Sahyadri Passion
Home | Treks | Favorite Links
Bahiri Cave

       This trek is bit tough as the route is more exposed and risky.  Since Bahiri is a long and strenuous trek, and also because the area does not have frequent bus connections, one has to leave for the trek the night before. One can  leave for Karjat by the last local train which is at 12:45am. This train reaches Karjat at about 3:30am. At 4:00am there is a bus leaving Karjat for Sandshi village, which takes 45 minutes to reach Sandshi. Sandshi is in the Ulhas valley and in fact one can climb upto Rajmachi from Sandshi via a prominent ridge. The right ridge which is know as Manjar sumba  and the left one is Dhak.   One can see the two Bahiri pinnacles from here and also the massif of Dhak.
         A faint and complicated trail leads from Sandshi upto the col between the lower of the Bahiri pinnacles and the
mountain of Dhak.  It can take anything from 3 to 4 hours to reach the col because the route is bit complicated.  The route through the forest climbs up and takes one to the top.  From here three routes branches, the right one goes to Rajmachi, the straight goes to Kondeshwar village and  Kondeshwar temple  and the left  goes through the karvi vegetation  to Bahiri.   After 10 minutes on this route there is a bifurcation, the right trail goes to Bhimashankar via Kusur patar , Khandi and Savle.  After taking the left trail for 10 minutes again one comes across a  bifurcation, here take the left trail and proceed towards the col.  The right goes to Dhak.  From the col one has to descend about 50m through a narrow gully between the  (kalakrai) pinnacle and the Dhak mountain. The trail descends at an angle of 45 degrees full of scree, so one has to be very careful and hold on to both the sides to prevent slipping. After the descent, one comes on to the wall of Dhak from where an exposed traverse of about 100m leads one to a position below the cave. Most of the traverse consists of a series of rock cut steps which are just large enough for one foot to rest on. After the traverse are a series of rock cut steps climbing vertically upwards. One has to climb up a set of steps then do an exposed traverse, again climb some steps and again traverse till one reaches the cave which is about 2m of climb,.  a  creeper has been tied by ropes in this section. Using this stem one can haul oneself up into the cave. It takes about 90 minutes to reach the cave from the col.  The cave houses Lord Bahiri.
        To return one has to descend by the same way. One should be very careful while descending down the exposed stretches. After coming back to the col between the Bahiri pinnacle and the
mountain of Dhak one can return to Sandshi or on the other hand climb further up to reach the top of Dhak. It takes about one hour from the col to the top of Dhak and the route is clear and quick. The top of Dhak is a plateau, 5km long at a height of 707m.  Walking on this plateau leads to a village at its other end from where there are two routes, one route on the left  descends quickly, in about one and a half hours to the Ulhas Valley. The point where one descends is the junction of Karjat-Kondivde and Karjat-Sandshi roads and there are more frequent buses available from this place. And the right trail descends down to Potal Pali from where one can take a bus to Karjat.



Enter supporting content here