Ghangad, November 28, 2009

Ghangad - Small but bit climbing
If you have your vehicle then you can do Ghangad in a day. Since it is remote place you have to depend on ST. Since we took our vehicle we started in the night from Mumbai and reached Lonavala mid night. From there we proceed towards Yekole village. It was beautiful to see moon throughout the route. We stopped in between to rest and decided to move further next day morning. Since long me, Bandya, Vaishali trekked together in Sahyadri.
Next day we reached Yekole village and started climbing. It is very easy to reach till mid of Ghangad as path goes through jungle. On the way one can rest at Garjai Devi Temple. From here after ten minutes we reach to a rockpatch where one requires a rope to climb the patch. Since Bandya was there I was relaxed. We all one by one climbed, I wanted Avi to come up but he was not sure about Prachet, his son. But then Prachet himself asked to go to top and then Avi decided to come up. Avi got harnessed Prachet was ahead from down Atul covered him and from side Bandya first took Prachet at top. It was just for two minutes but I was scrared to see Avi climbing like that with Prachet. But within two minutes they both were atop of rockpatch. There are caves and water tank on the way. After that we all moved further where ascend scree starts, as usual i was bit concerned but Nagesh was behind so could do it easily. We took two hours to reach top.
On top there is one water tank and few remnants of construction. We had food and then after half n hour decided to climb down. After rappelling down we went to right side of fort on the same level where there is one local idol is worshiped. Here one big rock from the mountain is totally have got separate and looks as if it is kept at side. So it is like big 'Nedhe'.
Within one hour we were at the base. From here we started out journey back to Mumbai.

Note: ST timing for Yekole has now changed to 9am. One takes one and half hour by car to reach base village, Yekole. It is better to carry food and water and if not regular climber then also rope.