Sandhan Valley Trek
Normally every trek starts with
climbing & then descending, but first time in my life i did a trek where
there was no climbing, only descending till the end. The trek was Sandhan
Valley. Sandhan Valley is situated in the western ghats of Sahyadri. The valley
is located on the west side of beautiful Bhandardhara region near Samrad
village. The village itself is located approx. at 3000 fts above sea
level. Valley is surrounded by Alang, Malang, Kulang, Kalsubai, Ratangad and
Ajoba mountain range.
Friday night we started our trek
journey by 10:30 PM at Kanjurmarg Bridge , we started our journey in Tavera for
Sandhan Valley. Is too cold outside so we take a tea break.
After taking snacks along with tea we started our journey to Samrad village.
At 4:30 AM we reached the small yet very beautiful Samrad village.
We took halt at our trek guide Datta’s house. He was the one who was going
to give us technical support required at 3 patches. We reached too early &
our team needs some rest so Duta provide us the space to sleep .
Most of our team members take a rest in their sleeping bags which we had
brought for us for the trek.
After morning rituals and breakfast, we take a group photo before starting
our trek.
After group photo we started our trek at 8.15 Am.
Before starting our trek dutta take us to visit Konkan kada , which is one
of best moment for us .
We enter the valley in just 10 min and from that time our foots were going
to just walk on the rocky path. We crossed 2 water pools, in both the pools we
first passed all the luggage.
The water level in the first pool was below waist
height and in the second pool it was above the waist height. (The water level
changes according to the season).
By observing my clothes anyone cam get the idea about water level.
We were passing between two huge mountains range. The sun
was spreading its rays but the mountains were just blocking it from reaching
us. Sandhan Valley is also called as Valley of Shadow as it hardly allows the
sun rays to reach the bottom. The valley is also an awesome place for
photographers.
The descending is not that simple as it looks. We need to
make way from many big rocks. The main problem faced while descending is that
we were always in the search of shortest and the easiest path but there is no
such path. 6 member of our group went ahead and 3 guys stayed back as they were finding it difficult to descend.
The path till the first rappelling point is very time consuming.
We all are waiting for our rest team members to join us for rappelling.
While waiting for our rest team members we found our one of team member kunal is sleeping withing 5 minutes. After around 6
hrs of walk on the rocky path we reached the 1st rappelling patch. The
first rappelling patch is about 45 feet. By 3 PM the we all completed our 1st rappelling patch.
Rakesh was enjoying rappelling so he went up one more time
to experience rappelling .
At 4 we started our journey towards the second patch. We had told the guide
to make sure that everyone of our team will reach the second rappelling patch.
2nd and 3rd rappelling are of just 10 -15 feets as compare to 1st one but are
as thrilling as the first one.
Thanks to the two girls coz of them we even enjoyed rappelling as by the
time we reached the 3rd and the last patch it was about to dark.
We reached our camp at around 6.15 PM. Beautiful sky packed with shining
stars, chilled weather made us forget the tiredness. After the delicious dinner
we decided to sleep, so we can get up early and enjoy the next day trek.
Early morning we started our return journey. The rocky path was back
in the trek.after an hour trek we had a break for Breakfast. We had Garama
garam Poha as breakfast & Tea.
After our breakfast we started our return journey with full of energy. After
moving 30-45 minutes we all get puzzled
when we saw how to clear a this tricky stone patch. Then dutta climb the stone
& tie a heavy thread (Wire) to tree & drop the tread for us to climb
that phase. God knows how we cleared that phase but definitely everyone enjoyed
that phase of climbing.
Dutta bhau was the man who helps us to climb this patch very easily &
salute to him to carry our heavy weight bags.
When everyone clears that phase we started our
journey again , but this time less rocky patch & we are getting some trees shadow which will help us to take rest . There is one
more straight climb patch we have to cover .After completing this last
difficult patch everyone want to take rest for some time .
After walking about an hour we reached the plain ground & then speed up
our speed. This was my first ever trek that got concluded in the day light. And
yes Sandhan Valley trek was the most thrilling and memorable trek till now for
me.
