Night trek to Peb

This was my first night trek. It was thrilling and enjoyable enough for me to be motivated to write about it, albeit a little late!

Unlike as usual, I had the weekend off on Apr 11 & 12. The last trek that that I'd done was in winter, sometime in Nov - months ago! Was itching badly for a good trek. Summer makes things worse for trekking in the Sahyadri. (Monsoon is the best. Winter is good for tougher ones.) Even an easy trek can sap the energy out of seasoned trekkers. So a night trek was the only obvious choice. The places I had in mind were Harishchandragad, Naneghat, Peb (aka Vikatgad) and Gorakhgad. I'm generally averse to an "easy trek." At the some time, since this was my first night trek, I could not afford to bite off more than I could chew. A few phone calls later, asking people if they would care to join, what their choices are and so on, I and Moiz finally decided on doing a night trek to Peb. This would be my 2nd trek with Moiz, a seasoned trekker and traveler by my standards. ;)

The plan was to leave Mumbai by 4:00 PM and start from Neral a little before sunset. That way, we would suffer little heat. Secondly, it would also give us the advantage of some light which would help us in the initial patch where there are chances of getting lost - more so at night..! he he... :) More about that later.

But it was not to be that way. I went off to sleep and probably didn’t set the alarm properly. When I woke up, it was 5:15 PM. I saw missed calls from Moiz and called back. He had assumed that I cancelled our plans at the last moment. We took stock of our situation and decided that we would go ahead with a trek although it was a little late. Question was - should we stick to Peb, or opt for Gorakhgad instead? We decided to stick to doing Peb. There was some risk involved in this, but since I had done Peb before in daylight, I had a fair idea of the route and felt we would be able to manage the tricky part even at night.

I took a local at 7:27 PM from Ghatkopar. Moiz joined me at Dombivli. We reached Neral at 8:45 and had some grub near the station. We started the trek at 9:30.

Here's the inside scoop on how to go about tackling Peb at night. :)

From Neral station, walk towards the right - in the direction of Vangani. At one point after one has left the hustle-bustle near the station behind, take a left and walk across a small maidan and onto a narrower street with shops on either side. (I believe this point is a tax/rickshaw stand - not sure.) One can now see Matheran (left), Peb (center) and Nakhind (right.) One can now see the col between Peb and Nakhind which one has to reach first. Reaching this col is the only slightly tricky part of this trek 'cos it is easy to go off on the wrong track if one is not careful and does not know better. After walking a while along the road, we reached a village. We continued walking along the same road, going right, till I realized we had come a bit too far to the right. I could see the lights of a village which was closer to the col and realized that it was that village we had to reach – not the one we were in. We backtracked a little on the road and then walked across the land in the direction of the lights. There was no need to backtrack all the way on the road. If we had been more alert, we would have spotted the farther village instead of going to the right. Anyways, we did not lose much time due to this.

We reached Kapoor Farm – it is a landmark in the area. We saw a path going in the direction of the hills on the left of its gate. We took that path and soon reached a brick structure which was under construction. Must mention here though that there is always quite a bit of construction going on in these parts and so the paths do not stay as they are. The only thing that can truly guide you is your sense of direction, judgment about which would be the right path and your wits. Of course, you can always ask someone if you're not sure. There are always sooo many people anywhere in India - you just can't escape humanity in this land! There was a pot bellied baba sitting with someone outside this place and we thought of confirming the route with him. As it turned out, he was not a local and did not know the route. He did confirm that we were in the right direction though, so we went ahead after having some water.

Soon after leaving the Ashram behind, we started ascending a hill. There is only a single fairly well trodden path here rather than the confusing criss-cross and mish-mash that one finds closer to the villages. We simply followed this path which went right first before circling and turning left, ascending all the while, till it took us to a small plateau. We now had to begin using our head torches since it was quite dark, esp. in the thickets. We did not have much benefit of the moonlight since the moon, in the waning phase, was almost full but hidden by clouds. Ascending this hill brought us to the first big power transmission tower. I must make special note of these towers now.

