A Small ride and a Great trek to Naneghat

Have you ever been on road to ascend the heights of a jungle? A trip to Naneghat may provide the best of both, a short but marvellous scenic ride as well a moderate but certainly a demanding trek!

The Naneghat Peak

Naneghat is considered as one of the highest peaks in Maharashtra of the Sahyadris, the Western Ghats mountain range. At an elevation of about 700meters, it provides amateurs and travelers, especially who spend their hours sedentarily in offices, an opportunity to reveal their limits, a chance to exhaust their hearts out!

I trekked Naneghat for the first time, some 2years back. It was hell of a journey. We didn’t have much knowledge of the place and with whatever we came to knew about it, we reached the base of the trekking route, at NH-222, via local train up to Kalyan and then bus ride towards Malshej Ghat. That group was a large with some 10 members, many with smoked-out lungs. Naneghat presented itself as a challenge to all of us, testing our physical fitness. Through maze of quietly-defined route, following fellow trekkers we walked some 5-kilometers through plains, steeps slopes, jungle to the mighty Naneghat. At the caves just before the peak, we had a great feast of omelette, bread and tea and had a great respect for the vendor who brought all that to such a height. When we crossed the final signature-basaltic pass of the ghats, what we found was a motorable road reaching up to the ghats! That day we came to know that there is a way out, easier and wheel’able, to reach the ghat and then trek a few tens of meters to peak!

The Basaltic pass to the Ghatghar side of Naneghat

With my prior acquaintance with the place, and zeal of new eager-to-trek friends, we set up a plan to ride & trek the Naneghat once more. I had actually two plans to conquer the Naneghat, first to ride up to the base and then trek; second, to ride to till the road permits and walk up to the peak. Those who knew the Naneghat, disapproved the first plan, so I scheduled to execute this plan with my office mates, who had no idea of what does actually a trek to Naneghat mean.

Due to some technical reasons, i'm not able to embed the Google Map for the route, though same can be seen by clicking here. Destination B refers approximately to the Base station for the Naneghat trek.

A sight of NH-222

Last Sunday, I with Manoj as pillion on my TBTS-Achtung! , and Deepak with Swami as pillion on his pulsar, started the ride towards the Naneghat from Shil-phata at 8:00 AM. Shilphata-Kalyan road is not so exciting, but certainly a hell lot better than the road across the Kalyan. Kalyan-traffic is one of the most awful things I ever witnessed in my entire riding life. Riding through always-traffucked streets of Kalyan, for the first time, I was able to cross the city and get on to the NH 222 without asking any local. We stopped at our regular bada-paav shop of Ulhasnagar. The road ahead is too beautiful and scenic. Though, one lane the NH 222 has always been a great ride tar! With some 40 kilometers of ride and moderate serpent bends, we reached the Naneghat-base. If you are high on speed, there is high chance of missing the start base-station, which is indicated just by an iron gate with Naneghat board on it.



Our First Pit-stop
(from L-to-R: Swami, Manoj, Me)

 We parked our wheels below a tree, and started the trek at about 9:50 AM. It started raining as we got en route the real criss-cross Maze route through the jungle. This time the muddy route was deeply dug by monstrous tyres of some 4x4. We followed the way and at one bifurcation took the wrong turn. After some 15-20 minutes of walk, we met a villager who directed us towards the right way. Manoj, the heavy body, started feeling exhausted on the very first steep portion of the trek. Thereafter we religiously had 5-10 minutes of break after every 15-20 minutes of walk. Halfway, we heard shouts of some guys asking whether it’s the right way to Naneghat. It’s not uncommon to hear such pleads, as anybody and everybody can lose the track. We reached the caves near the peak at about 12:45 PM, and to great shock there was no vendor! With a few packets of biscuits and no-water we knew it would be a lot hell to descend! Manoj was in no mood to trek the final few tens of meters to reach the peak and have sneak down at valley. So, Swami gave him company and with Deepak, I ran towards the peak. Unlike our last visit, weather was warm and humid, but the surrounding was just what we say ‘Awesomenss!’

Jus feel it...

Few minutes later Manoj and Swami joined us at peak. Spending some time there and consuming what all we had with water that we collected at streams there only, we started going down to caves. So we took some 3hours or so to trek about 3.23 miles and climb about 0.4 miles, as per  GPS data recorded by us.

Someone told us that the small green building at far end on the plains actually offers eatables! That was the best delight we had that evening, and the icing on delicacy was made by the changed mood of weather with onset of clouds, cold waves and rain! Now that was, what we say, “Fcuking Awesomenss”! At that green dhaba, we got poha and bhaji, tasty enough for our taste-buds as well as hunger-pangs. Those guys can be contacted at 9423002494 or 9767379084 before-hand for any orders as such.

Our group at the Naneghat Peak
(Me at top, then Swami, Manoj on left and Deepak at right)

There is a small temple of Ganapati just after the basaltic pass and half way to final ascend towards the peak.

Deepak at the Ganapati Temple, Naneghat

We took about two and a half hour to trek down to the base, and were at our bikes at about 5:45 PM, when we started the ride back to our places.

This Sunday, I may go again on a ride to Naneghat, this time with the Bisons, who ride hard on their Bullets! The log would be updated accordingly…

For those amateurs who wish to trek the Naneghat, please be in group of at least 3 guys. Though it’s not a tough trek, but sitting in your AC offices you don’t actually know your present limits. Do wear shoes with good grip, remember cost of shoes not always decides its grip. One may go for Action Trekking shoes that can be purchased at your near local store for some 600 bucks. Do carry a small first-aid kit, water-bottles and eatables. Personally chewing-gums keep me engaged without being much tired while running or trekking, you may give a try. And, if you are visiting the ghats during monsoon, which is the best season for, you may like to carry rain-coat; though, trekking in rain is itself a pleasure!

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