(11th January 2009)
Who all made it?
Dhaval Ramtirthkar, Sanjay Negandhi, Abhishek, Anup, one Gujju, another Gujju
Where is Naneghat?
It lies on the road to Ahmednagar from Kalyan.
How to get there:
Take the local train to Kalyan (54 km) ---> Board the bus to Murbad from Kalyan ST stand (30 km) ---> On reaching Murbad , board a jeep or ST bus and reach Vaishakhare village (30 km from Murbad) ---> From Vaishakhare, follow the road (walk) towards Ahmednagar for 2 km and on the right side you’ll see a big milestone ‘Naneghat’ with an arrow showing the way ---> Climb, Climb & Climb!
Alternatively,
You can take a direct bus (via Aalephata-Ahmednagar) from Kalyan ST stand and get down at the Naneghat milestone. Or get down at Vaishakhare. This will save you the changeover hassle at Murbad and some time too. ---> From Vaishakhare, follow the road (walk) towards Ahmednagar for 2 km and on the right side you’ll see a big milestone ‘Naneghat’ with an arrow showing the way ---> Climb, Climb & Climb!
Total distance by road – 116 km from Mumbai to Naneghat
I had done Naneghat-Jeevdhan trek in the monsoon season in August via Pune. Couple of days back when Sanjay suggested we do Naneghat trek I immediately jumped on the opportunity as this time we were to climb from the Mumbai side.
We boarded the 6.15 am Titwala local train from Dadar station. Sanjay, Abhishek and myself were to go by public transport whereas Anup, his cousin and uncle were to come by car. As we reached Thane the refreshingly cold chill of the winter morning greeted us. Anup & Co. had already reached Murbad were waiting for us. On reaching Kalyan at 7.30 am we straightaway headed for the ST stand. We could’ve taken the direct bus (Aalephata bus) and got down at Naneghat but the conductor flatly refused to stop anywhere in between as it was a direct ST. So we took the jam packed ST to Murbad, which is 30 km away. While chatting with fellow passengers we came to know that the annual Jatra at Mhasa village was starting from today and that’s why there was heavy rush for the ST.
On reaching Murbad we had a quick sip of hot ‘chaha’ before stuffing ourselves into Anup’s Hyundai i10. The road to Vaishakhare from Murbad is very good and we reached our destination in no time. A further 2 km and we reached the Naneghat milestone. It was 9 am. We immediately started the climb. Way up in the clouds we could see the cleavage (as we termed it) of Naneghat. The Naneghat pass which is barely 10 feet wide is carved out between two mountains. It is here that the famous Naneghat caves are located. This pass was a crucial and highly important trade route for Indian as well as foreign traders long back in time. The weather was neither cool nor too hot. We kept a steady pace and soon left the plain ground behind.
The climb had started.
It was all rocks from here on. The entire way till the top is made of rocks, rocks and only rocks. There’s hardly any soil. It’s like the whole mountains is one big rock, broken down into s
mall pieces. The advantage here is that you get a solid footing and there’s very slim chance of slipping anywhere. Strangely, there were very few groups going up or coming down. I could clearly recall my monsoon trek there, when the cave was so packed with trekkers that we barely had space to sleep. Slowly but steadily we kept climbing. It was a pretty uniform climb without any surprises. The only surprise was the weather which had now turned hot. The sun was blazing and we were sweating. The saving grace was that most of the path till the caves has tree cover and there’s very little open ground for the sun to burn you. There are electricity towers erected on the plateau over Naneghat caves. The wires that carry thousands of watts of electricity begin from the top of Naneghat and are pulled from the top right to the ground, and cover a cool height of 2800 ft. At one stage during our climb, we came to a point where the electricity wires ran straight overhead, barely 30 ft above us. We could clearly hear the all familiar humming noise of powerful electric current passing through them.Abhishek kept telling us that there are steps near the caves. But when we reached the final patch of the climb, all we climbed were rocks, rocks and more rocks. Where were the steps? As in the case of most of the historic structures and forts, even the Naneghat steps are in a dilapidated condition. However, as we kept climbing higher we kept getting amazed at the beauty of the narrow ‘V’ shaped pass. Throughout the climb Anup and his Gujju gang were busy blabbering away in Gujarathi. And not surprisingly, even in the midst of the beautiful nature, at a height of 2500 ft, all that these gujjus could discuss was the share market. So typical and so boring! They went on and on with their non-stop blabbering in gujju till we reached Mumbai. Neways, we reached the caves at 11.30 am, 2 ½ hours after we had started the climb.
Records say that Romans traders used this pass as an access route to trade horses and other trade items. Naneghat caves are located at the base of this pass. Traders used to come and stay in the caves till they were a sizeable group and then they proceeded their journey. This was to ensure safety of their goods from the notorious robbers who infested the area in that time.
