We joined the group known as the Yashwanti Adventures on 5th
August, 2012 from Dadar. They published their event on the 'Mumbai Hikers'
blog. We were all set to go for adventure trek to Naneghat around 7.15 a.m.
The route to the Naneghat is via Eastern Express Highway. We
reached around 10.15 a.m. at base village. The group offered us good breakfast
of Poha. The leader introduced themselves and each one of us introduced
ourselves as well. The plan was to have one group leader in the front and the
other at the end, with a plan in place we all were ready to scale the Naneghat.
(Nane is also another name for Coin) So
far a good start.
Soon we reach the base there was a clear board pointing towards
Naneghat and arrows marked on the stone till top. The Trek started on lush
green plains, with a usual photography sessions. Soon the trek moved in the
forest. It was a narrow trail in the jungle, it was an easy route to follow, which
was slowly ascending towards the peak. It was a slippery and muddy path with
light streams of water.
As the ascent finally started, it was rocky path and seemed to
be the same till the end. Climbing all this was tiring, there was water flowing
at every edges. After almost three hours trekking, we reached the top. Heavy
wind with bit of rain greeted us.
When we reached at the caves of Naneghat, we saw a narrow
ascending rocky patch between two hillocks. There was one cave at the top. All
of us opted to take rest and fill our hungry stomach with our packed lunch.
There were locals selling masala tea. When we were climbing up, I really
wondered, what this place was used for and what is the significant. With bit
search on Google engine I found that these caves were built in the rule of
Satvahana (Empire after Mauryas- one of which character named Chanakya, really
inspired me to start reading books) In those days Junnar was town of trade and
political importance. Goods from city Kalyan and Nalasopara were taken to
Junnar for sale. This pass was built by the King to cut the time taken for
reaching Junnar from other cities. There is one huge pot, which was built from
stone to collect toll or tax, travellers used to put gold coins as tax. We also
found a Motorable road at the top.
The trek was so tiring that we felt that our vehicle would be at
top and we don’t have to climb down, but that was not the case. After spending
around an hour, we were back on our way to the base. Climbing down was also as
difficult as climbing up. Due to rain rocks were muddy and slippery. We had
couple of falls too but nothing serious. We reached back to the base in around
two hours. We washed ourselves in a base river.
The trek was moderate difficult for fresh trekkers like us with
History, monsoon shower, tryst with nature, few falls and stretches of legs. It
was well managed by Yashwanti Adventure.
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