More than anything else, it is these power transmission towers that can act as one's guideposts on this trek. They go over the same terrain and roughly the same direction. In fact one of them sits bang on the col between Peb and Nakhind and then the lines go down on to the other side towards Panvel. The path does not go directly below these of course, but the direction is approx. the same during most of the trek till the col. One has to keep note that if you're going too far away from the direction in which the power lines are going, then you're off track. And one should be alert and keep a look out for the path where it seems to disappear or where multiple paths seem to crop up.

After reaching the 1st plateau, we turned right and began another ascent through the hill and thickets to reach a 2nd plateau / flat area. This is larger than the 1st one. The 2nd tower is somewhere here too. We walked straight past the tower, with the path going slightly left, till we reached a point where we crossed a 3rd tower and walking even further we could see the col right in front of us. At this point, it seems easy to think that all one has to do is climb and reach the col in 45-60 mins. But it is not so. There is no proper route to the col from this point. There are many boulders and thickets in between which make it tough to ascend to the col from this point, either from the right or from the left. During the day it is possible to manage an ascent somehow, but at night it is foolhardy.

There is a path which leads towards the area situated directly below the col. This seems to be going in the right direction but is in fact the wrong one. Keep a look out for a path which goes right in the direction of Nakhind rather than Peb. Although it initially seems to be going in the wrong direction and away from Peb, this is the right one. At some point it turns sharply left and then one ascends through a fairly thick jungle following a clearly visible path till one reaches the col via a 4th tower that one passes along the way.

Our problem was that either due to poor visibility, or lack of alertness or being engrossed in talking, or all of these, we missed the point where the path turns left and kept walking straight ahead till we reached a point where a further clear trail was not visible. It was then that stupid me realized we had again gone too much to the right. There was no other option than to backtrack 'cos we were now somewhere below the hills of the broad Nakhind mountain. We decided to backtrack all the way to the 3rd tower so as to be very clear about taking the right route. But we kept a lookout to see if we could find a path on our right which went up. We rested at one point and it somewhere there that we saw the now dry nullah made by the monsoon waters. We figured that the nullah would take us to some point near the col since the water flowed from that direction. So we set off to ascend through the nullah rather than backtrack further which would have cost us 30 minutes or so. Fortunately, after just 2-3 minutes of climbing, the nullah criss-crossed a path which came from below (the one we missed seeing earlier). So we followed the path rather than the rocky nullah till we reached the 4th tower. From the 4th tower, there are again 2 paths. I don't remember exactly now, but we took a path on the left which was ascending figuring it would take us to the col since that was still further up. But that path went in a different direction after a while. Again it turned after a while and started climbing in the direction of the col. It is all quite hazy now in my memory. We were scrambling like crazy through the thickets since we lost the path after a while. We just kept ascending however we could simply knowing that we were in the right direction and could see the mountain ridge up ahead. Fortunately, after about 15-20 mins of this crazy scrambling we accidentally got back on the path again. After that in another 10 mins we were on the col. Finally.....!! Near the col, there are 3 other paths. One goes over the col and down towards Panvel side to a village below. One goes right towards Nakhind along the ridge that connects Peb and Nakhind. The 3rd one, which we had to take, was the one on the left which goes to Peb.

It was 12:30 AM by the time we reached the col. We spent a good 45 minutes there resting, drinking water, eating and chit-chatting. It was very cool, peaceful and much of the topography we had trekked over was visible from this point. From the col to Peb there is no chance of getting lost and it takes just 35-45 mins to reach the caves of Peb from there. The path does go up and down and there are some slightly steep scree ridden paths. When one is almost at the end of the connecting ridge and near the Peb mountain, there is a rock patch that needs to be tackled. It is just 20-25 feet and an easy free climb with plenty of holds - no problem even at night or in the monsoons. After the rock patch, we skirted the mountain wall in front of us and took a path which went to the right. A further walk of 10 mins and we found the caves on the left. Whew..!! It was 2:30 AM when we reached the caves.

We were out of water and so I set off to find water at 3-4 spots near the cave which I knew. Found nothing. I realized that these spots probably held water only in the monsoons and a little after that. We were now faced with the prospect of trekking to Matheran without any water. We decided to sleep for 3-4 hours and set off as early as possible to avoid the Sun. We went off to sleep at 3:00 AM, near the entrance to the caves rather than inside.

