Height: 2300 feet
Range: Matheran/Karjat Range
District: Raigad
Grade: Medium
Way to Reach: Reach Panvel by local train/ST bus. From Panvel ST stand, you can get ST buses to the base village of Thakurwadi. The first ST bus is at 7 am.
If you miss the ST, one can get 10-seater autos (Tam-tam) from near the ST stand. You will have to negotiate the rates for the same. They usually charge around Rs.200 for 10 people.
As you are reaching the village, look out for Zoya health retreat on your left. There will be a left turn in front of the retreat. The road ahead goes to the Thakurvadi cillage, take the left turn till you arrive at the gate of a private property. Autos are not allowed beyond this point.
The Climb: From the resort, the tar road climbs up gradually. After walking for almost 10-15 minutes on it, and after crossing a small bridge over a nala that is broken, one hits the proper trekking trail. This route climbs up gradually for about half an hour. At one point, where the route turns to the left, there is a small narrow path that climbs along the ridge from the right. This route climbs continuously, and is steep, full of scree... but is pretty safe. This route may turn slippery in the monsoon. Both these routes meet at a flat plain, where there is a small pinnacle sort of a collection of rocks.
The a furthre gradual climb of about half an hour takes you to the base plateau. The village of Machi Prabal is located on this plateau. From here, the route bifurcates. The right one goes to Prabalgad from besides a well, and the left one goes to Kalavantin Durg. The route to Kalavantin climbs up from the village, the path being full of loose rocks, and reaches the col in another half an hour. From here, there are rock cut steep steps all the way to the top. The climb over this portion can get quite in the monsoon, as the steps can get slippery and the wind can be pretty strong in the col.
At the end, the path is made of loose soil, and again, can be quite tricky and thrilling in the monsoon. Then you reach the rock patch of about 10 feet high. There are proper holds available, and climbing it is not an issue.
The Route Map
Climbing time: Thakurwadi to Machi Prabal ---> 1- 1.5 hours
Machi Prabal to the top ---> 1 hour
Total Climbing time: 2-2.5 hours
Fascinating spots: Undoubtedly, the rock cut steps and the final rock patch.
Forts visible from the top: Badlapur hill, Haji Malang, Navra-Navri, Mhasmal, Chanderi, Nakhind, Peb
Kelve-Teen, Prabal and Karnala
The Gadeshwar lake and the dam located at the base of Chander-Mhasmal-Peb-Nakhind can also be seen. The plateau of Matheran and the col between Peb and Matheran can also be located.
View of Kalavantin Durg from Prabalgad(Photograph: Kiran Belose & www.marathikatta.com)
Accomodation: Since its a One-day trek, accomodation/over night stay won't be needed. But If required, the villages at the Machi-Prabal village can provide space outside their homes in the courtyard for an overnight stay.
Food and Water: Carry your own foodstuff. Water not available on the top. The well at Machi prabal village is the source of drinking water. The villagers can also cook food for the trekkers if requested.
The trek to Kalavantin Durg can also be couple with the trek to Prabal as a one day trek. Also, one can also do a 2-3 day trek of Kalavantin-Prabal-Matheran. From Machi-Prabal village, one can get to Varosa village on the other side, in about 2-2.5 hours. From here, one can climb up Matheran via the ladder-route, or the One-tree hill route.
Kalavantin Durg - A beginning of the Winter trekking season!
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Participants : Sudhir (Leader) , Karthik, Ashutosh and other members of theYoungsterz.
A hiatus of almost 3 long months and my feet were really itching for some action. I had been quite busy, joined a job... then left it... busy with my applications... etc etc. All I could manage was a couple of long distance cycling trips, but I was looking forward for some trekking. December was nearing to an end, and I needed some warm up for my Dalhousie trek, and along came the trek to Kalavantin durg. I had missed this trek earlier this year in the monsoon.. but I was really fascinated by the pics, that I couldn't resist from joining the Youngsterz for this trek.
After a disastrous Saturday night, which was spent painfully, being awake in spite of watching a soporific movie "Lamhe", hoping it would put me to sleep, but to no avail.. 5.45 am meeting point at Kurla on a cool Sunday morning was a torture, but I had no option but to sacrifice on my sleep... The earlier evening was quite pleasant, with light drizzle here and there springing up a surprise, and I hoped for a rainy trek.. I was surprised to see Ashutosh and Karthik standing under the indicator.. These guys were with me on my previous trek to Bhimashankar, and like me, they didn't go for any climbs after that trek. We caught the 5:58 local to Panvel, and after half-dozing around and commenting on the hilarious posters pasted in the train, we reached Panvel. After a light breakfast of Kanda poha and tea, we walked to the auto stand, where we caught a share-10 seater tamtam to Thakurwadi village, some 17 kms away. We had a large group of around 23 trekkers, and we were joined by another group of 7, who were also going to Kalavantin Durg. They turned out to be NCC cadets, and Sudhir's seniors.
