Koleshwar to Mahabaleshwar - Classic Traverse!

Bhau

That is what everybody called him. And, that was due to a genuine respect for the gentleman, who had gotten thousands of people get up from their bums and helped them realize the importance of the outdoors! He was single-handedly instrumental in organizing treks every Sunday, since he started his trekking group, way back in the year 2000!

Indeed, it is an amazing feat that he has achieved, without missing out on a single Sunday.

As I stood at the tea stall, I was listening to people narrate stories of his past adventures, and how he has helped people in getting addicted to the sport that is trekking! He started this group with a couple of his friends, most of whom have dropped out now, but he is one person who is going strong, and it seemed from his attitude and demeanor that - he is indeed going to go strong, going forward! More power to him! 

Chance Meeting

It was during my run on the hill behind my home that I bumped into my friend, Atul who told me that he was going to go on a trek the previous Sunday. However, he couldn’t go because of some personal reasons.

I enquired about the group, and got to know that this group takes people on treks every Sunday. So, I signed up for the group, where admittance is only allowed if there is somebody who refers your name. With Atul’s reference, I had no problem getting into the group. 

A few months went by, and I wasn’t able to go on any of the treks being organized on Sundays. I was looking for an opportunity to go on a trek which would be a tough one, which I hadn’t done before.

And that opportunity came on the 28th of November. I was too tied up with a conference in my university on the previous two days, and it got really late before I hit the bed the day before, but that didn’t deter me from going for the trek.

Journey

Shit happens, and nobody can do anything about it! When we hit the highway, we realized that one of the bus’ radiator had a problem, and that is where we lost an hour and a half. One the second bus arrived, we were well on our way towards Wai, where we take a detour from the usual road to Mahabaleshwar.

Witnessed the famous Mahaganpati temple on our way, along with the village of Menawli, where there is a famous ancestral Waada of Nana Fadnavis. I haven’t been there yet, but have heard interesting stories about it from my grandmother, who was friends with the family.

She had stayed there at the Waada with the then main lady of the Fadnavis family, and in her dream - she was supposed to have roamed the entire property, with someone from the past, who showed her every room in the Waada.

Upon getting up in the morning, she could reiterate each and every detail of the property, as if she’s been staying there for generations. 

We crossed Menawli, and we were on our way to Jambhli, the last village on this route, from where the trek starts. Enroute, we saw Pandavgad, as well as Kenjalgad, which we had climbed along with Raireshwar, a couple of years ago.

The road that goes to the other side of Raireshwar also passed us. This is the road that one could take to go to the other side - towards Bhor, from where we had climbed Raireshwar. 

Trek

Once we reached Jambhli, we deboarded the bus, and immediately started hiking up the Koleshwar plateau, after brief introductions of some prominent people who had accompanied us on this trek.

The beginning of the trek was by crossing a stream where the Basalt of that region was highly weathered, and had very interesting shades. While I and Rajib were discussing Basalt, people got interested, and started discussing with Rajib about earth sciences. I can say with confidence that during the course of the trek, Rajib definitely made some of the finance and IT people interested in earth science, as well as got himself a huge fan following. 

The trail skirted along the edge of the water reservoir, before going straight up the mountain of Koleshwar.

It was a steep trail, however completely covered in the jungle which helped us in saving ourselves from the sun.

At times, it became crowded, as we were almost a group of 60+ participants on this interesting trek, and everybody - for some reason - wanted to be in the front! We had taken a guy from the village, who would show us the way up, so that nobody gets lost in the jungle.

However, later we learnt that the guy didn’t know the route himself.

The guy in front, Ganesh was great with his speed as well as marking prowess - with which he was marking the route up with both ribbons as well as chalk. Then there were two kids, one in 9th standard and one in 6th, who were helping him with the markings. 

While hiking up, I learnt about the people ahead and behind me, some of whom were veterans in the field of trekking. Yogesh was an enthusiastic young guy, and Mr. Pawar had a lot of stories to tell! 

A brief stop mid-way where one could see Raireshwar plateau in its entirety along with Kenjalgad and half an hour later, we were on top.

