Karnala Fort Trek...

KARNALA FORT TREK

Karnala Fort & Bird Sanctuary…….. Trek d fort and an adventure The place is a stone throw away from Panvel…. provided you can throw the stone a clear distance almost of 13 kilometers. Karnala is visible from long distances all around 360 degrees so it is obvious that one can do the same from the top. Maybe that’s the reason somebody thought in the first place to build a fort here.

As-soon-as you cross the small town of Panvel on Mumbai Pune Highway and turn right on Mumbai-Goa Highway you sees a thumb like projection; this Pinnacle is the green thumb of Karnala Bird Sanctuary. Karnala is located about 55 kilometers from Mumbai and 13 Kilometers from Panvel. This hill fort is often confused with the panvel fort of Arnala near Virar. The decision to declaration of Karnala under wild life sanctuary regulations has helped it grow into a refreshing green Oasis. The weather changes as-soon-as you reach Karnala; the ozone is clear and fresh; and the birds welcome you with their songs. Birds like Drongo, Crow Pheasant, koels White Peacock, White Chimani are among few of the birds spotted here.

Since the path to Karnala Fort goes through the bird sanctuary, you do not become aware of the height of the hill. The fort is nearly 1500 feet above mean sea level and takes about 60 minutes of brisk climb to reach the top unless you wish to do bird watching and take a casual 2 to 3 hour easy stroll upto the top (easier said than done).

You can see the entrance of Karnala Fort as-soon-as you reach a small plateau. To reach the top you cross a broken gate, a little last mile adventure and you reach the fort. Inside the fort there are few things to explore around the pinnacle few water tanks, granary and ruins of some buildings. The central peak is best left for trained climbers and in monsoon not recommended to climbers also. The pinnacle is more dangerous because it also has beehives on it; so kindly avoid smoking near the beehives or throw stone at it playing monkey.

From the top of Karnala, you can see a vast area below. To the northeast, you will find Haji Malang, and just below before that, Prabalgad and Matheran.. To the south are Rajmachi and the Duke’s Nose, to the Southwest is the Mahal Mira hill range while to the west is the metropolis of Mumbai.

So Sahaydri Sangh guys deicded for the same.. with some brave guys Prakash, Sachin, Deepak, Vaibhav, Sachin D, Ajit, Nilesh & Me.. We starts our journery around 10.15 from the down.. & reached on the top around 11.50 without any hic-cup.. yes.. the legs was very tired but we decided do not hault more than 2 mints.. while going up. It was really amazing experience we faced..

Amidst the rocks at the fort, we found a spot and adopted it as our make shift dining hall. Some guys wanted to take a snap. There were many tanks full of water – dirty water with a lot of filthy deposits. Spent quite a while up there taking in the scenic beauty.

Now guess who the next was to call out to us. The rocks! Time for descend. Good thing that we had enough water with us to last through the trek. It was sunny, but with the Hot climate, the sun is top of the head…. and our journey downwards started. I had expected this to be way easier than the upward climb. But, our legs started showing clear signs of Shivering, approaching cramps- all appearing one after the other. We had to take more frequent breaks... but things worked out fine.. the two dangerous spots were scaled with less difficulty. God bless gravity!

End of trek. Goodbye time.. but only after deciding that the next trek would be within the next two months! Yippie!! Next time, its not going to be just the 4 of us!
We seemed to have had the most severe after effects. Suffered from painful muscles for nearly a week, probably because of the extra caution I took all through the trek and because We had done something this strenuous after a very long gap.

C U all soon. I'll be coming back with a sweet little Trekking story of a Sahaydri Sangh – Some friends I made in this trekking and who became an inseparable part of my life is Sachin, Rajesh, Umesh, Nilesh, Vaibhav, Santosh. Amazing inspiration these my friends have… Mahesh, Rohit is also part of this Sahaydri Sangh..

SAHAYDRI SANGH