We woke at 6:30 AM. Or to be more precise, we were awakened by the Sun and chirping birds etc. soon after Sunrise. As I woke up and sat erect, the most wonderful sight greeted my eyes. This was the best moment of the trek for me. We were in the west and the Sun was in the east on the other side of the mountain, so it was not visible. There was freshness in the air and the quietude was broken only by the sound of birds. Best of all, moonset had not occurred. Since it was not bright daylight as yet, the almost full moon was clearly visible too. And down below we could see the flat lands - villages, fields and the Palasdari lake. Just sitting quietly at this spot for 10 mins was the best of this trek for me.

We quickly packed and set off further for Matheran by 7:00. We also intended to check out another 1-2 places for water which we could not check out at night. Walking further we reached a wall which one has to climb using an iron ladder. There is a tank at the top near the wall but that too was dry. We climbed further and then took a right to get on to the ridge that connects Peb and Matheran. There is a path that again skirts the top area of the hill and goes around it instead. At it's end where we could now see the ridge to Matheran clearly. We saw a path going to the left and leading to a hut. The "hut" is a kinda Ashram set up by followers of Swami Samartha. There was no one around so we freely trespassed and entered the shrine. Lo and behold - the blessed souls who lived here had kept water in a drum inside the shrine..!! We were very thirsty and drank our fill before also filling the bottles. We would not run out of water till Matheran now.

Leaving the hut we walked in the direction of Matheran and after a while met 2 guys. They were the Swami Samartha fellows who lived in the hut. One of them showed me the place where they got the water from. It is very close to the hut, a little below it, and has water all year round. There is enough water for them to take a bath everyday and enough for their 2-3 cattle to drink as well. They invited us for tea which we declined and after ascertaining the route we set off again. It is an easy 1.5 - 2 hours walk to the railway track of Matheran from Peb. One has to descend by an iron ladder at one point where it is rocky. After this descent, the path leads straight to a point where it again skirts the mountain side rather than going up. This is on the west side, so if one leaves early, one is shaded from the Sun after this point. A further 20-30 minute walk brought us to a point on the Matheran railway track at 9:00 AM. The train passes by this point at 9:15. We decided not to risk boarding it as we would have to board it while it was running and also ran the risk of a hefty fine if caught without a ticket. The ticket checker was sure not to let go of relatively rich city folks like us – “Tch Tch… Educated people like you should know better. Now you have to pay a fine.” I am sure they let local folks hitch a ride without any payment.

So we walked along the track till we reached Dasturi Naka. It is the entry point for Matheran where one has to park one's vehicles and leave them behind as they are not allowed in. We reached the Matheran market by 10:15 AM. Had a snack there and roamed around a little before going for an afternoon snooze in the Paymaster Park. Sleeping like bums in a public park on the park-benches was quite an experience. I did not get much sleep though Moiz was fast asleep soon. I could overhear the yapping of a group which came after us and rested nearby. A young boy was wondering aloud why we were not getting disturbed by the insects. To which his mom or aunt or whoever it was, replied "Huh..! It makes no difference to people like these." .. he he... When I later told this to Moiz, he speculated that they probably thought we were drug addicts. Or maybe good-for-nothing bums asleep in a public park 'cos they have nothing better to do in life.

We left the park at 4:30 PM, had a snack in the market and bought soda to make a 2nd round of a heavenly drink (Kokum sherbet with Soda..!) and took a cab down to Neral. I was back home by 8:30 PM.

All in all, a great escape and a resounding success as it was mine as well as Moiz's first night trek.

My Expenses: 49 - Andheri to Ghatkopar rickshaw, 30 - Ghatkopar to Neral return ticket. Sub-total: 79.

Shared Expenses: 70 - restaurant at Neral, 50 - Matheran entry fee, 30 - Diwadkar restaurant, 32 - 2 bottles of soda, 70 - snack in market, 100 - cab from Matheran to Neral. Sub-total: 352. Per head: 352/2 = 176

My total expenses: 176 + 79 = 255.