When we reached the cave a big group of youngsters was already present there. They had brought 2 huge utensils and their cooks were preparing yummy rice. Onions, potatoes and other
essential ingredients lay spread in the cave. The aroma of spicy masala filled the entire pass, even the caves and made its way straight into our stomachs. One guy from the group came down with a small bird in his hand. He had found it up on the plateau. Sadly, somehow both its feathers were cut, literally sliced. So was its tail and its back portion. It was so badly injured that it didn’t even have the strength to struggle when the guy carried it in his hands. My guess is that it got strangled in the ‘manja’ of a kite and that injured it. The boy said that he’ll carry the bird with him and later hand it over to SPCA. A very generous gesture indeed.We parked ourselves at the relatively small cave which is just above the main, big cave. There are water holes just next to the main cave and the water is very much clear and potable. Once you cross the water holes you can climb to the other cave. The view was beautiful from here. We also got the much needed space of our own. From where we were sitting, we could clearly see the other group having a gala time. Two of its members were standing on a rock and showing off their bare but well-built toned bods. All others were sitting at a distance, clapping, whistling, passing comments and appreciating their fine cuts. Picture this. On the left side where we were sitting, we had the superb view of the Kokan landscape spread down below, while on the right side the body show kept us entertained throughout. Moments flew faster than the winds.
The body building show
was soon over and we decided to explore Naneghat in full. I remember, when I had been to the same place in the monsoon earlier, I was not able to see any other caves due to the cloud cover. So I was not even aware of them. But this time around I was able to see Naneghat crystal clear. And what a beauty it is! Just to give you an idea. There are a total of 4 caves. The base cave is the biggest and can easily house 40-50 people at a time. The cave just opposite is half the size, whereas the other 2 caves are even smaller and comparatively difficult to access.As we climbed the pass, on the left we came to the huge stone pot which was used to collect toll from traders back in time. Hence the name ‘Naneghat’. The pot has developed cracks and is now filled with water instead of coins. We had reached the plateau. The village on the plateau is Ghatghar and it falls on the Pune side. Unlike in the monsoon, this time I could clearly see the Jeevdhan fort which is another 3 hours climb from the plateau. On the right a way takes you straight on top of the rock at the base of which the caves are located. A steep but short climb took us to the point from where we could see the vast, panoramic expanse of entire ‘Tal Kokan’. A huge land mass of flat land, green fields and scarce water bodies lay widely spread in front of us. We sat there, storing every inch of that beautiful landscape in our memories. The sun has started burning our skin so we retreated to a lone tree on the slopes. The cool shade of the tree was so relieving in the harsh, parched land all around that we decided to have our lunch right there.
In no time the mouth-watering eatables (usually on a trek literally anything... I mean anything is mouth-watering) were whipped out of their bags and devoured in no time. Tummies full, the next logical and irresistible thing was sleeping under the shade. That needed no invitation and soon the valley was reverberating with snoring sounds. Thankfully, the shadow shifted with time and we had to abandon our slumber else we would’ve reached Mumbai only the next day.
It was 3.15 and we decided to head back to the base. But before, a quick photo session ensued in the Naneghat pass. Now that is one thing that’s Mandatory when you go to Naneghat.
There’s another thing I’d like to specially mention out here. When we came back to the caves on our way down, I noticed that the main cave had been swept thoroughly and now was unbelievably clean. The big group which had come there and were preparing lunch there had cleaned the entire cave after their cooking was over. I can’t describe the delight when I saw a historic structure so clean after a group had left it. In that clean cave, we now could even read the carvings that are inscribed on the flooring of the cave. With the flooring dirty, we would’ve never noticed it. Hats off to that group.
G
etting down was even easier than climbing. On our way we took our time to capture the beauty of Naneghat in our lenses. I noticed something very peculiar about Naneghat; the entire valley and the mountainside was pin-drop silent. Normally you at least hear the incessant sounds of insects in the vegetation, but at Naneghat we couldn’t even hear that. There was absolute silence. More so since Anup & gujju Co. had gone ahead.Soon we were almost at the base. It was 4.30 pm. We were busy chatting, clicking, exploring the countryside when we suddenly realized that this was not the way we had gone up. We tried searching for arrows on rocks but found none. So on Abhishek’s clever intuition (now we realize how it was not-so-clever hehehe) we followed a ‘paaywaat’ and headed towards the sounds of the vehicles plying on the highway. After walking and walking for around half an hour we finally landed on the highway. We didn’t know whether we were ahead of Naneghat milestone or it was ahead of us. Such a simple trek and we had still managed to lose the way! We stopped a plying jeep and he told us that he recollected seeing a black car behind. For those who have taken a long walk on the tar road will know how boring it is, especially when you are gone trekking. We crossed the stretch as quickly as possible and thankfully saw Anup & Co. waiting for us. After hearty laugh we bid adieu to Naneghat and headed back to Amchi Mumbai. The magnificence of the cleavage… errrrr… Naneghat pass was firmly etched on our minds and will remain so...
Jay Maharashtra!
Jay Sahyadri!
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