Kondana Caves or Kondivade Caves

Mumbai witnessed the rain on the 2nd week of june 2015.I was patiently waiting for monsoon like y'll know our maharashtra turns in to heaven during this specific rainy times.It would take like couple  weeks for maharashtra to get transform in to greenery sight.so i waited for couple weeks before i hop up for trekking.

On Sunday,21st june i woke at 6 am and gave call to aakash for making sure whether he is up or sleeping! because we decided day before about visiting 'kondana Caves' in karjat,like i expected he was sleeping,i called him 8 time's in 30 minute duration but no answer,finally i was sucessful with 9.
I got ready and met him near veera desai around 7:50am then i saw him eating Masala dosa like a boss i.e more waste of a time.He offered me to eat masala dosa,i said 'NO' as i already had mango jam with bread at home and more than that i had ulcer under my tongue so i was ignoring all the spicy and street foods from past couple days.Till 8 he was finished with dosa and we headed towards 'AZAD NAGAR' Metro station(Andheri West) and took ghatkopar Ticket which costed us 40Rs per person.We Boarded metro and halted at ghatkopar then took a ticket to karjat station(Central Line) which costed us 50rs per person Return journey.
We boarded the karjat train at 9am,passenger crowd was average,however we were unsuccessful with getting the seats.We were near doors standing and enjoying the view of foggy mountain's and greenery field.The time the train reached at karjat station it was 10:40am.
One can smell fresh vada pav all around the karjat station.I was hungry and was unable to keep myself away from those vadapav,which costed us 10rs per person then we headed towards eastside that's where kondana caves is.
Around 6-8km from Karjat station is the Kondivade village from where an hour trek will take you to ancient stonecut Buddhist caves called Kondana caves.The caves are estimated to have been created around 200BC-100BC. An earthquake in 1900 destroyed parts of it including the front entrance, floors, and several stupas.
We headed towards shriram pool which is Tum-Tum stop,Remember one will not get ST bus on the east side of karjat because roads are narrow,it took us 10min to get to Shriram pool.From there we took sharing TUM TUM to kondivade village which costed us 20Rs per person.After getting down at kondivade village,TUM TUM man gave an offer to drop us at the base of kondana caves for 100rs which we ignored as we wanted to enjoy the view of Ulhas river and Foggy mountains allround walking through the village.
We started our trek.we saw ulhas river flowing on the right side and some villager women washing the clothes.Wind was strong with mild rain dropping,no way we were gonna get tired with this kind of environment and view.

Path to kondivade village

Ulhas River

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My hair was messed up with wind and rain going on,i saw some kids catching small fish with the help of umberalla and they were successful with that method,saw some families catching crab with the help of Fisher net and saw some men digging muddy ground.Local's will help you showing the way to kondana caves.

Goat

One need to walk straight and not to get misguided by taking bridge path above ulhas river,the pic i had snapped above is only because of dog.
Animal's like Cow,Goat,Hen and dog will often greet you on the way.

Kondivade Villager House

The picture of house posted above is made mostly of all the natural stuff like Bamboo,stone,Stick,Cowdung found around the coutryside,this kind of house are often found around here.

Now we were at the the base of hill,it took us around 45-50 minutes to hop here.Before starting our real trek we sat near one of the local small shop and copped Goodday biscuit and balaji wafers,as option were less matter a fact there were barely any option available,only 3-4 brands of biscuit and wafers,it costed us 12Rs Total,which means 2 Rs extra compare to city,benefit of monopoly.

The path was little slippery but acceptable nothing like it will give you heart pumping or what,all we were doing was following the foot steps.All of a sudden we came to the point were 3 trails popped up in front of us,2 trails with rocks on it and other trail to the right horizontal.Now we went back to the flat land from where we came from,we were lost searching for right trail and top off that now it started to rain heavily.

Flat land

There was a trail in to the flat land,we started to follow that track after couple minutes we started ascending rocks which was now turned in to waterfall because of heavy rain,On One hand i was holding opened umbrella and with other hand i was making grip on stones while climbing up,i was finding it difficult later i decided to trek by closing umbrella,life is more important than getting wet,right?.I was worried about my mobile getting wet.
After couple minutes of trek it turn out to be there was a dead end further,atleast that's what it looks like with heavy rain on us,big rock in front of us and valley on the left side then we decided to head back to the flat land and taking the same route we took before.
On our way we encountered many crabs and frog.Most of the trail ended up being a waterfall,we saw some trekkers descending then we got the idea about the trail to caves.
REMEMBER - One need to keep taking the right direction route whenever you get lost! because caves is on the right side and one more tips 'If y'll trekking on the 'rocks' that means y'll taking the wrong path or at least hardest path,On the right path mostly you will find muddy soil.

Right trail

Now we came to the point where we needed to cross the heavy flowing waterfall to get to the caves.There would have been no heavy waterfall flow if there was no rain or atleast mild rain,our bad luck! Flow was strong because of the heavy rain happened couple minutes ago.However me and aakash managed to cross the waterfall by giving hands to each other,make sure you don't take a long step until and unless you are stepping your feet on the right rocks,just drag your foot to the the ground.Here is a video of that waterfall -

There are sign boards marked and digged but at the wrong place.By the time i reached up,i was all wet though the glimpse of waterfall falling from above the cave was one of the best nature view of my life.I was enjoying the waterfall,the water crashing on the stone was creating waterdrop.That drop was all on my body like 'automatic shower cleaner'.

Heaven on earth

Enjoying water falling from above the caves

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Aakash

I was amazed by the architect of kondana caves.When it comes to look it is one of the sister caves of bhaje and karla caves.

Kondana caves

Masterpiece Carving

Inside Caves

While i was snapping pic's i saw group of 10-12 men screaming and jumping like monkey ascending towards caves.I saw one of the men pissing at the corner of the caves,after couple minutes they started eating and throwing chicken bone there only,some of them were drinking liqour and some of them were smoking.They were fresh instance of 'destruction of heritage'.Here's the video of those people-

I got my mind off those junkies and continued with my photo session

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Inside Caves

Ladybug

Now we decided to head back to home,we descended in 20-25minutes to the base then trekked fo 40-45minutes to kondivade village to take sharing TUM TUM to shri ram pool and from there 10minutes of walking to karjat station.We boarded train from karjat and made ourself comfortable on the seat,9 out of 10 times passenger boarding train from karjat will get the seat because it's the last local train stop.we halted at ghatkopar station then took a metro to azad nagar stop.Till 9pm i was at home.

It was a budget trip,
Total expense per person = 166Rs
Metro = 60Rs return
Karjat = 50Rs return
Tumtum = 40Rs return
Vadapav and Mini Drinking bottle = 20Rs
Goodday/Balaji wafers = 6Rs