Dhakoba

DHAKOBA:-

We travelled Pune-Junnar-Aaptale-Amboli route to reach the base village of Dhakoba. We were impressed with the village the way they have maintained their habitat neat and blessed.

We asked some people doing their farm work about the fort route. We have parked our bike at the Ganesh temple. Motorbike or your private vehicle can go up to the temple. From then your trek starts.

An one old man given us the direction for the forts. So me and Mahadeo started our journey towards fort.

After 5-10 minutes of climbing small hill you will be at small plateau. As per information given by villagers, we need to search the route going towards the col between two mountains. We got the route after searching sometime. Due to dense vegetation of Karvi, we find it difficult to track the route. Somehow we escaped through this patch and we reached at the col. We realized that we actually reached to the route going towards Dara ghat. At the col , there is small temple of Lord Dhakoba. The villagers thought that we asked for the temple.

At this point we started to climb the route going towards upside of hill, from the temple. After climbing simple rock patch you will on larger plateau. We have not got any glimpse of the Dhakoba fort. We continued our walk from the side of hill. After walking 15-20 minutes we came across small waterfall. There we got first glance of fort. We energized to see the destination.

The further route takes you to the another plateau. From this point you may confused about the route of fort. We mistakenly took wrong route and ended up in the frustration(we lost 1.5 hrs for searching the route). Finally we came at the point where we chosen wrong route. Luckily we have seen two villagers going down. We asked about the route. Due to dense vegetation we unable to searched the route. After taking instructions from them we started walking towards Dhakoba. The route we followed goes towards ancient temple of Dhakeshwar, a Shiva temple. Though the temple is not in good condition, you can guess the superb architecture of the temple in past.

It took another 1 hr to reach the temple from the point where asked two villagers.

Unfortunately we have not got any sign of the route from this temple. We discouraged to see hopeless conditions we were facing. After searching sometime; just before temple; we find a sign mark ( may be some trek group have done that) going towards jungle. We followed this route. The route goes towards Dhakoba fort. After crossing jungle route two time we reached to the fort. This route is from the backside of fort and also longer one. I would not suggest to try this route as there are lot of chances of missing the route.

After climbing the top of fort we have seen the magnificent yet fiery Sahyadri. You can see Dara ghat, back side of Jivdhan, Vanarlingi pinnacle. Awesome landscape!!!

From the top we have studied the route from which we can descend down quickly. Mahadeo got the route. This route is steep and covered by thick Karvi plants. You cannot identify until goes near to it.

We descend down three hills from this jungle patch to reach at the spot where we asked the route to two villagers. It took us only 30 minutes to reach the spot. I would definitely suggest to try this route. Though its tricky due to jungle but just keep[ in mind that you need to climb it till fort appears. Try to choose simple route.

Initially we planned to trek down both Durg and Dhakoba but due to time constraints we decided to descend. After crossing the small waterfall , just after it; we found the route going down. Following it we reached at caves made by water fall. From then we got distinct route descending towards village.

At that point we came to know about actual route to this fort. Since starting, we missed the correct route ended up in extreme fatigue( scorching October heat made it worse). After reaching the village and drinking water at one home, we happily started our return journey. Pleasure of accomplishment is always worth!!!!