Harishchandragad - 23/24 Nov 2013

Plan

It started with 5 of us. Harishchandragad was too important a gad to not have a check-mark on a reasonably decent list of treks done. 5 dropped to 3 but so strong was the purpose, to smear a humble tent with 'real' soil which was so far only used 'extensively' in a friends drawing room, that we persisted. 3 is good to go.

Route 

Pune --> Bhosari --> Alephata --> Otur --> Dont go to Khubi Phata if you are driving..bad road --> Pimpalgaon Joga (right turn) --> This patch is super. You go along the banks of the dam back-waters (first 2 pictures) --> Khireshwar. Park your car here. 142 kms was the odo reading.

Pic 1 - Harishchandragad range in the backdrop of dam backwaters

Pic 2 - Makes the 3 of us.

Start

Spent 10 minutes on finalising a guide, Sahebrao. 1030 start was good timing given the fact that we started at almost 7 from Pune and a pohe break we had enroute. We had read about 4 to 6 hours of climb but Sahebrao promised to take us thru the jungle route eliminating climbing up and down a few hills. Barely 30 minutes after the start we bumped into a group of trekkers who had started much earlier but lost their way in the forest. 

After negotiating a walk-way cut on a rock patch (pic 3), we reached Tolar Khind (pic 4). Sahebrao and the limbu-paani fellow were prompt to describe an accident that took place on this rock patch in the rainy season and what a task it was to stretcher down a thickset trekker in that slippery terrain. Stretcher a Trekker. Good rhyming.

Pic 3

Pic 4 - Tolar Khind

Rock patch immediately after Tolar Khind

Its easy. Similar to Torna.Pic 5 and pic 6. Pic 6 is a little bit of kida. It can actually be bypassed.

Pic 5

Pic 6

Jungle route

Almost 90% of the climb is thru dense tree cover. At times you have to use the camera flash for better pictures. (7 & 8)

Pic 7

Pic 8

After 3 hours, 3 breaks, 1 Chocolate bar, 1.5 liters of water with all sorts of additives (limbu-pani, electral et al....it rhymes again :-) and an apple we were at the top. Good mileage. My friends had packed enough food for all of us. We were blissfully unaware of the commercial activity there. Also, we were carrying almost 10 liters of water amongst the 3 of us. I was the lightest and had started getting a complex seeing the level of preparation my co-trekkers had done. We still decided to support the local economy by ordering some Pithala to have along with the parathas and lemon rice my friends were carrying.

After a little bit of temple and cave sight seeing (refer wikipedia), we did a recce for a tent site. Identified a couple of spots but still not happy with them, we picked our stuff and started walking towards Kokan-Kada at 4'ish. It is a 20 odd minutes walk.

Pic 9 - Kokan-kada

Its so beautiful, no wonder it incites suicidal tendencies in the sanest of insane's. 1800 feet, concave and semicircular. A notebook paper-plane stays aloft for close to 2 to 3 minutes when flung from here before landing safely on the cliff. How I wished I had a wing-suit. The concave and semi-circle is sculpted from wind gushes of the past so many centuries.

Pic 10 - Kokan-kada. Note the people standing top left corner.

Pic 11 - Kokan-kada. We are looking bored waiting 1 hour plus for the sun to go down. 

Camping

And finally the cake. We pegged our tent bang on the cliff. Just about 15 m from the edge. We were told to be careful about being blown away by the wind but thankfully it was quiet. A group of about 10 monkeys making war cries looking at us upset me a little until I realised it is an intruder dog behind us with whom they have a territorial dispute with.

 Pic 11

Pic 12 - Tent as seen from a distance

The crowd came & disappeared quickly after the sunset.

Pic 13

We were left with a group of 3 trekkers from Mumbai with whom we chatted till it was almost 730 pm sitting on the same spot pic 9. Subject was obviously experiences of various treks. The huge starlit dome was getting sharper as it got darker. Deep down 1800 feet, villages were lighting up for the night ahead. We flashed our lights to many international flights those fly bang above Harishchandragad traversing their demarcated route approach landing into CSIA. They were not very high above us as much was the artificial satellite that we faintly spotted in the clear sky.

Dinner was at Bhaskar's shack. Paratha's/Lemon rice again but this time with some mixed rassa bhaji. You can see Bhaskar on his facebook page. Kokan-kada is the keyword, I guess. +91 98818 83893 in case you want to talk to him. He comes there from a near by village every Friday evening and goes back Sunday evening.

Prakash (+91 73508 26486) was another enthusiastic & trained local guide who had escorted a group from Nalichi waat that day. He specialises this route and makes arrangements for equipment, ropes, tents et al. You just have to carry your sleeping bags and water. His wife accompanies the group and she was diligently taking care of the cooking for the group. He invited us for a camp fire and offered some 'ayurvedic' fish from the not so clean water hole nearby. I resisted the temptation after quickly realizing how difficult the descent next day would be with 10 kgs of luggage and an upset stomach. Dozed off pretty early at 930. There was a noisy bunch of people staying far-away who were pretty illiterate, English speaking illiterates at that, to differentiate between a resort and a camp site. We dreaded the fact as to how noisy it would be near the caves. Avoid weekends if you want to listen to complete silence. The wind got stronger middle of the night and while it was complete silence otherwise, the flutter of the mist wet tent was equally noisy.

Return Journey

Morning was pleasant. Not chilly at all for the warm clothes we were carrying. Got ready, packed off the tent, had pohe at Bhaskars shack which was about 25 m from where we were. Kamlu Pokla, was ready to guide us back to Khireshwar. We realised yesterday itself that its impossible to discover the forest trail back all by ourselves.

2 hrs 45 minutes later we were at Khireshwar. 11 am. After off-loading the sack in the boot of the car, it took quite an effort to walk with an upright back. The 4 hour drive back home, thanks to a jam on the Nasik highway, restored the back in that awkward position again. Misal at Rajkamal, Narayangaon was the only consolation.

Next.. Nalichi Waat and unfinished Taramati peak with similar camping. Rappelling will just make it complete.When????