Maharashtra nature park: Gems in the middle of Asia's biggest slum

Introduction
Maharashtra or mahim nature park falls in a dharavi range which stands at a walking distance of 2.5 km from mahim railway station. Opening time of the park is 8:30 am to.3:30 pm. It is closed on public holidays.
It is a 40 acre green land rich in flora which also includes herb quality plants and fauna like butterfly, dragonfly, insects, birds, reptiles - if you are lucky enough you might spot snake also. Main purpose of this park creation was to bring ' Children close to nature' as nowadays most of them are fascinated by Big towers, Skyscraper, Automobiles(Specially which runs on fuels), Malls and club, 'A big threat to environment'.

History
Pre 1977 this 40 acres land was a garbage dumping ground, then WWF India submitted proposal to MMRDA to convert this in to forest park land, finally proposal was accepted in 1980 then the work started to remove the garbage first, before spreading the soil and planting trees, according to locals and environmentalist it was a very tiring and painful task. First tree was planted in 1992, during this period Bombay and bhiwandi went through religious riot making the vision of turning this in to park more difficult,however  time went on along with this green land started taking it's shape. Finally in 1994, ironically the very same year i was born,  'Maharashtra nature park society' took over and this place was made accessible to public.

Journey 
I tried visiting this place along with my colony friends back in 2016 Christmas, unfortunately at that time the place was closed so after 2 years on 26th November 2018 i planned to gave a visit alone, so i woke up early morning to board metro to andheri station from azad nagar, the ticket costed me 20 Rs return ticket then i boarded local train to mahim station which costed me 10 rs return ticket then i walked all the way to Maharashtra nature park, in between i purchased minute maid which costed me 22 rs, while walking on the sidewalk what i  noticed was men's with a hangover roaming around, Tata metro project, Mahim water pipe line and old abandoned car. 

Entrance to Park (2nd Gate) 

When i reached the first gate of the park, guard told me ''this one is nursey home for people who want to purchase plants, if you came here for exploration and species photography go to 2nd gate'' so i went to 2nd gate registered my name and paid 20 rs entry fee plus additional 100 Rs for camera inside main building which is parallel to gate. 

Main Building

Then i got busy in butterfly photography, during the process of photography i also learnt about the behavior of butterfly - 'some are shy while some are quite open, some fly at the low altitude level while some at high altitude level, some like to beat around and float slowly while some move too fast'.

Below are some of the snaps of butterfly photography -

• Vanessa Cardui

This butterfly is quite popular and was available in abundance out here, what i noticed was varnessa cardui, they fly at low level altitude. The one i snapped above in the pic, probably was the adult one, as i saw him spending most of the time at ground.

•    Bluetiger Butterfly

Bluetiger butterfly was spending most of the time sucking nectar of the flower, they will switch up from one flower to another within 10-15 second however they flight slowly. This species of butterfly is quite popular in India right behind orange tiger butterfly  .

• Speckled Wood  

Speckled wood are mostly found in the Wood areas, which you can see in the above image also that 'brown color' - it quite resembles on their body skin also. They tend to spend most of the time on plants and tall grass were shades are around. This species of butterfly were not in abundance out here in the park.  Unlike Common mime which is popular in india,' speckled wood are mostly found in UK.

• Graphium agamemnon or tailed jay

They were pretty active constantly moving their wings so i had a hard time capturing them. As long as i remember, i had previously seen this butterfly while descending from kaldurg mountain during monsoon season. They tend to fly at higher elevation but in search of flower they come down. It is said that they are attracted to lights at night times.

• Common Mime

This butterfly was unattractive to me so i haven't really noticed the behavior and it looked young to me. According to wikipedia it they can be seen in developed area also ,as they got evolved through times, they were capable of turning their body which is distasteful in nature to protect themselves against predators..

Nature park and surrounding

Every year the park earn around 32-35 lakh Rupee before deducting all the expenses and taxes from it.

Rain water harvesting system has been installed which can be seen on the ground while exploring park, it is said that it can store up to 2.25 crore liter of water every year in the artificial pond built, this saved them a lot of money which used to incurred when they ordered water from BMC back in the days.

