Spine Chilling Trek to KalavantiDurg Fort in rain with zero protection ascent

I came to know about KalavantiDurg Fort about a year ago from an article posted on a travel website. I browsed a lot on the net to find more about the fort. I found a detailed content on KalavantiDurg fort. It is one the 35 beautiful abandoned places in the world. Shivaja won the fort back from Kesar singh, a mughal sardar. At the time of attack the fort was governed by Kesar Singh and was the only fort to put up a strong resistance. Singh died during the battle but Shivaji in an act of kindness made sure that singh’s mother and her grandchild were allowed a safe passage out.

After some regular internet research I came to know about Prabalgad too which is adjacent to KalavantiDurg Fort. It is located on the edge of Matheran in the state Maharashtra, at an elevation of 2300 feet above the sea level in the Western Ghats. After a one year, finally the day came when I decided to visit KalavantiDurg Fort with few of friends on a weekend, and what better way to end the week than a whiff of freedom and a feeling of fullness?

So, on a beautiful Saturday morning, at an around 8 O’clock in the morning we all gathered at Panvel Railway Station, which is the closest to KalavatiDurg Fort. August, being a Monsoon Season, though there was not a single rain cloud in sky. It was a perfectly hot sunny day. We hired a vehicle from station to village Thakurwadi. The entire mountain can be seen from the Mumbai-Pune express highway. It took us around 45 minutes to reach the village. The vehicle dropped us to the foothill. Here on, we started ascending the mountain towards the plateau called Prabalmachi, named after the village located up on the plateau. The way towards the plateau was bounty with nature. We also saw some Baboons playing on a tree. Wait, I am not sure whether they were playing or fighting. There were lots of Fig trees on the way with fruits on them, we grabbed some fruits to eat and they were not bad at all, not very sweet but perfectly edible. After 2 hours of incessant ascend we finally reached the plateau. Due to monsoon there was a small stream of water flowing down from the plateau, the water clean enough to drink and had a great taste.

We halted for 15 minutes on the plateau; and we started to walk towards the base of KalavantiDurg fort. The KalavatiDurg fort wasn’t much difficult to ascent but it was dangerous because of the nerve breaking steep climb. The stairs leading to the fort were cut out of the rock of the hill. There were no safety rails on the edge or no ropes on the wall to hold on to. As we finished the scary stairs we had a steep ridge of about 3 meters in front of us to climb on. It wasn’t easy but somehow we all managed to get to the top of KalavantiDurg Fort. The view from the top was breath taking. The hardest part was now to descent. Due to rain, mud from top was flowing down to the stairs, which made it slippery. Slowly yet carefully, step by step, we were able to make it down to the plateau. It is a sigh of relief after spine chilling experience.

As the descent was over and we were on the plateau, we went to a small hotel up on the plateau owned by a local villager. They had Dal-Chawal, Roti with some sort of sabji. We had amazing food with mesmerising view

Things to Know:

- There is a dense forest up, so one should hire a guide if not sure about the route. - Do wear proper trekking or hiking shoes or boots with good grip. - Carry at least 5 litres of water

How to reach

- Own car – Drive down to Thakurwadi (from Shedungphata – Kalamboli-Mumbai bypass road meets the Mumbai-Pune highway) - Via train- reach panvel station and then either hire a vehicle or a State Transport Bus to thakurwadi village. - There are two State transport buses available in the morning, one at 7:00 A.M. and the other at 8:30 A.M. The Last bus from Thakurwadi to Panvel railway station is at 8:00 PM. - Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Is nearest to Panvel.

Location

- Google coordinates 18.971193, 73.225293

About Author: Ketan Shide

Hi! My name is Ketan, I am just 21 years old college student living happily in Mumbai. My passion is to travel to unknown places. I travel to places because I do not just want to see it in books or television. For me, it is a great opportunity to experience and observe our great mother nature that surrounds us as a protection layer from all odds and also holds a great beauty in itself.