Every other trip I made passing through Panvel on the NH17, in front of my eyes passed the thumb like mountain peak covered with dense forests at its base. It said to me all the time, “Are you good enough to be here? Up here?”
The thumb appeared not quite as the thumbs up, but more of what we call in Marathi as the Thenga as if saying you haven’t quite made it yet.)
It’s the Karnala Fort, located about 10 kilometres away from Panvel ST. Stand, One trek I had started my trekking with but for some reason or other, left unaccomplished. I couldn’t wait anymore as I wanted to get this off my back and even though only four of us gathered we set ourselves to the trek to the Karnala Fort and the visit to the beautiful bird sanctuary nearby on 2nd December 2012. To my company were as always were Zohan and Tarun, with another member Joy who was on a trek after 2 years.
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| Karnala Fort and Bird Sanctuary Map with Spots Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
We reached the Panvel ST. Stand exactly
at 7.30 am, one of the advantages of having a small group and one without a
girl in it. It was winter and the cold morning called for a hot cup of tea at
the stand. Just standing for a minute or two in front of those lucrative bhajis
and vadas
was enough for us to fell for those. We also packed a few along with some grapes
and bananas.
An auto rickshaw ride worth 200 Rupees would
take us to the gate of the bird sanctuary. We dropped the idea of a sharing six
seater, as it would drop us only halfway leaving no option for the further half
path, so we choose the former one. It was only a 15 minutes drive with a loud trouncing
music played inside the rickshaw. It was a greatly un equalised typical Kumar
Sanu number from the 90s, melodious yet remixed to the extent possible, but to
be honest enjoyed by us.
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| Karnala Bird Sanctuary Booking Office Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
Suddenly a belt of cool air
surrounded us as we moved into the forest area which was well marked by a board
on either side of the road with warnings of Not to disturb the wildlife
habitat. At a point 500 metres away from the sanctuary gate, the driver kept
moving on at good speed and mistakenly took us further, but we managed a u turn
back.
The sanctuary gate was marked by a
vehicle barrier and a good parking space nearby where 15 cars could easily be
parked at a rate of 50 rupees per LMV.
At the gate while Joy booked the
entry tickets, something intriguing caught our sight. No it wasn’t any of those
rare birds the sanctuary has. Nor it was any of the other not so rare birds, if
you know what I mean. We were staring at a board which had a list of people
fined for breaking the rules of the sanctuary ranging from 100 to 5000 Rupees.
The 5000 was for offering bananas to monkeys, well were carrying a few of those
in our bags and certainly didn’t have 5000 rupees with us. There weren’t any
ATMs around either. Next to the board was the list of rules and regulations to
be followed and the park employee at a check post a few meters away reminded us
about the ban on plastic bags and bottles in the sanctuary.
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| Karnala Map with all the Trails Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
Finally we started our trail and
right in front was the map of the trail and the forest area; the map which
reminded me of something. It reminded me of my
first trek back in Feb 2009 when all that our group managed was to get
ourselves stuck in a path which is prominently stated as the steep shortcut in
this very map. So the next thing we do.......we
again went for the same path the Steep Shortcut.
The Mortaka & Haryal Trail
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Haryal Trail Begins
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| Oval Wooden Bridge Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
Suddenly you move into a whole new different world. There was very little water in the pond as it was winter.Here we met a photographer alone who waited to capture the events of the woods.
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| Wooden Watch House Courtesy : Zian Lakdawalla |
The freshness and warmth here got
us excited and our moves along this path were noisy and cheerful with giggles, until
we realized that we were a disturbance to a couple who had silently set
themselves to capture the birds in their SLR camera. The man seemed a vintage photographer, with a
sharp beard and a graceful Hat on his head, which moved steadily as the eyes tuned
to the SLR lens searched for the tiniest of bird movement and the ears for the
slightest of chirps. The lady beside him supposedly his wife assisted him with
the accessory stuff of his gear and also gave him clues. What a perfect couple we thought and moved
along further.
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| Mortaka Trail Starts Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
It’s a beautiful place for nature lovers with a good flock of birds, immensely varying in species, colour and shape, some sturdy others delicate, busy with their eloquent chants in the silence of the cold morning.
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| A Spider as big as a Palm Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
One comes across a lot of webs built by spiders of sizes as big as child’s palm beautifully coloured, with shades predominantly brown & black and dots of yellow and red. Most of these webs were in the way of the trail only visible with the varying angle of the sunlight.
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| Hugely Spread Web Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
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| Dew settled in the grass Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
We tried to avoid them by leaning down and making our way through as we didn't intend to harm the natural habitat to the extent possible.At our feet were many of those webs built around the grass but had become wet due to the dew.The dew had nicely settled on the grass near the trail, a much better settling of dues than that in our daily course of life, pun intended.
At regular intervals around the trail there are steel indicator boards planted with the pictures of the birds that belong to this part of the forest. Also several trees carry metal plates each with a tongue twisting botanical names and a commonly used name.
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| Various Rare Birds found in Karnala Bird Sanctuary Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
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| Variety of Trees in the Sanctuary Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
By now we were quite away from the roadside and the occasional sounds of the trucks passing the highway had diminished. We reached a sleek tree with a circular plate with paint dubbed on it. It was unclear as half the colour had blown away and only thing left on it was ‘END’.
