Friday, May 29, 2009

पेठ (कोथळीगड) Peth (Kothaligad)

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”
~George Washington Carver

About the Fort:

Peth is a conical hill, with a prominent thumb-like pinnacle on its top. It is detached from the main range and is 472m high. The pinnacle actually is a fort, and is known as Kothligad locally. Because of its location, Kothligad commands excellent views of the surrounding Konkan countryside. If the visibility is good, the entire Matheran range can also be seen!

It is rare that one gets such an amazing view after an easy climb, and so this makes Peth a very special place. One can visit Peth both in monsoon and in winter, but the finest time is to come just after monsoon, when the visibility is at its best.

Our Journey:

Siddhesh caught a train from CST at 5.45 A.M. Aatish and myself were waiting for Riyanka & Shraddha at Dadar Central. Shraddha & Riyanka along with Upena appeared just couple of minutes before the train arrived at Dadar Station at 5.58 A.M. We were all sitting in the Gent’s Compartment, fourth from the Motorman’s cabin. Gauri & Shilpa joined us at Mulund and Priyamruta at Thane. Due to some communication only Nilambari & Divya (Ail) got into a different compartment. By the time we crossed Kalyan, Amey called up & informed us that he would meet us at Karjat itself.

At 08.06, we all got down at Karjat & headed towards Karjat S.T. Depot. The Karjat - Jamrug S.T was about to leave (08.15 a.m). We requested the conductor if he could wait for few more minutes. We waited for couple of minutes when we received a call from Amey who told us that he would take at least 10 more minutes to come. So we decided to move and requested Amey to come directly to Base Village Ambivali to which he readily agreed.

At around 9.30 we reached Ambivali where we all (except Amey) had Kande - Pohe & hot tea, served to us by one Shri. Gopal Sawant who owns a small general store (adjacent to his house) and who also prepares lunch, dinner, breakfast etc for the trekkers (by order) & charges are nominal.

By 10.15, Amey also reached there and we began the trek at 10.30…one hour late than planned. A motorable road leads us to the lower plateau, which is actually “Village Peth”, situated exactly at the base of the fort. The walk up to this plateau is generally of 02 hrs but as most of the team members were doing the trek for the first time, it took us 03 hrs to reach there. Pretty all right!

As we reached the lower plateau, a beautiful view was awaiting us. From here we could see the Peth fort standing tall with its protuberant pinnacle. The hike up to this point was quite simple because, it was an uncomplicated wide road and we had sufficient water with us. Those who were unaware of carrying a heavy backpack while hiking learnt the technique.

After walking for couple of minutes we came to the house of “Police Patil” of Peth Village. Siddhesh & myself reminded him of our respective encounters with him earlier. He felt really glad when I told him that he, before four years, had narrated the story of “Panchadhatu cannon” kept outside his house to me. I reiterated the story to him. He was actually pleased with the fact that some unknown people remember the story so rightly. [The Story: The canon was originally placed at the fort. Few decades back some thieves were trying to take it away when his grandfather with the help of some villagers caught hold of them. Since then, the Cannon is kept outside his house like a memento]. Delighted, he offered us water to drink and we filled in our water bottles too and took rest for 10 minutes. He provided very important information to us that the fort, henceforth will be under surveillance of Archeological Dept. and soon the boards will be displayed at the fort and that the Govt has chosen him as an in-charge in this connection. I took some snaps of the boards lying there.

Then we moved on for the real adventure. Now the route became narrow…one person at a time…Pace reduced & rocky patches started welcoming us. Here, each others help was felt by everyone. Everyone started extending that “helping hand” to each other. At this time, we spotted few boys who were trying to show unnecessary bravado by trying to climb a steep way upwards (which was actually a channel of water through which water flows down in the monsoon). I requested them not to take that risk as that would be asking for trouble and surprisingly, they listened to me.

Although this route was more difficult than that of lower plateau, the shade provided by the trees was pleasing. After 1 ½ hrs we reached the base of the pinnacle. It’s a carved cave with few rooms inside and a water cistern outside which has potable water. There is a small temple of “Fort Goddess” also. Here, Amey took some snaps of baby bats J hanging head down inside the pitch-dark chilly rooms…
Then we all savored the food that all of us had brought. Variety of food items… Siddhesh’s “sweet sheera” was cherry on the ice cream! After resting there for a while, we moved on for the top of the pinnacle… Big steps carved inside the pinnacle take us to the top of the fort. That is the upper plateau! But here comes a small rocky patch that one has to climb for going on the top… At this juncture, we all stopped… It offered a really “stunning” view. And it needed a fair chunk of courage to climb this patch. As most of the girls were doing the trek for the very first time, they decided to stop there and not to go further, which I believe was a very right decision. Remember…”calculated risks”!

