Reaching the sky....Night trek to Kalavantin Durg

Kalavatin Durg perched atop the height of 2300 ft. Alone, lonely and abandoned, but still looking down at its subjects as if they are at its mercy...the feeling that buzzed me, when I had my first peek at the fort from the Mumbai-Pune highway. 

Though no one knows much about the history of this fort, but locals say that it was built for a queen Kalavatin around 530 BC. Looking closely at the fort and its strategic location looks as if the fort was built as a lookout point, as it gives a perfect view of surrounding areas.  But honestly, am not sure of the history and there is no written document which can help us to substantiate the claim. 
 Whatever said and done the fort has something which keeps calling out to the nature lovers who love to trek this beautiful fort. 

Being a part of some club always helps when you want to go for such treks. These clubs get all the like-minded people together for such adventurous trip, where you are away from the luxury of life and have to really live like an early man. Three friends from the previous trips were also joining for this trip and was super excited as I was meeting them after a long time. Though we had not met in between our other treks, but we have been in touch some or the other way. Just a day before the actual day of the trip, one of my friend met with an accident and he was not able to make it. That made us little sad, but we couldn't do anything, just hoping that we would go together in another such trip.

Though the trek was planned almost three months before the scheduled departure, so it had us counting our days for the trip. The organizers had planned everything, basic details had been shared with us.  The final details of the trek, along with ticket details where shared a week before the trip, along with the instructions for all the trekkers. 

From the time, I got the list from the group, I added few of mine own things that I felt was required. My haversack had fruits, cucumbers, and eatables which would be required, and apart from that I had my first aid kit, sleeping bag, small notepad and of course an extra pair of clothes.  Now, another important thing was, we were told that each one of us have to carry 3 litres of water for the trek. If required, we could buy some more water at Thakurwadi. Before the start of the trek we were informed that there is a water shortage at Kalavantin Durg, and chances of getting water is almost nil, so we had to use the water judiciously. The luggage, sleeping bag and water...wooh!! this was huge luggage, but we all managed.

 The D-day finally came and some of us boarded the train at Nampally, some at Begumpet, but majority of us were at Lingampally. We all met at platform 1, introduced ourselves to the new ones in the group. The introduction got us going and we were yapping away to glory, about each other’s experience on various treks. Once we all boarded our train, settled ourselves comfortably, one of us pulled out a pack of cards that had some of us going, some with books and some just chatted. Most of all, I just went off to sleep as I could not keep my eyes open. Next day saw us, getting up at the leisurely, having tea and of course the famous vada pav as breakfast.  We were all fascinated by the scenery outside our window…. as the train just chugged along. 

Reaching Karjat was just the start of the trip, from there we had to take a bus to Shedung Phata. We walked towards the state run bus depot and got into the bus, which took us to Shedung Phata. We got down at Shedung Phata and from there we needed to go to Thakurwadi. To reach Thakurwadi, we could either wait for the state bus or take an auto. Since we did not know the bus timings and also none of us wanted to wait for the bus, we collectively decided that auto was the best means to reach the place. We hired two autos, which could seat 7 people at a time. We all adjusted ourselves into the auto and reached the Thakurwadi village.

From Thakurwadi village, we could see the Kalavantin Durg more clearly, my thoughts were like...it looks spooky...:-). From the Thakurwadi bus stop, we all started to walk towards the Durg. The people who had been to this place earlier, set the GPS on and we followed the lead.  After going few meters, we came to dead end and there was no way we could go.  We found that it was a private gated community and we have to trace our route back to get to starting point so that we can start all over again to reach our destination - Kalavantin Durg. Most of us literally got bugged as we were feeling down as we had lost our way, above us the Sun God was blazing fires, it was scorching hot and we literally zapped out after walking few meters. We had to do some maneuvering, so that we are back on right direction. Once we got things right, we had to walk all the way back again to the place from we started, and that has us in. But, the sight of the Durg had us calling and we started walking again. The trek was slow as the heat was killing us and whatever amount of water that we carried was slowing getting exhausted. But still the team kept moving.  
 