Trail of the park

I kept on walking exploring different parts of the park then all of a sudden i heard a bird chirping so i ran to later find out that it was a kingfisher hidden in the woods partly visible, by the time i changed the lens of the camera he was long gone.

Wader

Dowitcher

Seabird

One can view mithi river with all mangroves around from the park, i mean the view i would say is not quite attractive or fascinating but what important is it attracts birds. 
I tried capturing the best shot of those birds but they were too far away,  so photographers with big lens can get the best out of it.

Once you get your eyes off this mithi river and mangroves, you will get the view of BKC - NSE, IDFC, PNB, Deutsche bank are some of them which is very much visible from the park. 

I took a break for couple minute to drink minute maid, then i headed towards nursery home on the way i saw papaya tree, school student along with teacher and guide getting ready to explore the park.

Papaya tree

Nursery Home

There are more snaps and also the whole park is filled with trees, along with scientific name written on it so it would be impossible for me to post everything out here. It's better y'all experience by-yourself giving a visit.
After exploring nursery home, i decided to head back to mahim station.  Route shown by google map this time was shorter through gully. I was home till 12:30 pm.

Malanggad fort: Plunder in the name of God

INTRODUCTION
Malanggad is like 16 km from kalyan station and is 3200 ft above sea level. It got three levels to it - Pir machi which is Haji malang dargah then there is Sone machi which is the plateau you reach after steep step climb , then Balekilla which is the peak of the fort.

HISTORY
Fort was built by King naladev in 7th century, then captured by maratha in  17th century and finally conquered by british. Place name has been in a dispute where some of them call it Haji-Malang while some call it Shri-Malang, among-st them 'Bal thackeray' was the one who said it ''Replace Haji by Shri'' during Hindi-Muslim riot in 90's.

JOURNEY
It was Sunday, July 1st 2018,  Me and mandar boarded metro from azad nagar to ghatkopar which costed us 70 Rs return Ticket, then boarded train to kalyan which costed us 30 Rs return Ticket. After reaching Kalyan station, we went to Bus depot and hopped inside TATA bus which head towards Malangad however Driver was no where to be seen, 20 minute passed by and now passenger started losing their patience level and  one by one started shouting at conductor ''Where driver of the bus at?  call him'', finally after couple minute driver arrived like a gangster and what surprised me was no passenger had the guts to shout at him, one could literally feel his presence. The reason driver took so much time as he don't like to be disturbed while he enjoys his breakfast, to him it was more like a lunch. The ticket costed us 20 Rs per person.
After reaching base of the malanggad by 8:40 am, we went near one of the shop where we ordered 2 Bhajji Pav plate which costed us 25 Rs per person, to be honest it tasted kind of odd, it was't the one they make using onion, channa or potato,'the one we eat here, they used some kind of flour to make bhajji so we took the newspaper and packed the remaining bhajji so that we can give this to a group of notorious monkey who all reside at malanggad mountain. On a side note avoid ordering anything at the base shop, you will find decent shop on the way to eat.

1.Pirmachi

Base of the malanggad

To reach pir machi, you will have to walk on the steps for at least 90-100 minute which is very tiring, it was very much  reminiscent of Mama bhanja hills trek, however the difference is out here there are more steps and also on the way till Haji malang dargah you will come across countless FMCG and religious shop selling cold drink, biscuit and Chips way above MRP price, say if Cold drink bottle MRP is 30 Rs, here they will quote you 50 Rs, so don't be surprised and get yourself enough snacks and drinks from home only.

On the way you will come across various religious shop where they will bait you like ''Remove shoes, wash your leg my son and do the offering to our Haji malang'', for that they will charge you a fee without informing you in advance, so beware and don't fall for it.We ignored many people on the way, mandar was very close to be a victim of it.

Milkman standing below Islamic flag

Durga devi temple along with Maharashtra flag

On the way you will also come across Hindu sites along with Maharashtra flag and sometimes Islamic flag every now and then, this kind of religious game is very popular in India since ages, most of the time you will find temple near the proximity of darhgah or you can say this other way around also, to be honest it is just to show the presence of population, its like ''If y'all exist we too exist'' even during festival time. Being an atheist i am less interested in religious sites until and unless the place is ancient, isolated or it got an architecture build that really appeals me.

