Damdamia
To trek to Damdamia,
one should reach the plateau of Siddhagadwadi (see description of Siddhagad).
But instead of entering the doorway (which will lead to Siddhagadwadi),
one should turn left and proceed towards the main wall of the Sahyadri.
Soon one finds oneself walking at the edge, with sharp drops to the Konkan
on the left, and the wall of the Sahyadri on the right. This path is the
Ahupe-Siddhagadwadi path (see the description of Ahupe). Walking below
the wall of the Sahyadri on this path is a great experience, and one crosses
a lot of waterfalls in the monsoon, and many narrow gorges with fabulous
drops on the way. The traverse on this path is more or less flat.
After walking for about 45 min. on this path, one reaches a point below
Damdamia where there is a bifurcation. To the right, one can see a branch
climbing up towards Damdamia, which is what one should take. Taking this
bifurcation leads one to the Deccan plateau (900m) in about 45min, and
just after reaching the Deccan plateau, there is a path to the right into
the forest climbing up to the top of Damdamia. This bifurcation is same
one as mentioned on the Ahupe-Sidhhagadwadi route (see description of Ahupe).
However, it is possible that one might miss this bifurcation and go ahead
on the main (Siddhagadwadi Ahupe route). If that happens, one can
realise it as follows. From the bifurcation point, if one goes ahead on
the main route, one sees the route widening up a bit, to allow some farming
to be done there. At the farming area the wall of the Sahyadri is to one's
right, but the edge is some distance away on the left. From here looking
back, one can see Damdamia. One realises that one is standing below another
peak north of Damdamia, and one can see some sort of a cleft between this
peak and Damdamia. If this happens, then one can clearly realise that one
has overshot Damdamia, and then one can walk backwards on the route for
about 15min, and see the bifurcation (now the route to Damdamia is on the
left).
From Damdamia, one can proceed to Ahupe Ghat by walking on the Deccan plateau.
The route is described in the Ahupe
section. In fact, the Damdamia-Ahupe
Ghat trek (climbing Damdamia from Nariwali via Siddhagadwadi plateau, walking
on Deccan plateau towards Ahupe, crossing the Ahupe ring of hills to reach
Ahupe village, and descending from Ahupe village to Khopiwali via Ahupe
Ghat) can be done in one day (but one should be careful about route finding,
especially in the monsoon). This combined trek is a great one day trek,
especially in the monsoon, thrilling and a bit strenous, about 30km walk
in total.