Introduction
Tandulwadi village is like 7 km/5 km from saphale Station depending on the route. Tandul means 'Rice' and Wadi means 'Village'.Fort is like 800 year old,There is No hotel or Restaurant nearby, neither no caves on the way while trekking but there is enough place on the plateau for camping.It is one of the easy trek,so one can visit during initial stages of monsoon.
Occupation and Life
Most of the villagers they extract fruits/vegetable from farm and some from Tandulwadi forest itself then they sell it at Saphale station.In our journey we encountered family who were busy cutting fruits and spices which i will write about in detail in our story section below.
Tandulwadi looked like an small village to me with very few huts around and it was good to see many new solar system machine used in the village.
Journey
As decided On 14th June 2017 which was Wednesday Me and akshay met near Azad nagar metro station at 5:10 am and took sharing rickshaw till andheri station which costed us 10 Rs per person and then boarded Dahanu fast train at 5:30 am from andheri which costed us 30 Rs per person Return ticket, what shocked me the most was that in Mumbai Indicator app it showed 5:50 am Dahanu train, i mean one Can't be dependent on that app,specially long distance train however one can use it just to get an slight Info of timing.
On train we discussed how many youths today want to be like Mumbiker Nikhil without checking his financial background, i mean every one wants to be a rider now days and Go on a Long distance trip on regular basis which don't make sense for working class people until and unless your family is a Big shot and got a good successful business/property running around.
We were at Saphale station till 6:40 am,Nearby station we did a quick Breakfast by eating Vadapav and Dhokla, also we purchased biscuit,water,frooti for our journey.At 6:55 am we boarded S.T bus, remember next bus comes at 8 am.We easily got the seat matter a fact half the bus was empty early morning on week days.At 7:15 am we reached Tandulwadi Village.
I will strongly recommend you to ask for the right trail from villager at the start,neither you will you end up taking a straight trail instead of left from the water body nearby.
After a while,there will be steps on the way.We took a small break in between as we were trekking almost after 7 months so we were little tired nonetheless this is a easy trek with well marked arrow on the way.
Weather was mild,there was little wind every now and then.I did't expected the spot to be this green at the early stages of monsoon which shows it rained good in the past couple weeks.
Finally we reached the plateau, after reaching here some flying insect started biting around our neck, at first we thought it was honeybee but it was something else.Talking of Fortification there is barely anything left.There is water tank here and there.
Vaitarna River give that necklace kind of view from here,as seen in the above pic.It is one of the main River which supplies water to the Mumbai city.
It was good to see farmer Adopting 'Greenhouse Farming' which helps the crops from extreme weather,Pest/Diseases, Easily manageable and ensuring High quality Final product.More awareness should be made about this since most farmers are taking a decision to suicide due to high debt and unpredictable Weather which is quite common in India. Greenhouse Farming helps to cultivate crops throughout the year even during bad times.
We took a break before descending, In that mean time we drank frooti and eat Monaco Biscuit and started discussing about our friend, i am not gonna take no names - cause the people who we were talking about are now Drug consumer and Peddlers. We discussed Like how it was all good week ago, they were good kids now they are damn skinny, like this one guy he had been to Rehab and back, Took Cops beating still sell Coke which provide him enough money to satisfy his material thing.
After having a talk for 30 minute we started descending, while descending for 15 - 20 Minute we realized we lost our way, now it was getting tricky, Don't know how we ended up near graveyard which was kind of scary.More we descended more we were Lost.Finally after 30 minute or So we saw a family cutting Fruits , they told us to wait for 15 Minute as they too were heading down. They told us you both are faraway from tandulwadi route, so it would be better to head down at saphale which is nearby from here.Those people had so many kinds of fruits and vegetables tied under clothes and basket, which they were going to sell at saphale market at station later on.
After they were done we started following them, on our way they asked '' there is only two of You?'' we said yes to which they were shocked.Now we were on track even though it was different route, they gave us a tips ''From here Go straight and beware of snakes on this routes '' and they got busy in their fruit extracting activity.
