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2011 Republic Day Trek: Asherigad
 This was one of the long awaited trek. Was initially planned during 2006, then 2008 & now we finally did it on 26th Jan Republic day of 2011. Having a vehicle I will say is a must for this trek to happen in 1 day. Its located bang on the Western Express Highway about 6-8 kms from Manor Naka. The nearest railway stn is Palghar but travelling to & fro is a big issue from this place. The base village is Khadkona. We were 11 of us & travelled in our Tavera. Reached the base village at about 10.15am The highway was quite engaged with traffic. One had to be very careful to watchout for the left turn on a mud road for approaching the base village from the highway. The road is pretty bad here though its just about less than half km inside. Village is beautiful with good people. We found a comfortable place to park our vehicle near the villager’s house. The glimpse of the fort from the village looked like it should not take more than 1 hr for the trek. But we kept our fingures crossed since you never know the route! Having done with our brief introduction, we started the trek. We had the youngest 14 years old & the oldest 52 years age guys with us. The weather was absolutely fabulous for the trek. The location of the village is quite beautiful too. Its quite cool , green, clean & breezy village! The route goes from the left side of the village & from the left side of the fort too. A simple gradual hike over the col on the left side of the fort goes through cool forest which offers ample of shade. The route is marked with arrows throughout making it quite simple. The col is a nice place to rest for a while, typically cool breeze flowing thru. We take the right & start ascending the short hillock & within 5-10 min , we reach a ladder placed in the chimney. This ladder is a recent development. Makes the traverse through the chimney col very easy. We encounter a small Temple before the ladder on the right side. Having climbed this ladder, we see fort wall remains. We reach the top of the hill fort. On the way, carved steps can be seen alongwith a small broked entrance. We continue to walk over the small hillock on the flat portion of the hill. To our left side, we see a small path going down which leads to the water tanks. There are 3 water tanks which should offer potable water. But, we didn’t try it out since the water was covered with some oil layer. Probably contaminated by some fellow trekkers since on the way, we saw few trekkers carrying the chickens & stuff to cook. The route is also littered with alcohol bottles at few places. 
We continued our exploration over the hill top plateau. We see quite a many holes in the flat rock floor indicating fort construction which existed. These holes were used for mounting the pillars of the fort offices/houses. There is a small cave which houses a Temple. We explored the end of the fort which drops down to the WE highway. The highway can be seen winding through the forests & plains below. The Adsul fort can be seen right in front across the highway. Far off towards the north side, we see the Mahalxmi Pinnacle. We then encounter a small lake which offered us good place to have our lunch under the tree shade & on the cool rocks. We rested for about 15 mins & started back. We also see another pond with water lilies in it. The downhill was quite fast . One has to be careful about the scree on the way. We reached the village by around 3.30 After having the refreshing black tea which was offered by the villager, we started our travel back to the city life! We were grateful to our fellow trekker Prashant for offering us the comfortable drive. Although a simple, it was quite a refreshing trek. Good place to trek during summers & for the beginners too. View Album Written by: Kiran Sarode |
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