So, Siddhesh, Amey and myself climbed the patch asking Aatish not to do so as he was not wearing shoes. As we reached the top….what we saw was awesome…An unobstructed view of the surrounding…. Bhimashankar, padar, kaulya ghat, tungi, wandre khind…however, on account of visibility not at its best, Matheran range could not be seen.

……….. And suddenly Amey shouted …look who’s here… And we saw Atish & Gauri coming to us… we could not believe our eyes for a second… Gauri actually climbed it! In fact I was bit irritated because, both of them had done the climb without informing us and even after asking them not to climb, but I was at the same time overwhelmed by the courage Gauri had shown. We all congratulated her. There are 02 water cisterns on the top but the water is not potable.

After spending couple of minutes on the top, we started descending. Utmost precaution & care has to be taken while descending. One has to be very much balanced & collected while descending from a steep rock patch howsoever easy it may seem… Nature strikes without warning! Never ever, never ever, take nature for granted…Never ever fool around with it. We all should treat hills & mountains with supreme respect & sincere approach.

Once all 05 of us climbed down the patch, we all started our journey back to the base village. Shilpa reminded me that we were running out of time & it was already 4.30 p.m. So we decided to move down fast. As I remembered there was one way for going down which takes us to Village Peth within half an hour but is quite steep (03 years back I had taken that route with my two friends) and another, which takes little longer but is rather safe. I asked, confirmed and re-confirmed both the routes with few little local boys who suggested that we better take the simple route.

It took us almost an hour to reach village Peth. The Police Patil informed us that the last S.T. Bus was @ 5.30 so we would have to arrange Auto for us. He also suggested that Shri. Gopal Sawant would help us in arranging the auto. So, we all thanked him for his generosity and headed for the base village. Siddhesh, being the lead man for the day, went down fast to arrange the auto for us.

…The Sun too, was going down… The complete O of sun looked stunning! You can see that in the photos. The evening was pleasant. We all strolled our way down to the base village at around 7.15. To our surprise, piping hot tea was awaiting us. Siddhesh had not only arranged for an auto but tea also…

At 7.30 p.m we packed up and sat (?) in the auto. The train was to leave Karjat @ 8.40, so we had to reach there before that. Aatish, Siddhesh & myself were sitting along side the driver. It was very painful JJJ for three of us because there was no proper seat at the front. But no pain no gain…again & again! Only three of us could see a 4 ft long, beautiful silver-black huge snake that just had had his dinner. The driver told that, that snake is locally called as “Kambalya”.

It was already 8.35 by the time we reached Karjat Station and shockingly Nilambari & Upena were not having the return tickets! L L. Somehow we got the tickets and we all jumped into the Gents compartment. It was fairly crowded. We could see the potential danger, as it would have been very difficult for the girls to get down at their respective stations. So I decided to do something weird and impracticable. I got down and went to the motorman & explained him the situation rather shortly & requested him to wait for 01 complete minute so that we could shift the girls to the ladies compartment. AND HE AGREED!!! Wow! I told him that I’d come back to him to inform him that the shifting is done J to which he rudely replied, “No sorry, just make it fast….”

Then I rushed & asked all the girls to get down and move to the ladies compartment as fast as they could…. Then all the girls turned sprint queens! And then a run…

When the train moved, we all were so relieved! What a win win day. Shraddha had to run again at the Dadar station to catch the Borivali train…

Everybody returned home safely… no injuries, nothing… Only joy…pure & fresh!

What we learn:

In my opinion, nature is one of the finest teachers… And trekking is a real good sport which connects us with the nature. Here nobody loses & everybody wins! There’s no competition here so no rivalry… The pace of the whole team is the pace of the weakest member in the team. Some of the members looked tired while going up and some while coming down… but with each other’s help, everybody reached where we wanted to. It makes us aware of our weak points and makes us note the strong ones. Both the things are necessary. It imbibes serenity & composure. Our ego goes away… The spirit of friendship, love & care comes to the surface…

A hill, a mountain is made of hundred things… just like a team is made of different individuals. But when we look at the mountain we see mountain as a whole…not trees, plants, rocks & soil differently. A mountain, beautiful yet strong… A walk along hillside teaches us how to be a mountain… A team made of different individuals but looks “one” when together… like that of mountain…

…. A picturesque mountain!

Regards,

Saumitra.

[Please note: I’ve written this piece with regular breaks. One paragraph a day. So please excuse me if you find any fault/faults, technical, grammatical or otherwise. I’m sorry if anywhere the continuity is missing. Do tell me my mistakes howsoever minute frankly; I won’t mind J… I wish you enjoy this write up]


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