Summited Maharashtra's Tallest Peak, Kalsubai

The very next day after reaching Bhandardara, I along with Raghu summited Maharashtra's highest peak 'Kalsubai'. On the third day, I did a 58 km long walk in which I visited about 6 villages. I did nothing on the fourth day and the next day I again planned to go to Kalsubai. Because now I have seen and traveled the route here, today I decided to go alone. So let's start this travel blog in which I will once again take you to the top of the highest peak of Maharashtra whose height is 1640 meters.

I am staying at Raghu Borade's camp site named 'Krishnavanti Base Camp' which is situated on the banks of the dam built on the Krishnavanti river. I have been staying here for about 4 days. Today I decided to visit Kalsubai. After waking up in the morning, I have breakfast and try to click some wonderful photos of Krishnawanti Dam. This dam is quite old and was constructed so that local farmers could get water for farming.

A large number of migratory birds come to the dam water...this is what Raghu told me. There are no migratory birds to be seen these days but I still manage to spot sparrows and Neelkanths. Beautiful reflections of the surrounding mountains are visible in the Krishnavanti River. Because it has been only a short time since the Sun has arrived on Earth, the golden light is taking over everywhere. Seeing this supernatural scenario, I forget that today I have to go to Kalsubai also for a walk.

Since this is a hilly area, a large number of windmills have been installed around here to generate electricity. I take my bag and leave… In Shendi village, crops have been harvested in some fields and crops have been sown in some fields. All the crops grown here are organic. Only animal dung is added in the name of fertilizer. Crossing Shendi village, I reach Bari village on foot, which is about 9 km from the campsite. It doesn't take much time to reach here...I probably reach here in two and a quarter hours.

All the houses in Bari village are made of stone and mud and the roof of these houses is made of mud slate. You can see the village houses in the photos, how beautiful they look after being painted. There is mobile network here at some places, hence if people are seen gathered here also then it should be understood that mobile network is coming at that particular spot. While crossing Bari village, I also saw some people standing at a spot and talking on the phone to their relatives.

A temple of Hindu god Hanuman is visible on the edge of the village. The temple is built according to the structure of all the houses in the village. The idol of Hanuman is kept inside the temple whose color is orange. In front of Kalsubai mountain, there is a blue colored house with a bull tied in front of it which is used for plowing the fields. Here machines have not reached the fields, hence even today the farmers who depend on traditional methods of farming are seen working very hard.

In the limits of Bari village, local people have cultivated wheat which will be ripe in a few months. I wave to two kids riding a bicycle and get on my way. Entering a gate on the way which reads “Welcome to Devi Kalsubai Temple”, I am now ready to face the climb up the mountain. The distance of Kalsubai peak from here is 6 km. In strong sunlight, it absorbs all the liquid from the body of 6 km.

As soon as summer arrives here, the mountains start drying up. I can see from below that the mountain has become rough and dry. You will believe that in summer there is no water available on this mountain, even all the natural sources dry up, hence I am carrying two liters of water with me. In the middle of the dry and yellow colored mountain, iron stairs are visible which are part of the path. In some time I too will climb these stairs and reach the top of this mountain.

As soon as I start the stairs, I drink two sips of water and take a look down from where I came. Bari village is visible below. I am climbing one iron ladder after another and trying not to fall down. While trying to climb carefully, my speed reduces a lot. Monkeys are also sitting here on the way, monkeys are sitting here because when people come back from the local temple, people give food items to these monkeys to eat. So many are camping on the closed stairs in the hope of the same food.

I climb about 7 stairs and reach the summit cap where there are some shops, some people here, the locals have also kept their cows here. I wonder how the cows would have reached here? To this a local person answers that there is another way to reach Kalsubai from where the animals can reach here on foot without using any stairs. I stay here for some time, drink water and enjoy the views visible from here.

From this point Kalsubai Summit is only 500 meters away, now I have to climb a very long staircase which will directly take me to the top. There will be an elevation gain of 250 meters in this 500 meters which will be very painful. From here I look at the expanse of Bhandardara Dam, look at the Kalsubai plateau and take a look at the flag fluttering on the forehead of Kalsubai, the highest peak of Maharashtra. After climbing 500 meters of steep stairs, fatigue and sweat simultaneously overwhelm me.

Of course, after reaching a height of 1640 meters, all the fatigue goes away. There is a cold wind blowing here which the sun is trying to make warm. Some locals have come here from down under to worship in the temple. I will not do puja, will just have darshan of the idol of the goddess and will go back down after taking her blessings. I record the altitude here in my Casio watch which shows 1670 meters. There is only one shop on Kalsubai Summit from where water, lemonade and cold drinks can be purchased.

Before going back, I get a boy present here to look at my camera and click a photo so that this memory becomes immortal for me forever. I see the views from above which are very beautiful. Of course, I have come here for the first time but now it seems that I will have to go here again and again. After spending 4-5 days in this area, I can now say that I have fallen in love with this place.

After spending an hour at the top, I start descending. I get down in about one and a half hour and because of getting a lift from Bari village, I reach my campsite in half an hour and end the day by drinking a hot tea. I hope you liked this Kalsubai Summit. See you in the next post where I will again present another place before you. Till then stay healthy and keep smiling.

Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to tranlate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from Canon 77D (70-200m) and edited in Lightroom/photoshop.