This is a gentle pass connecting Chhonda in the Konkan to Ghatghar
(~700mtrs)
village on the Bhandardhara plateau. The standard way to reach is first
take a train from Mumbai to Asangaon. From there one takes an auto or a
bus to Shahpur which is actually a town. At Shahpur there are not too many
buses going to Chhonda so the standard option is to take a bus to a place
called Dolkamp (25 km). From here there are lots of jeeps going to Sakurdi
and Chhonda. Near Sakurdi village there is a bifurcation on the road,with
one heading towards the Ghondawadi village and another towards Chhonda.
Mostly these jeeps agree to go only up to the Chhonda settlements which
is about 4km from the dam constructions. So, If you are in luck and get
a bus or a lift you could go all the way up to the dam site. Somewhere
here the metallic road ends. One walks on the mud road for some time and
there is a obvious marker made of cement which indicates that one has to
leave the road and take the trail. there are a total of three such cement
blocks on the trail. There is also some confusion because there are two
different mud roads, and one of them is higher than the one we are
supposed to take. There is a plan to construct road all the way to
Ghatghar. Once we are on the trail the path is very clear and in about
less than one and a half hour one can easily reach the Ghatghar village.
This path is a little new in the sense it was made not more than four to
five years back.
Before this route was constructed there was a trail which
climbed one of the steep cuts coming from the top. There are in all about
four of these cuts. Two of them are actually very close to the standard
path. All of these are apparently climbable, and atleast two of these
are quite easy. Infact the leftmost one used to be the standard route to
Ghatghar till atleast 1996.