Ganpati Gadad

Date: 20th Sept’09
Base Village: Palu, Dhasai, Murbad
Group: Chakram Hikers
Ganpati Gadad is a group of 6-7 caves near Dhasai. This is fairly simple trek and quite enjoyable and a treat for eyes in monsoons. Unluckily this year it did not rain much and hence there were only small waterfalls on route and very less clouds else generally this trek is pleasant but we faced scorching heat.
We started by bus from Mulund early morning and proceeded towards Murbad and then to Dhasai. We came across an EMU farm on the route. The road was ok and with songs full on it was easy. My friend Richa had joined for this trek after a long time. We reached the base village and started our climbing by 11.00 A.M. The climb is really good.
First walk across few fields and cross a couple of streams and then take right to start climbing the trunk of mountain. The caves of Ganpati Gadad are visible and we need to climb the trunk which is on left hand side of the caves. The climb is too scenic. In front of you is large rocky mountain in which caves are located and right is fort of ‘Durg’. If you look more right you can also see ‘Siddhagad’, ‘Gorakshagad’ and ‘Macchindragad’. On left you can see ‘Dhakoba’ , ‘Jivdhan’ and ‘Naneghat’. Onroute we came across a chameleon and lot of snaps were taken. Walking on tis path you cross couple of Waterfalls though this year falls were slower due to less rainfall. You cross second fall and immediately a path goes uphill on left. Take this path and not one which goes straight. From here climb is steep and little slippery. It will take half an hour to 45 mins from here to reach caves. There are 6-7 odd caves and some people doing penance and staying there. You have a waterfall near face of first cave. We reached caves and had lunch together. Then we rested for while and now I wanted to jump in waterfalls to get wet. Though falls were small, I could not resist the idea of getting wet. Some of us got wet under the fall near caves and then started our climb down. We climb downhill the steeper slope easily and then we can across a fall where there was some pit in between for us to get in.
We got in and started splashing water and had great fun. We made whole water muddy and left. Climb down the trunk of hill was faster and we reached the streams we had crossed earlier in the morning. We again decided to get in and had relish getting wet to our hearts content. Then we crossed fields and a tree where lot of weaving birds were nesting and reached our Bus. We changed and moved towards Muluind. Lot of Chakram special songs were sung and we stopped for Ice cream. Enroute we faced a puncture in our Bus but somehow managed to touch home by 10.15 P.M. It was great and refreshing change.