Sandhan Valley
Location: 80 km from Kasara
Base village: Samrad
Altitude: Valley surrounded by a 300 ft rock wall
How to get there: From Mumbai, catch a local train going from CST (Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) to Kasara. After alighting at Kasara, take local transport . If you plan the trip in advance, you can also book a private car or bus (depending on the size of your party), and drive for around two hours until you reach Samrad (see Trip report below). The trail head is located near the village.
Grade: Difficult (some parts require rappelling).
Trekking time: Normally, hiking through Sandhan valley requires an overnight trek (even for experienced hikers). It takes about 4-5 hours to descend to the floor of the ravine, and another 4 hours to walk out and climb up. Plan to sleep overnight at the bottom of the ravine.
Trip report:
For all intents and purposes, Sandhan is the ‘Grand Canyon’ of Maharashtra state. It is a deep ravine, surrounded by 300-ft steep rock walls. As you descend into the valley, you will notice the sunlight getting fainter and fainter, Trust me, this adventure is one of a kind! Another highlight of the trek is a small hidden reservoir at the bottom of the valley, which reminded me of the rabbit-hole in ‘Alice in wonderland’
We went for this trek with mumbaitravellers group. We boarded the midnight CST-Kasara local train. We reached Kasara at 3 AM (a God-forsaken hour in my opinion!). At Kasara, mumbaitravellers had booked shared transfers for the entire group to Samrad village. We reached Samrad at around 5.30 AM. There, we had delicious, piping hot Poha for breakfast at a villager’s house, and set off for our trek by 6.30 AM.
When you start the descent, you need to get past small rocks. As you keep descending however, you will notice that the rocks become bigger and bigger, until you encounter giant boulders that you have to jump across and slide down.
Once we got past the boulders, we had to wade through a 2-ft deep patch of water which was fairly wide and somewhat scary. Why, you ask? Well, we didn’t know what we would find lurking in those stagnant waters, did we? None of us relished an unexpected encounter with a hungry crocodile! But of course, we didn’t have the luxury of choice, so we started wading across it.
wading through unknown waters
After walking for a little while, we approached a steep fall. The trek leader started preparing for rappelling. Woah, what a surprise! I didn’t know this when I signed up for the trek! One by one, all of us rappelled down the huge rocks.
Prep for rappelling
A fellow trekker Arijit captured this 🙂
Prati coming down after me
Further down the rock face, there are two more spots where you need to use ropes to get to the bottom. We walk and walk and passed a small crevice. I stared for 5 minutes before I entered the rabbit hole!
Finally, we hit the bottom – flat land ahoy! We camped on the open rocks for the night. We were not done for the day though!
Deep down in the valley
Our trek leader told us about the hidden ‘Alice in wonderland’ pond, and some of us went to explore it to our hearts’ content.
By now, dusk had fallen, and luckily for us, it was a full moon night. We feasted on yummy jowar bhakri and potato vegetable that the local villagers from Samrad had prepared for all of us hungry travellers. Under the moonlight (and the occasional torchlight!), we were serenaded by the sounds of nature as we enjoyed a simple, yet leisurely dinner.
villagers prepared food for us…please note that we cleaned all the mess before coming out 🙂
The experience of sleeping under a roof of stars with rocks for a bed and the deep valley for a bedroom was surreal! The place was calling for ghost and animal stories, the more outrageous the better. Finally, after one too many such stories, we called it a day. Thus ended day one of our Sandhan trip!
our home for a night
The next morning, we woke to the sounds of hundreds of birds (has a better alarm clock ever been invented?!). After enjoying a hearty breakfast, again cooked for us by the locals, we began the hike out of the valley.
Our way out
After a pretty walk crossing fields and small ponds, we reached Dehne village. Mumbaitravellers group had arranged for a sumptuous lunch at the homes of one of the villagers. The food was amazing! The sol kadhi that I ate there was one of the best I have ever tasted.
simple village food cooked by the locals
in the age of malls its amusing to find a shop like this
We spent some time with the villagers and around 5 PM,we left for Asangaon station, where we boarded a local train to take us back to noisy, chaotic Mumbai!
Do remember to carry back all your plastic bags and accumulated trash. There is no proper trash removal facility in the valley or the village. Have fun, but also be responsible 🙂