After the introductions and instructions, we started our trek at around 10 am.. There were 3 doctors, including myself. One was a lady doc practising as a GP, other was a pathologist from GSMC. It was a gloomy morning, clouds obscured the sun and the azure sky, which was visible when the clouds had parted for a few minutes... The tar road slowly turned into a curvy muddy trail which then began climbing gradually. After an easy walk, Sudhir asked us whether we wanted to take a little tougher route or the easy route, and everyone enthusiastically and unanimously opted for the former.... Soon everyone was huffing anf puffing up the steep ridge... which then led to a flat ground, having a small pinnacle-like arrangement of rocks.. Everyone wanted to climb up that pinnacle and pose for the photographs.. It is a pretty popular site for photography I guess, as I had seen many photographs taken there when I had searched for Kalavantin on google... Anyways, I was enjoying the surrounding view... Could see the entire Matheran range till Haji Malang... I even spotted the Gadeshwar lake, where Nishant and I had gone cycling and camping in October... It was quite a bad weather for photography as the sky wasn't clear and the light was pretty bad. After about half an hour of rest, we resumed our walk. We soon reached the plateau, and then the village of Machi Prabal, from where the routes to Kalavantin and Prabal bifurcate. After talking to a local teen, I got to know that it is a small village of about 24 huts. There was no school in the village, and a Balwadi (Nursery) was opened only recently. The village kids usually went to the nearby good school at a village near Panvel, and stayed in hostels. After a photographys session and refilling the bottles with well water, we proceeded on the final part.
The route further towards the col was quite rocky. It was pretty windy near the col, and I only imagined how strong the winds would be in the monsoon. I remembered the Chanderi trek, where I nearly lost my spects due to the strong wind. The really exciting part of the trek was just about to start... as I gazed above, I saw the steps, neatly cut into the rock face of the mountain. Looking at the height of every step, I wondered what the height of the soldiers in that era would be... 
Since there were a couple of first timers and many non regulars int he group, we climbed at a slow pace till we reached near the rock patch. The rock patch was about 10 feet high. Sudhir and others helped everybody, one by one to the top, where the other group whom we had met earlier were already present. Then up came the bags one by one, and we formed a circle, and had a feast. It was literally a feast, as I had never seen such a variety of foodstuff in any trek I could remember... right from plain fruits like bananas and oranges, to biscuits, chaklis, chivada, bread and butter, theplas, chapatis, sabji, fried rice, khakris, and yeah.. even Mutton balls... it had everything... and yeah, as an uncle from the group righly commented after the lunch, "If anyone has brought any ice cream, please take it out...." ... and yeah, that was the only thing missing... I didn't have much other than 2 bananas, some chaklis, biscuits and a couple of theplas, as I avoid eating much on treks (Thats a different thing that i hog like a dog from a famine struck village after I reach home)...
Then came the best part... Karthik and I found a really sweet spot, and slept, God knows for how long... I was awoken by a rude slap of the rope by Karthik... It was time to leave...
Getting down was always going to be a tricky business... It took almost half an hour for everyone to get down the rock patch.. and as we carefully made our way down the steps to the village, I bade Kalavantin adios!! The rest of the descent was quite easy, and we lolled along to the base village of Thakurwadi by 330 pm. After having some much needed shot of hot tea, we scrambled into the St bus at 4.15 pm and slept all the way to Panvel.
Return journeys after a trek never appealed much to me, but then I was happy that this time we were on our return journey earlier than I had expected, and my batteries still had some power in them to carry on for a couple of hours... Panvel-->Dadar-->Malad journey was such a pain in the you-know-where!! But thankfully I got the 6.35 pm Borivali fast leaving from Dadar... Aaaah!! Lord really had some mercy on me...
All set for the Dalhousie trek from Dec 29-Jan3, and then a visit to Dharamshala and Mcleodganj now.. Just heard in the news that it has snowed in the north... Just can't wait to get going!! :)
Participants : Sudhir (Leader) , Karthik, Ashutosh and other members of theYoungsterz.
A hiatus of almost 3 long months and my feet were really itching for some action. I had been quite busy, joined a job... then left it... busy with my applications... etc etc. All I could manage was a couple of long distance cycling trips, but I was looking forward for some trekking. December was nearing to an end, and I needed some warm up for my Dalhousie trek, and along came the trek to Kalavantin durg. I had missed this trek earlier this year in the monsoon.. but I was really fascinated by the pics, that I couldn't resist from joining the Youngsterz for this trek.