 We had few villagers from the nearby tribal areas, who had setup lemonade stands and serving the trekkers. That was a welcome break for us. Honestly speaking, at a certain point I was like gone case as I started having severe headache. But some of my co-trekkers had been real support for me as they cheered me and ensured that they were with me the whole way up to the base camp.  At the base camp, we found a small eat out that was run by a family. They served food, poha, and tea.  We had quick tea and rested for some time and then we decided to trek up the Durg.   

The sun was setting and we had a beautiful view of it from the base camp.  We set out for the trek up. 
Switching on the GPS as our guide, we set out to trek the spooky and lonely mountain range to reach the Durg. Each one of us carried our water bottle, torch and few things to munch. The climb was steep and top it all, we were informed that the tigers do prowl in the night. So the people at the base camp requested us to come back by 8 PM, whether we completed the trek or not.  Off we went slowly climbing through rocks and cliffs. Midway, we reached the cave, which is man-made. The entrance of cave is small and elongated. We had to crawl in to see the cave. The inside of the cave could happily accommodate 12 adults with ease.  

 It was moonless night and we had to climb the trek the whole lot of the mountain side to reach our destination. As we walked up, we found that the steeper the climb was. The climb was real crazy as the route would change from rocky to loose rocky and mud, then back to rocks.  This continued, till we reached the 300 and odd steps that we needed to cover to reach the notch. The steps were narrow and broken at lot of places and higher we went, steeper was the climb.  After every few steps, we had to move either towards the right or left side to keep ourselves close to the rock wall.  Anil was leading the trek up and he was giving us warnings, so we could move accordingly. Hats off to him!! These stone steps did not have any railings which would stop our fall in case we did slip.  Thankfully, we did not…Honestly speaking, the proverb that comes to mind, as I write the article is “Looks can be deceptive”. Very true, this entire trek proved it in every sense of the word. Though our trek was in the night, so we were somehow saved from the scorching sun.  But the trek from Thakurwadi to the base valley had literally burned us and we were thinking it was wrong time to trek this peak, but when I look back and think I feel that this trek was about the test of endurance and stamina for all of us.

We reached the top and were astounded looking at the beauty…the moonless night was blazing with man-made lights….the beauty cannot be defined.  To reach the top, one needed rock climbing experience to reach there.  Once you reach there, it was nothing just the sheer beauty of nature, wind, and moonless night and lights surrounding the top. At the top, it was nothing just the flurry of cameras that went whirling to capture the beauty of things in and around. We stayed there for quite a while, enjoying the breeze, silence, and solitude.  Though, we were in a group, but everyone was busy with their thoughts and enjoying the precious time that we hardly get in our day-to-day life.

We did not realize the time spent there, then suddenly one of us gave us wakeup call from our solitude. We began our descending process…Climbing down was more dangerous than climbing up. We were partially sitting and getting down…as it was dark and we already had a taste of broken steps and changing sides.  We had to do the same while getting down. 

Finally, we reached base camp and refreshed ourselves.  Time for dinner...though we had trekked up and down, but we did not feel like eating much. After dinner, we set up the campfire and had fun talking, singing, discussing and laughing to our heart’s content. 

Before going to bed, we poured water on the fire and then slid back into our sleeping bags to call it a day. Sleeping under the stars….awesome feeling.  Next day morning, we took our time to get up and refresh ourselves. We had breakfast of poha and sweet tea. We cleared our due with those lovely people who ensured that we did not go hungry. Then we started our trek back. Few places, there was loose rock and sand, and nothing to hold on. We literally slipped while walking back, but still we made it. We all assembled at Thakurwadi to board the bus to karjat, from where we had our train scheduled back to our Hyderabad.

Another one of the beautiful forts covered and it was it indeed climb to heavens in the moonless night…

Photo Credit: Tanuj, Bharat, & Rahul