“Kondheshwar – Dhak Bhairi Trek”

One more trek on name, it is an awesome trek of “Dhak Bahiri”.  We wanted to do this trek from last two years and finally that day came in form of India’s 67th Republic Day 26^th January 2016. On Monday we suddenly decided to do one day trek. So I decided to go for dhak bhairi from Kondheswar Temple.

I collected all information of trek like routes, timing & talked with Jambhavli Village person (Popat Kadam Bhau) asking about climbing and rappelling things there , he told us all things are set there no need of any external instruments for Bhairavnath Temple visit at Fort. Also I booked afternoon lunch at his home.

We were 6 person me, Deepak Chandure, Pradip Hosure, Vinay Deshmukh, Hemant Patil, Vilas Algude. We started from Pune on 25th night at 11 PM from Hemant dada’s snooker club ARIZONA at FC road. We were on route to Kamshet in between few of us had dinner on old Pune Mumbai highway dhaba. From Kamshet we took route towards Kondheswar Temple Jambhavli village. We reached village at 2AM. Then after talking with Kadam bhau, we went towards temple there we had camp fire till 3AM. Then we went to sleep in temple area, after long time had awesome sleep below open sky & awesome cold.

See the perfect time click in above photo.

In the morning we woke up at 7AM, and after getting fresh we all had Kondheswar darshan & site seen around temple. We saw Kondheswar water fall, which is not fowling in this season but had water in its all kund. We found few stone structures around the temple. 

View of Dhak hill from Kondheswar temple.

 At 8AM we started our trek of Dhar Bhairi by crossing waterfall from back of Kondheswar temple as it was clear route to start, heading towards right side we gone through grass ground which is dry now & we reached to first Pathar from there fort was looking awesome. We had some clicks here & headed towards fort in right side direction from there all the waterfalls in route are dried during this season. 

Kondheswar Temple view from Pathar.

Dhak fort view from the Pathar. 

Now the dense forest started with full greenery and huge trees of more than 20 feet taller. In between this way we found one way going towards Bhimashankar Temple. To reach Bhairi or Kalakrai Pinnacle we need to cross this forest which is spared on hill side after descending that hill we were at below pinnacle we climbed that one also and reached pinnacle & fort khind at 9:00 AM. At this place we saw one way coming from Rajmachi Fort as well.

From there we get down in left towards first rappelling point of fort. Ropes are already placed there as we already aware of it & we all rappelled down carefully & headed towards Bhairavnath caves. From this side you can easily see the Rajmachi twin forts Shrivardhan & Manranjan. Also we can able to see the Naag Phana also known as Dukes Nose.

At the start of climbing towards cave we hadPADUKA darshan. Before reaching this climbing point we need to be very careful because we had only support of iron ropes & on the other side more than 2000 feet deep valley is there. On this route you can see few caves there.

At climbing point an awesome stair case was created by cutting hill rock properly and for support ropes are there. Everyone needs to be very careful here. At last phase of climbing beautiful ladder was there created using Sogiri Tree.

Finally at 9:30 AM we reached Bhairavnah Cave, there we removed our footwear’s and took darshan of Bhairavnath, Kalkai Devi & Ganeshji. One thing is surprising to me here is LORD SHIVA with all three eyes open here. Before this trek I heard story of this temple is that there was only one big rock over there with fully covered SHENDUR & OIL, so one fine day Lord Bhairav came into the dream of villager and told him please help me & rescue me from that stone, so villagers decided to break that rock & open the things in it. I confirmed this thing with pujari present there he told us yes that day they cleared all the  Shendur & braked that stone , and they found this three Idols of lord Shiva, Kalkai Devi & Ganesha. There we saw so many caves well structured.

There are utensils in the caves which can be used for cooking. After using the utensils one has to clean the utensils and keep were they. People say that if any one tries to steal the utensils or take them away he/she dies. The temple is highly religious place.

We found so many TRISUL structures in cave & two drinking water cisterns in the cave itself filled with clean water, pujari told us that from the roof of cave water keeps pouring into the cisterns during whole year it never stops. Also there are so many temple bells was there.

After getting fresh & taking darshan we had little breakfast of snacks whatever we have with us. There Pujari asked us for Dakshina, we decided rather than arguing give dakshina to them as they are maintaining at least few things there. Then after taking few min rests, we started rappelling down we reached the Bhairi pinnacle point at 10:55AM there we went  little upside on fort for site seen, but I am requesting you all don’t do this as it was too risky without any instrument. At one point we decided to get down & at 11:15 AM we started back journey from Khind to Kondheswar temple. 

In back journey we mate so many groups, few groups are heading towards Bhairi Caves for completing their prayers (called NAVAS in local language). At 12:40 PM we reached the Kondheswar temple, there we too little rest & at 1:00 PM we packed all our bags and headed towards Jambhavli Village & there we had our awesome lunch of Bhakri, Chane Aalu, Mirchi Thecha, Rice & Daal.

We started back journey to Pune at 2:00 PM from village & on Kundli – Kamshet Road near Bhajgaon in Indaryni river we had wonderful swimming for about an hour after so long time I had river swimming. It removed all tiredness from us all. After swimming we reached Pune at 4:30 PM. In this way amazing trek of Dhak Bhairi completed within time.

 Note:

1.      Photo Credit goes to Rahul Chandure & Hemant Patil.

2.      Such an amazing fort everyone should visit at least once in life.

3.      Be careful while rappelling, climbing & walking on rocks because rock on this fort is loose at so many places.

4.      Don’t get panic if any reptiles, monkey’s anything came in between because any miss balance cost your life & make others miserable.

5.      Before going on trek do some research what to explore there.  

Please leave comments below for others if you have been to Kondheswar – Dhak Bhairi or you have any questions related to trek.

Enjoy!!!!

Thanks & Regards

Rahul Chandure