Malanggad view before reaching Pirmachi

One can view malanggad on the right side once you start getting close to pir machi(Haji malang).
 At different intervals we did purchased cold drink bottle and rested for couple minute, during that time i asked one of the shop owner how far is malanggad? have you ever been there? he was like ''Go to haji malang and head back, malanggad is not the main destination, people who trek out there without praying and offering to our haji malang, they end up losing their life''. I mean this guy was using such a strong words, it was clearly a facade. One thing i do noticed is that there is unity among locals, and they don't like if visitor talk about trekking to malanggad instead of haji malang, they give answer which is inaccurate.
On the way while ascending we saw a girl, she claimed to be hungry and was begging for money desperately so that she could eat, so we gave her that remaining bhajji that we packed inside newspaper at the base of malanggad for notorious monkey. Right after couple steps we heard a laughing sound from behind just to find out that the same girl was laughing along with her group and was giving high five to her peers and had a expression like i fooled both these guys. I mean she was no beggar but a casual visitor just like us, we both were stunned. Little did we know losing bhajji was going to cost us later on in the journey, keep reading you will come to know what am i talking about.

• Haji malang or pir machi incident

We were figuring out the way to malanggad so we kept on walking, i also saw some eateries shop around, then all of a sudden 6 to 7 men popped on us telling to remove our shoes, for a moment we felt like we did something wrong, like we entered religious vicinity with our shoes on. Then one of the man took us to his religious shop. We asked him where is malanggad? we both are headed there, to this  he was not giving us the proper answer or showing us the way. He was like ''First do the offering to haji malang then go to the mountain'' we were being pressurized to pray, he handed us two offering plastic box for haji malang costing 100 rs per box, then without asking he added sweets, coconut on top of that box increasing the price to 200 Rs per box. So we gave him one box and kept  one box for offering worth Rs 100, then he told us to keep our shoes, bag  here only and take it back after praying to haji malang , problem was we both had DSLR camera in our bag so instead of keeping our bag at religious shop, we kept bag at the entrance of haji malang as there is a CCTV attached on the entrance and without wasting time within couple second we did a offering to haji malang for the name sake, and hopped outside haji malang to get our bag quickly, at that time man inside haji malang was like '' Donate some money for haji malang'' but we kept walking, not paying attention to his words, since it is a sensitive topic, i never told them i was an atheist neither i would have gotten myself in to trouble. Finally after all this, that man at the religious shop showed us the way, it was just before the dargah in that lane only, one has to take right, the way goes through gully.If we would have spotted that right turn, we could have avoided all this. There is a misconception among-st locals and shopkeepers(Religious and FMCG) that tourist only come here to see Haji malang.

2.Sonemachi

Once you pass Pir machi, journey towards sonemachi starts. Now one could clearly see Malanggad mountain.

Out here you will feel refreshed, away from all the crowds that y'all encountered on the way till pirmachi, i would say 95% of the people come for haji malang - pray and head back, but real beauty lies on top of sonemachi, this people they don't even know what they are missing.

Mandar trekking, sonemachi visible in the backdrop

On the way mandar threw all the chicku seeds that he got with him from home all over the place, it grows throughout the year suitable for warm and humid climate with average rainfall, so yes Maharashtra is perfect place for chiku cultivation.

Way to sonemachi from pirmachi

I have marked the route in above image for your reference(Click on it to view in large), you will get the fair enough idea about the way towards malanggad which goes through gully just prior to Haji malang.
On the way to sonemachi you will encounter Rock patch while ascending, to the left there is a muddy trail that would be easy to climb comparatively to rock patch, anyway to each his own,' take the one in which you are more comfortable with.After trekking for couple minute you will come across this steep climb, just before that on the left i saw religious Green/red cloth with arabic written on it ,rocks were kept so it doesn't flew away and on the right side was the way heading towards the side of the mountain with green/yellow flag at some point.

Religious Green/Red cloth

Steps leading towards side of the mountain

We were here for SoneMachi, one should hike this steep steps little carefully, one person at a time. There is a warning board just before this steep steps climb stating '' Be aware tigers have been seen around this vicinity'' which is just a another facade,based on some mythology. Leopard on mountains i do understand but tiger is just too much.

