Kothaligad - 10th July 2011

Kothaligad - 10th July 2011

General information : 

Kothali gad is a hill fort. It is situated near Karja, Raigad district of Maharashtra, India. The trek is very simple and takes only 1.30 hour to reach at top.  From Peth village itself you can see the whole Bhimashankar range. The lovely waterfalls on the Bhimashankar range were just mind blowing. At 1.00 PM we reached at the top of Kothaligad.  Some caves are there. Water tanks are there. Those tanks contain chilled water. They are carved in rocks. Then we went to the top through the carved in steps. This whole structure is like a funnel which means Kothali it means in your stomach.   These steps are 2 feet each in height. At top, there are two water tanks which supply water to the Peth village for some duration. From here, you can see valleys on all four sides.

We can see Matheran range, Bhimashankar range, Padar killa, and whole Peth village. It was not raining, so we were able to spot all of these as there was no fog.

The fort information : 

Height : 3100 feet from see level

Grade : Medium

It is located in the Sahyadri mountain range. 

Information about max visited places :

The first one is the cave of Goddess, besides which is a water cistern and the last one is the specious Bhairoba cave. A flat floor and well-sculpted pillars are specialty of the cave. Along the Bhairoba cave, steps are carved leading the pinnacle.

Must visit : 

A well carved cave with designed stone strip above the entrance and well carved pillars, a water source, stone steps carved in the pinnacle, a gun or toff.

How to go:

From Mumbai at around 4.30 AM catching first train to Karjat from Dadar. We will be reached Karjat railway station by 7.45 Am. From Karjat S.T bus depot, catch a bus for the base villages, Ambivali. Ambivali is situated around 35 Km’s from Karjat station. The first bus for Ambivali is at 8.30 AM.  We reached Ambivali at around 9.30 AM. We asked a person near the S.T bus stop for the way towards Peth. As he told we followed the way. Peth is again another village which can be said as perfect base for the trek. It takes around 2 hours to reach Peth village from Ambivali.

Best season to visit : 

-     Winter    :       Awesome  

-     Rainy     : Superb 

-     Summer    :    Nice