Chanderi
To reach Chanderi one has to alight at the north end of Vangani station
and reach the intersection with the Badlapur-Karjat road (see the section
on Nakhind). The problem here is that between this point and Chanderi there
are several ridges and valleys, so taking a straight line from Vangani
to Chanderi is not a good idea. It is better to walk north on this road
towards Badlapur for some 4 km, until one finds on the right a place called
"Chanderi Hotel". Exactly opposite, on the left, there is a road,
perpendicular
to the main road. It leads to a big temple or ashram. Leave the temple
on your left. This road is not very straight, but at least it is good and
broad. It goes through one or two villages, and there are some bifurcations,
but Chanderi is probably visible in the horizon, so it should be clear
which one to take. One can also confirm the direction from the villages
en route. This road leads one to a valley that runs in a north-south
direction,
on the north side of Chanderi. On this valley there are two villages. Now,
one has to go south towards Chanderi. The first village is on the right
side of the valley. The second is a little ahead, and is on the left side.
But one does not have to go to the second village. Right at the back of
the first village there is a path, climbing to the right side of the valley
and entering in the forest. This path goes in a very straight south-southwest
direction and is very well defined. It continues in this direction until
it gets to the nala that climbs to the col between Mhasmal and Chanderi.
At the intersetion of the nala and the path there are some arrows painted
on the rocks. While coming back one has to be careful not to miss the
beginning
of the path. Once one is in the nala it is easy to get to the col. One
should be careful not to go too much to the left, because the nala has
a bifurcation some distance up, and if one takes the left (that points
directly towards Chanderi), one will get to a point were one cannot go
any further. If this happens, then just move towards the right. From the
col, the path to the cave of Chanderi is to the left and easy to find.
Though reaching the cave of Chanderi is a good monsoon trek, it is not
the best thing about this mountain. The real juice is to go from the cave
to the top of the massif. This complete Chanderi trek can only be done
in the winter. It is physically demanding and technically challenging.
It also takes a lot of time, so it is preferable to leave the night before,
by the last train, and reach the base village before sunrise, so that one
can start at the crack of dawn. The route from the cave to the top of the
massif passes through exposed rock climbs, exposed traverses and (the most
difficult of all) exposed scree slopes. It should only be done with an
expert in the middle of winter when the scree would have settled a bit
and there will still be water in the tanks. Since only one person can move
on this route at a time, the group should be small, not more than four
or five. Read this
article for a detailed account of a complete Chanderi trek in the winter.
For pictures, follow this link.