Kalawantin Durg

Sahyadri treks are always back of my mind but usual routine just keep procrastinating it. Then one day I decided enough is enough and it’s time increase the list of Sahyadri treks. One such fine weekend in December I chose to go to Kalawantin Durg with trekfit trek group.

The trek is luring mainly because the thrilling steep steps climbing.

There was small group of 8 people plus 1 trek group leader. We started around 9pm in Saturday evening from Pune. As per plan we were suppose to reach to base village but with traffic and some wrong diversions it took us little longer. Base village for trek is thakurwadi. Be careful not to miss the small turn to this village. We missed it and passed few more villages with plenty of speedbrekers and almost every house had big cars parked. We even named the village as village of speed breaker and fortuners cars 😀

Finally by coming on right path we reached to base village by 1.30PM and started walking towards the camp site. There is checking point at entry gate at the beginning and you are not allowed to carry any liquor, speakers, matchbox etc. The camp ground is a pabal machi. It’s descend hike about 1-1.5 hr . Do carry your torch while trekking In night though for us the moon light was quite enough.

When we reached campaign ground it was almost past 3AM. There were many tents already in place from different trekkers. On one side it was kalawantin Durg standing tall in night and other side was the stunning view of Panvel city lights and moon on top of another hill. The fresh air and cold breeze was so soothing.

After few hours of sleep we woke up early morning , freshen up and had poha breakfast from the only hotel Just near the camping ground . The small hotel also provide room for stay as well as tents. You can place your order for lunch before leaving for trek and lunch will be ready by the time you are back.

Way to Kalawantin is small trek around 45 mins to an hour. Then you will reach a crossing point, on right side is pabalgadh and on left side it’s Kalawantin Durg.

There comes the exiting climb of steep stairs. There are around 135 stairs. If anyone has acrophobia be careful as all you can see from stairs down is deep deep valley! There are no sidebars or anything to hold around so you need to extremely careful while climbing the stairs. It can be more dangerous in rainy season due to sleepary pathway but during summer it’s comparatively manageable.

After the stair climb you will reach a small plateau and the view from this is awesome. Just opposite site you will see Pabalgadh, on another side it’s all matheran ranges.

Well the adventure doesn’t stop here! On this small plateau there is another small rock climbing of 20-25 feet. Interesting part is it’s just a rope already tide and fixed and you have to climb the rock with the help of that rope only and no other equipments. There are local guides who are there to guide you climb. It’s definitely a thrilling experience.