Siddhagad Fort Trek | Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary | Murbad | 2018 April 15

Siddhagad Fort Trek | Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary | Murbad |
2018 April 15

GPS : https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/siddhagad-fort-trek-24001688

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Siddhagad fort is located near Murbad in Thane District of Maharastra. It is situated between two famous trekking destinations Bhimashankar and Gorakhgad and all of these mountains are part of Bhimashankar wildlife sanctuary range. The maximum elevation of the fort is 975 metres and Narivali is the base village of Siddhagad for trekking. This is an old hill fort built by Shilahaar dynasty in the 9th century. The Central top of this fort is quite hard to climb. This has the tallest height to climb among all other forts in Maharashtra since the elevation of base village, Narivali, is only 145 meters.

The base village, Narivali, is 16KM away from Murbad and 33 KM from Neral. ST buses are available to Narivali village from Murbad bus station. The first bus in the morning starts at 5.30 and last bus is at 9 PM.

Siddhagad fort has two plateaus, one at an elevation of 625M and one at the top. The lower plateau is called as Siddhagad Machi (or Siddhagad Wadi) and there is a small village of fewer than 15 houses. The upper plateau is called Bale Killa.

The trekking at Siddhagad fort is quite difficult and we took around 5 hours to reach the top. Siddhagad Wadi is around 7 KMs away from the Narivali village and it took around 3 hours of trekking to reach Wadi. The first 3 KMs is just following a wide marked bullock cart way till a small village called Dhaparpad. Both Siddahgad fort and Gorakhgad fort can be reached from Dhaparpad village. The trail on the right side of the village will take you to the Siddahgad and the one on the left side to Gorakhgad fort. The actual trekking starts from this village. Trek up to Siddhagad Machi is quite easy and passes through dense green forests continued from Bhimashankar forest sanctuary. You will come across many small water streams, splashing waterfalls and pleasing chirping of birds. But the waters streams will go dry in the summer. Also, there are many huts and cottages along the route.

The trekking over small rock-paved steps continues till you reach the entrance gate of the village. There is a small plateau in front of the entrance gate and it lies outside Siddhagad fortification. It is between Dhamdhamicha Dongar and Siddhagad. From here you can watch the dense forest on the fort and path. You can measure magnitude of Dhamdhamicha Dongar and Balekilla. There is also a small temple on this plateau.

The village is only 5 minutes away from the entrance gate. From the village, Balekilla looks like a huge fort ahead. There are many mango trees on this plateau surrounding the village. The villagers have converted some parts of the plateau into farmland. The villagers also arrange camping facilities and food on demand. It is better to fill your water bottles from the village even though there are plenty of water cisterns at the top, Bale Killa.

Reaching the top of the Siddhagad, Bale Killa, is a little bit adventurous and difficult. One needs to climb many rock patches to reach the top and will take more than one hour. The pyramid-shaped Bale Killa is generated by a volcano eruption.
There is a cave in the Bale Killa, about at the middle height of the fort, where a monk Sadhu Baba lived. View of the Gorakhgad and adjacent hills from the entrance of this cave is wonderful.

We reached the top at by 1 PM and it was very hot. At the time we start trekking from the Narivali, we were unable to see the fort due to the fog. But the sky was very clear when we reached the top. It is easy to spot Gorakhagad, Machhindragad, Dhamdhamia Dongar, Bhimashankar, Malanggad and many other forts around from the top. View of Siddhagad-wadi village on the top is also fascinating. There are many water cisterns and fortification on the top. Some of the tanks still contain water, but contaminated.

We spent around 1 hour at the top and started descending. It is very difficult to climb down the Bale Killa as compared to climbing up. We took around more than 3 hours to descend the fort and then to reach the Narivali. The last bus to Murbad from Narivali is at 8.30 PM. We returned to Murbad by 5.30 PM bus with a plan to visit the Gorakhgad fort in the next week.