MahuliGad 5th June 2005

An account of the trek

An account by Sanket Sangwikar

Date: 5^th June 2005

Destination: Mahuligad near Shahapur (Dist Thane).

Participants: Sanket Sangwikar, Ketan Khairnar, Aniket Kate, Aniket Lonkar, Sourabh Sil, Mandar Date, Abhijit Jawdekar

We all left for Mahuligad after getting our bags packed with food and most important WATER. We didn’t want to make this similar to our Karnala trek, when we would have paid twice if someone was ready to give us even drops of water, but no one turned up. So everyone was having two liter of water each.

But it was all in vain! The fort was so huge, lengthy and exhaustive that by the time we reached half the height, we had finished 70% of Water.

The way was excellent, passing through dense forests, tall tress and large rocks. The architecture was reminding us Rajgad again and again. The fort seemed to be miles away even if you are 80% done with the trek. The last 20% was damn fast and wickedly rocky.

Mandar gave off after first half an hour only. Abhijit persuaded him to go further and they form a small negotiation team, which was coming up with an ant’s speed. We could watch hem coming from the top of the fort. Every five minutes Mandar would say to Abhijit, “Enough, this is my final destination. I will sleep here. You go ahead.” He had finished all the food and water, they both had in their bags, by the time he reached the top.

The fort had remains of Entrance door, caves, walls of fortification. The top of the fort is flat, wide, exceptionally large and covered with dense forest of Jambul trees. Mahuligad has two more neighboring forts, connected with its top, called as bhndargad and palasgad. We couldn’t visit them though. It would have taken one more day of trek to see all the three forts completely.

We searched and searched for the water on the fort, and finally got a tank of clean drinking water, which was like an energy tonic for us. After we found water, everybody realized how much hungry he was and all food was finished within next 15 minutes. After their stomach was full of food and throats wet with fresh cool water, Mandar and Sourabh started again with their typical jokes and comments. Aniket K was speaking continuously as usual irrespective scarcity of water.

Abijit got a cramp in his leg so we got down from the fort a little late. Bless Ketan for he could arrange an auto direct to Asangaon station packed with all 7 of us. In all, the trek was excellent and magnificent though a little more exhaustive.

Addendum by Sanket Sangwikar

The Great I, brought the digicam with me and forgot to bring the cells. Soon whole Asangaon town came to know that there exist some 6V batteries in the world. But after a lot of abuses and taunts from the kind fellow trekkers, I had to convey the bitter fact that we cannot take any photo on this trek.

Comments

Comment by Mandar Date

This was little exaggerated. Abhijit and I did not finish all water and food in our bags. I had spared a 1ltr water, which we used after meals. I also had biscuits and bakarwadi. Abhijit spared 5 ladu and some water

Mandar.

Comment by Sourabh Sil

Really very well written..

How cld you forget to mention the 7 people in one rick ride(Bajaj Test ride)!!! :-) And also your wisdom to bring the Digicam but not the batteries. And how even the Panwala was trying to help us with the Batteries he must have never heard of.

We can also add the climbing down in 3 groups..

One of Ketan and Aniket to find a Vehicle so that others did not need to walk another 2 kms to find one. They really did cover good ground to come down quickly and luckily Ketan got a bike ride once they reached the Ganpati Mandir situated at the base of the Fort.

The second of Aniket.K and Sourabh.. These 2 were really interested to climb down really fast, specially Aniket.K.. Sourabh was hardly able to keep pace with him since his natural instinct was to run, irrespective of the steep slope or barren flat land!! At one point he told Sourabh that he will slow down a bit and then in the next moment he was running to the Bemusement of Sourabh. And Due to this company Anilket.K was able to learn the typical jokes!! They were also able to find the Echo point on the Slope which was a bit wayward from the actual path to the fort.

The Third and not the least were Sanket, Mandar and Abhijit. Kudos to Abhijit for he braved his cramps to climb down the rocky and treacherous paths of the Fort, where probably one wrong step wld have meant the last step of life. And the only job that Sanket did was to give indication that they were safe for the second group who were blowing there hearts out every now and then with his name to get some communication going between the second and the third group.

Ya, Mandar even I feel it is a bit exaggerated.. Kya kare woh jo tum loggo ne kiya woh to papi pet ke liye tha.. :-)) and also y you were able to get the 30 mins sleep before climbing the rest of the fort!!

Thanks and Regards,

Sourabh Sil.