Cheap, huh? And this was one of the treks where we ended up spending more since we went to a touristy place like Matheran. Else we would not have had to spend more than 150 bucks per head.

Trek to Sudhagad

Yours truly went on another solo trek on a Saturday (July 7) to Sudhagad. Ascent from Thakurwadi & Descent to Dhondse. I was too eager to do this trek & so did it solo in 1 day as could not spare Sunday. However, I would recommend anyone else to do it as a 2 day trek & preferably in a group. Just a day would not do justice to this beautiful destination. If you have 3 days, then Sarasgad, Khadsamble caves & Thanale caves can also be done. Or you can just stay on the plateau atop Sudhagad - nice place & one can find shelter in the wada or in the Bhoraidevi temple. Only 1 family from Thakurwadi has a hut near the wada - when I went there, just an old woman & her grandson were there. Advisable to carry your own stuff if you want freshly cooked food - don't count on being able to find someone to cook.

Lot of travel involved in reaching base village. Reach Panvel or Pen first. From there take a bus to Pali - confirm that bus is going to 'Sudhagad Pali' 'cos there are other places also called Pali. Buses to & from Pali to Thakurwadi & Dhonse are available approximately every 1 - 1.5 hrs. There is a bus from Dhondse to Thane at 4.00 in evening - good for return, else one would have to change bus 2 times. Lots of transport to Mumbai from Thane, Pen or Panvel.

Don't have time to do a more detailed write-up - might post more details later. Happy trekking!

Trek to Kohoj

I still have to scratch my hands and feet now and then due to the mosquito bites on the trek. The memories of the trek too are still quite fresh and so I thought I’d do a write-up on it right away.

With no one else being willing or able to take leave, I had to cancel my plans of a 3 or 4 day trek this week. I decided to do a solo trek on July 04, which was a holiday for me due to it being the US Independence Day. I decided upon Kohoj as the destination since I could travel to Palghar on the western line easily after work, and also because it affords a bit of shelter at the top. Besides, since I would be trekking without any sleep after work, I thought an easier trek would be ideal.

I left office at 0245 and took the 0310 drop to Vasai. The Sumo dropped me at Vasai station by 0415. After buying the tickets to Virar & Palghar, I stood on the platform for a while not knowing when the first Virar local would arrive. After a while the indicator showed 0519 as the arrival time. Since I had another 35 minutes, I read the Sahyadri Companion again for a description of the route to the top.

The local reached Virar by 0535. I did not enquire immediately about where the shuttle train to Dahanu would be available and missed the first one at 0540. The next one was at 0630. Lesson well learnt. I went out to have some potato bhajia and chai and again killed some time on the station. It was quite crowded even at this hour, with college boys and girls, office goers and tradesmen. I felt a bit funny observing all these people and wondering what they would be doing all day long while I spent the day on some remote fort / mountain that they must’ve never even heard of.

The next shuttle at 0630 was not crowded and I found a place to sit. The scene around changed drastically within a minute or two of leaving Virar behind. There was no smell of human excrement and no ugly buildings visible through the window. I stood by the gate after Vaitarna station. This area has the Vaitarna lake which is one of the sources of water supply for Mumbai. As Saphale approached, Tandulwadi was visible on the right. This is another beautiful and easy trek. It started raining and the doors had to be shut. The overcast sky with layers clouds in various shades of gray seemed to be promising me a very wet day ahead.

It had stopped raining by the time I reached Palghar at 0710. The ST stand is opposite the station. Any bus going in the direction of Thane or Kalyan via Hamirapur stops at Nane too since it is located further along the same road. I boarded a bus at 0730. It passed through some hills reaching Manor at 0800. Mastan Naka on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway is just 2 kms from here. In case a bus to Nane is not available soon enough, one can take another bus or a shared rickshaw (a tamtam / vikram) to Manor. From here, a shared rickshaw to Nane, Vaghote or Ambit would be easily available. These are the 3 villages from which the 3 different routes to the top of Kohoj begin. Vaghote & Ambit are on the road to Wada, while Nane is on a different road going via Hamirapur village.

