Achala-Saptshrungi-Ahiwant

Base Village: Acchla – Pimpri
Ahiwant - Daregaon
Date: 12th-13th Sept’09
Group: Chakram Hikers

12th Sept’09: I got onto Tapovan Express at 7.15 A.M. at Kalyan and met all other members of the trek. Parag was leader and it was good to get introduced to new faces. It was good to meet Kiran and Vinay after quite some time. I settled down and game of cards was rolled out. We were playing judgement. We had a breakfast of cutlet, vadapav and tea. We got down at Nasik Road Station by 9.50 P.M. Parag had booked a Tavera and Qualis to go to Acchala Pimpri a base village of Acchala.

We reached base of Acchala by 11.30 A.M. and Sun was at its peak. Facing Acchala, On right of Acchala on the ridge is a temple whose flags are visible from base village. Take path to reach this temple and then from this temple take a path on left towards Acchala that is in center of the trunk. Climb for some time and you will reach a plateau. We were all sweating like pigs by this time. Vaibhav decided to not complete trek and went back to base. Our water bottles were also finishing soon. We walked on right of plateau keeping Acchala on left and came across a very small stream of water and road ahead was lost. We realized we are on wrong way. But we took rest and Vinay made Jaljeera and we refilled our water bottles. Parag, Ameya and Saurabh were looking for the route. Finally we could not find a route and decided to climb across the right face of mountain till the rocky mastiff. We climbed and thank god we found steps carved out in rocky mastiff to go to top. The top has a temple and few water tanks. Only one tank has potable water. We had our lunch near water tanks and immediately we started climbing down. While climbing down we realized actually straight climbing on trunk of mountain is correct route. So guys next time anyone you visit reach the temple on ridge and directly climb straight on trunk till you reach rock and then keeping the rock face on left walk parallel till you reach steps.

We climbed down very fast but towards end we received little rains and that made lot of mud. Out shoes and sandals started becoming very heavy due to mud sticking to them. We reached base village and washed out sandals and shoes thoroughly and had tea. We then started towards Saptshrungi where our night stay was scheduled. Sapshrungi is an enchanting mountain and looks very different due to its big rocky patches. We crossed Vani ghat to reach there and while passing through this ghat one can see a ‘nedha’ in mountain on left. Its quite big and heard it is approachable. We reached Saptshrungi and booked rooms in ‘Bhakt Niwas’. We had balconies of all rooms facing ‘Markandeya’ and on edge of valley. We had our dinner in ‘prasadalay’ just at 7 bucks per person and then had a round of card games in our room. We then dozed off as early morning we had to visit Saptshrungi temple and Ahiwant.

13th Sept'09: We woke up early morning and had amazing photography of Sunrise from our balconies in front of ‘Markandeya’. One of the snap is shown here. If you observer neatly you may even see ‘Dhodap’ behind. We then quickly went to Saptshrungi temple and had breakfast. We then booked a single jeep to travel to base of Ahiwant called Daregaon. I travelled by holding on to rod outside jeep and my feet on foot rest meant for climbing in to jeep. This was really exciting. I was thinking this time has been different. Just few days back I had travelled on top of Bus when we were in Jawahar and now I was dangling outside jeep for the travel. Things which you generally don’t get to do in life. It was thrilling. We reached ase and got one guide from village to show us Ahiwant as time was short. We had 6.00 clock train from Nasik Road Station to catch.

The village guide was really fast and our first climb was too heavy as it was steep and sun was trying its best to make it tougher. The plan was to climb from opposite end of Acchala and climb down from opposite end. After intial climb, We reached a ridge and then had Jaljeera and started towards Ahiwant. You look at Ahiwant and you will realize it stands by its name i.e. it is really big. The complete ‘c’ shaped; very large plateau. The climb to top is from almost behind the face you see from this ridge. Take a path which keeps Ahiwant Rocky mastiff on left and walk parallel. In between you will find a path which goes to top through this mastiff. You will first hit some cave or rooms carved out of rock and path ahead takes you to top of plateau. We reached the first end of ‘c’ and had a sigh of relief as our water was almost to finish but there was a water tank nearby with potable water. The water in tank was really cool and good. We again had round of Jaljeera and filled our bottles. We started exploring the plateau. You walk straight and you reach a much larger plane from this tank and a small mountain emrging in between the plain. Go to right hand side of this mountain i.e. closer to Acchala. Here there is another well whose water is full in all seasons and some old statues. Walk little ahead straight to edge of valley and you will find a path to go down to a cave. Take left from here and walk more to reach a small pond. Ahead of this you will come to place where lot of stones in cubes are scattered proving some structures existed and have collapsed. After this walk straight to reach the other end of ‘c’ where you can also see the ‘nedha’ which could be seen while going to Saptshrungi. Walk straight and you will reach some rock cut steps and on opposite mountain more steps and some stone walls to prove this was fort. The path downhill is between the two mountains. The path downhill was too entertaining courtesy Vinay and Manas.

We reached base by 2.00 P.M. and had a bath at hand pump and then a delicious lunch was awaiting us. I was too happy to have ‘Bhakri-Pithla and Mirchi cha Thecha’ Also Vaibhav had got Amrakhand. Our Jeep to Panchavati arrived and we left by 3.30 towards Nasik Road. We had a round of cards on platform and then in train. It was really wonderful Trek. I loved the mountain range there hoping to get back to do Markendeya-Rawlya-Jawlya-Dhadop-Ikhara.