fort ,we
decided to go down. While walking
downside ,Chandan was not comfortable walking in downward direction, so he took
a support from me.
After that he comfortable in
walking downward. There were few place where ground was so slippery ,we have to
walk very vigilantly.
At one point unfortunately
amol slipped to 8-10 meters down, fortunately nothing happens to Amol. But Amol
reaction after slip was so funny that we laughed alot.
Bharat was doing the acting
of amol's reaction it was so funny that we could not stop laughing.
It was very difficult to
find the correct way and also time was ticking we had to reach down before sun
set
So we took the waterfall way
to come down. It was extremely difficult to walk due to ungrip rocks.Finally
Deepak found the correct way ,we reached down safely.
As i described trek was full
of adventurous, thrilled and fun .It was wonderfull experience to trek with
Amol,Bharat,Chandan ,Inshan,Deepak, And BHal.
Again BIG thank you to Amol
for Planning and executing the trek successfully.
