Rajmachi via Kondhane caves

Height : 2700 ft.

Wow factor : Low (or did I miss something?)

Difficulty : Not risky (- no exposed climb), but strenuous (especially if you have a sedentary lifestyle)

Endurance : 3+ hours of steep climb and 3- hours of steep descent. (Total time : 1 day ex-Mumbai - early morning to late evening)

Travel mode : Local train + auto (or bus)

Cost : ~ Rs.400 including travel and grub (Can be done in half of that)

Region : Karjat / Lonavla

Trek route : Kondhane village -> Kondhane caves -> Rajmachi -> back via same route

My trek date : 15-Sep-2013

Ramblings :

This trek turned out to be a myth buster. Here's what blogs said and what we found:

1. 'This is a scenic trek' - Whoever thinks so should climb up Matheran via Garbett plateau in the rains and then hazard a second opinion. The way from Kondhane to Rajmachi is through a jungle and for the most part you can't see anything but the trail ahead and the trees around you. The occasional glimpse of a train chugging along the Mumbai-Pune rail line is fine, but not that great. (Or maybe we were too drained to appreciate it.)
2. 'There are white markings to guide you throughout the path' - There's not one single marking on the entire trail! (Washed out by rains, maybe?) Nevertheless, the trail's pretty straightforward.
3. 'There's a huge tamarind tree waiting to greet you on the way' - This one's just like the mango trees that show you the way to Garbett plateau. There's no tree that stands out well enough to qualify as a landmark. (Maybe it's on some other trail to Rajmachi?)

The two best parts of our trek - hospitality of the locals at Rajmachi, and view of the Kataldhar waterfall in the eastern valley.

After we reached Rajmachi (also known as Udhewadi), we requested for food (which we paid for) at one of the houses, and moved on to the forts while the food was being cooked. We missed the trail to the forts and walked towards Lonavla for about half an hour (which is when the aforementioned waterfall came into sight), not knowing it until we met a villager on the way. Exhausted and too tempted by the thought of food, we decided we'll visit the forts after lunch. And a simple, scrumptious meal later, we decided to skip the forts altogether and just lie down in the cool house. Bliss.

By the way, did I mention that the village was extremely clean? And that it has solar panels set up? And did I mention that every villager that we talked to that day (at least 8 of them) asked us the same question - "just the two of you?".

Kataldhar waterfall as seen from Rajmachi

Anyway, I would recommend this trek just so you can take stock of your fitness (especially if you're in IT!) and challenge yourself to something strenuous like, but much more interesting than, a half-marathon. Returning via Lonavla would probably be worthwhile for the view it seems to offer, and would be not-so-tough on your knees as the Kondhane caves trail.

Pointers :

We referred to directions mentioned in http://kpy2.tripod.com/sahyadri/karjat/rajmachi/rajmachi.html, The Sahyadri Companion, and a couple of websites mentioned later on this page. We misinterpreted them completely, but managed to reach Rajmachi without much trouble, confirming directions with two locals on the way.

Here's what our route looked like:
-- 5:20 AM local from CST to Karjat station
-- 15 minute walk to Sriram Pul on the east
-- 30 minute auto ride (- which normally costs Rs.15 per head if it's shared, but cost us Rs.200 for the whole thing; we didn't bargain -) via Kondivade to reach Kondhane village at 8:45
-- 30 minute walk / low climb to Kondhane caves (You'll see a board pointing in the direction, a few minutes after the village. Just in case it goes missing - you have to turn left along a clearly visible trail.)
-- 2 hours steep climb to Rajmachi (The trail is pretty obvious; it's a clear dirt track surrounded by greenery, or boulder steps in the latter half. It cuts across a few streams and 3-4 clearings. You have to turn left at the first clearing, which appears 10-15 minutes after Kondhane caves; shouldn't be difficult to find the trail. Apparently (- haven't seen for myself), a trail route from Thakurwadi via Ulhas river valley also leads you to this clearing. There's one slippery boulder a meter high, about an hour and a half into the trail, which might be difficult to tackle if it's under a stream. That's the only place where we thought we were on the wrong path and started looking for alternate routes, until we saw a villager coming down along it.)
-- 15 minute walk to the village after you reach the edge of Rajmachi. (Take the central trail; the left one goes into the jungle and the right one goes into farms.)

We didn't climb the two forts of Shrivardhan and Manaranjan, but here's what we were told by locals:
It's a 15 minute walk to Bhairoba temple on the saddle between Shrivardhan and Manoranjan. The route to Shrivardhan, which is the one on the right, and the taller one, goes from the front of the temple. The route to Manoranjan, which is on the left side, is from behind the temple. It doesn't take much time to reach either of these forts from the temple.

To reach the base village for the trek, you could avoid taking an auto and catch a bus from Karjat to Khandpe, a distance of about 10 km. From here, it's approximately a half hour walk south to Kondivade, and another half hour south to Kondhane. The other route from Kondivade, which goes via Kharvandi village, is apparently very scenic (and a little confusing), especially in the rains. Ask for directions in Kondivade; The Sahyadri Companion has a decent description.

You don't really need a map for this trek since there isn't much scope for getting confused or lost if you start from Kondhane village, but here's one (that I found at http://thesahyadriresource.blogspot.in/2012/02/rajmachi.html) just to help you create a rough mental picture of the area and directions. Note that it may not be accurate; it's indicative.


Click to see this on google maps
You might want to go through some blogs to get a feel of the trek route. Here are a couple of random sites: http://acewings.tumblr.com/post/60103007712/blast-from-the-past-visit-to-kondana-caves, http://srikanthperinkulam.com/blog/2008/07/the-rajmachi-trek, http://trythethrill.com/trek-to-kondana-caves-karjat, http://www.nisargabhraman.org/2013/05/fireflies-special-trek-to-rajmachi-on.html.

Unlike trekking to some other places like Matheran, you can't really picture the entire mountain while trekking to Rajmachi via Kondhane caves. If you want to see it, anytime you're on a train from Mumbai to Pune, look to your left about 20-30 minutes after Karjat, when the train has climbed uphill quite a bit - the standalone hill with fortifications on the top is Rajmachi; you'll see a distinct white resort on the long hill range behind it, just a minute or two after you see Rajmachi.

Leave a comment if you have any questions. Happy climbing!