Sandhan Valley....Dance of the Shadows and Light

“You know the best part of this trek, once you enter there is no way to exit in the middle. You have to complete it”, said one of my friends. He was right. Once you enter the Sandhan Valley, and by the time you realise that you have got yourself in too much of an adventure, you have an option either to turn back and face the same adventure again or hope that the way ahead is less adventurous. That’s Sandhan Valley for you.

At the start of 2014, I had decided to trek few trek destinations in the Sahyadris. You can say my ‘to do list’ for the trek season. It had Harishchandra gad, Ajoba and Sandhan. I managed Harishchandra and Ajoba but as far as Sandhan was concerned, I thought it won’t be possible anytime soon as it required expertise support.

But as Shahrukh Khan says in the movie Om Shanti Om,

Itni shiddat se meine tumhe paane ki koshish ki hai

ke har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki sazish ki hai

I had gone for a trek to Ajoba Hills and when we were returning back, I met a local auto driver who mentioned that he arranges sandhan trek. We exchanged numbers and parted ways. Now, in December when I was planning a trek, I suddenly remembered him and thus Sandhan happened.

(Actually pretty late to write this blog but as they say better late than never)

So here we were a group of seven, ready for the rendezvous with one of the nature’s splendid display of craftsmanship, the Sandhan valley.

Sandhan is based in the Igatpuri region, one of the beautiful and interesting regions in the Sahyadris. The base village is Samrad around 30 km from Bhandardara. Unlike hills and forts, Sandhan is a 200 feet deep valley. So this trek is a descend rather than climb.

We reached kasara station by 1 am on a Friday. The local guide had helped us arrange a cab till samrad. It was a 3 hour drive. When we reached samrad, our guide had arranged our stay at his place. We rested there for few hours eagerly waiting for the sunrise.

We had not anticipated the cold and were left shivering to our spine. The relief came in when a local villager lit a bonfire for us and our guide provided us with hot tea and poha.

We sat around the bonfire experiencing one of those rare occasions when you get the opportunity to sit in the open air and embrace the orange yellow morning rays of the sun, something that we miss or are oblivion to in our city life.

With stomach getting its share, now it was time to satiate eyes. We packed our bags and proceeded to the valley.

The entire sandhan valley trek is about walking or treading through the boulders. It comprises of rappelling, river crossing and some tricky boulder patches.

About 200-300m into the valley, we came across a small pond about 4ft deep. We carried our bags on our head to avoid it from getting wet.

The first rappelling point came after couple of hours of walking. This was a 50 ft rappel down. After this it was again walking over boulders for about an hour to come to the next point where you can either use a rope or there is a tree branch using which you can descend.

The next few hours were spent reaching the base camp which is the exit to the valley. We took about 6-7 hours to reach our camping site.

Camping in the valley is something that one shouldn't miss. It was an amazing experience to be amongst the mountains. Our local guide cooked dinner for us and it felt nothing less than delicacy at the end of such an enduring day.

We made a small bonfire and spent sometime around it recollecting the trek, trying to soak in every moment it provided. We all slept peacefully through the night. Don’t know what caused it, the endurance of the day or the solace of the night.

Morning was greeted with a nice breakfast and hot tea by our guide. Bidding goodbye to our guide and to the majestic mountains, we started our return journey. Technically, it won’t be a return as you enter the valley from one end and exit through the other.

We started our walk to the village Dehene that also happens to be the base village for Ajoba Hill trek.

In most of the treks that I have done, I have found a samaritan or a guiding angel at some point or other. And this trek was no different. While we were on our way to Dehene we came across a mother-son duo who was working on a field nearby. As is my habit, I went across to them to say hi and to ask them if we were on the right path. They told us that they lived in a nearby village, Varpadi and it is closer than Dehene. They even suggested that they would arrange vehicle from varpadi. The son made a call and arranged the vehicle for us. He was also kind enough to accompany us till the village.

So we proceeded to varpadi and found a vehicle to take us to Asangaon station. I would say, we managed to save atleast a couple of hour in this.

Sandhan is one of the best trek I have had and the memories and experience will be with me forever. It is a must do trek and I request everyone to experience it.