HARIHAR

Harihar from Nirgudpada

I remember it very clearly, two years ago, that is, in April 2016 where all this trekking thing began all over again in my life, Harihar was the trek which we were planning to complete as a kick start to our trekking life. But eventually, we ended up doing Lohagad; and the rest is history. So basically, Harihar was a 2 year long awaited dream trek for all of us!

Harihar is situated in Nasik district and is one of the main attraction in Sahyadri's! We can go up there via 2 routes. First is Harshewadi, and other is Nirgudpada. We chose the Nirgudpada route.
To reach there, there are following modes of transport available:
1) Private : Nirgudpada is 113 km away from Mumbai. So you can drive there and park your vehicle anywhere in the village.
2) Local : First take the train to Kasara, and from there local vehicles are available to get to Nirgudpada. The vehicle can accommodate 10 people easily. One vehicle costs Rs.3000/- for a return journey.

I think wherever we go, we should always select the local transport. So that we get to know more about that place from the localites on the way, and on the other hand, travel and tourism is their only way of income.

So we took the 11.34pm Kasara train from Thane, and reached Kasara by 1.30 Am! We had a dog company on the way to Kasara, from Asangaon to Atgaon. We were the only passengers in our coach, so we were literally doing any random shit in the train. The hype was so real, that we knew the next day is going to be lit!

We were a group of 9 people. I had already arranged the vehicle to reach to Nirgudpada and I talked to a local person there for breakfast and stay. We reached Nirgudpada at around 3.30 Am and as decided earlier, we stayed in "Samadhan Nirgude's" house, and slept there for 2 hours. To be honest, only 2 or 3 people slept, rest of us were just trying hard to sleep. We all woke up at 6 am to a very fresh morning, had Maggi as our breakfast, and started walking around 6.45 am.

Small patch just before stairs.

To go up there, you don't need any kind of guide. You just have to look for a saffron flag and follow it. It will automatically lead you to the top of the fort.

As we started, the weather was foggy. There was no rain but only fog everywhere. We were hoping for drizzle but that would have made our journey a little bit difficult, as the starting patch for the hike is in really bad conditions. If you don't have good quality shoes, you'll definitely slip off!
Fun fact: On the way to nirgudpada, I scolded one of my friend for wearing shoes with torn sole. In the morning after waking up, when I was getting ready for the trek, I realized that my own shoes were torn from both sides. So basically, I was worried about my shoes that they won't accompany me throughout the trek.

After clearing the first staircase. You have to bend over
and walk for 5 mins after this patch.

Harihar is not at all a lengthy trek! It is all about crossing 2 hills and then you directly reach to the toughest patch of the trek! Crossing two hills hardly take 90 minutes if you're fast enough and take less breaks during the hike. We purposely chose weekday to visit the fort. Because, rainy season is the best season for trekking and on Sundays, there's so much crowd that just spoils the fun. The only toughest and scariest part of the fort is the stairs built in the huge rock, which is inclined at almost 70-80 degrees! We reached the base of the stairs by 8.30am. The weather was so pleasant that for the first time in our trekking life, we gave more importance to clicking photos than climbing. We literally took a 30 minutes break just to click photos of each other, which never happened in the past. To add spice to this break, I realized that I had a 4G connection up there. So I turned on my mobile data and started to show it off on social media that "Yes! I am in an awesome expedition!". Reliance Jio has done a great job, because of which other telecom companies have reduced the rates of unlimited internet. So me, as a Vodafone user, did not hesitate to give hotspot to all other members. Everyone started posting stories on Instagram and Snapchat. We were really enjoying ourselves!

First staircase.

So after a long break, we started climbing those stairs. The stairs are steep and separated by a distance of almost 1.5ft, and they are so small in breadth that only half of your foot can fit there. So you have to watch your each and every step! One small mistake and a severe injury is on its way to greet you very unpleasantly! If there's no crowding then that stairs part is hardly 10 minutes, but it is equally dangerous! After clearing that patch, there's nothing difficult left on the fort.

