MANIKGAD

Manikgad
Date: 17-06-07

Region: Karjat

Height: 1878ft

Minimum duration to reach the top: 5 to 6 hrs from Vadgaon.

Water availability: water available at the gad

Shelter: no shelter available at the top

Minimum duration: 1 day

Sights to see: karnala fort (because of heavy rain we could not see any thing)

Way to reach Manikgad: We started from UICT at around 5.15 a.m and caught the 5.25 a.m train from Matunga Central to Karjat. The Sahyadri ranges that you can see through the train as it nears Karjat is beautiful. Reached Karjat around 7.10 a.m and took a tum-tum to Vadgaon. The nazara on the way was sweet.

After reaching Vadgaon we asked the locals the way to go to Manikgad, and lo we started off with bang. There was eye catching greenery on all sides that made you fall in love with nature and is a treat to your eyes. This is what kept our spirits high the whole time. After a while we could see Manikgad infront of us.

After walking for ?km we cam across a stone on which Hanuman was carved, adjacent to which was an alcohol bhatti. This is where there are 2 ways to go to Manikgad ,if you take the straight path ahead it’s the easy way on top. But we were in some adventure mood and so enthu that we missed on this path and took a short cut instead (a left) which turned out to be a difficult rocky route and to top it up it had started pouring heavily as we started climbing.

Pratik, Mukesh and vishal used to go ahead and see which path would be easy for all of us, Arundhati a first timer was a bit nervous and she found solace with Galvina, Sandeep, ninad, Anuradha, manu, Yashashree who were always pepping her up.

As we moved ahead the inexplicable beauty of the gad overwhelmed us. The breeze ohh ! ohh! was so superb that we felt that we were flying….and we were catching the grass all the time while walking.

As we were nearing the gad top the breeze was getting wilder and the rains didn’t seem to be stopping……wow! …it was a great experience. Then we seen some local village boys…they guided us how we should get to the topmost point as the gusty wind was a bit scary. But some of us again wanted what we call as ADVAVENTURE a name coined by Vishal. So again we took a short cut, and Gosh!!! It was steep path, and it scared the hell out of me (shanti).We reached the gad at 2.00p.m

Rest of them came by the path guided by the village boys. On the top of the gad there is a huge water tank and some broken fort wall. The atrocious wind and the heavy rains were making it difficult for us to explore the place. But we managed to explore after the rains subsided and it was worth all the effort, the mist laden mountains and the greenery made us feel awesome. There was also a point on the gad which the local boys superstitiously claimed that if u stand there you are likely to meet death soon.

We decided to climb down and then eat our lunch. The local boys accompanied us as we decided to take a different route down the gad.It turned out to be a longer route for us though.

So we reached their village and looks like waited till eternity for a cup of tea too arrive for us. But our wait was not that rewarding as the tea tasted pathetic, but the splendid company of all of us together just made it PERFECT.

Later on after a long walk half way we got a tum tum and reached PANE ST stand.Every bus seemed to be jam packed as it was a sun so caught an 8.00 p.m St to Panvel till where we went standing, it felt as if every muscle of our body was aching. Then we caught another ST from Panvel to Dadar where we slept through the whole way I guess. We reached dadar at about 12.00p.m.

This time we were a big crowd around 15 of us. It is said na “the more, the merrier”. Actually felt it was true, we had a lot of fun, and the best part was that we there for each other when some of us were finding it difficult to climb the rocks, or were slipping, or were losing confidence or had got tired. Guess it’s the difficult times when you realize the true worth of friends. So that the memories of this trek remain with us forever we now also have a short movie made by Vishal.
Trekkers: Pratik, Ninad, Mukesh, Vishal, Sandeep, Kale sir, Vaishali, Yashashree, Anuradha, Murnmai, Vanita, Galvina, Arundhati, Disha, Shanti.
Expenditure: Rs. 400