Hi friends,
This blog is exclusively for trekkers. In this i will tell you my experience about Sindola trek. How to reach over there and what all things you can enjoy. before going ahead here is short intro about me http://harshad-karekar.blogspot.com/. And here is short intro of Sindola Fort.
Sindola Fort is located in between Mumbai-Pune near Malshej Ghat. Malshej Ghat is already famous for it's natural beauty. Sindola is one day trek. It is of height 350 meters and from sea level 1128 meters. It's not very hard but not too simple. Last patch of 30% distance to reach at pinnacle have very narrow road. One side you have wall of rock and other side 1000 meter Vally. In rainy season it become too slipary and this part to travel in wind become very difficult. I will recommend you to do this trek just before start of rainy season by start of june is perfect time to trek this fort.
This are some pics i have taken from bus....
We started trekking from kalyan to sindola. We were 9 people - Green Carpet Group. We meet on Kalyan station at 7 AM. From Kalyan you can catch bus which goes to Ahamadnagar. Your destination is Khubi Phata (same destination for Harishchandra Gad also) ticket will cost around 55-60 rupees. From Kalyan journey will take around 2 hours to reach khubi phata. In between bus halt midway for break-fast , i recommend you to take your breakfast there as after reaching khubi phata there is no hotel. Just 2-5 ahead from Khubi phata there is maruti mandir from where you can start sindola trek.
Temple from where we started trek
From back side of temple small road goes to plateau after 20-25 minutes when you reach on plateau you can see Sindola Fort and beautiful scenery. Here we had an intro round of all Green Carpet members.
Just after climbing first plateau ............
Intro of Green Carpet Group on First Plateau.
Now once you can see fort you have to follow traverse keeping fort on your left as you approaches close to fort base and Pushpavati river 'Pimpalgaon Joga' Dam will remain on your right.
Once you reach at fort base you have to climb one more plateau which have thick layer of trees. Take route which goes left side, it will take 15-20 minutes to reach on top of plateau. From this you can see opposite to Pushpavati river village and also other plateau to climb.
Route from trees.....
Once you reach top of this plateau you can see a big cliff of Sindola fort and from here wind blow very heavily so be bit careful also from this point rest of journey is like walking in chilled air hence we called this trek as 'AC trek'.
Just be sure now your are not approaching straight to fort/Sindola cliff but you need to go by 'Sindola pass' it's just taking complete U turn to fort and that is the only way to reach fort. This route is very narrow and very slippery in rainy season.
Avoid going straight before this we have take left turn , one which shown in next photo.
Sindola Pass
it's so much narrow can imagine how difficult to walk in rain..
Road from rock which take us to fort entrance.
Once you complete this 'Sindola Pass' now it's straight route from rock which take you to entrance of fort. Here you will find beautiful Ganapati Effigy.
Ganapati Effigy
On fort you will find water reservoir tank and some ruins but scenery from this fort is just mind blowing. Wind blows so fast sometimes you could not even stand at edge. Reverse effect of gravity can be experienced.(things [light weighted] you through will come back to fort surface)
water reservoir tank
It is advised to leave fort by 2 - 2.30pm so that you can reach fort base by 3.30pm. Please note there is no water or anything to eat on fort. This fort was used as Watch Tower to control territory. From fort base you can you can go straight down to village. This is short route which will take 20 minutes to reach at main route from where you can find bus or truck.
Few more pics you can see on my picasa album. http://picasaweb.google.com/comp.harshadn/SindolaTrek02?authkey=Gv1sRgCLz6nvKfycbkxgE#