After a disastrous Saturday night, which was spent painfully, being awake in spite of watching a soporific movie "Lamhe", hoping it would put me to sleep, but to no avail.. 5.45 am meeting point at Kurla on a cool Sunday morning was a torture, but I had no option but to sacrifice on my sleep... The earlier evening was quite pleasant, with light drizzle here and there springing up a surprise, and I hoped for a rainy trek.. I was surprised to see Ashutosh and Karthik standing under the indicator.. These guys were with me on my previous trek to Bhimashankar, and like me, they didn't go for any climbs after that trek. We caught the 5:58 local to Panvel, and after half-dozing around and commenting on the hilarious posters pasted in the train, we reached Panvel. After a light breakfast of Kanda poha and tea, we walked to the auto stand, where we caught a share-10 seater tamtam to Thakurwadi village, some 17 kms away. We had a large group of around 23 trekkers, and we were joined by another group of 7, who were also going to Kalavantin Durg. They turned out to be NCC cadets, and Sudhir's seniors.
After the introductions and instructions, we started our trek at around 10 am.. There were 3 doctors, including myself. One was a lady doc practising as a GP, other was a pathologist from GSMC. It was a gloomy morning, clouds obscured the sun and the azure sky, which was visible when the clouds had parted for a few minutes... The tar road slowly turned into a curvy muddy trail which then began climbing gradually. After an easy walk, Sudhir asked us whether we wanted to take a little tougher route or the easy route, and everyone enthusiastically and unanimously opted for the former.... Soon everyone was huffing anf puffing up the steep ridge... which then led to a flat ground, having a small pinnacle-like arrangement of rocks.. Everyone wanted to climb up that pinnacle and pose for the photographs.. It is a pretty popular site for photography I guess, as I had seen many photographs taken there when I had searched for Kalavantin on google... Anyways, I was enjoying the surrounding view... Could see the entire Matheran range till Haji Malang... I even spotted the Gadeshwar lake, where Nishant and I had gone cycling and camping in October... It was quite a bad weather for photography as the sky wasn't clear and the light was pretty bad. After about half an hour of rest, we resumed our walk. We soon reached the plateau, and then the village of Machi Prabal, from where the routes to Kalavantin and Prabal bifurcate. After talking to a local teen, I got to know that it is a small village of about 24 huts. There was no school in the village, and a Balwadi (Nursery) was opened only recently. The village kids usually went to the nearby good school at a village near Panvel, and stayed in hostels. After a photographys session and refilling the bottles with well water, we proceeded on the final part.
The route further towards the col was quite rocky. It was pretty windy near the col, and I only imagined how strong the winds would be in the monsoon. I remembered the Chanderi trek, where I nearly lost my spects due to the strong wind. The really exciting part of the trek was just about to start... as I gazed above, I saw the steps, neatly cut into the rock face of the mountain. Looking at the height of every step, I wondered what the height of the soldiers in that era would be... 
Since there were a couple of first timers and many non regulars int he group, we climbed at a slow pace till we reached near the rock patch. The rock patch was about 10 feet high. Sudhir and others helped everybody, one by one to the top, where the other group whom we had met earlier were already present. Then up came the bags one by one, and we formed a circle, and had a feast. It was literally a feast, as I had never seen such a variety of foodstuff in any trek I could remember... right from plain fruits like bananas and oranges, to biscuits, chaklis, chivada, bread and butter, theplas, chapatis, sabji, fried rice, khakris, and yeah.. even Mutton balls... it had everything... and yeah, as an uncle from the group righly commented after the lunch, "If anyone has brought any ice cream, please take it out...." ... and yeah, that was the only thing missing... I didn't have much other than 2 bananas, some chaklis, biscuits and a couple of theplas, as I avoid eating much on treks (Thats a different thing that i hog like a dog from a famine struck village after I reach home)...Then came the best part... Karthik and I found a really sweet spot, and slept, God knows for how long... I was awoken by a rude slap of the rope by Karthik... It was time to leave...
Getting down was always going to be a tricky business... It took almost half an hour for everyone to get down the rock patch.. and as we carefully made our way down the steps to the village, I bade Kalavantin adios!! The rest of the descent was quite easy, and we lolled along to the base village of Thakurwadi by 330 pm. After having some much needed shot of hot tea, we scrambled into the St bus at 4.15 pm and slept all the way to Panvel.
Return journeys after a trek never appealed much to me, but then I was happy that this time we were on our return journey earlier than I had expected, and my batteries still had some power in them to carry on for a couple of hours... Panvel-->Dadar-->Malad journey was such a pain in the you-know-where!! But thankfully I got the 6.35 pm Borivali fast leaving from Dadar... Aaaah!! Lord really had some mercy on me...
All set for the Dalhousie trek from Dec 29-Jan3, and then a visit to Dharamshala and Mcleodganj now.. Just heard in the news that it has snowed in the north... Just can't wait to get going!! :)
Link to the Photo Album:
