Mahuli – An Experience To Savor!

When weekend is around and you have a taste for adventure and also don’t want to  spend much, then what is better than going for a trek.

After a hectic week, when finally Saturday came around we decided to go and explore the hills. Mahuli fort (2815 ft) is located in Asangoan. It is the highest point in Thane district.

“Wondering which place to explore over your weekend? Mahuli might be the answer. Read our article by Komal for more details”

We boarded 6:02 am Asangoan slow local from CSMT station, we preferred a slow local because that was the only one that wasn’t either too early to board or too late to reach. We reached there around 8:30 am. From there you can get sharing rickshaw to the base village however they are very costly and since they have their union there is no chance of bargain. However since we were nearly 14-15 people we preferred an echo taxi over the rickshaw. It is nearly half hour ride from the station to the base village.

From the base village you have to pay an entry fee and after that it takes around 15-20 mins to reach the starting point. The initial route is simple and straight after around 15 minutes of walking you will encounter a bridge below which there was supposed to be lake however is dried up. After that the actual trek begins, with stony pathways, rocks and greenery on both sides. There are no proper rest stops but the whole area is covered by trees that provide you enough shade to rest in between. We took around 4 rests and carried lot of fruits with us to keep ourselves hydrated throughout. The entire route is well maintained with no dirt or litter around.

The view is beautiful; trees surrounding on both sides, stony pathway, after crossing half the distance the route becomes steep.

Falling, struggling, somehow helping each other we managed to reach the top and. It took us nearly 3 hours to reach the top after climbing a ladder. After that we realised that it doesn’t end, there are two ways one goes to the lake and other leads to the caves, and the route is well marked. The caves are beautiful and there is natural potable water flowing, it is very clean and drinkable. The other route goes to the lake which is further from the caves but since we were already drained and it was almost 1pm we decided to stop at the caves and enjoy ourselves.

We all had carried our lunch boxes with us; we sat in one of the caves and had our lunch. After lunch we spent some time exploring around, talking, and enjoying ourselves. We started our descent around 2:30 pm, the descent seem more tough to me than the climb as we were very low on energy but we reached the bridge again, clicked a lot of pictures on the way. We walked back to the starting point where we had already called our cab. We returned home around 8 pm with a lot of happy memories.