Katraj to Sinhagad Night Trek (K2S)| Toughest trek near Pune

 

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A message popped up as a notification in my mobile from a WhatsApp Group. Initially thought it might be just another message but upon reading feels different. That time it tempted and there was an urge to do something different. At first assumed that it would be just a little more to a walking on normally surface. Didn’t identified the difficulty level and the challenges as I did not have any experience what so ever of any trek. But on the contrary it’s going to be very different as it’s about the K2S Night Trek. Came to know from trekkers that K2S trek is the short form of Katraj to Sinhagad. Trek and walking on Sahyadri Mountain ranges is not going to be as simple as that.

Trek Map

It was yes and no until the very last day and almost decided not to attempt this trek. Received a call from my wife’s brother and told me to get ready for the trek. Finished all office work as it was Friday and we need to walk whole night. Took a sack to fill it with multiple 1 liter’s water bottles, snacks, energy bars and energy drinks. Had dinner at 7:30 PM which is too early and unusual time for me but necessary as had to leave home at 8 PM. We were 4 going together so booked a cab as we need to travel nearly 45 KMs to reach starting point which is at Katraj Old tunnel. It took us 2 hours to reach the start point due to heavy evening traffic. Fortunately, we reach on time where we saw large numbers of trekkers grouped and the trek organizers were giving the instructions and giving information about the trek. They counted the number of trekkers and to my surprise it was nearly 100 and created 10 groups each of nearly 10 trekkers.

Group Picture

From Vohra Auto which was the assembly point we moved to Waghajai Mata Temple, which is located exactly above the Old Katraj Tunnel and it’s the first point from Waghajai Temple, actual trek route starts.

Waghajai Mata Temple

Its approximatively 12km distance trek with around 900 meters of elevation crossing 12+ hills to reach Kondhanpur T Junction (Sinhagad Ghat Tar Road T-Junction). It’s the toughest trek near Pune.

The first inclination from the Waghajai temple feels easy and from the top of first hill gives a very beautiful view of Pune city in lights. The easier the climb felt, the harder the descent was. It was very hard to get down due to the steep incline with loose sand its very slippery. You won’t feel a sight of relief cause as soon you get down from the first hill soon you need to climb again to the next one. Climbing a second hill was not at all easy and feels like climbing a ladder. After reaching the second hill took a break of 5-10 minutes which was very essential for the body to cool down. Energy drinks is a must here for reenergizing body. Now it’s time to get down from second hill which is even more difficult than the first one and the main reason behind that is the rocks and the loose sand on them. Myself got slipped and fallen thrice while going down the second hill. You need to have a very good grip on your shoes if you do not have the trekking shoes which are made for such purpose. What I learnt is if your shoes have hard sole increases the chance of slipping whereas the softer sole adjust itself according to the gravels and small stones.

Climbing Hill

In total we crossed 16 hills and out of which 4 are with highest elevation. The highest hill climbed recorded to be 1030 meters. The first 2 and the last 2 are having the highest elevation. We also came across wild fire which was heard off only and cross it was an ultimate experience.

Wild Fire

Near about 6 am we reach to T junction and from This T- Junction we headed towards Golewadi Village (Sinhgad Ghat Tar Road Start Point). This is 6kms descend. From Golewadi we will catched PMPL Bus to reach Swargate and from there booked a cab back home.

Sinhagad Fort

It was very awesome experience and one of its own kind as it was my first trek ever and without idea of the difficulty level of this trek, good that able to complete it. We met many expert trekkers out of which some had completed K2S multiple times. For one it was 43^rd time and another person its 64^th time for K2S trek.  

Please watch this video to see night trek:-