From Mastan Naka the bus took a right on the highway and soon turned left again going off the highway. A prominent mountain became visible on the right now and I wondered if that was Kohoj. I reached Nane by 0830. The spur of a longish hill below Kohoj ends right in the village. Kohoj with its two pinnacles at the top was also visible in full. On the right of the road, at quite a distance, 4 – 5 other mountains were visible. The only one of these that I could identify was Kamandurg with its twin peaks that I had climbed last year. I walked in the direction of the departed bus & asked a villager how further the route to Kohoj began. He said it would be difficult for me to find the route going to the base of the mountain where climb began since there were lots of paths criss-crossing and planted fields in the monsoon. The prominent route beginning on the left after walking away from the village no longer exists. I asked if he knew anyone who would be willing to come with me for a part of the way. He called out to someone and asked him to go with me. Saying thanks, I departed the other villager. We started chatting and he asked me how come I had come all alone, whether I loved going to mountains and forts, where I stayed, what I did for a living etc. He told me of a boy who too had come alone earlier, and how he had a map & a book with photos and did not need any directions. Then, he told me of a doctor from some Vedanta association who loved Kohoj so much that he kept coming there alone often, spending days and weeks at a stretch on the mountain top and the village. He said he came there for ekanta and did tapasya up there. Once he had stayed for 3-4 months, surviving on water at the top, barely eating anything and coming down to the village when he felt very hungry. At another time, he had come with his wife too. It sure made me wonder what she thought of all this. Just before we turned left off the road and into the fields, he pointed out a half-constructed house belonging the doctor who had bought some land in the village.

The hill below Kohoj was on our left now and we were approximately walking in the direction of the col which connects Kohoj and the hill. I learnt from the villager that they mostly did subsistence farming out there. Some industries had come up in the area, and some people worked there. Others worked in Vasai or Palghar. There were many people from the village who had studied up to graduation level. Some had done MA too. Then, he told of how the tribals had usurped many small plots of land that actually belonged to the government. I kept quiet since he was probably telling only his side of the story; there seemed to be some turbulence between the tribals and the non-tribals in the village. We went in different direction once, and had to ask another villager who pointed out the right path through the fields leading to a dam. This was a very small dam, built by the government. The forest department too had done a lot of reforestation, he said. I could see that there were a lot of trees, on the mountain as well as in between the small plots on land on the plains. He was to leave me till the dam, but he walked a bit further ahead since there were more fields and still some criss-crossing paths. He left me at a point where the small climb to the col began. (In stead of walking through the fields, one can also climb the hill from the village itself, and walk along its top, climbing up and down in parts, till one reaches the col. That would, of course, take more time.) I paid him Rs. 30 and he seemed happy with the amount.

I began the climb at 0915. Reaching the col, one has to turn right and keep walking along the spur of the ridge that descends from the top of Kohoj. The 2 pinnacles at the top are always visible on the left. Except in parts, the path is quite prominently visible here even in the monsoon. I stopped at a point along this path to change into my track pants; it was windy here and so the mosquitoes would not bother me much. After climbing over a small hillock, one soon reaches a plateau. Walking straight across this plateau, one finds the path going a little to the right. As per my reading, after about 10 minutes one comes across a path on the right coming from Vaghote. From that point, the 2 paths meet and turning left begin climbing the way to Kohoj. I must not have been attentive ‘cos I missed seeing this path. After a climb of about 15 minutes one reaches the machi or plateau of the fort. There is a small and easy rock patch just before one reaches this smaller plateau from which the top of Kohoj seems very close now. Off the path, on the left, there is a small pond and a renovated Shiva temple further ahead. The temple has just a somewhat broken shivling inside which seems to date back to the times when the fort was constructed. I rested near the pond and had my first drink of water since beginning the trek here; also had some snacks since I was a bit hungry. The pond’s water is not potable. There are also ‘7 interlocked tanks’ as described in the Sahyadri Companion whose water is again not potable.

Near the temple, I met a tribal man and 2 girls who were collecting mollusks. He smiled as I said “Namaskar” but seemed eager to get along with collecting mollusks, so we didn’t talk much.