Steep steps Climb

After climbing this above steep steps, you will witness one of the most amazing view one can ever view in a place like Maharashtra. It was so amazing that i could't get my eyes off the pinnacle slim shape like structure of Mountain. I trekked many mountains in my life but this definitely stand apart from other ones. Journey till Pirmachi is not fascinating due to commercialization, but after that it will take you around another 30-40 minute to reach sonemachi which is definitely worth a while.

Malanggad (Sonemachi peak)

Mandar and Me

Another side of sonemachi

One can also view tahuli mountain from sonemachi peak, tahuli is also known as panch peer as there are tomb of five muslim priest. Tahuli mountain is my hit-list, one day i am going to trek that mountain too.

View of Tahuli Mountain from Sonemachi

3) Bale killa (Unconquered)

Way to Bale Killa, Further Pipe broken

The pic y'all looking above right now is the way towards bale killa, unfortunately one has to walk on the pipe and that pipe is broken so don't ever try to attempt it without professional trekkers, it will need ropes and different gear. I don't know if that pipe was broken purposely or not, back in the days when pipe was perfectly attached, there used to be guy who used to help trekkers cross the pipe. According to other blogs - police arrested that guy due to many accident happened out there.

• Attacked by alpha Monkey  

We took a rest at Sonemachi peak and eat Biscuit,which was the only snacks left in the bag, then we drank little mazaa and i kept that in my Bag, i told mandar to keep my DSLR in his bag. It was 12:30 pm by the time we started our descent.

Last pic before i was attacked by monkey

This is the last pic what y'all looking above right now, yes right where i am standing i was attacked by Alpha monkey, there were three monkey on my left side and two on my right and alpha monkey taking the lead, blocking me from descending on those steep steps. Mandar was safely down, but i was stuck.
First they approached mandar where he was standing down, that alpha monkey checked mandar's pocket then he realized mandar has nothing to offer, by looking at Monkey's IQ i was literally shocked , then he looked at me,climbed up, at that point i knew i was in deep trouble. I was trying to get alpha monkey out of my way by keeping bag in the middle, i too tried to be aggressive to this all the monkey reacted by screaming, during that moment alpha monkey opened his mouth, my hands started shivering after looking at alpha's monkey Dracula like big teeth with saliva dripping, just google it you will come to know what am i talking about, Monkey holds bacteria in their mouth, sometimes Rabbie's, talking of alpha one they are stronger then men. 
Alpha monkey now started pulling my bag and started checking what's inside my bag, luckily both the DSLR was in mandar's bag. I was literally shocked by looking at alpha monkey human like behavior.Somehow i managed to bring alpha monkey on my left side leaving a space to descend.Now i was searching for mazaa inside my bag to offer something to notorious alpha monkey, to be honest i was damn scared, the reason my hands were shivering like crazy due to which i was unable to find mazaa, i regretted giving bhaaji to that little girl who fooled us while ascending. Some of the guys gathered down, i was screaming for solution, they said ''Be calm'' so that i don't make wrong move and fall down from mountain. I gained enough courage and grabbed my bag threw it where mandar was standing, after this alpha monkey made a eyebrow like ''why?'', without thinking twice i literally descended like crazy, alpha monkey chased me, at that time mandar was able to take out mazaa and gave it to Alpha one. Alpha one alone drank mazaa while omega and beta's monkey were watching him, By that time we were able to get out of that range.

After this descending went smooth, while going down no shopkeeper will disturb you. Household people will beg you every now and then but it is better to avoid them.We reached at Malanggad base till 2:25 pm, within 5 minute bus arrived, we boarded the bus, kalyan station was the last stop which costed us 20Rs, then train to ghatkopar, from there to our stop, mine is azad nagar. I was home till 4:30 Pm.


