AwesoMahuli (Kille Mahuli trek)

If trekking gives you pleasure, a monsoon trek would give you orgasms. That's exactly how awesome this trek was. To start with, the plan was to go to Tandulwadi, Saphale which changed last minute to Mahuli.  The attendees with Sahyadri Rangers this time were Akshay, Anoop,Mangesh, Me, Maulik, Shailesh, Vaibhav and Vishwesh.

Mahuli Range

The trek started on the morning of Tuesday, 28th June, 2011. We took the 6.29am local at Dadar to Asangaon from where the base village Mahuli was 6-8km. We could leave Asangaon station only at 8.45 inspite of reachin at 8.20 since a few members had missed the local train and had taken the next one. This meant we missed the 8.30 ST Bus from Asangaon to Mahuli and had to wait till 10 for the next one.

Truck Ride

Cursing Mangesh for turning up late, a little disappointed we had a few VPs each (Get used to me calling Vada Pav's that by now) for breakfast waiting for a bus. Just about then we saw a truck approaching and out of sheer mischief we all tried to stop the truck, waving at him and ask for a lift, half expecting them to even agree. Turns out he was more than willing to give us a lift and that gave a perfect adventurous start to the trek, a never before experience, travelling in a truck. the truck ride gave breathtaking views of the cloud-clad Mahuli Range, the highlight of which were the pinnacles resembling a navri(bride), navra(groom) and a bhadji(minister). This was enough to pump everyone up and get them all excited and in a jolly mood for the trek. The sunshine and rain were taking turns to make the weather even more blissful. We reached the base village of Mahuli by about 10.15am and started the trek by 10.30 after referring a map at temple in the village. The route up to the fort starts from there.There is 10-15 minutes of paved road until you reach a small river which you are to cross from where the actual ascent begins.

It was here that we realised the amount of garbage, plastic, beer bottles, broken glass left all over the place by so called nature lovers was mind boggling. It is disgraceful that people who come here to experience nature at its best litter the place in such a manner and threaten wildlife as well as flora in doing that. It is my humble request that whenever you visit any nature sensitive place, take utmost care to not damage the ecosystems there. As far as possible avoid carrying plastic. And take back all the garbage to dispose it off at the village. And if you see anyone littering please go and talk to them and dissuade them from doing so. Unless we do this, all the natural treasure we have is set to be destroyed. 

A Beautiful Rock Structure

The climb was quite steep but relatively easy. The only challenge here are the mosquitoes and flies. They are everywhere in plenty and wreck havoc . You just cannot stop moving here or else you get stung. Full pants and full sleeves is absolutely necessery for this trek. There are only 2-3 spots that need a little care. It took us about 2 hours to reach a spot called Ghodyachi maan (Horse's neck). From here the wind picks up and flies  are lesser. From this spot for a little distance the trail is narrow with a fall into a valley on both sides. After moving ahead and looking back at the Horse's neck, you realise it actually looks like a Horse's neck from up above. From here the trail goes up steeply and reaches tiny plateau that offers a fantastic view of the village below, the river and surroundings. A little above this plateau is the only ladder on the Mahuli Fort. The ladder appears to be hanging dangerously on just one bolt but is indeed steady enough. That ladder would take you to the top of the Range where surprisingly the fort isn't located.

The wind by now felt awesome. Cold and speedy..! There was small water tank there. It was here that we met a group of dickheads who were from the same college (juniors) as most of the Sahyadri Rangers' members and the Rangers seemed to hate them with a vengeance. From the top it is a descent of about 50feet on extremely slippery mud that would lead you to the fort. We reached here by about 2.15pm. Took us about 3 hrs for the ascent from the base. You first see a Shivling (Temple of Lord Shiva). A level below the temple is the fort entrance. It has a 2-3 caves and another water tank here. Can house about 10 people in the dry season. Again this was littered relentlessly by brainless people.

Shivling, Ancient Carvings, Entrance and caves in the background at the Mahuli Fort

Throughout the ascent we saw flora and fauna in its full glory in the monsoons. We got some amazing pictures of butterfly larvae that are spotted in the breeding season of butterflies. There were also many different species of snails around. The one constant thing throughout the trek was a beautiful call of a bird we were neither able to spot, nor identify. There were also a lot of sunbirds around. Vishwesh had collected a few seeds back home to plant in the forest, but forgot to get them. :P So we went ahead collecting a few seeds from the base and planted them in the forests above. Do our bit against Global warming.

Top Of Mahuli

The descent was double as exciting as the ascent. So much so, we didn't even feel the mosquitoes that had tortured us on the way up. A few people had already started challenging each other for a race to descent first.  While the rest started running like crazy, Akash, Me, Shailesh & Vishwesh were at the back end when we we walked into a dense cloud on the top after climbing up from the fort. It was heavenly to say the least. We continued. While I was shit scared at a few rock patches that had deadly views of the valleys, the runners seemed to have no problem at all. Maybe due to my relative inexperience I took about 2hrs to descent while the ones that had started running like there's no end smash-thrashed our old record and completed the descent in an eye popping 55minutes. :O

Dense clouds at the top

The 2 hours on the way down also included some time of cleaning up near the river. There was so much plastic, glass bottles that we decided to clean it up as much as we could. We ended up filling the only 2 bag that we had with garbage and took it down to the village to dispose. Still the place looked hardly cleaner but we had to move on since it was getting late to take the last 7pm bus to asangaon. By 6 we reached the base village and dived straight into the small dam there on a river to cleanse and relax. Just then it started raining heavily and it all felt perfect.

Funniest part of the day was when our umbrellas were blown away into the river and all chased like crazy to get them back. ;)

By 10.30pm I was back home, again with sweet pain in my feet and fresh monsoon air in my breath. All in all a perfect trek, and a wonderful experience. Way to Go Sahyadri Rangers.