Trekking to PETH FORT, Karjat on sunday 22 jun 2008 with BARC staff club.

This was to be my first trek to the fort of Peth. Also known as Kothaligad, this is a small fort about 25 kms from Karjat station.This place lies in the Sahayadri mountains.

The fort was a watch post for soldiers guarding the Bhor Ghat, which was an important trade route between Pune and Kalyan. Once you reach the top, you can have a great view of Karjat and Bhimashanker. In the monsoon, this is a wonderful trek and, especially during the weekends, you will find people coming in big groups for this trek.The best view for me was when I reached a pleateau.The fresh air and absence of traffic made me feel great. Peth (Kotilgad) – 1550 ft is a small fort with a large cave at its base. It is detached from the main range. It has an interesting fortification at the top in the shape of a funnel with rocky staircase carved in the middle. This funnel is known as Kotligad. The lower plateau is connected with Wandre Khind on the ghats in the east.

We reached Karjat station at around (9:00 a.m.). we alighted at the base village of Ambivali. Here we had our breakfast – the customary "Vada-Pav" and "Tea".There were many first timers but all seemed very enthusiastic about the trek. We started the trek at around 10:30 am or so. The trek starts with the tar road right near the shop which is also the bus stop. You take a left from the tar road and you follow a road laid with stones. Within an hour we reached the plateau which is normally the first proper rest for the trek to Peth.You can see the top of peth to the side. But here the top we covered with clouds. From the plateau you start walking and very soon reach the Peth village. The Peth village is exactly as the base of the fort and you can see the walls of the fort. You go right across the village and here starts the second part of the trek. From a point there is a bifurcation. The easier route is from the left which goes around the fort with the fort staying to your right. There is a set of steps which will take you to the top. If you take the right side route, its much steeper but will get you faster to the top. Once at the top, there is a small plateau, which when we reached was covered in fog. Here there is a small water tank.Then ahead is a huge cave – clean and very good for a stay. Right from inside the cave is the set of conical steps. This is the unique and amazing part of the fort. For someone who has no idea of this fort, he would sit wondering how to get to the top of the fort. Like most of the forts that I have seen even this fort had steps each about more than a foot high. Every time I wonder were the Marathas so tall or did horses climb these steps. Anyways the view at the top was worth the climb. There is a huge tank at the top and pipes are drawing water to the Peth village from this tank. It’s a small fort and was normally used for storage of ammunition etc. To the north you can easily make out the most easily distinguishable feature of Padar killa. Right behind Padar Killa is the Bhimashankar range. If you are lucky you can get a view of Nagphani the highest point of Bhimashankar. Now everybody had enough of the peaks around and it only contributed to making them more hungry. Everybody came out with their tiffins and Lunch done. we decided to turn back after spending some time at the lower part of the fort. There is a path which takes you all around the fort. We started back at around 4:00 pm. Once we reached the Peth village and the plateau, people knew there were half way through and walked at a relaxed pace. We reached Ambivali by around 5:30 pm. After that we had a quick session of "Tea" and "Bhel". So we took the Bus back to Karjat and way back to our houses. I reached home by 10:30 pm. Even my parents seemed happy to seem me home early.