 Tips and Guide before trekking malanggad (For Budget people)

• Avoid all the religious shop on the way, they will bait you first by telling you to remove your shoes, take blessing in the name of Haji-malang and for that they charge you hefty fee.
• Avoid all the begging of people you will encounter on the way.
• Bring snacks and water/juice bottle from home only, out here everything is overpriced.
• Locals and shopkeepers might demotivate you to not to trek till sonemachi(Malanggad), Don't fall for it.
• Broken pipe, its like somebody purposely broke it so one can't go till bale-killa, there are other stories on internet but no evidence. Tiger warning Board before Steep steps that heads to sonemachi to create fear among trekkers. Making only haji-malang dargah as main attraction, as their business is dependent on it. It is some of my interpretation theory i made above and what i witnessed, felt according to that i have written it.  
• Go in group, if not you can Purchase wooden Sticks on the way which is easily available so it can be handful when you encounter notorious monkey.
• Trek is tiring but still easy.Half day journey trek for mumbaikars. Bus frequency is good enough till malanggad
• Total cost - 210 Rs per person

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Naneghat: An Ancient Toll Booth

INTRODUCTION
Naneghat got a strong history.It is 2460 ft above sea level and base village of naneghat which is  Viashakhare is like 60 km from kalyan station. Word Nane means Coin and ghat means pass, thousand years ago it was used as an toll booth for traders using this route, so now y'all know this toll booth concept is way old. One can directly reach naneghat peak through roads but we were here to trek, no shortcuts.

JOURNEY

 1st part of the trek

It was 16th July 2016, saturday morning Aakash, Dhiraj, mandar and me met at azad nagar metro station like decided day before then boarded metro to ghatkopar which costed us 70 Rs return ticket, as soon as we arrived ghatkopar we saw train to kalyan was about to leave so without thinking we ran and boarded local train without purchasing a ticket, after arriving at kalyan sation we did a breakfast of Idli, Medu vada,dal wada and purchased mazaa bottle for our trip which costed us 40 Rs per person. On depot we enquired about St bus to nane ghat base, we came to know it was cancelled as that ST bus head towards malshej ghat where rock fall happened so we took the alternative - we boarded st bus to murbad which is like 31 km from kalyan station, even the frequency of that bus is good enough, now a trekker named sanjiv who was alone heading there too joined us. St bus fare costed us 32 Rs per person. After arriving murbad we took sharing tumtum to naneghat base which costed us 100 rs per person, as we were 5 of us i.e total fare amounted to 500 Rs. On the base village we eat omelette pav plate which costed us 20 Rs per person, due to change problem sanjiv paid for me and told me pay later on.Then we started our journey, at the start there is a board with naneghat written on it, the way go through that.

That's Naneghat

Starting point of Naneghat(Base village)

At the initial stage , the trek is very easy, you will cross water body which is connected to mini dam but after a certain point, forest gets too diverse and you will encounter different trails, however after wandering for couple minute you will figure out what's the right path, it's not that hard.
We too got lost for 15-20 minute but met local kid who showed us the right path. sanjiv had been here couple years ago, technically it's impossible for human to remember path,that too in detail even if you have visited that spot in the past. Sanjiv was busy capturing surrounding and other trekkers in his mini camera. It looked like he had a thing for clicking candid picture around him.

Time to cross water Body

Me trying to find the right Trail

Aakash suggesting that might be the right trail

Aakash, Mandar, Dhiraj, Sanjiv and Me

Temperature was kind of humid, so we were getting little exhausted, regardless of that it was a perfect weather for surrounding view, neither if it's foggy and cloudy around barely anything is visible which is not a good sign once you reach the peak.On the way,trek gets little muddy like the one in karnala fort. Once we reached base of the naneghat mountain, out here we did a little bit of rest. sanjiv at that time was like ''Hurry Hurry neither your thighs will get jammed once you rest''. 

Base Point of Naneghat

2nd part of the trek

Further the trek gets little steeper, you will encounter rocks steps, Due to which Dhiraj shoes started to tear up, to which sanjiv told us ''he usually purchases shoes from goregaon station where they got good collection for trekkers''. Aakash was ahead of us, finding it relatively easy. There was improvement in his endurance level as his dream was to join army so everyday he would do cardio exercise at Ismail college ground which is opened for everybody. 

Rock steps on the way to naneghat

Now the weather was foggy, it started to rain, which gave us a relief. On the way we saw group of OX  descending so we got a little worried immediately we gave them a space to go, i mean nobody wants to get hit by those horn that too on remote place.

Finally we reached a cave, back in the days it used to be fully open now they got a gate installed. It is also a good spot for archaeology student, there is inscription on the cave wall which dates back from satavahana Dynastry era. There is also a enough space for you, if you are willing to sleep inside the caves at night, most of the time it is occupied by big group who arrive there first.

