Harihargad

Like most of my recent hikes, for the one to Harihargad, I started early morning at 5 AM with a few colleagues. We all traveled in one car, and it was the seven of us.

The ritual of drinking tea at all hours of the day is very prevalent in India, so at 5:15 AM, we were at a small restaurant which specializes in tea. There are many such places around the whole state, and the tea supposedly is as good as "Amrut", the mythical elixir, which can bring a dead person back to life.

It was quite a foggy morning and visibility was poor, but we pressed on.

On the way, as the dawn wore on, we had beautiful views of the surrounding mountains shrouded in cloud cover.

A mountain we passed looked like a shark fin. It was surrounded by dense forests.

In nearly 2 hours after we started, we were at the approach road of this fort. We passed a few signs which indicated that the climb was going to be very steep, at about 80° angle. It was quite foggy and we could see the mountain on which the Harihargad fort was situated. The steep climb on the right side seemed very daunting from a distance.

After commencing the hike, we came across a cautionary notice, which we ignored...

All around us, we could see the different hills of the Harishchandra mountain range. The fog made them look very surreal.

Soon, the fog was lifting and the Harihargad path could be seen clearly. There was a man sitting at the start of the steep climb and he looked like a tiny speck of dust.

The hike was muddy since it had rained just a day ago. It was red clay mud surrounded by trees, brush and rocks.

We had attracted a stray dog who kept following us and one of our colleagues was super afraid of dogs. It was quite comical to keep shielding him from the dog. Amazingly, this dog eventually completed the entire hike with us.

Soon, the approach to the steep section was very near.

In India, there are many deities and many times shrines or temples can simply be rocks with vermillion on them. The one below also has the "Pinda" or "Lingam" which denotes Hindu god Shiva. The deity here is Vetal, somewhat akin to Phantoms or vampires.

We saw many mountains in this branch of hills of the Sahyadris and one looked very similar to a pyramid as seen below.

We were getting close to the really steep part and the obelisk like structure of the mountain was visible. The people climbing it were still looking tiny.

As we started climbing the very steep part, we noticed that the stairs were wet and slippery, they were also of uneven height and width. However, there were small slits made in the rock on each side of the step to put your hands in for support. These turned out to be super-helpful.

The stair was carved from the side of the mountain and beyond it was lush forest.

We walked slowly and deliberately to avoid injuries from slipping and falling.

The steps sometimes were windy and made the path more interesting. While descending the same spot below, one of our colleagues screamed and we noticed two big male monkeys were attacking him. They were baring their teeth, and it was very scary. Hopefully they left him alone after a long scary minute.

As we reached the main door of the fort, the path was almost like a slot canyon.

Beyond the fort entrance, there was more to climb to reach the pinnacle of the area, it was a hill with an orange Maratha flag flying on it.

After about a half mile walk and some rock climbing, we reached the top of the pinnacle and were greeted by many monkeys.

These monkeys were literally hanging out at the edge of the cliff.

There was a huge number of monkeys in the area and they gathered around us in hopes for food. As these monkeys were aggressive, we kept our distance.

The map below shows the location of the Harihargad area.

The fog was moving around making the mountains beyond look enigmatic.

As we started our return trip, we could see the peak again in rearview and it looked stunning.

The main door of the fort shows a great view of the valley and mountains beyond.

While returning back, we had to traverse the same route and we could see the steep terrain and the scary steps. As we descended, another group of 20 or so hikes were climbing on the same section, so it was slow-going. Everyone was in a good mood because of the euphoria of the challenging climb.

The descent was pretty fast and uneventful. The stray dog came back all the way with us. We had another tea session and then drove back on the long patch of really rough road. The hike was very fulfilling because of its steepness, the surrounding mountains and the forested valley floors.