trek to Dhakoba

p1012984
uploaded by kaa on flickr.

Friday night at midnight i buzzed Raman, and in half an hour we decided to trek to fort Dhakoba. The trek is a actually a longer one with fort Dhakoba and fort Durga with a temple in between. But to complete that needed 2 days, so we decided to just do the first one. Went to bed at 2 and was still sleepless when the alarm went off at 4:30. Raman was to meet me at Mulund station at 5:30.

Met Raman at station, caught a train to Kalyan, then bus to Murbad (Rs.17), jeep to Dhansai (Rs.16) and a finally a jeep to Polu (Rs.12). Reached the base village Polu at 9:45. Now unlike other treks, this place doesnt see much crowd as reaching here is a pain. So the villagers were really staring at us. But they were quite nice and one man went to great lengths in trying to tell us the way. And if someone really tries hard I can understand almost 80% of marathi.

The sky was cloudy in the morning and we were hoping for rains, but as we started walking the clouds vanished. And the combined forces of heat and humidity began to take our toll. We were to walk uptil the hillock were we would find the beginning of a stream. If we followed that stream through the valley we were to reach the fort.

p1012999
uploaded by kaa on flickr.

From what i had gathered from the villager and from Kaushal's posting, the key point was reaching the stream. But Kaushal and team had taken a guide and lost their way as soon as the guide returned to the village. So i had some doubts about the way. Please see the photos at flickr to know THE wrong way and the probable way.

Soon we lost the track and were scrambling through thorny bushes. Somehow we climbed over hillock no.1. On the right side of hillock no.1 we could see the stream. So we climbed down the other side and walked along the stream. After about 1.5 hours we reached a huge waterfall. Practically a dead end since it was short of impossible to climb without the right equipment.

It was already 1:00 pm. We had to get back to the village at 3 pm at the most, or we wouldnt find any conveyance (jeeps stop doing trips at abt 4-5pm).

If we backtracked for an hour, and then searched for the right track it would mean 3 hours min. So there was no point in doing that. So we did what is best in the situation, that is take a nap.

p1012994
uploaded by kaa on flickr.

after about 1.5 hours of wakeful sleepiness, we turned back. Dhakoba would have to wait.

p.s. there is a village called, guess what, "Singapur", next to Polu. We forgot to take its pic. Next time :)