Naneghat Caves

Way to Naneghat Peak

Those rocks above which is a pass to the peak of naneghat looks beautiful and give you that historical vibe.

Me standing Adjacent to Naneghat Caves

There is also a small cave adjacent to the main cave, as you can see in the above pic, just behind me there is a cave which i don't think is suitable for accommodation specially during rainy season and with monkey's around.

Ascending to Naneghat Peak

View from Naneghat

That's Jivdhan Fort on the Back Drop

The mountain beside pinnacle y'all looking above right now is Jivdhan Fort, it is not recommended to trek that fort during rainy season due to it's complexity. It is not possible to cover naneghat and jivdhan fort within a day. One can do camping at night on naneghat plateau which is big enough and next day can conquer jivdhan fort or directly halt at naneghat plateau through vehicle and trek jivdhan for one day trip. One day i too will try to conquer jivdhan fort, if everything goes well.

Now talking of naneghat plateau, it is damn beautiful. You will see mountain of different shape out here, In fact the valley view will remind you of harishchandragad. sanjiv too told us to give a shot at harishchandragad which is a two day trip and told me reason he do solo travelling because of time constraint, back in the days he will go under organised group which was time consuming. After eating egg he had with him, he left. I still owe him 20 Rs still to this day(2018) for that omelette i eat at the base village, this was the first time i trekked with unknown person, after that day i never met him, all i knew was he stayed somewhere in andheri only. We took our time to enjoy this beautiful view and eat sandwich which mandar got with him from home.

It was 3:10 pm when we decided to descend, on the way dhiraj shoes sole was tear apart but somehow he managed to come down.After getting down at base village, we took sharing rickshaw which left us at some village, it costed us 36 Rs per person, from there sharing jeep to murbad which costed us 15 Rs person person, from murbad ST bus to kalyan station which costed us 32 Rs per person, from kalyan station local train to ghatkopar which costed us 15 Rs per person and from ghatkopar metro to our stop. I was home till 9 Pm.

Total per person cost - 340 Rs 

Season - Rainy

Difficulty level - Easy

Endurance level - Medium  

Vehicle frequency - Good

Kavnai Fort:Mystical Plateau visit with School friends

INTRODUCTION
Kavnai fort is like 2500 ft(762M) above sea level and is like 33 km from kasara station. It is one of the less explored hill fort and one of the easy trek which can be done even in heavy monsoon. Fort is said to be constructed by Mughals. According to locals 'Shivaji maharaj' during his reign  used to visit this fort secretly, low key used to spend his time. However like every other fort in the region during the fall of trimbak from maratha to british hand, captain Briggs visited the fort and found two houses at the foothill, make no mistake Harihar fort is still his favourite among-st all the ascent he did in the region.

INSIGHT
Population out here mostly consist of Oswal vanis, Kolis and thakur. There is a Ram and Hanuman Temple at the base. There is a saint who leaves on top of the hill fort in Hut from last 11 years, he can provide place to sleep if you want to spend night at the top.

JOURNEY
It was 26th August 2017, Ganpati vacation going on. As decided on whats-app Group, everybody gathered at Azad nagar Metro station on Saturday early morning. It was Me, Mandar, Anirudh, Dhiraj and Atul, we boarded metro to ghatkopar which costed us 70 Rs Return ticket per person, from there Local train to Karjat which costed us 40 Rs per person return ticket.
I don't know whether it was ironic or not, we all belonged to same school.So on train we started discussing about our school days, Just imagine we were the only batch who all never got the farewell due to many mischievous students in our batch, i think all those gangster and love movies during that era had a huge impact on them the way students were reacting.Since then i never attended no Farewell or Fresher party let it be Coaching Classes,College or PG.  Most of the time innocent students took the beating in the school for the wrong doing they never did, they were so nicely setup.

