Desi Canyon Valley - Sandhan Valley

Sandhan valley made me get out of my photography hibernation.  It was one of my dream treks so got immediately ready to do even in the summer. I went with Sanju and his Mulund Tekdi Group and few YHK trek mates.

Sandhan valley is geographical wonder in Maharashtra [or may be in India] where you will find a gorge which is 1.5 km long and which starts from 20 ft to 500 ft high cliff wall at the end. Gorges are usually very deep and narrow, formed from the movement of water or lava.

On Saturday May 19, 2012, we left around 10pm from Mulund and had dinner break of an hour at Palash hotel at Shahapur.  Thanks to Sanju’s friend who is related to the hotel, we got tasty Veg Biryani and Pav Bhaji.  We reached Samrad village at 3.30am. Samrad is peaceful place near Bhandardara dam. From Warangushi fata you need to take right to reach this village.

The distance from village, at the back side of the school till the start of Sandhan valley is 20 minutes.  It was wonderful experience which till then I just saw in photographs. It reminded me a canyon valley, the huge, the narrow, the tall and it was spectacular.

We started out trek at 7:45am and reach the end of gorge at 8:45am. In between two places we got knee level water.  Even though it is summer but in gorge it was cold and sometimes breezy. I enjoyed photography and also the serenity of the place but no where I felt scary. Some places you may feel suffocated if there is no breeze.

There are three rappelling patches and also before first patch there is one place where you go down from in between two big stones. Out of three patches, the first patch is of 50 ft where it is good to have rappelling equipment for safety. The second patch is interesting where go down in between two stones and then you crawl under another stone and come out again another side and then do rappelling, this patch is of 15 ft. The third almost at the end of the valley is 15ft.

One need to be careful while crossing the valley as we saw some small rocks falling down as those are loose one. Also, if you hire local people as a guide or to arrange food, be careful about your equipments because we lost few of our stuff. This is not to blame all villagers but just to be safer on our part.

For me this trek was like Fantasy land where I entered from one gate, the entrance actually looked like three side cut door of stones and then going from water, going from the gap in between two stones, landing on the other side of the stone, crawl, hold the stone and slide and what not!

We reached down at the pool spot at 5:30pm and within next two hours reached the base village,  Dehene.  Around 8:30pm We started our journey back to Mumbai. 

Check the snaps: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.418714168162746.103948.100000724990816&type=1&l=f758f9e2b4