Trek Marathon: Jor-Koleshwar-Bahrichi Ghumati-Arthur's seat-Jor

 The Western Ghats or the Sahyadri Mountain Range runs North to South at the Western edge of the Deccan Plateau along the West coast of India , starting from the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra, South of the Tapi river valley and ends at Swamithoppe ,the southern tip of India just before Kanyakumari covering a distance of 1600 kms. The range is amongst the Worlds top 10 bio diversity hotspots and eco sensitive zones and covers 6 states in India. 

I have been fascinated by the ghats and my aim is to first cover the entire range in Maharastra. For this to happen, you need a strong support system of fellow trekkers and off course strong family backing as you are away from home quite often and that too on week ends.

Thus before I begin my first serious blog on trekking, it is apt that I express my sincere gratitude to veteran trekker , Mr.Anand Palande for initiating me into the wonderful world of trekking in the Sahyadri's through his pioneering books like Dongar-Yatra, my friend and trek mate, Prashant Kothawade and Tushar Kothwade for introducing and accepting me whole heartedly in the Pune trek group.It is because of them that I got introduced to so many wonderful and like minded trekkers and now close friends and I could realize my dream of trekking in the most unexplored parts of the Sahyadris. Also a special mention must be made of Vineet Date for his exceptional planning and execution abilities in the treks I have done with him and for his wonderful conservation work at Ghoradeshwar mountain. Lastly but most importantly I would like to thank my Parents and my wife Sheetal and Daughter Aarya for sacrificing family time so I can trek.

The trek to Jor-Koleshwar and Arthurs seat via Bahirichi Ghumati had been on my bucket list of dream treks for some time now.And thus when the Pune Trekkers Group planned this trek, I immediately jumped on to the bandwagon. The only part I was concerned about was that during the entire month of May 2017 I had not trekked nor exercised for well over a month.

But there was no way I was going to miss this one and decided to join the group come what may..

All the trek mates assembled at my house at Kothrud and we started for Jor, our base village for this trek at 10.30 pm on Friday night. On the way after crossing Wai, after about 15 kms , we took a left turn for Jor as per the milestone, but soon realized that it was a dead end. It was pitch dark and we were deep into the heart of the Mahabaleshwar valley and route lost....We however soon back tracked and came back on the Wai-Jor road. We continued towards Balkawdi Dam, crossed the Dam on the way and soon reached Jor at around 2.30 am. Our guide , Mahadev Mama was awake at 3 am in the night n guiding us over the phone. It clearly was a good omen and a precursor of things to come..

He ushered us in the local village temple of Goddess Kumbhaljai which was to be our base for the next 2 nights. All were tired as it was already 3 am and we quickly dozed off in our respective sleeping bags.

We woke up early morning at 6 am and though it was Peak Summer it had fortunately rained the previous night and thus we woke up to a surprisingly pleasant morning. Mahadev Mama had prepared nice hot kande pohe and tea for our break fast. We all had a proper break fast as it was going to be a long day ahead for us. The temple was located exactly in the valley between Mahabaleshwar to the south and Koleshwar to the north and was surrounded by dense foliage..

 

 Post breakfast we started for Koleshwar at 7.15 am sharp. Though we were a large group of 14, we maintained a steady pace and reached the Koleswar temple by 9.30 am in about 2 hours. The route was steep but relatively easy to negotiate and had a nice forest cover and warmed us up for the walk ahead. The Temple of Koleshwar has a copper Shiva mask placed on the naturally formed Lingam and along with Mahableshwar and Raireshwar is amongst the 3 important and ancient Shiva temples of the Jawali region. The temple is a perfect place for the lord who remains largely undisturbed deep into the heart of the forests of Koleshwar!!

 

We all had some rest at the temple and also feasted on Jamun aka black plum which was growing in abundance in the area and also provided much needed respite to our parched throats.

We then proceeded to the eastern end of the Koleshwar plateau. In about 30 mins we reached near 2 huts and a cultivation, The entire plateau has just 2 huts at the extreme east end, and thus is practically untouched..