Finally we reached karjat station, we negotiated with many jeep wala - the price quoted by them ranged between 1500 - 2000 Rs return journey, finally after good negotiation one the Jeepman got ready for 1000 Rs return journey i.e 200 Rs per person.During the time of negotiation what i noticed was Anirudh is quite good at it while mandar is bad who easily say 'yes' to any price quoted.
Journey was refreshing, in the middle we took the break to do breakfast in one of the hotel. Me and  Atul Eat Idli and Medu vada while others eat Bhaji along with Tea, also Hot Vada pav which anirudh liked it very much so he ordered and eat it like 3 times back to back.It costed us around 50 Rs per person. Weather was little cloudy, anyway we continued with our journey.
Finally we were near kavnai village, on the way some of the women asked for a lift by lifting hand but seat was occupied by us, still driver went out for couple second and came back, while driving he told us ''one of the women among-st  them had a thing going on with him before she got married, they were in love like crazy but at that time he had no source of income''. After couple minutes we reached the base village and continued our journey on foot. There was some kind of women festival going on in the village near temple named Kapildhara Tirth, no men's were allowed there, however saint who lived on top of the hill fort and also a well known figure out here passed beside us straight near the temple. Couple more minute of walk, now we were at the starting point of kavnai fort. Scenery was quite refreshing, the feeling you get after consuming kratom. It was 11:30 am on the clock.

Anirudh, Dhiraj, Atul, Me and Mandar

View from Base Village

Atul and dhiraj hiking towards kavanai fort

We started with our trek. Like always atul and mandar were ahead, trail is simple and no worries of getting lost as the surrounding is not tropical and filled with vegetation. In between we took break, vaki lake is easily visible from here. Out here me and dhiraj did a little of 'Mayweather vs Mcgregor' Boxing press conference face-off cameo, as we were very much excited about that fight which was going to happen tomorrow on 27th August 2017.

Mayweather vs Mcgregor Cameo

Vaki Lake

In that mean time atul was on top of one of the rocks chilling, and out there just beneath the rock mandar encountered Honey bee hive, damn it looked scary. Atul was unaware of that hive, little bit of movement would have caused 'Group of honeybee' to go ham on all of us. On a side note avoid applying Gel, perfume or powder on yourself while you are on the trek, fragrance attracts them. It happened with us at gaumukh plateau, when we were chased by 5-6 honeybee.

Honey Bee Hive Beneath the Rocks

Further you will encounter staircase to climb , which i already did in some of my trek like - Kalsubai, Peb fort and asherigad. Those staircase will lead you to Fort entrance. It is little bit of slippery during monsoon so watch out.

Staircase to Kavnai Fort

Mandar opening the Entrance Gate

We reached the peak. For such an easy trek, the view you get from the top is too good, i call it a 'natural eye massage'. I was excited to see a pond on top of the hill.

View from Kavnai Fort Peak

Mystic Pond

Pond on top of the lake is said to be sacred, it's not a drinking water though.It is filled with fishes, it would be safe to say there will be more than 500 fishes easily that too of different breed like gold fish, Shark fish, Cat fish and many. What surprised me was that there is ample of water in the pond through out the season and according to locals those fish are here since ages, nobody got them here.

Sacred Lake

Shiv Linga and Holy water

There is also a Shiv linga and utensil pot with holy water filled in it which is supported on wooden stick.It was drizzling every now and then, so we went near temple, which is on the edge of the pond for shelter. There we eat Orange, Banana and biscuits. We threw pieces of biscuits inside pond to feed the fishes. You will see fishes jumping and eating those pieces like they belong to piranha breed. Click on the video above to see those fishes while we were feeding. 

Parvati Temple Closed

Dhiraj, Mandar, Atul and Anirudh

Parvati Temple was locked, as said above saint went to kapildhara temple on the base for some village ceremony.It will take you around 30-40 minute to explore the whole peak. It was 2:20 Pm on the clock when we decided to descent. It started to rain heavily, like every other trek we descended at a fast pace. By the time we reached at the base driver was already standing, so we hopped in to the jeep. On the way he told us '' There is a mystic valley resort out here in Igatpuri, where sex scandal was exposed recently, even politician hop out there on weekend to have fun''. I mean that driver had many insider info about what goes around out here. After reaching kasara station, we boarded local train to ghatkopar. On train we played Ludo where Atul lost,then he  made a crying face after we started laughing at him. 
From ghatkopar we took metro till azad nagar stop, atul was still upset. Dhiraj was like ''That loss resemble your life, which is quite similar''. After reaching azad Nagar, we all headed to our home. I was home till late evening.

• Total Per person cost - 360 Rs approximately.