TheFreeBird
Sondai Fort trek has become very famous over the years among trekkers. I did this trek when it was an offbeat trek. Currently you will find huge crowds here on monsoon weekends as its an easy beginner trek. If the clouds are in right amount you will feel that Morbe dam is an ocean. Add to it the short duration of the trek & the ladder adventure makes it a perfect trek in sahyadris. Perfect monsoon trek me aur kya chhaiye. Sondai fort offers a beautiful view of Morbe dam, Irshalgad & the Matheran range. On a clear day you can even spot Karnala and Manikgad. In this Sondai fort trek blog you will get all the information to plan this day trek yourself. Similar adventures like this one at the end of the post.
How difficult is the Sondai fort trek ?
Niraj, what is the difficulty level of Sondai trek? Well this is the easiest trek in Sahyadris – it cant get any easier than this. This has to be the second shortest trek in Sahyadris ( Bhivgad is the shortest trek i know)
How long is the Sondai fort trek ?
It barely takes 60 minutes to reach at the top of Sondai fort. Even if you do all the timepass in the world you wont take more than 90 minutes. However with the beautiful view from the top you are guaranteed to spend some time at the top.
Food at Sondai fort
As Sondai trek has got very famous many food stalls crop here on monsoon weekends. For other days better to carry you own food.
How to Reach Sondai fort from Mumbai and Pune ?
Where is the Sondai fort located? Sondai fort lies at the end of Matheran range, just beside the Morbe dam in Khalapur taluka Raigad, Maharashtra. There are two routes for Sondai Fort from Wavarle & Sondewadi. Since Sondai wadi is the most used route I will discuss that route in this Sondai blog
Nearest Railway Station is Karjat
Base village for Sondai fort trek is Sondewadi
Karjat > Borgaon Phata > Sondaiwadi > (Trek to) Sondai
Shared Public Transport to reach Sondewadi
- By Road to Borgaon Phata: For guys coming from Mumbai side one can take the Karjat bus and get down at Borgaon phata ( Or reach Chouk and take rickshaw to Karjat and get down to Borgaon phata). Many ST bus & shared EECO ply on this route
- By Train: If you reach the Karjat Railway station. No direct Bus is available from Karjat to Sondewadi but one can take any ST bus / Rickshaw from Karjat Station going towards Panvel/ Chouk / Rasayani which can drop you at Borgaon Phata for 10-15 Rs per seat ( 12 kms ) .
- From Borgaon phata There are EECO which run between Borgaon Phata to Ambewadi on hourly basis which take Rs 40 per seat. You can ask them to drop you near Sondewadi. In case the vehicles are not available one can walk 5.5 kms of scenic road to Sondewadi enjoying the views of huge Morbe Dam.
- BEST OPTION is to reach Karjat station (if you are more in number) is to meet a rickshaw / tum tum driver and negotiate a drop till sondewadi which would cost around 350-400 for one way drop. One can also ask the same driver to come back to pick you up after the trek
It should take about 45 minutes from Karjat station to Sondweadi
Private Vehicle : Just add Sondewadi on Google Maps and enjoy this beautiful drive. Roads are very good update Jan 2023
Sondai Trek Blog – TheFreeBird’s story
Since i dont like to travel with crowd and trekking solo is plain idiotic I took my freind Hemant with me. I am creating memories with my freinds – one freind at a time. Since we were only two of us I took my bike all the way to Sondewadi which is some 20 kms from my place.
I am on a roll in this monsoon. Last three weekends i have been on three different treks. First was 400 ft Kataldhar waterfall trek, second was Kondana Caves Trek and on third was Kothaligad trek / Peth Fort Trek. Having done all the three treks with a K – name i was looking out for my next trek to be a K – named trek however plans didnt materialise and I ended up doing Sondai fort instead. As a consolation it also in Karjat.
After taking the diversion on Borgaon phata i reached the first marker of the route the beautiful railway track view which appeared to be some 3 storeys below the bridge. If you look down this bridge you will definitely skip a heartbeat if you have fear of heights, it got me excited though for adventure to follow.
