TheFreeBird
Mordhan Fort Trek
Having completed 5 treks around karjat in just over a month i decided to head towards Kasara for some change in location. Without much time to waste I zeroed on Mordhan fort trek as my next adventure. Mordhan fort trek has such a wonderful location surrounded by water bodies of Darna river dam , and many hills & forts on the other side. If you get clear weather you can easily spot Kavnai, Tringalwadi, Harihar, Anjaneri, Brahmagiri on the North – West side of the fort. On the East side are Aundha , PAtta ( Vishramgad), Bitangad fort , while towards the south is Kalsubai & A-M-K trio. UPdate 2024: you can now also spot the newly built Mumbai- Nagpur samruddhi expressway pass through the dam. More adventures like this one at the end of the post.
How to Reach Mordhan fort from Mumbai and Pune ?
There are four routes for Mordhan fort from all the possible directions of the fort. The most common one is from Khairgaon. Other routes being from Pimpalgaon on east , Ubhadewadi/ Dawale to North. Also there is a route from Khed base village which is near to the Kalsubai range.
We ascended from Pimpalgaon & descended to Ubhadewadi. The trail from Pimpalgaon has terrific views of Darna river. However the trail tends to be a bit obscure while passing through the waterfall like route through couloir. Ubhadewadi road is straightforward while crossing connnected hills , however there are few patches near the fort plateau that is a bit risky . Doable but risky especially during monsoon . Khairgaon route is straight forward and can easily done. I have no details of the Khed route.
How to Reach Base village for Mordhan Fort Trek
All the four base villages lie on the same route of Ghoti – Bhandardara ( Ghoti – Shirdi if you may till Pimpalgaon) . Ghoti is the base point for most of the Treks at Kasara / Igatpuri side.
Nearest Railway Station for Mordhan fort trek is Kasara from Mumbai side
Igatpuri & Ghoti are the closest ones with lesser frequency
Public Transport: From Kasara station one can get many shared taxi / state transport bus to Ghoti. From Ghoti Khairgaon & Ubhadewadi is at 5 kms , Pimpalgaon is at 8 kms & Khed village is at 16 kms .
From Ghoti many shared rickshaws ply on the route . For Khairgaon one can get down at Deole and walk another 1 km to reach khairgaon. Ubhadewadi & Pimpalgaon are on the road itself.
Also there are direct options to reach Ghoti by train. (Taken from other blogs) Mumbai-Bhusaval passenger train at 5.21 am from Mumbai (Thane- 5.51am, Kalyan – 6.20am ) reaches Ghoti at 10.00 am. Same train goes back at 2 pm from Ghoti towards Mumbai. Latest timing can be checked with IRCTC
Staying options: You can stay in schools and temples after taking permission ofcourse. By my personal experience no one will stop you
Private Transport: One can directly drive to Ghoti and then to respective base village using google maps.
What should I carry on this trek ?
On treks, first preference for food is ghar ka khana, fruits, dry fruits, lemon juice & lots of water over biscuits, breads and carbonated drinks. Also I do carry 1₹ chocolates for quick energy boosts. My normal attire includes full sleeved clothes , cap & proper trek shoes ( No flip-flops) Good goggles i.e anti-glares are must for summer treks. I also carry safety gadgets like fire starter, waterproof torch, whistle, first-aid just in case. Here are few trekking gears which i always carry on treks
Along with proper gear you must carry few qualities of a good human being - never trouble wild life, never draw on fort walls, never risk your life for selfies, never throw plastic anywhere (carry back all waste) and never play loud music. When in nature behave like animals. BE ONE WITH NATURE
The most common question that i get asked is I want to travel a lot but I dont have leaves. Should I quit my job ? For years I have suggested to not quit anything unless you have another source of income. In search of this source of income I tried freelancing , trek leading, vlogging and I realised nothing works in the long term - untill I came across trading
Related: Travel for weeks without worrying about leaves - just learn trading
This is perfect fit for a traveller mindset. You can trade from anywhere around the world be it some off the grid village in Himachal or Meghalaya, be it some island in Andaman. All you need is an internet connection and a trading account. You can earn by trading for 1-2 hrs a day and would have freedom to do anything in the free time.Or you might have just earned enough in a day to take the month off travelling around the world. If you are able to learn this then it has potential to make all your dreams come true. I would suggest you take it up as a side project for 6 months to see if you have patience & intellect to master it.
My Journey @ Mordhan Fort Trek
After travelling on my bike for 5 different treks in Karjat since last month to Kataldhar waterfall trek, Kondana Caves Trek, Kothaligad trek / Peth Fort Trek , an unknown waterfall & Sondai trek , i finally decided to do a Kasara trek. My bike finally got some much needed rest.
With the usual set of trek friends we reached Kasara with a plan to do Mordhan Trek from a less taken route from Pimpalgaon. The route from Khairgaon is well documented and so we decided to explore this route from Pimpalgaon for a bit of adventure & the tremendous views of Darne dam in the backdrop.
Some ask me, Niraj why do like to take the road less taken ? my answer to such questions is because the road is less taken 🙂
We had booked the usual taxi from Kasara to drop at Pimpalgaon with Mr . Prakash. We always book his taxi when we plan around Kasara.
Having reached Pimpalgaon at midnight we were looking for places to stay the night and found a Bhairavnath temple to stay for the night . Staying at a unknwon place in pitch darkness with no human settlement near by got me excited. We had brought a whole of raw materail to cook Khichdi for dinner. But having reached at about midnight in windy & cold conditions we decided to have the ready made food we had carried and have Khichdi at the top of the fort. The 2 kgs of rice & daal remained in my backpack to see the next day .
