Vadap - Dhak - Jambhavali

Today’s trek turned out to be 2 and half hour more difficult that what was expected. But an excellent trek nonetheless - lots of climbing, lots of walking and beautiful scenery.

Dhak is a plateau and a hill fort on that plateau. It sits connected to but outside of the main sahyadri mountain range. There are similar formations like Siddhagad, Padargad, and Kothaligad. The fort itself is relatively less traveled compared to Dhak Bahiri cave on the western rock face of this fort.

As with several treks since summer started, we bused to the base village Vadap and started our trek at 3am. We hit the Dhak plateau in dark, after about 3 hours of climb, 550m. After a brief rest and snacks, it was about sun-rise time when we pushed on to Dhak fort from NW side (opposite side from dhak bahiri). Soon we reached a vista point with a grand view of Lonavala region (rajmachi duo, dukes nose, train route) and matheran range (irshalgad, matheran plateau, peb, sondai, manikgad etc). We continued climbing atop the fort. There it offered view of sahyadri range on the other side - siddhagad, kusur pathar etc. We descended the fort the way we came. There is a shorter route on SE side, but too risky. Retracing about 2km to the base of the fort, we turned to go around it towards SE side. To be rewarded with another great view of the rock faces of the fort and kalkarai pinnacle.

The walk to Jambhavali contained a surprise steep climb. Sun was hurting now, and we barely had sufficient water to carry us to Jambhavali, Kondeshvar temple where our bus was waiting.

There is potable water well in Dhak village. The water taka atop the fort is good too. But carry at least three liters if you go this route in summer, and electrolytes and food. It is a long and tiring walk.

Difficulty level due to effort. No technical climb involved