A lil about the place :

Mount Kalsubai is the highest peak (1,646 meters) of the Sahyadri range. The peak point served as a tower to watch the enemies during the Maratha rule. It is an nonpareil place to enjoy trekking.
A small temple can be seen at the top. The temple has an old well in its backyard. According to legend the water level of the well never drops below 3 feet.
From the top of Mount Kalsubai, one can get great view of the Bhandardara lake and Wison dam. Immediately after the rainy season, the place is covered with variety of flowers. During the months October to November people neighbouring region organize a religious fair at this place.
Baari village is the base to climb Kalsubai.

Our Experience here :

The trekking path is simple but it has a constant gradient. The soil is coarse and there is constant danger of slipping. The top of the mountain seems elusive, as you make it to what seems to be highest point, a distance away we see another climb. There are at least four such steps untill the actual top is in sight. On the total climb we encountered 3 ladders. These ladders are placed in places where there is a steep rock to be climbed. The ladders are unfortunately not in a very great shape and one has to be careful while climbing the ladders. On the left is a sheer drop into the valley, while on the right is the mountain. At one place, where we needed to go round the rock, an iron rope is tied to the rock for support. All these ladders and rope are safe, without any danger, as long as you are careful and do not do any mischief. The first ladder is about 50 – 60 ft., the second ladder is about 30 – 40 long. Both these ladders are more inclined, whereas the last ladder is vertical and is about 70 – 80 ft in height.
Kalsubai temple sits on a huge vertical rock in the shape of a drum, the third ladder is placed to climb this rock. At the base of this rock is a well. The water in this well is really sweet, and its surprising to find a well at this height.
On top of the rock is a small temple of Kalsubai, it is hardly 10 ft by 10 ft in size. The top of the rock is hardly 90 – 100 ft in diameter.
The way down is by no means simple of the continuous descend, the slippery soil and the ladders contribute to the difficulty.
Though we had plans to spend the night camping on the mountain top,The heavy rains and crazy winds totally prevented my friends and me for doing soo.With the heavy rains,it took us about 4 hours to climb up and about 2 and a half hours for our decent.The thing that saddened us the most is that we were unable to click much snaps due to the heavy rains Carrying the slr,tripod,Tent and sleeping bags was a total waste.
An idle time to visit this place is just after the rains and am definitely gonna be going there again Because this place is soo sooo BEAutiful

How to get there :

Bhandardara By Bus
Maharastra state road transport bus services are available up to the down hill. Most of the major cities in the state including Mumbai are connected to Bhandardara by bus.

Bhandardara By Train
Nearest Railway station is Igatpuri, which is nearly 35 km away from Bhandardara. Taxis will charge about Rs 500 and state bus charge is about Rs 25.

My road trip to Murud with Milan is one of my favorite road trips till date, not only because the ride and destination was not planned until we were already on the bike but also because of the various experiences we faced on the way..attacked by locusts,getting lost in the mountains at Roha,riding in the night through swarms of insects and having an hour long baffling conversation with a koli woman for our accommodation for the night..just to name a few.

Murud is famous for the impregnable fort of Janjira and beautiful beach, situated in Raigad district of Maharashtra.It is famous for being the only fort along India’s western coast that remained undefeated despite Maratha, Dutch and English East India Company attacks.The word Janjira is not native to India, and may have originated after the Arabic word Jazeera, which means an island. Murud was once known in Marathi as Habsan, or Abyssinian’s land. Some of the people also split the name as “JAL JEERA” meaning fort in the water.

To Reach the Janjira Fort, sailboats are available from Murud Port (which is behind Ekdara Village) and Rajpuri port.
Murud doesn’t just have a Beach & the fort. It also has a Temple over the hill next to the New Bus Depot (known as Datta cha Dongar) Hill of Lord Dattatray. One can have a paranormic view of Murud & both the islands together from the hill.
Further ahead of the hill is an Idga Mosque, the walk though the dense jungle is a experience in itself.
The fort also boasts of a sweet water lake inside it. It is considered to be a miracle that the Fort surrounded by the salty water of the sea has a lake full of sweet water. Also the cannons in the fort are quite unique. The biggest cannon boasts a range of around 18 km. It is said that since the entire cannon could not have been transported at once they had to be brought in pieces and they were then assembled inside the fort.

A short history of the fort
The fort was built by the Koli (Fishermen) kings of Konkan and repelled all the attacks of Muslim rulers for almost two hundred years (till 1490). The subedar of Junnar, Mallik Ambar also tried to capture the fort in vain in 1485-86. Finally around 1490, he secretly sent a warship disguised as a merchant ship with 147 Habashi soldiers. The ship’s crew asked for refuge in the fort. The officer at the time, Etbatrao, agreed and took the ship in. The Habashi general, pretending to be a merchant gave liquor to the Koli soldiers. Habashi soldiers hiding in the goods containers attacked and defeated the intoxicated Koli soldiers.