TheFreeBird
Niraj which is the shortest trek you have ever done ? Well Bhivgad trek is the shortest one for sure. It takes 20 minutes to reach the top, 20 minutes to explore & 20 to get down. Since I took more time to reach here than the actual trek itself I even did half Gad- Pradakshna & explored both the routes for the fort. Is it worth the time ? Well Bhivgad does have historical value as a watch tower, rock-cut stairs, tanks , remains of Balekilla and a beautiful location with awesome sunset add to its value. In this Bhivgad trek blog you will find all details to do this Bhivgad trek yourself. By the way Bhivgad is also known as Bhimgad trek. Similar adventures like this one at the end of the post.
How to reach Bhivgad from Mumbai & Pune ?
Nearest railway station to reach Bhivgad is Karjat station. Vadap & Gaurkamath are two base villages. Most of the remains the stairs , caves & tanks lie on the route from Gaurkamath village. Hence i would suggest to start the trek from Gaurakamath side & finish it on Vadap side so as to get a complete experience. The road from Karjat first reaches Vadap & in another 5 minutes on the same route you will reach Gaurakamath.
From Karjat station ( East ) you will get rickshaws to reach Gaurkamath. You will get sharing rickshaw from ShreeRamPul bridge which is 5 minutes walk from station. As such everything is straightforward
Bhivgad Trek difficulty
Bhivgad is a very short & simple trek. The main rocky stairs are easy but can get slippery in monsoon. Also the route to caves is a bit steep. Apart from that its just too easy.
Khane me kya hai ?
No food options are available on the fort . But for an hour of trek you dont need anything. Anycase there are hotels in Vadap.
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 ? I have always suggested to not quit your job 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. After trying many different thinkgs finally I came across trading
Trading for getting freedom & income is perfect for a person with 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.
Bhivgad trek blog : TheFreeBird’s Story
I google the route to Gaurkamath and started on my bike. It was almost 1530 hrs and i wanted to enjoy the sunset from Bhivgad top. Anish joined me on this trek. Once i reached Vadap the fort became visible. If one didnt research about it this small hill would have easily gone unnoticed.
I drove for another 5 minutes to reach Gaurkamath , took a right near Gram Panchayat to reach this Hanuman Mandir where i parked my bike.
The hill behind this temple is Bhivgad and looks like it would be very short trek. The timing was just perfect as the evening lights lit the surroundings beautifully. I spoke with few villagers and they confirmed it would indeed take 20 minutes to reach the top. To complete such a short trek got me excited.
The one thing i was looking forwards was to see the stairs at Bhivgad. These are one of the biggest rock cut stairs I had seen recently. Within 5 minute of our start we reached the stairs. They seem to have eroded over time. As we move ahead on the route there are stairs in better condition.
Reaching the stairs midway i noticed that there are 2 caves on my right side. The route for them is a bit slippery with very small stairs barely enough to fit my shoes. But i had to see them as that was one of the must see things on the fort.
The caves were full of bats who where screeching constantly. Morever the smell from that bat shit was too much for me to go inside. A veergal outside the cave was still in proper condition & appeared to showcase some man & animal. Not sure on the story.
Going to this cave was considerably easy as compared to coming down from the same stairs. Once i was down from the caves I started towards the top through another set of stairs.
Within 10 minutes we were half way to the top. Here I came across few more remains on the Bhivgad trek.
Few more steps and we were already at the top. The view from the North side of the fort was terriffic with many mountains visible viz, Irshalgad, Prabalgad, Sondai, Matheran Plateau, Garbett plateau, Peb / Vikatgad & Nakhind . On the other right side ( not in the photo) i think i spotted either Kothaligad or Padargad but climate was not clear to exactly identify them.
This North side view from Bhivgad overlooking Gaurkamath was spectacular. I decided to move on to the south side to enjoy the sunset. The entire top part of fort comprising of Ballekilla can be completely covered in 5 minutes.
For most of the part the remains are not that great and if it was not for the installed name plates it would be very difficult to actually identify the remains. The above wall of balekilla is the most prominent part of the fort which is still in proper condition. One top of this balekilla there is nothing apart from trees. So i just enjoyed the view instead.
Having seen the entire fort in about 30 minutes decided to get down from Vadap side as we had more time on our hands. Going towards south side of the fort went down to reach the Khind ( Col.) to move towards the Vadap village. However decided to enjoy the sunset first before getting down.
Reaching the khind, decided to move higher on the adjacent hill to enjoy the sunset. This route on the adjacent hill goes to Dhak Bahiri but is a lengthier route . To add to the sunset there was some bhajan going on in Vadap village which added a soothing background music to the orange hued sky. Peace.
With that we were back to the Khind and on our way to Vadap to the temple visible in the above picture. Within 10 minutes we were at the bottom.
From Vadap one can get rickshaw to Karjat station but since my bike was parked at Hanuman mandir in Gaurkamath village had to circle around Bhivgad to reach my bike. Hopping on my bike we started our way home in the cold weather. This evening was well spent on this short trek to Bhivgad.
Bye !
That’s it for the Bhivgad trek blog.
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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
