Since long I was planning to visit the high forts of Salher Salota Hargad Mulher Mora in the Nashik region. After last moment cancellation of my ride to Dangs from 15 to 18 Aug, Anup came to my rescue since they had planned to trek to these very forts during this time. We were 4 trekkers - Anup, his friends Prashant, Jayesh and myself.
It was a fun filled trek with ever changing weather giving us nice photo opportunities with amazing light play (copyright - Anup), blue skies, partly covered with rain clouds and unique cloud textures from Mulher and Hargad forts and the amazing views of the surrounding forts and mountains. The amazing scenery is difficult to explain in words and only photographs can do justice to it. See the link below. We had a great time trying to find out the ruins, temples, fortifications, cannons hidden on Mulher Mora and Hargad forts as well as Mulher Machi. We found success in finding some and in some cases failure due to the thicket growth in the monsoons. The highlight was finding the Chandan Bawdi (old well) on Mulher Machi and a secret entrance just ahead of the Ram Laxman temple. We also found a Cannon "Hazar Bagdi" on the Mulher end of Hargad fort.
The Mulher Machi with the surrounding thick jungles and Ruins interspread in the jungle is a treat to explore with lots of bird and some wildlife too. But be prepared to walk on all fours since the thicket growth takes over most of the route in the monsoons so you have to duck down to avoid being trapped in the entangled branches.
The route to Hargad fort is the most interesting winding its way up a steep forested Gulley at one end of the fort since the orginal route is completely broken. Hargad offers the best views of the Mora and Mulher forts from the top since it is higher than both the forts.
We had a very comfortable 2 night stay at Someshwar Temple with the Sadhu there giving us company and lot of knowledge of the area as well as of his roamings in the Himalayas.
Our trek further to Salher from Waghambe was great till the Col between Salher and Salota where we could get a nice view of the vallley and the amazing cloud play on the ridge, one side of the ridge visible and other side covered in clouds - it seemed as if the clouds had got stuck on one side of the ridge. We had to skip Salota since it would be very risky in the monsoons.
Once we started the trek to Salher it started raining slightly and thick fog was there and this continued all the way till next day when we descended to Salher village so we could not get any views from top. The descent from Salher fort to Salher village was risky since the steps had become extremely slippery due to moss. Never the less we had a nice time overnight cracking jokes and doing TP in the dirty cave on Salher top. We were fortunate to find one dry cave since all others were filled with water. Even the entrance to our dry cave was full of cow urine:).
Overall a very nice introduction for me in the Baglan region of the Sahyadris and would surely come back to do the mighty Salota and enjoy the sunset and sunruse at Salher by doing night stay at top.
There is lots more to write about the trails we exploered and the fun we had but I will stop here. Enjoy the photographs.
Till then happy trails.
Photo Link:
Picasa: https://picasaweb.google.com/zenosh/20130815MoraMulherHargadSalher02#
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151812418841181.1073741841.595556180&type=1&l=6234888995
It was a fun filled trek with ever changing weather giving us nice photo opportunities with amazing light play (copyright - Anup), blue skies, partly covered with rain clouds and unique cloud textures from Mulher and Hargad forts and the amazing views of the surrounding forts and mountains. The amazing scenery is difficult to explain in words and only photographs can do justice to it. See the link below. We had a great time trying to find out the ruins, temples, fortifications, cannons hidden on Mulher Mora and Hargad forts as well as Mulher Machi. We found success in finding some and in some cases failure due to the thicket growth in the monsoons. The highlight was finding the Chandan Bawdi (old well) on Mulher Machi and a secret entrance just ahead of the Ram Laxman temple. We also found a Cannon "Hazar Bagdi" on the Mulher end of Hargad fort.
The Mulher Machi with the surrounding thick jungles and Ruins interspread in the jungle is a treat to explore with lots of bird and some wildlife too. But be prepared to walk on all fours since the thicket growth takes over most of the route in the monsoons so you have to duck down to avoid being trapped in the entangled branches.
The route to Hargad fort is the most interesting winding its way up a steep forested Gulley at one end of the fort since the orginal route is completely broken. Hargad offers the best views of the Mora and Mulher forts from the top since it is higher than both the forts.
We had a very comfortable 2 night stay at Someshwar Temple with the Sadhu there giving us company and lot of knowledge of the area as well as of his roamings in the Himalayas.
Our trek further to Salher from Waghambe was great till the Col between Salher and Salota where we could get a nice view of the vallley and the amazing cloud play on the ridge, one side of the ridge visible and other side covered in clouds - it seemed as if the clouds had got stuck on one side of the ridge. We had to skip Salota since it would be very risky in the monsoons.
Once we started the trek to Salher it started raining slightly and thick fog was there and this continued all the way till next day when we descended to Salher village so we could not get any views from top. The descent from Salher fort to Salher village was risky since the steps had become extremely slippery due to moss. Never the less we had a nice time overnight cracking jokes and doing TP in the dirty cave on Salher top. We were fortunate to find one dry cave since all others were filled with water. Even the entrance to our dry cave was full of cow urine:).
Overall a very nice introduction for me in the Baglan region of the Sahyadris and would surely come back to do the mighty Salota and enjoy the sunset and sunruse at Salher by doing night stay at top.
There is lots more to write about the trails we exploered and the fun we had but I will stop here. Enjoy the photographs.
Till then happy trails.
Photo Link:
Picasa: https://picasaweb.google.com/zenosh/20130815MoraMulherHargadSalher02#
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151812418841181.1073741841.595556180&type=1&l=6234888995
