Trek to Fort Kothaligad from Mumbai

Where: Fort Kothaligad (ahead of Karjat)

Distance:   80 kms from Chembur to the trek start point at Ambivli village - Hotel Rushikesh (more relevant - 2 hrs drive from Chembur early morning- ours is a unique country where we measure distance in terms of hours 🙂)

Directions: Follow kothaligad fort on google maps and will take you right to the beginning of the trek. You need to park your car at the Rushikesh restaurant (especially if you reach late…we reached the entry point (last few meters is gravel road) at 8 am and got parking right at the entry point. You have to pay forest department entry fee of Rs 50 per person

And this is where your trek starts (mind you there is an additional distance of about 1.5 - 2 kms if you start from restaurant). It’s an uphill walk on gravel road for 4 kms till you reach Peth village. And then starts the real trek. It’s uphill climb now with some big steps in between…about 1.5 kms till you reach the base of final summit. Two large cannons with waving flags symbolising the pride of Maratha kingdom welcome you. Some good old anchestral caves and temple at this spot. And then you start the climb to final summit. This is comparatively most difficult part, big steps to start with which are bit slippery due to rains and then the way narrows down significantly. With people trying to go up and down, it does lead to human jam with not much space to manoeuver at some points. And hence reaching early is a good suggestion- you don’t want to get stuck with a travel group of 50 people in either direction. But once you are at the top, you will see white clouds romancing the lovely greens in all directions as far as you can see with beautiful mountain ranges to add to the canvas. Have been staying in Mumbai for last 20+ years and why is it that only today I get the pleasure to see this - bet everyone asks themselves this same question. Also as you would see from the photos, lovely spots all across the route to take water breaks and bring alive the photographer in you. Though camera can only make so much of justice to what you see and capture through your eyes.

Total trek is about 6 kms one way and takes about 2 to 2.5 hrs depending on fitness level and how much time you want to spend enjoying what nature has to offer. Getting down is always bit faster - about 1.5 hrs

Food  and water stops- always good to carry plenty of water and some snacks especially during these pandemic times. But you do get number of small vendors selling bottled water, nimbu  sharbat (lemonade), kokum sharbat and kakdi (cucumber). Lot of school going kids working extra hard to help their families out on weekend - do buy from them - some small help to the local society. You have a few (2-3) Khanawals (local restaurants) serving meals, vada pav, bhaji, maggi etc - other than Maggi, always better to order on the way to the climb so that you don’t have to wait long - mind you these are manned by 1-2 members of family and hence takes time.

And now the most important question- difficultly level - this question always amazes me as what would be easy for a avid trekker could be very difficult for a newbie. So let me add some perspective here. For a average healthy family (eg. doing some form of physical exercise for about an hour  couple of times in a week), this could be classified as easy to moderate. Imagine yourself doing uphill walk for 4 kms and then climb for 2 kms. You also have an option to stop in between based on your energy levels and enjoy the beauty from there while rest of your group can do the trek and you can join on journey back. Generally helpful people and you won’t get lost.

Do I need a guide - not necessarily this trek can well be done yourself with almost remote to no chance of getting lost. However if you are new to treks or would like to know more about the fort history you may ask for guide at restaurant or at peth village

Enjoy the trek….Let’s explore the unexplored part around our city - Mumbai. And please, please, please don’t litter…it’s our job to keep the place beautiful for our fellow travellers.

P.S: See the video "Kothaligad trek in 2 minutes" (watch time 2 min) to get a complete feel of the trek