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