Trek to Sagargad

Doreen had selected Sagargad for a trek on the 29th August and with the rains taking a big long break for over 3 weeks I was wondering if she had taken the right decision as the main attraction we had heard was the monsoon waterfall. When it started raining heavily on Friday itself my joy knew no bounds in anticipation of a great trek. As it was going to be a long day, Ashok had suggested that we stay overnight at his resort Aswath, near Panvel.

On Sat 28th July, I and Girish took the 18.20 Panvel train from Kurla, and met the rest of the gang, Doreen, Farida along with Natasha, Doreen’s niece and her two friends, Shabda and Nikita at Panvel station. Ashokji drove us the 20 mins distance to his charming little cottage. After rubbing our exposed skin with odomos we settled down with wine and vodka, courtesy Ashokji and yummy farsan provided by Natasha. We had Dinner at a nearby dhaba like restaurant and hit the bed at 11 pm.

Morning after lemon tea and small breadrolls and chese spread we set off in Ashokji's Sumo at 7.50 am for the base of Sagargad halting enroute for a hearty b/f of vada pav and missal

After parking the sumo near Khandala village, we started the trek at 9.30 am. The climb was very gentle and we had to pass a few streams. As Shabda and Nikita were exhausted at the beginning of the trek itself, they opted to stay near the Sidheshwar temple. The climb to the fort took us around 3 hrs. With breath taking views of the green valley, the winding Kundalika river, the Arabian Sea near Alibag and two islands which we were not able to identify. The hillock on our right we took it as Kankeshwar.

On reaching the top, the heavenly sight of 2 white backed vultures flying overhead was one of the highlights of our trek. We also sighted some butterflies like, common leopard, glassy tiger, yellow orange tip, white orange tip, common crow, danaid eggfly, chocolate pansy. While we heard many bird calls we sighted very few including female sunbird and red vented bulbuls.


The second highlight of the trek was the fantastic waterfall which is close to the temple route. The drop of the fall is around 100 ft and the force is so strong that even standing 75 ft away, the spray drenched us completely. It was the most beautiful waterfall experience for me.

We reached our vehicle around 4.20 pm and after hot tea and bhajias at Karnala Hotel, with a fantastic view of the Karnala pinnacle we changed clothing at Ashokji's place and set off for home with songs of Mohhamed Rafi and Manna Dey. Some of us got off at Vashi station. I and Girish got off at Sion station and then took the rickshaw to Bandra and took the Virar train. I reached home at 11.30 pm in complete ecstasy of the best trek I have ever done"

For a pictorial description of the whole trek, Please visit my online album at: http://picasaweb.google.com/harishdixit/sagargad

Cheers !

Harish.