We walked further for about 15 minute from the huts and reached the Eastern edge of the plateau. We could see the towering Raireshwar Mountain range, Kamalgad and Kenjalgad from this side of the plateau. A route descends to the village of Jambhali from this side of Koleshwar.

I just closed my eyes and soaked in the serene surroundings. We were standing atop one of the 3 main mountain ranges around Mahableshwar and it was pure bliss.....The cool mountain air even in Summer was enough for me to rave about the magic of the ghats.......We all took some time off for group photos....

From L to R: Prashant Kothwade, Tushar Kothwade, Milind Dadu, Namdev Gaware Sir, Yours truly and Tushar Poman

The western end of the plateau falls 4200 ft into konkan and we were all fascinated with the prospect of witnessing the same very soon and thus we all started our walk at a healthy pace at 12 noon from the eastern edge of Koleshwar..

There was dense forest en route. We halted for lunch at 1 pm at a water hole inside the forest about 1 hour from the temple. All of us feasted on the Dahi, Parathas, Bhaji and rotis accompanied by some tasty pickles and drank Tang and water from the water hole to our hearts content..

Post lunch we naturally felt drowsy and decided to take a nap right inside the deep forest..with the birds chirping and the trees giving us nice shade, we all slept soundly...We woke up reluctantly after an hours sleep and started for the Koleshwar Western edge of the plateau in right earnest. The plateau walk really tested us.. the walk was unending..We walked for 2.30 hours non stop and finally reached the Western edge of the plateau at 4.30 pm. 

However all the effort was worth it. It was a sight to behold...This was the moment we had been waiting for..the Sahyadris opened up its vistas in front of us......We could see Konkan deep below, the Altimeter showed 1402 meters, which means Koleshwar was nearly as high as Mahableshwar. 

We could see Nakhinda of Raireshwar( Western most tip of Raireshwar Plateau), Durgachi Janani peak in the Varandha ghat, Mahadev Murha, Mangal Gad Fort ..and the entire Kamtha and Dhavale valley below..We stood mesmerized to the spot and finally at 5 pm we started back for Jor as rain clouds had started to build up on the eastern horizon.

 While returning back to Jor , Mahadev Mama our guide took us from a different route. The descent was quite steep and exposed at certain places. My knee had started to hurt due to lack of practice before the trek and there were patches of scree, and with my Quechea shoes not having a good enough grip i was taking extra precaution. The good thing was that this route brought us right at the temple and was a short cut..

We reached back to our Temple at Jor by 6.30 pm just before the rains could catch us..It had been a long but most satisfying day. We had walked nearly whole day from 7.15 am to 6.30 pm and been to Koleshwar Western end which our guides told us was not frequented. In fact they had been there only 4 times in last 40 years. We all were treated with some tasty Dinner by our guide. The non vegetarians feasted on Gavran Chicken while we veggies also had nice Rassa bhaji to treat our taste buds.

In the night some of us brought out the Kishore Kumars in us and entralled our audience forcefully with our singing skills..The same however led to all going to sleep immediately:-)

The village school at Jor

The next day we woke up early and all were ready to start by 8 am. I was actually thinking of not joining the group as i had severe pain in my left knee. I had myself to blame for the same as i had not taken the all important precaution of stretching properly post yesterdays daylong walk, Seeing my plight, Namdev Gaware Sir came to my help and got me to stretch and i started feeling a bit better. All others also encouraged me and soon i was back on my legs ready to join the group..

After all this was that part of the trek which was so very dear to me..The forest of Jawali beckoned!!

Vineet Date however had suffered a nasty fall the earlier evening while descending from Koleshwar and hurt his leg and chose to stay back at the temple as he had been operated upon on that very leg just a few months back.

Today we had to first do the Jor- Bahrichi Ghumati stretch which was going to take us about 1 and half hours.The route passed through some of the most dense and virgin forests of Jawali and we were all excited to experience the same.

 
We crossed a bridge on the dry river bed, and after crossing the farms and the village school of Jor in about 20 mins we entered the deep forests of Jawali. 

 The forest is bison infested and thus we covered the distance at a fast clip. The forest was completely untouched as we did not encounter any plastic or sign of humans having passed that route.. We also saw some leopard droppings and hyena droppings en route. 

