Thursday, June 21, 2012

Chandan - Vandan, Kalyangad aka Nandgiri Fort, Sakhargad


Been to Chandan, Vandan, Kalyangad aka Nandgiri fort, Sakhargad on 15-17 June 2012 with Vaishali Haldavanekar and others.

Nature's Wonder
One can go to Chandan - Vandan both from Belmachi side and Banawadi-Ibrahimpur side.
We started at 8:40 from base village, Ibrahimpur and reached the top at 10. There is huge banyan tree and Shiva Temple. There is also one Durgah on top. Water wasn’t available when we saw but post monsoon one can use the water.  To go to Vandan,  we thought to take traverse to Vandan fort.
Then we again descend till iron shed and took traverse towards Vandan. On the way we found one small temple we followed the same route which goes from behind the temple and came till pass in between Chandan and Vandan. Chandan to Vandan by traverse takes 45 minutes. One can either ascend the rock or traverse further to Vandan till you see Buruz.
From here go upward to Buruz and you will see the main entrance.  After entering the fort you will come across Ghana. From here when you will see the Devdi type construction, which they says were for prisoners. From here you come across second entrance which is totally ruined and the Shilalekh cannot be seen. One cannot go from entrance we have to go up from left side of the entrance. After climbing the steps you can see Masjid on the top. On the way there are two water cisterns. We eat at Masjid and started roaming the fort. There is also one place where one can stay.
After roaming on fort for a while we started descending and went to Satara Road. We have tasty Misal at Hotel Anandashram.  We thought we will do Nandgiri same day but since it was slightly dark and late we thought to do it next day. We went to Sakhargad, which has Yamai Devi temple on top. The temple has beautiful structure like Jejuri temple. We enjoyed for few minutes but then we had to move because the door gets closed by Sun-Set.
We halt at my house at Kinhai. Vaidehi made yummy DalKhichadi. Next day morning we visited old temples in the village and palace of Pant Pratinidhi of Aundh. We also saw common krait[Manyar eating other snake].
After this we went to Kalyangad aka Nandgiri. Nandgiri is now becoming famous as Atishay Kshetra.
This is a fort named as Kalyangad because Kalyan Swami, follower of Ramdas Swami had Samadhi on the fort. The fort has long tunnel type cave and in the cave one has to bend and go through deep water. Since it was after summer there wasn’t water and also now for devotes, they have build a pathway at a height so water level goes down. The cave has idol of Parshwanath, Dattatreya and Padmavati.

After getting out and going further up on the fort you come across Hanuman temple.
From here when you come up you see Kalyan Swami’s Samadhi. Going further ahead there is also one guest house to accommodate people.  The famous only one Banyan tree now has durgah in square area.

But after that there is nice plateau which gives you a feeling of peace. You are so close to crowd still away from them and enjoying being with nature.

This is was the highlight of the trek.

We started our journey back. Oh ya by the way both Sakhargad has tar road and Nandgiri has mud-built road to go to the top.
We came back to my mom’s place and went to Mama’s farm house. Then we came to Mavshi’s hosue and had delicious PuranPoli.  

After a nap we started our journey back to Mumbai.


Check out the snaps
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.436545453046284.107334.100000724990816&type=1&l=fe5883a289