Finally after 30 Minute we were on the road this was different village, First thing we did was drink water and wash our face from the pump which was connected to the well.
we started walking on the road as station was like 1.5 km from here, In between we took rickshaw which costed us 8 Rs Per person.After reaching saphale station we boarded express train which was heading from Ahemdabad. After halting at borivali station we boarded fast train to Andheri and near Andheri station at Shringaar Veg Hotel, there we ordered Dal/Rice Papad, Paneer 65 and cold drink which costed us 115 Rs per person then we headed home.I was Home till 4 Pm.
Our Expense
Travelling Cost - 70 Rs Per person
Snacks/Drink Cost - 50 RS Per Person
Lunch Cost - 115 Rs per Person
Tandulwadi village is like 7 km/5 km from saphale Station depending on the route. Tandul means 'Rice' and Wadi means 'Village'.Fort is like 800 year old,There is No hotel or Restaurant nearby, neither no caves on the way while trekking but there is enough place on the plateau for camping.It is one of the easy trek,so one can visit during initial stages of monsoon.
Occupation and Life
Most of the villagers they extract fruits/vegetable from farm and some from Tandulwadi forest itself then they sell it at Saphale station.In our journey we encountered family who were busy cutting fruits and spices which i will write about in detail in our story section below.
Tandulwadi looked like an small village to me with very few huts around and it was good to see many new solar system machine used in the village.
Journey
As decided On 14th June 2017 which was Wednesday Me and akshay met near Azad nagar metro station at 5:10 am and took sharing rickshaw till andheri station which costed us 10 Rs per person and then boarded Dahanu fast train at 5:30 am from andheri which costed us 30 Rs per person Return ticket, what shocked me the most was that in Mumbai Indicator app it showed 5:50 am Dahanu train, i mean one Can't be dependent on that app,specially long distance train however one can use it just to get an slight Info of timing.
On train we discussed how many youths today want to be like Mumbiker Nikhil without checking his financial background, i mean every one wants to be a rider now days and Go on a Long distance trip on regular basis which don't make sense for working class people until and unless your family is a Big shot and got a good successful business/property running around.
We were at Saphale station till 6:40 am,Nearby station we did a quick Breakfast by eating Vadapav and Dhokla, also we purchased biscuit,water,frooti for our journey.At 6:55 am we boarded S.T bus, remember next bus comes at 8 am.We easily got the seat matter a fact half the bus was empty early morning on week days.At 7:15 am we reached Tandulwadi Village.
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| View from Tandulwadi Village. |
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| School kids playing |
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| School at Tandulwadi Village |
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| Right Trail |
Weather was mild,there was little wind every now and then.I did't expected the spot to be this green at the early stages of monsoon which shows it rained good in the past couple weeks.
Finally we reached the plateau, after reaching here some flying insect started biting around our neck, at first we thought it was honeybee but it was something else.Talking of Fortification there is barely anything left.There is water tank here and there.
 |
| View of Vaitarna River from Tandulwadi Fort |
 |
| Greenhouse Farming |
 |
| Akshay and Me |
After having a talk for 30 minute we started descending, while descending for 15 - 20 Minute we realized we lost our way, now it was getting tricky, Don't know how we ended up near graveyard which was kind of scary.More we descended more we were Lost.Finally after 30 minute or So we saw a family cutting Fruits , they told us to wait for 15 Minute as they too were heading down. They told us you both are faraway from tandulwadi route, so it would be better to head down at saphale which is nearby from here.Those people had so many kinds of fruits and vegetables tied under clothes and basket, which they were going to sell at saphale market at station later on.
After they were done we started following them, on our way they asked '' there is only two of You?'' we said yes to which they were shocked.Now we were on track even though it was different route, they gave us a tips ''From here Go straight and beware of snakes on this routes '' and they got busy in their fruit extracting activity.
Finally after 30 Minute we were on the road this was different village, First thing we did was drink water and wash our face from the pump which was connected to the well.
 |
| Pump |
Our Expense
Travelling Cost - 70 Rs Per person
Snacks/Drink Cost - 50 RS Per Person
Lunch Cost - 115 Rs per Person
