Offbeat Trek to Tahuli

Trek to an offbeat destination Tahuli (Panch Peer and Dadima)

Searching for a new and less-explored, places is every traveler's wish; perhaps the most difficult part is finding one such place. But when you get this opportunity you surely are not going to miss on it. It was Friday night the 31st August 18, I decided to join a group The Wanderlust which explores unknown places at a cost where you yourself have to bear your expenses. (TTMM)
Tahuli or Dadima Tahuli or Panch Peer are some range of mountains near the Badlapur-Ambernath region close to the city but not yet known to many trekkers. The beauty of these hills lies in their unique peaks that are just mesmerizing from the top of the mountains.

Destination: Panch peer on Dadi Maa plateau of Tahuli peak.

Grade: medium (it is quite a long trek, as you will see in the time frame).

Height = 2568 feet or 783 metres at 19° 8'10.48"N 73°11'54.72"E at  Panch peer on Dadi Maa plateau of Tahuli peak.

Distance: 14.32 km trekked from Kushivali to Panch Peer & back.

My experience:
It was a monsoon Sunday 2nd September, the place to explore was already decided 2 days back. The meeting point for the trek was at Kalyan ST bus depot (w) followed by the route mentioned below

Kalyan west ST bus depot - Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Transport (KDMT) bus number 45 runs from Kalyan to Malang Gad every 40 minutes - Get down at Kushivali.

23 of us reached at Kushivali at 8.45am and started our trek, it was a long road walk for around 20mins and suddenly we realised that we were lost while tracking the villagers which we were following and ended up in the forest and running streams around.

                   Enroute through Kushivali village

Ajay, Ajinkya and myself started figuring out the peak or the way which we would lead to our destination. After struggling for about 30mins, Ajinkya found the way out, there were two routes one from the waterfall and other with a normal pathway, everyone decided to choose waterfall way as it would be more fun, but trust me it was risky but somehow managed helping each other and then after crossing 2-3 waterfalls we were in the right path which had the route marking.

We followed the route mark till the end, it was drizzling , sometimes raining heavily but now was enjoying the route through the dense forest.

The beauty of the trail can be seen through the pictures of the trek.

     Haji Malang view from the way towards Panch Peer

           
              Shri Sant Gadge Baba Maharaj Ashram

     
                                     Into the wild

                                       Panch Peer

We reached to Panch Peer at 2pm, it took us around 5hrs but this can be done in 3.5hrs ideally if you have a good speed, had our lunch which we carried in our bags and started our way back at 3pm exploring the places near to Panch Peer.

It was 7pm when we reached back to Kushivali bus stop, only to find out that we had missed our bus by a wisker, yes we missed our bus by a mere 5 minutes. Thus we decided to hire autorickshaws back to Kalyan station.

One of my favourite offbeat destination till date but its highly advisable to do it in monsoon as the beauty of the trail is enhanced many times and would be an easy go for hiking for 7-8 hrs.

Basic Expense
40/- return train ticket
20/- bus ticket from Kalyan to Malang Gad.
40/- rickshaw from Kushivali to Kalyan (Lokgram society) {200/- for 5 passengers}

Highlights of the trek
1) Nearest railway station :Kalyan
2) Base Village: Kushivali
3) Grade: Medium
4) Expense: 150-200/- approx
5) Best time - July - February.