We had our breakfast there, in the cool breeze with views of Jambhli village, Raireshwar plateau, Kenjalgad, and one could see Kamalgad in the far distance, but one couldn’t miss the huge plateau of Mahabaleshwar.

We were supposed to descend the entire Koleshwar plateau, and climb up to the Mahabaleshwar plateau. 

After breakfast, we started to go across the plateau, from where the route descended to the village of Jor. However, the man from the village wasn’t sure about the route, and ended up taking us to a different route - not once, but twice! The GPS route that my watch mapped actually looks like a fork, as we went back and forth between various routes. At a central point, when we arrived - we were happy to see people from our group dancing and singing, as if there was a party going on!

This was the indomitable spirit of the mountains that I always talk about all the time - not to worry about the situations, but taking them in our stride. Bhau and one veteran trekker got together, as he had the route mapped on his phone from a previous time when we had come here.

And after deliberations and discussions, we were able to get on the correct route which descended towards Jor.

The descent was beautiful, meandering through the jungle with views of the Balkawde dam in front of us, and Jor village nestled in the valley below us. The entire strata of Koleshwar was visible, which inspired Rajib to start talking about a Geology field visit here! While descending, he almost converted an IT engineer working in Siemens into an earth scientist. 

At places, the descent was tricky, however when we got a chance, we quickly slipped by, and descended quickly to reach the advance party where lunch was going on. Lunch consisted of multiple things from different people’s tiffin boxes, which were quite interesting. On the way down to Jor, a fellow trekker, Mr. Marne also asked me if I was interested in a trek to Harishchandragad, via the Makad-Naal route, a tough one, which is seldom attempted. Because it was on the 1-2 Dec, I declined the very tempting offer, and thought of finishing the current trek at hand. After a quick bite, we crossed the pretty bridge on the Krishna river, to begin our ascent towards Mahabaleshwar. 

The hut which we could see from the riverside seemed far away in the sky, as it was an ascent of almost 800m from there. The trail crossed over the bridge and skirted along the bank of the river on the other side, before heading up in the forest, which was quite thick. The river bank had been completely obliterated by some recent landslides, which led to the trail getting affected. However, jumping across a few big boulders we crossed over to the other side again, and that is when the climb began! This climb - once begins, ends only when you exit at the point near the Mahabaleshwar temple. 

The switchbacks were pretty, with huge trees at each bend, an occasional high-step, where one had to pull one’s body over the high rock step, and a few photo points, from where one could see the entire expanse of the Balkawde Dam, Koleshwar plateau in front of us.

The view improved as we got higher and higher to Mahabaleshwar. Navnath, one of the trekkers who I regularly meet on Singagad, walked up and we took a few clicks of the vista that laid in front of us, along with both of us in it.

Rajib had just shot up at high speed, and I only got a chance to meet him once I topped out. 

After about an hour’s climb, we reached the final stage of the climb, where rock-cut steps of Mahabaleshwar plateau welcomed us.

This was very similar to the rock steps we took to get up to the Koleshwar plateau, through a narrow gully between huge rock faces. At the end of these steps, we were welcomed by a temple of lord Ganesha, which overlooked the entire valley in the front.

It was as if the lord had blessed nature with the picturesque view we were witnessing, with the dam backwaters, Kamalgad and Kenjalgad in the distance, Koleshwar and Raireshwar visible beyond the fading light of the sun, and at one end, the wind-eroded hole in one of the faces of Mahabaleshwar plateau reminded us of the force we should never undermine. 

Rajib was waiting for me at the temple, from where we started towards the Mahabaleshwar temple.

As soon as we got on top of the plateau, we were greeted by a huge farm house of some businessman, complete with a white picket fence. It had a huge garden in front, and big balconies on the top, to witness the beauty of the valley that lay underneath us. 

A quick bowing down at the age-old temple which has a rich history and legacy, a cup of tea, and we were on our way back home to Pune once everybody arrived.

Thus, a splendid trek wrapped up with countless memories.