Harishchandragad is one of the most scenic forts in the Sahyadries. This fort at a height of 4671ft strikes an imposing and awe-inspiring figure and is famous for its 'Konkan Kada'(1800 ft). This fort played an important role in guarding Malshej Ghat which descends to Konkan. Situated in the Kalsubai mountain range this fort has a moderately difficult climb like all the other forts in the range viz. Alang, Madan, Kulang, Ratangad etc. There are 4 routes for climbing this forts Pachnai Route, Khireshwar route via Tolar khind, Sadhle Ghat route, Rajmarga and Nalichi Wat. Out of these routes the Khireshwar route is most commonly used. By this route it takes about 2½ hrs to reach Tolar khind, and 3 hrs to complete the 3 rock patches and the 9 hills on top of the fort to reach the Ganesh cave which can accommodate up to 35 people.
We chose this route to climb the fort since we were a batch of 34 people and some of them were first timers. We left from Pune for Khireshwar on the 7th at 6:30 am. It took us almost 4½ hrs to reach Khireshwar. Once we reached the village we had a short lunch of 'parathas' and started walking at about 12:30 pm and reached Tolar khind at about 3pm. We stopped in the khind for some time for everyone to take a short break and started climbing the rock patches which took us about 45 mins to climb. While we were at the patch the clouds came in and we were completely surrounded by the clouds in a matter of seconds. Once we reached the top of the fort we had a small snack of 'gulpolis' and started to walk again across the hills to reach our dwelling-place. By now it had started to rain quite heavily. While we were walking along the route we realised that we had chosen the wrong path and come out somewhere else. Pinakin went back a little and found the right path and we started to go by that path to reach the temple of Harishchandreshwar and reached the caves in about 5 mins. The first thing we did on reaching the caves was to change out of our wet clothes and change into warm ones. There is food facility on the fort where we arranged tea, dinner and breakfast. Tea arrived soon after and the people were eager to have it after the cold walk in the rain. Once everyone had had tea some people went to sleep until dinner, some played cards while some just sat talking. Dinner arrived at about 9pm (Pithla,bhakri,rassa,bhat) and everyone was asleep by about 10:30 pm.
By the time everyone woke up it was almost 6:30 am and tea had arrived. After having tea we went to see the Konkan Kada. We reached Konkan kada in about an hour and spent some time drinking in the amazing view the cliff offers. After about 2 hours we left konkan kada and went back to the cave where a brunch of khichdi was waiting for us. Once everyone had breakfast we took our bags and left to the Harishchandreshwar temple where we filled our water bottles and went to see the Shivling which in a cave near the temple. This Shivling is extremely large and is completely surrounded by waist high water and has a small cave beside it. It was said that there used to be snakes in the water surrounding the Shivling before, but now one cannot see any snakes in the water. We left immediately after visiting the Shivling along the route across the hills. I, Harshad and Sharvil were the last ones of the group when we saw a snake sliding along the path and Harshad identified it as the Saw-scaled Viper, one of the 4 most poisonous species of snakes in India. After this incident we kept walking continuously and reached Khireshwar amidst pouring rain where we changed our clothes and had a great lunch of 'Zhunka-Bhakar-Bhat' and left for Pune. We reached Pune at about 8 pm.
My only regret for this trek was that we could not complete Taramati Machi due to time shortage and the clouds, other than that this was one of my best treks.
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