Manikgad - First Monsoon Trek Of 2009

Manikgad is located near to Karjat . Vadgaon is the base village of the fort. The height of the fort is 2500 ft and is a medium grade trek. There is hardly any historical details about this fort. But from the top of the fort you can see many other forts like Prabalgad, Matheran, Chanderi, Karnala, Lohgad & Visapur if the sky is clear.

This was the trek organised by Jungle Lore(www.junglelore.net) with whom i have been trekking for last 3 yrs. I wasn't sure about whether to go or not, since it had hardly rain the day before the trek and the heat was scorching. Will it be the so called monsoon trek was the biggest question in my mind. But against the all odds I decided to give it a chance, since I had not visited this fort before and it had been a long time since my last trek.

The organiser had booked a chartered Bus. They picked me up near Sion at 7 am on their way to Karjat . As I had thought there had been no rain in the night before and the climate was humid. But there where some clouds of hope that it would rain after some hours. There were few more pick ups till Belapur and then we started almost a not stop journey to Karjat . We had our breakfast in the bus. We had taken Expressway Route diverting at Shedung Phata on to NN4(old Mumbai - Pune highway). We had an introductory session of the whole group just before Daan Phata . At Daan Phata we met a person named Satish Joshi who was going to help us with the trek and also to manage our lunch on the fort. There was one more pick up at Karjat Station where we waited for 15-20 mins. After the pick up we left towards Vadgaon which is near to Patalganga Industrial Area. Still there was no rain...

We reached Vadgaon around 10 am and got ready for the trek to the top. Some villagers accompanied with us. Some to carry the material for making lunch and some to show us the route to the top.

The climate was cloudy, but still it was humid. The climb was quite steep and due to the hot weather we all were getting exhausted very fast. We had to drink lot of water on way up. Water had become the most precious thing for all of us.

After some steep climbs we reached a plateau and took a sigh of relief. The halfway was done, still it was long way to go... From the plateau we could see Irshaalgad, Karnal fort, Prabalgad and Hills of Matheran. We rested sometime there and got ready to complete the remaining journey.

We started off in sometime. Now the route was quite straight and not much difficult to walk. The climate was cloudy at times and sunny for sometime. After a long walk we were able to see the base of the fort and seeing it I knew the climb will be very difficult in this weather and the rock patch will be very hard to climb since there won't be any tree cover over us. Till now most of our water bottles were empty and we had no option other than to climb on top, cause the villager had told us there is water on top.

Some of the participants had lost their way, So we had to wait for few minutes till they join us back. We waited for them in some trees covering for 20-30 mins. After they arrived and took some rest we started to climb again. Each one of us was wishing that the rains arrives soon. But our wish were not going to be fulfilled so early.

We climb some steep slopes and reached the rock patch. It was huge and we could see the fortification up far away. But luckily it was cloudy and the climb will be little easier. We had no water left with us now and had to climb up if we need to fulfill our thirst.

Some waited to take a breath before they climb the rock patch. Each one of us was exhausted. But we had to hurry a bit cause the climbing in cloudy weather is easier than in open sun. We started step by step. Few of our participants had reached the top through a shortcut which was said to be much difficult than the route we had taken. Few made call on top to send some water bottles. I along with some other participants started to climb fast, since we didn't want to waste time and the sun to come. We completed the rock patch in sometime. As I completed the rock patch we saw a villager carrying water bottles from the top. I took one of the bottles and had some water and passed it on to others who had come along with me.

There was few more steps to the fort. As we were climbing the clouds got thicker and I heard some thundering of clouds and in no time it started to rain. First there was few drizzles and later it started to shower heavily. By this time I had reached the fort and it took me sometime to find the other group who had reached the top earlier to us.

It was raining heavily now with lots of wind blowing. The fort was covered with lots of clouds all around and we could hardly see anything around. The rain kept pouring and now it was so much that I wished it stops for sometime when we have our lunch. What a mind we have, I was wishing for rain to come just few moments ago and when it came, few moments later I thought why is it not stopping now.

We had our lunch in the rain, since there was no cover on the fort. The food was nice hot and tasty.

The rain had stop by now, but still there was clouds and it was windly. After few moments on top we started to descend. This time taking a different route and much easier than the earlier one. We all were together this time, since we didn't want anyone to get lost this time.

As we approached the base village, the light was fading and soon it would be dark and would be difficult to find our path. Some 3 participants along with one of the organiser were left behind and lost their way. I along with one of the other organiser waited for them to come by. But it didnt happened so, cause it was dark now and we didnt wanted to get lost now. We were in contact with the lost group through our mobile phone and asked them to descend in particular direction towards the village.

We reached the base village at 8 pm. Still the lost group had not arrived, so a search party was send along with a villager to find them. After some 20-25 mins the lost group reached the village along with the search party.

After some rest we got into our bus and started our no stop journey back to Mumbai. I reached home at 11:30 pm with some nice memory of the trek.

At start I thought this won't be my first monsoon trek, but thankfully it become one of the most remembered trek for me. The view from top was awesome and the clouds formation was superb.

Hope the rains keep pouring for the coming weeks and cool down the surroundings. For me the trekking season has just begin and there are surely many more treks to come. Till then its good bye from me and a Happy Monsoon to you.