Kohoj (17th June, 2007)

KOHOJ - INFO
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A traveller journeying on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway will notice an imposing mountain to the right, just short of Manor. At the top of this mountain is the 3000+ feet high Kohoj fort. This fort, with its peculiar twin human-shaped pinnacles are easily recognizable from a distance.


Height: 3200 feet

Range: Palghar

Grade: Medium

Ways to Reach: Catch a local train to Virar(last station) on the western railway.
From Virar, catch the Dahanu shuttle and get down at Palghar railway station. From the Palghar ST depot, take the ST bus to Manor, and from Manor, catch another one going towards Wada, and get down at Vaghote village which lies at the base of the fort. You can also get a direct ST going towards Wada and get down at Vaghote.

Alternately, One can drive on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad national highway and reach Manor in about one and a half hrs, and turn right at the Manor Faata towards Wada and reach Vaghote village.

From Vaghote village,catch the path which goes adjacent to a heart-shaped lake. Further ahead, it passes through a few fields and then u hit a rocky road. The road goes to the neighbouring village. Catch a right turn in between which goes towards the fort.. The path climbs up a bit to reach a beutiful lake called the Paazhar lake in which u get to see the reflection of the fort. Walk over the damn. The path then climbs up gradually In between a small col to reach a small opening where a concrete slab bearing the name of a trekker who had died lies on the right. A further climb of about half an hr and u reach the plateau where theres a Temple and a few water tanks. Climb up a few rock cut steps and you will reach the top in about 15 mins.

Climbing time: About 2 1/2 - 3 hrs

Things to see:

1]A Shankar temple on the plateau. It has now been renovated. A path from the left of the temple leads to about 6-7 water tanks. Quite a few of them are spoiled or clogged. A couple of dirty cisterns are also present in front of the temple.

2]A hanuman idol is present midway to the top. Here 3 big cisterns are present with potable water.

3]Just as you cross the fort entrance and the ruins of a fort wall, you come across a
bastion, which is now in a dilapidated state. A temple of Lord Hanumana is located to the left of this bastion. From here, we climb up the steps and within 15 minutes of walk reach at the top of the fort. Here we come across many natural pinnacles formed due to wind-erosion. A man-shaped pinnacle is one of the greatest wonder of nature’s creation. This is the most attractive place on the fort. Different shapes of this pinnacle are evident when viewed from various directions.

4]Further ahead, theres a temple of Lord Krishna.

5] From the northern side of the fort, you can see the Deharaja river valley and the Vikramgad area. To the south, the Pinjal and the Vaitarna river valleys provide a picturesque view. Beyong the river Vaitarna is the Vandri lake, while in the distance, the outline of the Takmak fort can be seen. To the west is the Tandulwadi fort in the Asavgad range of mountains.

Accomodation: There is no accomodation on the top. Hence, the trek is best done as a day trek. However, one can stay overnight at many hotels in Manor or Wada.

Food and Water: Carry your own foodstuff. Drinking water is available in the cisterns on the top during the monsoon. However it is advisable to carry sufficient drinking water during the summer, as many tanks on the top have become dirty.

History: Very few of the historical evidences are coherent to this fort. Looking at its well-dug cisterns, the fort can be said to be belonging to Bhoj-period. But no such evidences are available. In 16th century, Portuguese captured this fort from the King of Gujarat. They constructed fortifications and bastions on this fort. Later, in 18th century, Peshwe conquered this fort in their campaign of 1737. Afterwards the fort remained under the British rule.

KOHOJ - THE UNKNOWN FORT

Yeah.. true to its name, this fort is really a one which is not so popular with the trekkers as the others on the central side. After being bugged by trekking in the central region in raigad and pune, me and Amit decided to venture out in the Western region for a change. The description of the Kohoj fort with the so-called-human-shaped-pinnacles really fascinated me, and so we decided to trek Kohoj instead of Asherigad.

