Harishchandragad is a citadel fort situated to the left of the kalyan-murbad-ahmednagar-nanded Maharashtra state highway 2, about 150kms from Mumbai. It makes for an excellent trek that anyone with a basic level of fitness should be able to enjoy and complete, as well as provides a bit of excitement for the seasoned trekker too. I was privileged to do this trek in Feb 2009.
About 60kms from Murbad is the MTDC resort of Malshej Ghat. Another short drive takes one to Khubi phata which cannot be mistaken because one sees a huge lake to the left. ST buses have a "request" halt here, but one can’t take that for granted.
From here one would be able to catch a jeep(recall fevicol ad), locally often calledkali-pili, which would travel the 5 kms across the dam to the base village of Khireshwar.
Here are a few dhabas with colorful names(ex: Tejas, Aishwarya), where the villagers are very friendly, and do provide nice simple village food/tea/nimbu-pani, and clean water.(I do add chlorine drops for sterilization of all water though)
This is where I parked my car, and hired a guide(and I must admit: porters, for our camping gear etc). We were a group of 10 45-52 yr olds, not completely sure of our physical prowess.
A note of caution, ask porters how much they will charge, and also that they would be available for coming down the following day(we paid an exorbitant 200/porter /day; though they would definitely do it for much less!)
From Khireshwar(650mts) it took us 1hr 15min through jungle to "Tolarkhind"(950mts). We enjoyed a cool breeze here and re-hydrated ourselves with electoral water. Please note that after Khireshwar there is no water till the top. I personally consumed 3 lts, since it was quite hot and at a “healthy”93kgs quite obese, though most would require approx 2 lts of fluid.
From Tolarkhind is a rock face, which looks intimidating but actually has nice foot holds all the way. Most of the railings have "disappeared", but that wasn’t a deterrent to climbing. Another 1 hrs trek gets us to the top of the climb, and again we were rewarded with a cool gust of refreshing breeze. As our group reassembled here we now had views of the valleys and ranges to the north and the peaks of Harishchandragad, namely "Ballekila" and"Taramati peak(1300mts)". From here are 2 routes, the one to the right is longer and has the classically described 7 hill walk, to the temple(1160mts). The route to the left is shorter by about 15 mins. This "top" walk takes approx 1 hour 15 mins to the temple of Harishchandreshwar(Lord Shiva). This is where the water tanks are situated. We had started fro Khireshwar at 11am, and were up by 230-3pm. There is a dhaba here which prepares meals, gives tea/poha etc, and even arranges for fresh clean water. Just above the temple are the caves:"Ganesh gufa", which would be a nice place to stay. Also nearby is anice flat camping site, where we pitched our 4 tents, and basically set up camp. Later I felt a better camping site would have been the ridge just above and west of the temple(more privacy and a much better view).
After stretching and relaxing on our mats and reinvigorated with some locallymade tea and snacks we then proceeded towards "konkan kada". This was a flat 30 minutes walk westwards. This is the western edge of the mountain andit overlooks the konkan plains. It was one of the most breathtaking sights that I have ever seen in the Sahyadris!.
At absolute cliff edge we stood overlooking a concave rock wall, which spread out over 1/2 km semicircle. It mesmerized us, we almost felt it dragging us over the precipice. no words can describe the beauty of this natural phenomenon.We took as many photos as we could as the sun descended over the horizon. There are several descriptions of "konkankada" in various blogs, about circular rainbows and reverse waterfalls and a blanket of clouds"below" you, which I guess would have to be experienced in the monsoons.
With a great amount of satisfaction and a sense of personal fulfillment we made our way back to camp in torch light.
Our helpful*dhaba-wala, * Bhagwan, had arranged for some wood and we made a bonfire. We did have our drinks here, though I do believe that locals frown over alcohol consumption here, near the temple. We had a nice dinner and retired for the night. The night temperature was a pleasant 12-15degrees or so, and at times quite windy. Half of us slept in our sleeping bagsin the open.
Well a slight problem here… being a night before “mahashivratri”locals were in abundance and they sang tirthans through the night, which did prove a little disturbing, but not terribly so, and we did have a nice night’s, and may I add, well deserved sleep.
Next morning we wound up camp had tea and poha and began our return trip at 930am. Being a Saturday we encountered approx 100 trekkers on their way up, most of them youngsters(say 18-25 yr olds), but some 55+ year old’s.
On inquiring with them they said it was their 5th time trekking to Harishchandragad, and they had first done in 1975, when there were no rock-cut footholds, leave alone railings or pillars. Truly a humbling experience for us “pampered” city folk and so called luxury trekkers.
We were down in about 2 and a half to 3 hours. Again at the base, Khireshwar, we were provided refreshing nimbu-pani. 4 of us went to thelake for a swim and a clean up job which was most refreshing.
rom there we drove to the MTDC resort, about 7 kms away and had a simply ravishing meal of palakpaneer, alu matar(spicey!) and malai chicken. After lunch as we drove down Malshej ghat we could see konkankada from the valley, and that really did put our whole trek into perspective.
The question being: would we really have trekked up seeing that giant monolith in front of us? well the answer being: nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Our feet were paining, and we were grimy, we were tired, but we were very satiated. Every trek I go I appreciate the beauty of the Maharashtrian Sahyadris more and more!