From the Shiva temple, there is a path that leads straight up to the top in 10-15 minutes. There is another path that goes to the right, encircling the base of the top while gently climbing up. Following this path, one comes across what seems to be a part the wall of the fort dating back to 800 AD which now look like just a heap of rather shapeless stones. After this, on the right one sees a cairn like rock formation about 20-25 feet in height. From here, the nagnath lingi or pinnacle is visible. The path descending steeply down to Ambit village also begins here. I climbed up the rock formation and sat the top for a while to admire the almost 360 degree view from the top. However, I found myself dozing off and half-afraid that I would fall off, I climbed down. I had already decided that I would descend by this route.

Going back to the path, it then turns left, and soon joins the path that comes straight up from the Shiva temple. The cairn like rock formation near which the path descending to Ambit begins is actually on a small hillock to the right of the Kohoj top (visible on the left from the top). Passing through the remnants of the bastion reconstructed by the Portuguese, one reaches the top very soon.

I reached the top at 1145 – in 3 hours and at a very relaxed pace with stops in between. At a fast pace, it is easily doable in 75-90 minutes even in the monsoons. It started raining heavily now, and so I took shelter inside the Hanuman temple that has barely enough space for 1 person to sit comfortably. I finished the remaining theplas, biscuits & til chikki while it rained. The rain stopped after a while but it was still a bit foggy – I was in the clouds that I had seen from the village below.


There are 2 pinnacles at the top, of which the one on the right is shaped like a human or a rather stout scarecrow. I dumped my bag at the base of this one and tried climbing up it from the left side. The initial part is easy but one needs to be a bit careful at the end. I reached the top soon, and sat on the head of the scarecrow. But it started raining immediately and I had to climb down to the shoulder. It suddenly got very windy too and the rain was lashing strongly. I hid behind the head on the other side since the wind was coming from the opposite direction. There was just enough space for one person to sit and I held the head for support hoping that it would not fall on me, or that the scarecrow would not get decapitated by a bolt of lightning. Since the wind and rain did not stop for 5 minutes, I felt worried about my climbing down. Presently, it stopped and so I immediately decided not to wait or sit further at the top of the pinnacle and in stead climb down. It was a bit more tricky to climb down but I managed by finding 1-2 good footholds. As soon as I finished this, it started raining again, but the rest of the climbing down was easy. I found my bag all soaked and taking it went into the hanuman temple again. The rain stopped again in a few minutes and so leaving my bag in the temple I went out to explore the fort.

There absolutely nothing left of the original fort as such, except perhaps the 3 water tanks and the somewhat broken shivling in the mandir on the plateau below. The fort was originally constructed sometime in 800 AD, probably by Bhojraja of the Shilahar dynasty, and around the same time as Kamandurg was constructed. Nothing is known of its history since then till the time the Portuguese renovated it. A small part of the bastion and a few steps leading to the top are the only remnants of it. It was controlled by the Marathas for while till the British finally captured it. There are no canons visible at the top. All of them have probably been buried in the sand by nature. The villager I met below said that one of the canons has been installed on a kind of pedestal in the village. They had simply rolled it off the top of Kohoj, 2-3 times, in parts, ‘cos it is not a straight fall. Then 30-35 men carried it into the village.

It does not take long to explore the top of the fort – perhaps 15-20 minutes at the most. There is a temple dedicated to Krishna at one end. Kohoj is said to be the only fort with a Krishna temple on top. The idols inside didn’t seem too old for they were quite crude as compared to the delicate, although broken, shivling. Same with the rock-carving of Hanuman which was again quite crude.

