Kalsubai - Night Trek

Date of Travel : 1 May 2024 

Mode of Travel : Train, Jeep

Traveloge

    Kalsubai! The highest peak in Maharashtra, it is also called the Everest of Maharashtra. I completed the Kalsubai trek in the year 2017 with Yogesh during the rainy season, and since then my interest in trekking developed. So far 20 to 21 treks have been completed but not a single night trek yet done. Some of the newly made friends expressed their desire to trek Kalsubai. So 1st May was decided, but it was summer season and Kalsubai peak is not an easy task. So it was decided to trek at night time, but none of us had night trek experience, but a few days back, a colleague had done a night trek alone. So took some information from him and planned the trek accordingly. The trek was planned, keeping in mind the experience of the trek I done in 2017, the paths and the time required. Everyone was asked to take a torch with them, also called Vijay Kadu to book a jeep and called Balu Khade of Bari village to arrange accommodation and food.

Vijay Kadu (Jeep) - 7276434995
Balu Khade (Bari village, food and accommodation) - 7745024547

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Kalsumata Temple

    In total there were nine people in our group, myself, Amey Vipat, Vinayak Kale, Akash Shinde, Sudesh, Latesh Jadhav, Santoshraj Karande and one of his nephews and nieces. Everyone was asked to board the fast local at 10:50 p.m leaving Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to Kasara. Everyone was asked to catch the train from their nearest station at the time given on the M indicator app. However, the train to Kasara arrived fifteen minutes late. When we reached Asangaon around 12:45 a.m, I called Vijay Kadu to bring the jeep at Kasara station. We reached Kasara around 1:30 a.m, all assembled and exited Kasara station in an east direction, walking approx hundred meters out onto the road. Vijay was standing there. We all got into the jeep and headed towards Bari village. After some distance, the jeep stopped for tea, but the boys ordere bhaji instead of drinking only tea, which would delay our onward journey. Our plan was to watch the sunrise from Kalsubai Peak, but the fifteen minutes delay by the train and the time we had to eat tea and bhaji, wasted almost 35 to 40 minutes. However, we decided to cover this time while trekking. After drinking tea we continued our journey towards Bari village, we reached Bari village between 2:20 a.m. The Bari village of 2017 and the present Bari village of 2024 have changed a lot. We wanted to go to Balu Khade's Tanmay Hotel, but the change in the village made it difficult to find his house and hotel. Finally, with the help of driver uncle Vijay Kadu, we reached Balu Khade's house.

Night trek group photo

Kalsubai trek starting point arch

    Balu Khade has built a new house next to the residence for the convenience of the tourists. We were asked to go to the first floor and freshen up. We freshened up and took important things like torch, water bottle, first aid kit, medicines etc. and kept other things at Balu Khade's house. There was a mess in my case I had brought two torches but both of them stop working, a good sign was, other members had brought torches. An arch has been constructed from where the Kalsubai trek begins. Due to the change in the village it was a bit difficult to find this arch and to find the main path. We got on the right track with the help of the offline map downloaded on the Durg app. Also, after some distance, we lost our way again, because our regular trekker Latesh Jadhav was running like a skater. Asked everyone to wait wherever they are and went to find the right way, Durg app helped a lot to find correct path. Also, the villagers have done making on the trek route, hence there is very little chance of missing the path!. There are shops at some distance and their lights are on all night so it gives some relief while trekking in night. We had wasted 35 to 40 minutes which we had to cover, but here was a different problem arise. As usual, Vinayak was exhausted at the beginning of the trek and slept on the rocks. Some of the group members were scared to see him, but I knew that he would complete the trek no matter how hard it was 😄. Not only that, Santoshraj Karande's niece was also very tired at this time, she was used to trekking but who knows, this summer heat might have made her more tired. Finally decided to climb the peak, by leaving the desire of watching the sunrise from peak, asked everyone to walk as comfortably as possible. 60% to 70% of the distance was covered and the Sun appeared! Couldn't get to the top to see the sunrise, but we had gained enough height. Santosh had brought a "Thalipeet", ate a little bit of the Thalipeet to gain energy. After resting a bit, took photos of the sunrise and resumed climbing. Kalsubai's peak and the saffron flags were visible, very less distance was pending, but we were tiered and our legs started shivering. Somehow slowly we managed to reached at the peak. A total of four iron ladders were there in the trek route of Kalsubai. As the steps of the first three ladders are narrow, careful climbing and descending is required.   The fourth ladder takes you directly to the top. Although the ladder is very tall, but its steps are wide so there is no need to worry.

Group photo at Kalsubai peak

Group photo on 4th ladder

Around 6:50 AM we reached the summit. Many people had come to watch the sunrise at night and stay over there overnight. Due to weekday, the crowd was very less. First went to the back of the temple and sat down and relaxed, ate the food brought in the tiffin and everyone got recharge. Visited the temple and had darshan of Kalsu Mata and spent some time enjoying the panoramic view of Sahyadri from the summit. We prefer vegetarian meals while trekking as much as possible, but since May 1st was a Wednesday, many members requested for non-vegetarian meals, Hence Called Balu Khade from the summit and asked "Can we change the food menu?" They agreed and we asked them to cook a non-vegetarian meal.

Note : Jio network is available at Kalsubai peak, so in case of any accident or you went on wrong path, you can call for help. Avoid changing the meal menu at last minute, so that there will be no inconvenience, food will not waste. In our case, the menu was changed as we called in the morning itself. These villages are far from the city, so don't expect to get the desired items/food. Everyone is requested to keep in mind that we have come here for trekking, not for fun in the resort.

Sunrise view from Kalsubai peak

    As Sun was rising up, the temperature was also rising, so we decided to descend. A couple of monkeys were seen at the top so it was predictable that there would be trouble with monkeys on the way down and it did. Monkeys were smart!  As we balanced our way down the ladder, at same time they are trying to steal things from bag, meaning our both hands were holding the railing, making it difficult for us to roll them away, which making their job easier. We had already prepared! mobiles, selfie sticks, etc. packed in the bags. After descending some distance we saw a shop open, we sat there drank lemon juice and relaxed for a while and started descending. It was around 11:30 a.m, sweating profusely as it was summer, if we had done this trek during the day, who knows what would have happened to us? We reached Balu Khade's house. Everyone relaxed there, some members even slept! When the food was ready, Balu Khade sent a message, we all had a lunch and fill our tummy. At around 1:30 p.m we started our journey towards Kasara railway station. We reached Mumbai by boarding Kasara CSMT fast local at 2:42 p.m.

Spending Tracker (Excluding breakfast and water bottles)

Time Tracker

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