Trek to Kaldurg Fort Palghar, Visit to Kelwa Beach Fort and Palghar Kelwa Beach

Kaldurg Fort lies in Palghar District near Mumbai, in the Sahyadri Mountain range of northern Konkan region. It is nearly 7km from Palghar railway station.

We visited here in June-2013. The trekkers group includes Harish Patel(me), Devendra Patel, Harshit Joshi, Ankur Srivastwa and Vikas Maharana.

Trekking here is budget friendly. Please carry 2 litre water and some snacks with you if you plan to trek here.

On a day in last week of June 2013, I motivated some of my office friends for trekking to Kaldurg Fort in Palghar. As this is very near to Mumbai and reaching Palghar by local is easy travel, I tried to lead team of my friends ;)

We finalized the trek on Friday and planned about where and when to meet the next morning to go for trek and which passenger outstation train to catch.

We 4 boarded a train at Dadar, 2 of our friends joined us at Borivali in the general compartment. After Vasai, the next stoppage was Palghar and we reached as decided.

We enquired about Kaldurg Fort and Waghoba Mandir and then caught a tumtum on sharing basis. Not many people were aware with the 'Kaldurg Fort' name.
Tumtum dropped us at Waghoba Mandir which is right location to start trek. The way till here was green in the rains. Mandir is on main road at the foot of the mountain.

You can find groups of monkeys here easily.

The road here takes a circular right turn. The turning between mountains on both sides looks beautiful with other beauties all around. One pipeline perhaps of water is lying near the road. The Kaldurg peak is visible from here. 

1-2 persons here confirmed us that the way to peak is just from behind the temple. We took and hold the visible path accordingly. We were going upwards with the help of gaps made by rainny water among stones and mud. We were not sure of the path but going upward and towards peak does not look wrong path.

On the way there were nests in ground created by ants or other insects.

As we rose up on the path, the views of other mountains, greenary spread around and one lake nearby were visible.

We were discussing about the correctness of the route, also making fun of each other and our other office buddies which were not there with us.

We took a small break to rest and have photos clicked.

We walked further upto next break as we were feeling thirsty frequently in the sun shine as there were no rains. In the break, some friends were tired up and were thinking of how far the peak was then from that point. Ankur and Harsh were casually trying to make our minds to return to bottom. Their statement was - "Ab Humse Na Ho Payega". :P

Perhaps at this point, looking to the peak again we came to know that the peak is on other mountain; not on the one on which we were trekking. But the way to peak is correct passing through the current mountain.

Ankit was on my side, motivating them to continue ascending the route. Devendra was of the same mind but was tired with sweat on forehead.

As decided Ankit and Devendra started walking with me to continue towards the peak, leaving the rest to take rest there or to go back. After 10mins, we saw that Ankur and Harsh were also coming after us after motivating themselves ;)

There were signs of the path made by rainny water (made by small river stream) and slippery yellow soil at one point. There were holes of snakes there and I was able to see one snake going to its place passing very near to me. It was like an excitement to me.

The river or small waterfall like sound was also audible here.

We came to a flat pleatue with good scenes. There was valley to the left and mountain and peak visible to right and in front. 

I will add some good pics which were clicked on this plateau.

We rested and then felt refreshed after comsuming fresh cool breeze and by the goods views of natural beauty there. We had water and packed eateries.

We all were looking towards the Kaldurg Peak and thinking of the further path to go there. We saw little bodies moving near the peak, showing some people are there. They were the children of nearby villages. We tried to comminicate them to ask for the path but nothing was clearly listenable as the peak was far away.

Suddenly, two of those village boys started to discend towatds us. And in 5-10 mins there were in front of us coming like from nowhere. They were real motivators to say that further trek is not lengthy and they guided us to follow them. They made our remaining journey easy. They were like running quickly.. One of them threatened us by the news that forest animals like leopard were frequently spotted here. Listening these some of us started worrying... hahaha.

With help of our local guide boys, quickly we reached at top. There were stones and boulders to climb to reach the peak.

There were stripes of sunshine and shadow of clouds running over us and over the nearby mountains. The view all around was awesome. We were on a very high point and perhaps best place to feel and enjoy beauty of the area. It was feeling like heaven.

There were some orange flags on the poles. Some water cisterns are there. Local villagers and some visitors were having a bath there.

We rested having our snacks while not missing the chance to capture the amazing views in our eyes and in camera lenses. 

Scenes of nearby mountains, forest trees, lake, river line, Vaitarna lake and Arabian sea cost at the end of ground were adding only to the greatness of the place called Kaldurg Fort peak. Seeing the depth of valleys was giving relax to eyes and excitement to mind.

Above is panarama view.

Seeing roads surrounded in trees, from any mountain peak gives its own kind of joy to the mind. :)

Showing some greatness, we also left our begs unattended to relax and enjoy the moments.

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We were monitoring activities of crabs in water tanks made within the montain stone on the peak. We relax here for a long and then decided to descend.

Somehow we find some different route and reached bottom near the road, not very far from starting point. But the good luck was we found small waterfall or rainy stream on the other side of road on other mountain.
There was no option to think to go into it or not.. it was further very relaxing and happening place for us. Hence we had our bath here.

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After this, everyone was happy with the journey so far - trek and waterfalls. We have some snacks near the Mandir. There were some thelas of bhutta (corn) and some snacks coocked items and chips packets.
We started to wait for st bus or shared tumtum to go to Palghar station, meanwhile we saw the ralley of monkeys on the road. Little monkeys were dancing on their parents.

The environment was very calm, only the sounds of vehicles was making were there. We visited the temple.

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As per my plan I was interested to visit Palghar beach and Fort near Kelwa beach. There we have split in the group on deciding whether to go home durectly or to go to beach or next fort. Many were wishing to go to home and relax. But to my happiness, somehow we decided to go to beach.

When we reached the Kelwa fort near Kelwa-Palghar beach, then only realized that the decision to come here was super duper good. We caught a tumtum from station for the beach, asking driver to drop us near fort. The road is end passes through village streets. Range of palm trees and coconut trees signed the nearness of beach.
The fort remains are in good condition and in evening sun rays it was looking too (orange) good.
Also the view of beach from top of fort walls was decent and cool to eyes.
We clicked ramp model like photos here :D

Due to rainy season, roads near forts were not in good condition with water surrounded.

After fort, we made our way to the beach. The architecture of village homes and lifestyle can attract your eyes to have a look.

The beach was very clear and the sand was white-yellow. People were playing cricket and volleyball here. We enjoyed the water tides, evening climate and best sunset here.
Cameraman Vikas was discoveting good clicks here with his DSLR.

On return journey, we took tumtum from beach to Palghar station. And from there local train upto our respective stations, keeping lot of memories and trekking experience..... and good clicks in our mobiles and camera... :) :) :)

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