Soon enough we reached the huge Morbe Dam. With the cloudy atmosphere the other end of dam was not visible at all and it seemed like a ocean with a green shore. The place looked so beautiful that I ended up enjoying 30 minutes here before it started raining. This itself can be a picnic spot for families. Update 2023: This has become a famous spot. Small food huts have cropped up as well.
We spend half an hour on this miracle beach. I was waiting to capture the Matheran range and Irshalgad situated just beside the dam but the clouds and rain kept them hidden throughout. Since the weather was not allowing me to take the desired photos we continued to go ahead. The road to Sondewadi passes just on the border of the Morbe dam for quite some time.
Flooding Caution: It was raining heavily throughout Maharashtra and their reports that there were flooding incidents throughout Maharashtra. Mumbai was flooded by default as it gets flooded with little rains & that time it was raining for days continuously. As such there is a spot where the Morbe dam backwaters flood the neighbouring road. At that spot if i didnt take my bike ahead we would need to walk 2.5 kms to reach Sondewadi which i wanted to avoid since we were already late for the trek. After much discussion with locals i put my bike on first gear and drove through the knee -deep water . At a certain point while negotiating the water i drove into one deep pothole which brought water level up to the exhasut and i feared for the worse. Luckily my bike braved through the water to reach the other end. Steam was emanating from the hot engine. And i had just experience Ladakh in Sahyadris 🙂
Update 2023: The road’s height at that point has been raised now. The flooding doesn’t occur anymore.
Moving on I reached the diversion left route was for Ambewadi & i took the uphill right to reach Sondewadi and get the first glimpse of Sondai fort. Bike goes a bit ahead for another 100-200 m to reach the starting point of the trek ( There is a huge mango tree which cannot be missed to mark the start of trek). Few stalls have also come up at the entry point
The heavy rain had caused the water to rush down the Sondai fort trail and onto the road to welcome us. Normally there is not much water but as i already told you it was flooding throughout Maharashtra.
Sooner the climbing route become visible and we could easily see the ladder alongwith the saffron flags at the top.
From here there is some 45 minutes of climb to the top. After little height is gained when one looks back the huge Morbe dam looks stunning and appears to be running on till the horizon.
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A few more climbs and turns and we reached the base of the actual fort. There are two rock cut cisterns / tanks here in good condition.
There are 3 huge ladders to reach the top. Earlier this was a risky rock patch with some carved stairs. Now with the stairs its a cake walk to the top. When we reached the ladders it was surrounded by clouds and strong winds were blowing. We decided to wait for the climate to clear.
Towards the right I spotted many waterfalls on the neighboring Gowari Hill. The tall grass on the hill swayed with the wind and looked like ripples on a silk. I have captured it on video and it will be live on my YouTube Channel . We had to wait as the strong wind would make climbing the stairs difficult.
At the end of the second ladder is another water cistern which has water throughout the year. In good old days villagers used to fetch water from here during summer. A bit ahead is rocky edge which looks quite precarious but provide tremendous view.
As a trekker i dont like these ladders but then it does make such peaks easily accessible to the locals for whom the Sondai Devi Temple at the top hold strong religious value. There are few idols of Sondai Devi placed under a tree.
Sondai could have been used as a watch tower like the neighboring Irshalgad. Sondai fort has no historical remains apart from the tanks but the views are tremendous. I could have easily looked at the surroundings for hours as this was a teriffic place but had to leave as we were quite late. Not before i clicked 100’s of pictures.
We got down from the fort in flat 20 minutes and hoped the bike started after my little Ladakh adventure in the morning . With fingers crossed my bike started with a single kick. With the thoughts of having to cross the flooded part again I started my way home.
Though i captured so many pics on Sondai trek , the views from the top were best captures in videos. Stay subscribed to my channel. This is an old video . Currently I make videos without any artifical music – you will get to hear all the real ambience for your ASMR, do check them out.
So many beautiful things. So little time.
Till next time.
Adios.
That’s it for the Sondai fort 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