As usual, it was just me and another person - this time again, it was Amit. We caught the early morning 5.15 local to virar, but unfortunately, we just missed the connecting shuttle by a whisker. So we had our breakfast of hot vada-pavs and tea at virar station and waited for the next shuttle at 8.30. We got down at Palghar and caught an ST to Swargate, and got down at the base village of Vaghote. The massive fort of Kohoj standing tall over the national highway looked pretty imposing. We started our trek and within a few minutes reached a peculiar heart-shaped lake.. and then the bigger lake at the base of the fort. We stopped for a while, and after looking at the village kids having a ball of a time bathing in the lake, we decided to have a dip while coming back...

After crossing the dam over the lake, the actual climb begun. The numerous routes which the villagers, the wood cutters and the cattle had made.. just made things difficult for us. After geting lost n number of times, we finally caught the right path well marked with arrows..
Sometimes i wonder that the whole fascination of trekking and finding your route is lost with the route well marked with arrows, as was the case with Kohoj.. but i guess with a tight schedule, it was like a blessing in disguise. As dark clouds loomed over the valley, we awaited eagerly for the showers.. thats what we had come there for.. but we were disappointed as they just flew past without shedding a single drop of rain. It was raining.. no doubt .. but it was pouring down from our foreheads rather than the sky!!

On the way to the first plateau, we passed through a thick dense path of forest.. but we were appalled to see giant tall trees been burned, cut and chopped down for deforestation.. This wasnt the first time we had encountered such a scenario. Even during my earlier trek to Siddhagad, we had seen such deforestation been carried out on a large scale. But it brought back memories from my last years trek to Matheran to Garbett point, when i saw the government had encouraged afforestation and had planted numerous trees all along the way.. There was some hope, i told myself.. and we moved on..

Huffing and puffing, we finally reached the plateau at the base of the fort. We took a break for lunch near the shankar temple, and waited for a group which was on the fort to get down. We running out of drinking water and all the water tanks were clogged and muddy. And there was no sign of the rain..
We packed up and started our final ascend and as we were reaching the fort wall, we saw the approaching rain far away on the horizon... hurry.. i told Amit.. we climbed as fast as we cud and reached the fort gate and made our way to the top of the bastion and awaited eagerly for the first showers for the day. It was an amazing sight, as we saw the thick dark rain cloud bringing the rain along with it.. and the sun-bathed valley in front and behind it... The cloud approached us and slowly it grew darker all around us .. and as we saw the plateau been engulfed by the rain showers, we began to feel the first showers on our face.. and voila!! Finally it came.. with a gust of a strong breeze, it began pouring over us ... and before we could enjoy the first showers, it was sunny all over again!! Duh!!!

Just an hr's sleep and the lack of another cup of tea had made my head pretty heavy and i was totally drained out of energy. I had to sleep.. i told Amit.. we reached the Krishna temple on the top.. but it was too small to accomodate even a single person. Then we found the perfect place for our afternoon siesta.. just behind the first pinnacle, overlooking the valley, we slept on the ground, with our feet dangling 1000+ feet above the ground! That was the most peaceful sleep id experienced for a long time ! :) After i woke up, i was feeling fresh as ever.. we explored around a bit.. climbed a pinnacle.. and soon started our descent.. as we had a very urgent need of taking a dip in the lake below..

We zoomed our way across trees, shrubs and rocks and reached the dam in less than a couple of hrs.. And as soon as we reached the lake, it began to pour again.. we needed no time, and paying no heed to the village girls and other women folks watching us with curiosity, we stripped down to our bare minimums and splash!!! Brrrrrrrr.... the lake water was as chilled as it could had been! Just didnt feel like getting out... curious village kids tried to entertain us with their acrobatic stuff in the waters.. after about an hr or so, we decided to move on..

We had to wait for a long time for the bus, and finally when it came, it was packed.. so we had to stand all the way to Palghar station.Thankfully, we got a passenger train to Bombay central which was stopping at Virar and then Borivali.. so we rested our tired legs and slept all the way to Borivali... It would had been more fun if ud have brought your Bike along.. I told Amit.. as Manor was just a couple of hr's drive from Borivali.. Next time.. we said. and we parted good bye..