There are 2/3 lakes on the fort, many photography points, and Hanuman and Shiva Temple. Most of the people in our group cannot swim. But one of us had a strong wish to go in the lake for swimming. He was not ready to go alone, we said if the lake is not deep, we'll join you. So first he went and checked the depth, and then we followed. First of all, no one carried extra pair of clothes, rather we never do! In such a situation, we had to go and swim, so we decided to take off our clothes and get inside the lake in just underwear! That was the craziest thing I ever did in my life till date. There were no girls with us and neither around us, so basically it was kinda "boy" thing to go and swim in the lake. After we were done with the swimming, we had no spare clothes to put on. So we just wore our T-shirt and trackpant over the same wet underwear and started trekking again; because that was the only option we had in that situation. There was an advantage that rain wasn't showing up. But after swimming, we really didn't care about rain, because we were already wet(LOL).

After swimming, we marched to the highest point of the fort, where usually the huge Saffron flag is tied. But as soon as we reached there, we saw a family of monkeys were all set up to attack anyone who tries to climb it. There was this one huge monkey who was in no mood for fun. He was about to attack us as we were walking further. We were scared, because we had a bad experience with monkeys back in Lohagad. Also, at such instances, we should not go further because it's their territory and we have no right to invade without their consent. We marched down and then came back to the lake to have lunch. We had a long photography session in between.

This is how it looks
while descending.

After lunch, we started our return journey. Actually, I was worried about that staircase patch, because while descending, it's much more dangerous. But to be honest, I overestimated this staircase patch. I felt so because of my previous trekking experiences. After AMK (Alang-Madan-Kulang) and Gorakhgad, this descend was very easy for me, because this wasn't the first time I was dealing with such a rock patch.

While ascending, the surrounding was all covered with fog and we couldn't see the top of the fort from base, because of which we were lost. But we somehow cleared the steep hill patch and managed to find the correct route. While descending, the weather was clear and when we saw the fort from base, we were mesmerized. I know many of you will find it lame, but yes! You have to be a trekker to know the feelings of other trekker about this!

We reached the base village by 2.30 Pm. We were all tired because of all the fun we did up there and we did not get enough sleep on the penultimate day. As we came down, we all sat in the car and headed to Kasara immediately! The journey to Kasara was so silent because almost all of us fell asleep. We needed it!
Harihar was a huge success. It was THE best trek, no doubt about that! It's a must visit for every hardcore and fellow trekker.

THIS IS IMPORTANT : I would like to mention 2 points here.
1) DON'T BEHAVE LIKE IT'S YOUR PRIVATE PROPERTY.
As we sat down to have our lunch, we saw the other people who were going to top after us, were throwing stones at the monkey family, because of which they were running everywhere. A bunch of monkeys approached towards us while having lunch. Guys, please stop this nonsense. We just visit there once. Those animals live there! We don't have any right to trouble them in any possible way! The after effects of this was, the monkey family was running everywhere and was attacking all the people around and snatching their belongings. If we treat them right, they won't harm us! That's the very basic rule which we learn in school. Be rational. Think before you act. Throwing stones at monkeys in front of few girls won't make you a hero, but you'll make a fool out of yourself! Not only monkeys, but any other animals are not supposed to be harmed in any way! How would you feel if some strangers come to your area and throw stones at your window? THINK OVER IT!

2) STOP THROWING PLASTIC ON FORTS!
While descending, someone threw a bottle of frooti on the fort in front of me. When I asked them to take it back, that guy said he didn't throw it. Seriously? This is how you run away from your responsibilities? Did your parents run away saying "This is not my child" after your birth? First of all we are the ones who throw plastic everywhere and then hypocritically we are the ones who say "We should stop using plastic, it's dangerous to nature. We should improve our garbage management techniques" etc. That day I was really disappointed with that guy's attitude. I picked up the bottle and threw it in the dustbin nearby. We even picked up few other plastic bottles and then threw them in a proper garbage bin. Please guys, it's our responsibility to keep everything clean and maintain the beautiful nature. THINK OVER IT AND ACT ACCORDINGLY!