Trekking to PETH FORT, Karjat on sunday 22 jun 2008 with BARC staff club. this Fort come before bhimashankar from Mumbai. this near to bhimashankar
Thiswas to be my first trek to the fort of Peth. Also known as Kothaligad, this is a small fort about 25 kms from Karjat station.This place liesin the Sahayadri mountains.
The fort was a watch post forsoldiers guarding the Bhor Ghat, which was an important trade routebetween Pune and Kalyan. Once you reach the top, you can have a greatview of Karjat and Bhimashanker. In the monsoon, this is a wonderfultrek and, especially during the weekends, you will find people comingin big groups for this trek.The best view for me was when I reached apleateau.The fresh air and absence of traffic made me feel great. Peth(Kotilgad) – 1550 ft is a small fort with a large cave at its base. Itis detached from the main range. It has an interesting fortification atthe top in the shape of a funnel with rocky staircase carved in themiddle. This funnel is known as Kotligad. The lower plateau isconnected with Wandre Khind on the ghats in the east.
We reachedKarjat station at around(9:00 a.m.). we alighted at the base villageof Ambivali. Here we had our breakfast – the customary "Vada-Pav" and"Tea".There were many first timers but all seemed very enthusiasticabout the trek. We started the trek at around 10:30 am or so. The trekstarts with the tar road right near the shop which is also the busstop. You take a left from the tar road and you follow a road laid withstones. Within an hour we reached the plateau which is normally thefirst proper rest for the trek to Peth.You can see the top of peth tothe side. But here the top we covered with clouds. From the plateau youstart walking and very soon reach the Peth village. The Peth village isexactly as the base of the fort and you can see the walls of the fort.You go right across the village and here starts the second part of thetrek. From a point there is a bifurcation. The easier route is from theleft which goes around the fort with the fort staying to your right.There is a set of steps which will take you to the top. If you take theright side route, its much steeper but will get you faster to the top.Once at the top, there is a small plateau, which when we reached wascovered in fog. Here there is a small water tank.Then ahead is a hugecave – clean and very good for a stay. Right from inside the cave isthe set of conical steps. This is the unique and amazing part of thefort. For someone who has no idea of this fort, he would sit wonderinghow to get to the top of the fort. Like most of the forts that I haveseen even this fort had steps each about more than a foot high.
Everytime I wonder were the Marathas so tall or did horses climb thesesteps. Anyways the view at the top was worth the climb. There is a hugetank at the top and pipes are drawing water to the Peth village fromthis tank. It’s a small fort and was normally used for storage ofammunition etc. To the north you can easily make out the most easilydistinguishable feature of Padar killa. Right behind Padar Killa is theBhimashankar range. If you are lucky you can get a view of Nagphani thehighest point of Bhimashankar. Now everybody had enough of the peaksaround and it only contributed to making them more hungry. Everybodycame out with their tiffins and Lunch done. we decided to turn backafter spending some time at the lower part of the fort. There is a pathwhich takes you all around the fort. We started back at around 4:00 pm.Once we reached the Peth village and the plateau, people knew therewere half way through and walked at a relaxed pace. We reached Ambivaliby around 5:30 pm. After that we had a quick session of "Tea" and"Bhel". So we took the Bus back to Karjat and way back to our houses. Ireached home by 10:30 pm. Even my parents seemed happy to seem me homeearly.