Harihar Fort

Harihar Fort

Vertical Mountain face of more than 200 ft. In the middle of it, Somewhere, an orifice and To reach  till that point, vertical climb (of more than 80 degree gradient) through flight of stairs carved on open face of the rock face. Interesting? That’s just a part of the story. Once you pass through an Orifice (Darwaja), then another set of short alleys, stairs spiraling left, right, straight or taking U turn before taking you to the “Top”. Sounds exciting? All this you can experience in Harihar fort Trek. Harihar trek is like Hollywood movie. Full of Action, thrill, adventure and all this in 120 min. flat.

Harihar fort is situated at 3500 ft. in Tryambakeshwar range of Sahyadri mountain in Maharashtra. It is located in Nashik district. It’s base village is Nirgudpada. From Mumbai, you can each via Kasara – Khodala – Nirgudpada route Or Igatpuri/Ghoti – Pahine- Nirgudpada route. If you are going via public transport take Kasara route as public transport (read jeeps and sumos) are more frequently available than other route. ST buses are infrequent on both routes and may available at the gap of 3-4 hrs.

This trek can be easily done as 1 day trek from Mumbai. However, We decided to do it as overnight trek.  We started early morning on Christmas day of 2015 and reached at Nirgudpada at 2 pm. thanks to low frequency of public transport as mentioned above. However nice winter breeze was making afternoon sun pleasant.  Even though I mentioned Nirgudpada as base village, it is just a cluster of few huts and small houses.

Trail to fort goes through fields and then climbs hill till it reaches on the col between Fani dongar (Mountain) and Harihar fort. From there, trail turns right to Harihar fort. After that you can climb rock cut steps to reach first darwaja.

While following trail from Nirgudpada, focus on col between Fani dongar on left and Harihar fort towards right. However there are two (or more than that) prominent trails, one moves slightly left towards Fani dongar. Take that route. Another route, which initially looks like going towards harihar fort, climbs till considerable height and vanishes when height to reach at col remain just less that 100 ft. or so. Many (around 50 %) groups reach till this point and then to avoid going down again, many of them climb through thrones, risky patches to reach to col. Wise option is to get down bit and move towards correct path and reach to correct trail to avoid unnecessary risk.

From fields till col, it is nice climb where your heart can demonstrate how fast it can beat and make its presence felt. It takes approx. an hour to reach till here. Then we turned right towards Harihar. In golden light of evening Sun and cool breeze, Harihar was standing tall showing it’s true might. Our mind was already racing on the rock cut steps. But it was still some distance away.

From base, Harihar fort appears, rectangular in shape. However from this point, we realize that it is actually triangular in shape.

Before steps starts, there is nice slope with scree, loose soil and nothing to hold :-). If you start skidding from here, you can enjoy non-stop slide till base of valley. (At least, that thought cross your mind). So needs to negotiate this patch carefully. One of our group member was so careful at this patch, that he transformed from two leg animal to four leg, then tortoise and then crawling creature. He would have given run for money to gecko or crocodile with his style.

 

Then we reached to most interesting part of the trek. It was those vertical rock cut steps. These are nicely cut steps with proper holds. It feels awesome when you climb till darwaja to look back straight down in the valley.

But that’s not all. Once you cross the darwaja, internal rock cut route moves through narrow and short alleys and internal spiraling steps moving like snakes with lots of twists and turns. 

After crossing two more darwaja like this we reached at the top (but not the top most point of the fort). From here, we walked towards lake and further ahead to shelter (this was probably old temple). It had enough space for 10 – 12 people to stay. 

When we reached there, it was getting dark and strong wind was blowing. That was increasing chilling effect of winter. Good part of the room was that it’s a rock structure, close from all side and has only small window like space to enter inside. So even though it was chilling outside, it was nice and warm inside.

There was already another group there. But we all adjusted fine. Even though we had our food with us, they offered evening and morning tea and even breakfast. 

 

It was full moon night, so it was wonderful experience, sitting on mountain top in the dark, looking at moon rise and chatting. After chatting for long time, before cold and wind could freeze us, we returned to our warm room.  

   

Next morning, we got up early. But there was no point in going outside in cold and dark. So we extended our sleep till 6.30 am. Then we got up to witness Sunrise, clicked few photographs. Our co- trekkers offered us tea (It is actually heaven to get ready made hot tea in such cold morning where you have expected nothing). 

Our next target was to reach on top most point of the fort. To reach till that point, route is steeper and full of loose soil and scree. If you are confident enough then only attempt to reach till top. (There is another route to reach here which comes from lake, which is safer). After that, small rock climb and you are on the top.

Experience from here is awesome. With wind flowing at such high speed unobstructed that It was difficult to hold flag even for some time and you get the feeling that it can actual lift you off your feet. (So it is better to keep flag down, at least you will be on the ground ;-) )

Then we came back and started descend. Negotiating with all those steps (internal and external) was taking time. We had to be careful as our sacks where hitting rock face and in turn pushing us towards valley. Also while descending, eyes follow straight into the valley. That adds excitement ;-). 

We negotiated all steps, scree patches safely and soon came back to Nirgudpada. Then reached Kasara via Khodala. From there back to Mumbai.

It was another wonderful experience which will remain in the memory for long long time.