I could barely sleep that night as the howling wind made noises scary enough to keep your creative mind thinking. I always find it difficult to sleep at new places. We woke up at 4 am. There was a well behind the temple which helped us refill our bottles .
Bro Tip : There is no water available on fort. If you planning to do this trek on hotter days make sure to carry 2 litres of water per head .
We had carried with ourselves some drawing books & sketch pens. At about 6 am we reached the near by Waghechi wadi where about 8-10 huts were still waking up. We gathered the half asleep children to distribute these books. Long live the Sunday morning sleep.
We requested one of them to allow us to use there chulha to cook some ready mix upma. With this upma in out stomachs we were ready to take on the Mordhan Trek.
With the start of the climb from Waghechi wadi ( Pimpalgaon) the route is very well marked and the back ground of Darne dam makes up for a perfect Sunday morning trek.
The trail then gains height to finally reveal the rocky plateau of the fort . Actual fort is above this plateau was hidden in clouds throughout the morning.
The critical point of the trek is to identify the trail to reach the plateau which is a bit unmarked. Trail goes across a small hill and then circumnavigates the main plateau from where the waterfall type of route become visible.
We had few new trekkers who were a bit slow but the provided me with many photo opportunities. Win- Win situation. During monsoon this fort is always surrounded by clouds providing no view from the top. Today was no different as the peak was surrounded with clouds. However during the climb it was hot as hell.
The couloir is a bit obscure route , but when I looked back i was amazed by this green maze
Once we made our way to the first plateau we took a quick break fast and devoured anything that was possibly edible . Imagine eating cucumber with mayonnaise and beet with potato. All ingredients of sandwich were eaten separately . Hunger is the best sauce 🙂
Going ahead we reached the edge of the plateau and were enthralled by Darne dam backwaters once again.
The route then crawls to reach a temple and moving a bit ahead it bifurcates to start gaining height towards the actual fort a-k-a plateau 2. This is the point where the trail coming from Khairgaon & Ubhadewadi side co-incide.
View from any point on the trail is just terrific . We took another half an hour to slowly crawl the top. Once we reached the top there were huge white flowers to greet us .
A bit ahead and we were at the top . This fort is always surrounded by clouds but today was a bit different as we had clear skies …..for a while .
Within few minutes the clouds had captured the fort and we got busy to hide our mobiles . This cloudy atmosphere gave us another photo opportunity
As soon as we reached the top there are remains of an old structure in the form of a rectangular block of stones and can easily overlooked due to beautiful view. None the less these rectangular demarcation was the only sign of a fort along with another water tank a bit ahead to the south. I didn’t go to see the cistern / tank as we were attacked by clouds.
As we put on our rain coats the clouds disappeared within minutes and we were being roasted by an extremely hot sun ( Even hotter than summer. i suffered some skin burns as i was not at all prepared for such a scorching time. Climate change is real)
We moved North enjoying the beautiful view which was slowly appearing in front of us as the clouds kept floating afar.
There were few videos which i had seen the presence of a long cave. We were searching for this cave and finally found it here
The route to this small cave is a bit risky especially in monsoon. We carefully made our way to it. Sensibly only 3 of us from a group of 10 actually went there. Cave used to be a long one but a recent rock fall inside the cave has resulted it being a short one.
After the caves we did take few more pics around the top with the crystal clear weather. During this commotion is lost one leg of my gorailla pod / tripod. If some one finds it you know whom to return it.
I shot few more videos as finishing touches to my vlog which will take some time to be prepared as i have 7 pending videos to be made. Office-goers time constraints.
Descend
As we started to descend we enjoyed this beautiful view of the extended plateau 1. Enjoying these views to go down to plateau 1 and had options to either take the descend trail of Khairgaon or Ubahdewadi. Since Ubhadewadi was less explored and also provided a beautiful view of the fort we chose it.
This extended plateau looked liked Garbett point and had lots of big flowers & bigger butterflies. This plateau also has a nedhe / needle hole but we could not find it. However having seen so many beautiful things we could let one pass. One look behind and i could now see the entite Mordhan fort in all its glory.
Most common route for mordhan is from Khairgaon side, after crossing the ganesh temple in Khairgaon the route is a straightforward one and would look something like this .
Though this was supposed to be a monsoon trek by this time the sun had totally roasted us.At one point i came across a rock which had a cool side and cooler shadow i couldn’t resisting a break here. The view was Jabardast.
While sitting we came across a shepherd . This guy comes here to graze his cattle in morning and leaves by evening. He has been doing it for decades. This is what defines a great life for me . Just to enjoy the life as it comes.
Jobs are a modern – day invention . Greed is its partner.
TheFreeBird
Such is a life of happiness i envy. I had carried one 2 kilo rice & half kilo daal for khichdi. It never got cooked . So what was supposed to be devoured on fort was given to the people of the fort. Sheperd was happy. I was happy that he was happy.
With all this happiness, we rushed through the remaining descend to reach the base village of Ubahdewadi. There are many dhabas besides this road and we happily splurged 1500 amongst us devouring the hot rotis and hot shev bhaji & the likes.
I shot few filllers for the YouTube Video. Have a look at it below & subscribe to my channel for similar adventures
We called up the taxi . Reached Kasara. And I reached home 5 hours later.
Weekend well spent.
Adios !
Hope you enjoyed reading about Mordhan fort.
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I've written blogs covering numerous Sahyadri treks, all accessible in the section below. Additionally, I create ambient Sahyadri videos on YouTube, featuring solely natural sounds such as birdsong, wind rustling through the trees, and the soothing patter of rain—the elements of nature that I hold dear.
SAHYADRI TREKS NEAR