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| Plate Indicating Path End Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
A moment in that space was a real experience of the woods, with a dense array of trees and the significant movement of birds which we could spot. But as they were distant enough we could not exactly recognize any from the boards that we saw earlier. While our efforts to spot them were on we heard a very significant sound. This was the wood pecker........the continuous sound with a high frequency of the strong beak which, as shown in the images is tapered to the tip, almost like a metal chisel, used for pecking woods for food or nests. The sound repeated after a regular interval resembling the one from a rusted hinge of a wooden door opening in an ancient in a horror movie .
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| Rocky Path Formed by Waterbodies Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
We kept looking for the bird but pretty much in vain. Boy...Bird watching is a patient exercise...I mean the actual birds. The hip hazard arrangement of the rocks formed due to the flowing water in the monsoon, made us stretch our muscles as we passed through.
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| The rope Climb up the Slant Hill Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
Soon we reached a point where a steep hill climb appeared as a way up covered with a tinge of pale grass and soil loose enough to make an average adult slip. But to our rescue in the climb were the aerial roots of the trees on the slant, which were slim yet tough enough to take our weights. Soon we reached a flat plot with trees dense enough to hide the panorama around us. We were stranded in what would appear as a circular patch from Google earth, roughly 30 meter in radius. All we could manage to see were monkey movements above us on the branches of the tall trees.. Here again we halted as we had realised that....
“WE WERE LOST”....
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| Short Break with Grapes & Bananas Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
Here we actually spotted the beautiful Black Drongo, the glorious black shiny coloured bird with a long tail feathers. We were lucky enough to capture this not so shy bird, but from a distance and only in our normal digital cameras. The Black beauty sat on the branch roughly a foot tall shining in the morning sun.
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| A Black Drongo Bird Spotted Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
So many undisturbed spider webs right in the way was a good sign to know that this path is certainly less travelled, especially by the human kind, but somehow we missed that initially. Only because of the beauty of the natural that we fell for and little did we regret.
The Karnala Fort Trail
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| The Karnala Fort Trial Starts Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
An hour or so on the path with small stones dusted by the arid soil and with benches at equal intervals took us to the top of the adjoining hill. Most of it was shady which helped us wait at times take photos or put down some of the real fruit juices; an extra ammunition carried by Zian.
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| The Karnala Fort Thumb Pinnacle View from adjoining hill patch Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
Finally when we moved out of the shades, a long trail which is on the top edge of the mountain open to the sky with valleys on either side awaited us. And in front of us was the pinnacle of the fort with the Saffron Flag of Swaraj on it and a few more groups around its base.
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| Temple of Goddess Karnai Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
As we approached the peak on our right we found the temple of Goddess Karnai where we paid our homage and moved further. A smaller adjoining rock leads the way to the main pinnacle through steps carved in it. Here there are very few remains of the fortification left, of the fort which as history has it, was captured by Shivaji Maharaj from the Portuguese in the 17th century, then lost to Aurangzeb and later re-captured by the Peshwas. Finally the East India Company captured it in the early 19th century.
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| Water Cisterns at the Pinnacle Base Courtesy : Zian Lakdawalla |
The base has many cisterns with water claimed as potable. There were a couple others groups one of which included a family mostly populated by women and a proud nine year old girl which we learned when we interacted with them while taking their photos which they asked us to in their camera. This group had also occupied the best spot where one could sit and enjoy most beautiful view of the valleys and mountains As they moved on we almost captured that spot to relax ourselves and break for lunch at about 2 pm.
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| Some Leftover Fortification Courtesy : Zian Lakdawalla |
The timely intake of the juices and banana fillers had left us with very little hunger.Moreover it wasn’t that much demanding endurance wise either; it’s just that we had made it a bit more difficult than it actually was. We could have waited there for long, but as Joy was waiting below, we started our descend at 2.30 pm.
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| The Pinnacle Base Courtesy : Zian Lakdawalla |
The way down was one of the easiest and with only a group of three we made it without any hassles whatsoever in an hour’s time surpassing the couple of groups that had started before us. At the base we found Joy completely relaxed after a good couple hours sleep and acquaintance with all the locals so much so that he played our guide for the rest of our time in the sanctuary. He showed us the cages with the Himalayan parrots, the peacocks and the peahens. ‘The sanctuary claims to adopt the birds for treatment’, he went on ‘and after a certain period they are left free in their natural habitat. There also a cage there with a tortoise on the other side of the road. And there are good washrooms too.’ The look in our eyes made him realise that it was time for him to stop.
Finally we moved out at the gate of the sanctuary where we got the company of our ancestors which were present in good numbers as if to bid us Adieu.
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| At the Base after the Trek Courtesy: Zian Lakdawalla |
An ST bus arrived and stopped 5 metres ahead of where we were standing like most ST buses do. We took the bus which would take us to the Panvel ST. stand.
Inside the Bus I just kept thinking of that steep Short-cut feeling just a little anguished of not finding it and cheated twice and felt like Bryan Mills from the Movie 'Taken', and said to it ......
“I don’t know where you are....But I will look for you, I will find you, and I will capture you.........”
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| Image Source www.theweek.com |
At a Glance
Trek -Karnala Fort & Bird Sanctuary
Height above mean sea level - 1240 feet (Google Earth)
Trek Category - Very Easy
Base Village -Karnala , Panvel
Transport Panvel to Karnala by Autobus or Private Vehicle
Time to reach the top -About 1 hour from the base
Shelter -Caves at the top
Other Features - Bird Watching
