Gorgeous Gorge, Sandhan…..5 Apr 09

Delayed (Apr-Jun 09) circular printing & posting didn’t allow me to take advantage of the rule that Leader to be contacted at least 15 days prior to the trek. Also, trek being very easy and co-operation assured by Ramdas Bande, I wanted to accommodate as many participants as possible. By 25th March list was not touching 10. I spoke to Uday and checked availability of his 14 seater trax. It was available. Within next 3-4 days got 10 enquiries about trek less advance payment. On 31st March few more enquiries, backed by advance payment and I booked a 27 seater. Next day few more enquiries with assurances and booked a 31 seater. 2nd April hit me with about 8 cancellations and left me worried about my decision of booking 31 seater. Then started negotiations with Prajakta Travels. He agreed to charge less for anything below 25 passengers. Spreading a word about cancellations & availability of seats helped. 4-5 participants joined on 4th April giving me much sought after relief.

Aditi & I left at 9.50 pm, picked up Sukhada and Devendra on the way and reached Chakram office by 10.15 pm. Being a leader I had to be there on time, positively before participants. Had I been a participant I would have saved at least an hour by boarding the Bus at Thane. But No regrets, all this comes with the tag of a Leader. In all these preparations in spite of having a personal check-list, I forgot to carry film-roll and missed clicking pictures from my camera. Kiran came in as a help as he had a camera to spare. I never imagined that someone will have a spare camera but nice to have such rich trekking colleagues to fall on.

With few anticipated exceptions all reached Mulund before 11 pm. After some exchange of smses, calls, missed calls, all were together and left at 11.20 pm. Suryakant & Uday joined us at Thane. Now we were a group of 28. We had a good session of Antakshari and songs in the Bus. Jaymala, Mahesh, Surya, Kavita, Dharmshi Uncle, Purvesh were lead singers of Antakshari. I could not participate whole-heartedly; Thanks to my darling, Aditi. We had a short Tea-Toast break at Star of Highway near Kasara at 2.15 am. Seeing Dharamshi uncle drinking Energy, someone commented – “te bagh energy pitayat, ajun khoop gani aikavi lagnar”.

For reaching Samrad, I was going by directions given by Parag. He told me that after seeing a Board, Samrad Fata, turn left. I saw three Boards with Samrad Fata less left turn after/near that. We reached Ghatghar Dam and found Parag’s Samrad Fata Board & a left turn after that. The circus was over when we reached Samrad at 5.00 am. Ramdas Bande, resident of Samrad received us. We had time till 7 to rest and finish potty. Few lied down in the temple, few in the courtyard of Ramdas’ House. The Sun was out around 6.30 am to wake us up. It was a pleasant and colorful morning. Everyone had Tea n Pohe for breakfast and was ready by 8. After an introduction session, trek started. To the south of Samrad is Ratangad, very prominent and magnificent. We also got a close view of Aja Parbat. Kulang- Mandan-Alang dominate Northern side of Samrad.

Sandhan is a deep Gorge on south of Samrad. A pleasure walk of 35-40 minutes took us to Northeast opening of Sandhan. First thing I noticed was a sea of boulders. The walk is through the boulders and I kept on guessing about distance till the other end. It’s a gradual descend to Southwest for about 1.5 kms with a depth of 500 ft towards end. As I got deeper and deeper in to the gorge, some strange mysterious feeling was creeping in my mind. At some places, distance between walls of the gorge is as less as 2 ft. The maximum distance between two walls is 30 ft. This time of the year we had to cross two ponds, one with waist deep level. First pond has a 5/6 inches wide bridge over it. Next pond demands seeing your legs, compelling everyone to roll-up his pants and walk through. Only Aditi managed to cross this pond without wetting her legs; I carried her on my shoulders. The gorge's Southeast end opens in Karoli Ghat.


Mangesh’s planning to get in Karoli Ghat from here and looking at the end I felt it’s possible. Towards the end the Boulders become huge but for an experienced trekker with technical back-up it seems possible. We took a break here at 10.30, had bakarwadi-samosas-biscuits-Khajoor-choclates-Kakdi-Gajar-Jaljeera. Return trek started at 11. We were back to Northeast opening at 12.30 noon. On Ramdas’ recommendation we saw Kokankada of Samrad. It’s a miniature version of Kokankada of harishchandragad. We were back at Samrad at 1.15.

Ramdas had cooked Kanda-Batata-Tomato rassa Bhaji, Chapati , Rice for lunch. We supplemented it with canned Rasgullas. All were happy with food. We left Samrad at 2.30. Our next aim was Balvantgad which is in Thal (Kasara) Ghat . We took Khodala - Vihigaon diversion in Thal Ghat. We took Vihigaon - Mal Road and got down on the road before Mal at 5.15 pm. The hill on left (east) is Balwantgad. It can be identified by a small fortification on Southern side of the fort. It’s a small fort with great view of Thal Ghat as well as Aja Parbat, Kulang, Kalgonda Pinnacle, Tringalwadi, Anjaneri, Brahmagiri, Harihar, Utwad etc. 2 small roof less temples of Hanuman & Shiva are on top. Back at the base we had a feedback session. Out of 28, 22 were new to Chakram and were fascinated with decent arrangements at low cost. All were at praise for me and I had to announce some refund of trek fee.

Sandeep, Kavita R and Sabir graciously agreed and made up for the delay in reporting at Mulund by giving Ice Cream to all. We had a wonderful team for this trek which ensured that everyone enjoys the trek. Return journey to Mulund was fun filled with lots of songs from all directions, some dilkhush Shayari and joy unlimited.