Peb Fort

Peb fort is a popular place to hike to from Neral railway station. To climb Peb fort, walk north from Neral station on the west side parallel to the railway line for 1km. From here a road leads west. The road finally goes to Matheran but at some point, before turning off towards Matheran, one has to cut across some fields and start climbing up towards the saddle between Peb fort and a hump to its north. There are two humps between Peb fort and Nakhind. Sometimes one has climb up some nala if one misses the actual route. The actual route passes below some electric power lines and climbs up to the saddle where there is a power transmission tower. From the saddle turn left for Peb fort and right for Nakhind. In fact one can climb up Nakhind first (thru another route) and traverse to Peb fort meeting the usual route at the saddle. After a short ridge climb from the saddle there is an easy rock climb which leads, after a short traverse (which can be wet and slippery in the monsoon), to the cave with the statue of Shivaji. The cave is west of the mountain, and cannot be seen from Neral. One can see Haji Malang and Chanderi, in the north, from the cave. To the west, one can see the plains of Konkan.

A picture of Chanderi from the cave of Peb is shown below.

There is a narrow and sometimes exposed route which leads further on, from the cave, towards the south. There can be some wet rocks and slippery stretches in the monsoon on this track. It traverses around the mountain of Peb and leads on to the saddle between Peb fort and Panorama Point of Matheran. The track continues after the saddle, running along the western side of the mountain of Matheran, and leads on to a 6m rock climb. The climb is somewhat exposed and can be quite slippery and difficult in the monsoon. It takes about two hours to reach this climb from the cave of Peb fort. From the top of this climb, in about fifteen more minutes, one can reach the Neral-Matheran railway line along an easy path. This place is below the Panorama Point of Matheran. Turning left here leads in about 45 minutes to the Neral-Matheran road from where one can walk back to Neral in about one and a half hours. Or else one can turn right and walk along the railway line for about 90 minutes to reach the Panorama Point of Matheran, from where the car park is a further 4km. From the car park one can take a taxi, or walk down the road to Neral.

For pictures, follow this link.