Hiking in the Sahyadris!...: Sondai_Sondewadi

Travelogue by Sambhaji Chopdekar and Sulekh Baikar

Wow, the monsoon is in full swing and we are fully geared up to enjoy each and every weekend in the Sahyadris that gives us immense pleasure and joyful memories to cherish for long.

This weekend, as usual, after few calls and online chat by Friday midnight, we decided to visit Sondai near Karjat. Surprisingly, there is hardly any reference of this hill in the usual trekking books except the Maharashtra Gazetteer and a book by Suresh Paranjape*. Besides, an article on it from Maharashtra Times few years back was also informative. It was enough for us.

Sondai is easily accessible from Sondewadi, the base village, which is about 5 km away from the Borgaon phata on the Karjat- Chowk road. One can reach here on bikes also as the tar road is well-constructed and the surroundings are too beautiful due to monsoon.

However, we decided to choose Wavarle as our starting point as described in Paranjape’s book. It’s a small village just before the Borgaon phata from Karjat. When we reached there some of the villagers, out of concern, advised us to go to Sondewadi as the route to Sondai from Wavarle goes through thick jungle due to monsoon and they felt we might get lost there as the path is not so well-guided. Nevertheless, we politely refused their advice assuring them that we would not take unnecessary risks on the way.

Wavarle is really heaven! The villagers have built a small dam that confines the waters coming from the Sondai and adjacent hills in the monsoon and thus have made their lives wonderful. Our decision to go via Wavarle proved right as the atmosphere was superb and on our way, we came across a beautiful waterfall which is formed due to the overflow from the dam. We had our breakfast there and continued our journey further.

Sondai can be easily located from here and the route goes from the left side of the dam. This is best known as the route from the ‘Vagishwaracha dongar’. This route takes us to the pass to Sondewadi. However, we did exactly the opposite. We kept on walking keeping the dam to the left and reached a well-built well for the Thakurwadi. Some boys were busy fishing in the flowing springs.

Soon we reached the edge of the valley from where the path literally descends in the valley. We did the same and crossed the same stream that is the backbone of the Wavarle dam. However, this option may not be viable during the peak of the monsoon as the stream may be in full swing.

From here, Sondai looks amazing! The route is quite clear – one should try to reach that pass to Sondewadi from here. After enjoying the waters in the stream, we resumed our journey. It was a pleasant walk through the jungle. We had to cross the stream twice and came across one more equally beautiful waterfall. Soon, we reached a plateau from where the Wavarle dam and the surrounding jungle inclusive of Irshalgad look simply gorgeous.

So far, it was just drizzling in between, but after reaching the plateau, it started raining heavily. Sondai and its adjacent hills along with ‘Gavhari’ ** disappeared in the thick clouds and it made our task a bit difficult as it was not easy to locate the direction to the Sondewadi pass. But fortunately, we came across a 'katkari fellow’ who confirmed that we had taken the right route and guided us to go straight through the jungle till we reach to a mango tree from where we should traverse to the right and climb the main mountain of Sondai.

We entered the jungle and kept moving ahead as the rain-God kept himself busy showering heavily. It was quite a dense forest that we negotiated for about 15 minutes and then came out midway. It was still raining and that made our task difficult as the cliff of Sondai was not visible.

Soon we reached the big mango tree mentioned by that Katkari. The track from the Vagishwaracha dongar meets here which we realized later on when we reached the top. From this mango tree, the route descends through that pass to reach Sondewadi that we utilized while returning while the route to Sondai goes to the right from here.

However, due to heavy rains, we couldn’t realize it and kept on moving down the pass ahead in search of a traverse to the right. That was really a mistake. We were helplessly looking at the slightly visible Sondai cliff in search of the traverse mentioned in the book. We saw some farmers working in rice-field at Sondewadi who were kind enough to offer their help.

After understanding the approach and a warning about not trying the final climb from them, we recommenced negotiating the jungle and a gentle climb. We were delighted to find some paavtya (small carved out steps) on the way and thanked the villagers for the advice. Now the skies became slightly clear and it was heartening to find out the beautiful track that we had followed from Wavarle.

The cliff of Sondai was clearly visible and by now, it had become clear in our mind the next route – We were heading toward the Southern end by taking the traverse to the right.

But to our misfortune, the traverse was blocked by a herd of cows at one point. To avoid them, we took a different approach descending slightly. However, we reached a path which we felt was leading us to the deep valley. We were clueless what to do next when suddenly, two members of the herd appeared in the upper part of the traverse. We waited until they joined their family members. Now, everything was crystal-clear, we breathed again and reached that part.

We then had the final traverse and reached the Southern part of the Sondai cliff. We were welcomed by two water cisterns and that was it, we had reached on the fort.

The view was awesome surrounded by Wavarle dam, Morbe dam, Irshalgad, Matheran range, and deep valley. Sahyadri is simply superb! We were of-course delighted.

The book mentions the existence of a small cave after traversing more and climbing from the Eastside. We tried the same and entered a wonderful col from the Eastern side but it seemed no way upward.

We returned back to the Southern part again and had our lunch on rock dining enjoying the beautiful valleys and the small pinnacle to the Eastern side, better known as Sondai’s brother or Gavhaari.

The rains had stopped and the paavtya on the Southern cliff seemed to be inviting us. Someone has requested to abandon the footwear at the base as it’s the abode of the Goddess, Sondai. We did respect the feeling however, it was not possible to climb up barefooted as it involves risky rock-climbing. The farmers had already warned us not to go for it as it would be slippery.

After reviewing the paavtya, we resumed and moved up a bit. There was a reward waiting for us - one more water tank! One more bonus point in this wonderful hike!! But when we traversed a little bit ahead, we realized the gravity of the warning given by the villagers. The path to the top seemed narrow and full of scree and hence dangerous. We took the right decision not to take any unnecessary risk further and returned back, keeping in mind – we can come back here again!!