I encircled the other pinnacle and found that it was easily climbable from one side. I climbed up this one too since it had more space to sit at the top – 2-3 people can sit easily. I sat there for almost an hour and a half with the wind blowing strongly and the rain lashing me strongly as it came and went in spurts. The rain was coming from the clouds far above. I was witnessing a curious spectacle. The string wind was blowing the lower clouds in which I was sitting in the direction of the central or main Sahyadris. Every now and then, after a big cloud as blown away, the visibility became clear and the entire region in the front, on the right and down below right up to fields and the road was visible. When it was less windy, the sound of vehicles miles below was clearly audible – the horns, the sound made by the tires of heavy vehicles. No human voices, of course. The vehicles looked like a few ants crawling in a line. As the wind blew the grass, in some patches it looked like a river of green flowing upwards. As another groups of clouds was blown in, the visibility reduced again to about 25 – 35 feet. These were very light, fluffy clouds with not much moisture in them. Sitting at the top on the pinnacle on the left, the other human shaped pinnacle looked a bit eerie in the reduced visibility. It would have made a good photograph – but I was not carrying any camera.

It felt very peaceful sitting all alone at the top, with not a single other person visible anywhere on the mountain. Sitting there in the midst of nature, although a lot of thoughts passed through my mind, it was still very calm. I felt I did need not any other thing at all. I could have sat there for hours if I did not have to climb down – in spite of the strong wind and the lashing rains.

I climbed down at about 1430. The largest water tank at the top has potable water. I drank some water here and refilled the empty bottles. Began the descent as 1445 after spending a great 3 hours at the top. I climbed down in 5 minutes to the Shiva temple and then climbed to the cairn like formation from where the path descending to Ambit began. Soon after it begins, it forks into 2 paths. The one on the right leads to the small col connecting the nagnath lingi and kohoj. From below, it looks as though the lingi is part of the contiguous structure of Kohoj. This path can be used by rock-climbers wanting to climb the pinnacle. I took the path on the left that descends steeply through quite a thick jungle. I sure felt better knowing that there was no wildlife in this jungle. The path is overgrown and strewn with leaves in some parts and there are boulders and rocks in parts which make it seems as though the path ends suddenly. After a steep and quick descent of about 30 - 40 minutes, during which a stream flowing down the mountain was always on my left, I reached a point where I had to cross over the stream. Crossing over, I dropped by sack on some rocks and decided to take a bath and some rest. As I removed my shoes and dipped my feet in the flowing water, it seemed to take away half of the tiredness in them in 1 or 2 minutes. Finding a point where the stream flowing down made a small waterfall, I stripped and had a bath in the buff. It felt very refreshing. After changing into a pair of dry clothes, I continued the descent with the stream now on my right. Another descent of 15 minutes brought me to a point where the descending path met a broad path coming from the right and descending gently to the left. This is where the jungle to almost ended. Turning left, I followed the broader path with a village visible further on the right. I guessed this was Ambit. I ought to have found some path turning right and leading to Ambit, but I guess I missed this as I kept following the broad path that looked prominent. It ended abruptly in some fields that were fenced. Stepping over the fence, I walked along the bunds of the fields and reached a hut. An old woman here told me I had left Ambit behind. I saw another path from the hut which seemed to lead towards the road and confirming this I followed that path to reach the road in another 10 minutes.

As I hit this road which went to Wada, Ambit was further down on the right and Mastan Naka was on the left. Within 2 minutes I got a tamtam that took me to Mastan Naka. I thought of having some chai and nashta here but I saw a bus to Palghar coming and stretched my hand asking it to stop. I was lucky again. One can also take a tamtam right up to Manor from Ambit, and then find many buses, jeeps or rickshaws to Palghar. The bus took me to Palghar in 30 minutes, from where I took the 1840 shuttle to Virar after a wait of 40 minutes. The shuttle was quite crowded since the passenger trains plying between Mumbai & Valsad, Surat etc were irregular.

At Virar, I incidentally met some colleagues returning from a picnic and we together a local to Andheri. Reaching Andheri by 2000, I was home by 2030.

Trek Expenses:
Vasai – Virar local Train – 4
Virar – Palghar Return ticket – 20
Chai & Nashta at Palghar – 12.50
Palghar – Nane ST bus – 23
Villager at Nane – 30
Tamtam from Ambit - Mastan Naka – 5
Mastan Naka – Palghar ST bus – 15
Virar – Andheri local – 10
Andheri – Vijaynagar, Marol rickshaw – 43

Total – Rs. 162.50/-