It took us exactly 1.5 hours to cross the forest and reach the clearing before Bahirichi Ghumati. We reached the Bahirichi Ghumati by 9.30 am. Bahiri i.e. Kaal Bahirav is an avatar of Lord Shiva and Ghumati means spire or covering on top of a place of worship!

This is the point where the route from Jor meets the Dhavale Ghat route, which climbs up from the Dhavale village situated in the Konkan plains to the Deccan Plateau.. There are water cisterns just above this spot and provide much needed water to tired trekkers/villagers going to Jor/Mahabaleshwar from the Konkan plains.If you climb from Konkan it takes about 3.5 to 4 hours to reach this spot.

We could see the forested route coming from the konkan plains, traversing the Chandragad Fort and stood routed to this spot as we were now exactly at the edge of the Deccan plateau..at the dividing line between the konkan plains and the Deccan Plateau on the east..

Tushar Poman studying the idols at Bahirich Ghumati ( he has done his MA in Indology !)

Our two guides..Mahadev and Namdev Mama..they were very helpful and had in depth knowledge of the entire terrain..

Water cisterns near Bahirich Ghumati..

We all rested by the water tanks and also had breakfast of parathas, fruits, chikki and whatever we could lay our hands on. From here we started our final climb towards Arthurs Seat. There was a steep climb post the water tanks and it soon brought us to the ridge which connects the Ghumati to the Arthurseat point.. enroute we were treated to some breath taking views of the Mahabaleshwar cliffs and Pratapgad Fort.

After about an hour we reached the rock patch below the window point. I was a bit exhausted at this point and Shalabh my trek mate like a true trekker came to my rescue. He not only carried my bag during the exposed route before the rock patch but also gave me much needed moral support. I was soon feeling better and negotiated the rock patch all right. The rock patch is easy to negotiate but comes at the fag end of this trek and thus important that you are not casual and focus on your next step..

Shalabh at the winbow Point..Pratapgad top can be seen just emerging from the clouds!

 We soon reached at the top of Arthur's seat and were ecstatic with our achievement. We had covered the distance from Jor to Arthur's seat in just 3 hours flat and had reached the top by 11.15 am. The tourists watched us with admiration as they could not believe that we actually had climbed Arthurs seat from below.

 We all had much needed Nimbu Pani and gulped down at least a litre of water each. We then reached Kshetra Mahabaleshwar by hiring a Maruti Van and started our descent to Jor village via Ganesh Ghat. The ghat gets this name from a Ganesh temple situated at the beginning of the ghat. This ghat route starts just behind the kshetra Mahabaleshwar Temple and is frequented by the villagers and is well marked. As most of the route passes through dense forest, the heat did not affect us much.

The Kumbhal Jai Temple at Zor, from top of Ganesh ghat, Mahabaleshwar.

We reached Jor in another 1.5 hours and were back at the temple by 1.30 pm. We all had the satisfaction of completing an arduous but most enjoyable trek and started back for Pune after thanking our two guides. It felt sad to leave the beautiful surroundings, but alas we had to return back to our normal routines in order to continue our escapades of the future.. 

Enroute we had a tasty lunch at Wai with all gorging on Chicken and Anda curry and this was topped by a amusing summary and thank you speech by ND and Tushar..

We did not encounter much traffic on the way back and reached Pune by 5 pm.

It was the end of a most satisfying and confidence boosting trek for me personally and i was now filled with the desire to trek more regularly and improve my fitness further.....

 Hope the above will enthuse all readers to explore the ghats. See you all on another adventure.

Some important points to be noted:

1). Please ensure that you exercise regularly before you take up this or any other arduous trek.
2). Please do not litter and and carry all your waste back with you after the trek.
3). Stay close with the group and do not wander alone in the forest.
4). At all times carry at least 3 litres of water per day. Very important to stay hydrated.
5). Respect the guides you hire and make them a part of your trekking team, share your food with them and do not give your sacks to them to carry.
6). Try and gather information about the geography and historical importance of the places you visit.
7). Please respect the time given to your fellow trek mates and be on time always.

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