Scaling Mt. Kalsubai in April

Hey friends,

  This is your friend Pappu Blogwalla. First of all I’m sorry for not blogging for so many days. My exams were on. But I’m here after the bloody carnage of the exams field. This time I’m going to share my experience with you about a trek I did some days ago. Actually, a lot of days ago. This trek was at Mt. Kalsubai (Maharashtra’s Heights Peak – 1646 meters from Mean Sea Level). I and five of my friends did the trek on 7/April/2012. Although you might be thinking that why this chap went in the burning heat of April, but let me tell you the trek is awesome in any season. Me my friends were tired of the college stuff and were planning for a trek from a long time. We all wanted to do scale the Mt. Kalsubai and so the thought began. Here is a video i made (sorry for the low quality of video)

  First we were thinking of a night trek to avoid the brutal April heat. But after reading some experiences online we got to know that there may be some treats from monkeys. So we decided to go for a day trek. So finally we decided to go on Saturday so that we could do the trek on Saturday and Rest for the coming Sunday to be all ready for Mondays work. And so was 7^th of April finalized.

  We decided to start from Pune at night. So all of us assembled at Shivaji Nagar at 9:30 pm so that we could get a bus at 10 pm to 11 pm. We all met and met as if we meeting after 10 years :P . We all time passed for the next half hour. We got a bus of Satana which was leaving at 11:30 pm. So we boarded the bus and it started. We were still in the mischief mode at had to hear from many of the passengers. The driver drove the bus as if he was a fighter pilot and we reached Sangamner bus stand by 2:30 am. We got to know that the bus to Baari village was at 6am. So we had no options to do time pass till 6am. We had tea and came back to bus stand and tried to sleep but couldn’t. Somehow we passed the time till 5am. At 5am the public toilets were opened and we went to attend nature’s call. At 6am the bus to Igatpuri was at platform and we boarded it. We thought that it would take us just one hour to Baari but the bus left us only at 8:30am. We had some bhajjis and wada-pav at Bhandardhara. Those were also like a drop of amrut to us after starving for so long. After getting down at Baari we got to known that there were two Baari villages - one upper and one lower. Both were not even 500meters apart.



At the Base

A view of Mt Kalsubai from the base

Another view of Mt Kalsubai from the base

Filling our bottles at Baari

Humble Baari village

Baari Village

"THE" click

 A view of Baari while on our way up

Can you see the ladders

I guess you can see it know :P

Be carefull here - 2nd ladder

When we thought we were lost

And we were almost there

A view from top

And one more

Kalsubai Goddesss

Actually the highest point

And we strated on our way back 

 The temple at Baari village

 "THE" tree

 Adieu Mt. Kalsubai

                                                                  Adieu Baari
 

  So we were at the upper Baari village at around 8:45am. We filled our bottles at the hand up here. We were still hungry so we enquired for breakfast. But then thought, that we could come back and take lunch as we had some dates packets to help us gain energy when going up. So we paid `100/- advance money for lunch and then started our trek at 9am. I am an avid photographer so I was happy to get clear shots of the view around. While going up we missed a path and were on wrong way. But that was too fun. We met a village old-lady when we were going wrong and she told us how to go. Trust me guys don’t try to waste your thinking as it is just a straight path. After waking for some time we came to the right path. We had some dates over here. We could see the first and second ladder from here. These had 80 and 152 steps respectively. The second ladders was a bit threatening as it was corroded and if it broke we were to land directly into Baari village. After walking for some more time we could see the third ladder. All of us thought that we are just 5 minutes now from the peak. But after scaling this ladder of 20 steps we saw that we were to go more and did not know how much. We had a halt at place where a villager was selling lemonade. We had lemonade here and he told us that it would be one hour to reach the peak. So after paying `25/- per lemonade (costliest lemonade of my life) we started our journey up.

  After walking for around fifteen minutes we saw the peak. There was a small hut and a cistern in front of it. The water was not so potable but we filled our emptied bottles just in case of emergency. After walking for 30 minutes we were at the foot of the last ladder which had 60 steps at this point we all climbed up as if we were not tired at all. We climbed up and there we were at the Mt. Everest of Maharashtra. It was almost 12:30The top palace is not even 40 feet * 50feet but the satisfaction you get of climbing so high is priceless. After viewing the scenic views of Mt.Alang, Mt. Madan, Mt. Kulang, Rajmachi, Dhak Bahiri we started on our way back to the base at 1:30pm.

  All were in Nirvana mode. Descending was easy than climbing up. All of us were at Baari at 4pm. We had lunch at 4:30 pm and started back on our journey to Pune. We were thinking of going from Igatpuri side this time by train as we were told by the villagers that the transportation to Sangamner was not so frequent. But we came to the shady bus stand and got a ST bus for Akole (on the way to Sangamner). We got down at Akole at 6pm. We got a bus to Sangamner at 6:30 pm. I think it was the last bus so was fully loaded by passengers. Came to Sangamner at 7:30pm. As soon as we got down at Sangamner we got the same Satana bus to Pune. We were back at Shivaji Nagar bus stand at 11pm. And thus ended our tour.

Some piece of advice:

If possible take your vehicle.

If in summer try for a night trek. As I read of monkey trouble there wasn’t any. We met some kids returning back from top while we started from the base. If it’s a full moon day its even good.

Carry lots of water from base itself.

Lunch is for `50/- per person. You could also stay for a night in the village.

Try to collect information for your return journey if you are relying on bus.

By my rating Mt. Kalsubai is as hard as Mt. Sinhagarh i.e. it’s damn easy. If in months of monsoon you will surely get some awesome view. There are many windmills in the opposite hill. Try to catch its awesome views. I will rate the difficulty level of this trek as 2/5 and masti rating as 5/5. Surely a trek that one should do once in his/her lifetime.

So that’s it folks from my side. Do tell me your views and any queries if any.

Next blog is for the folks who travel to Baramati from Pune. J

So till then this your यार, मित्र, friend, दोस्त, ami, amicus, amigo, signing out,