Alangad – Madangad – Kulangad (AMK) TREK - By Purnima Kesanur
The Karnataka Mountaineering Association organized a variety of programs for the year 2023, including a challenging and adventurous trekking expedition to Alangad – Madangad – Kulangad (AMK) in Maharashtra. This trek presented several challenges involving rock climbing, rappelling, traverses along steep and narrow ledges, steep climbs and descents, and ledge walks, among others
On day 1 we started our journey at 00:15 hrs in a tempo traveller from Pune towards the base village, Udadavne, in Bhandardhara region of Ahmednagar district. A travel of about 5 hours, and the team reached Udadavne. After freshening up at the local village house we were introduced to our local guide Bhau who was from Udadavne and who accompanied us on the trek. After a hearty breakfast of Poha, the team started their trek at about 8 am towards their first destination Alang. It was a beautiful misty morning; with a nip in the air, and a spring in our step we started our trek towards Alang.
The first part of the trail is through the forest with patches of grasslands and is quite even. The second patch starts with a 30 degree incline and a rocky path brings you to the first metal ladder. After crossing the ladder, the path winds up and is pretty steep. This climb ends at a small level ground. From this point onwards, it is a traverse along the mountain side till we reach our destination of Alang caves. The traverse, which was for about an hour overlooks the valley with mountain on one side and a sheer drop on the other. We reached the Alang, the destination caves for the day by 1 pm. A short climb from the left side of the cave takes you to the top of the fort/mountain, which looks like a huge tableland, almost 2 km stretch. You get to see remnants of foundations and wall like structure that might have housed people once upon a time. The whole area is dotted with a good water storage system with multiple cistern like structures that were filled with water that was potable.
It was an early start at 4 am on day 2. We proceeded towards one end of Alang. Our guiding light was our head torch. After descending a steep flight of narrow steps with the help of a rope we came to a small cave. This was the landing from where we had to rappel down the 50 ft wall. This was followed by another descent of a steep flight of steps followed by a short 20 ft stretch of rappel that brought us to a ledge. A 45 min walk along the ledge flanked by thick growth of plants on either side brought us to the valley between Alang and Madan which is called Madankhind. A tricky traverse patch, and we reached a vertical rock face of Madangad. Climbing the rock face is followed by a traverse along the mountainside which then turns into a steep climb all the way to the top of Madangad. We explored Madangad for an hour and then started our descent. Crossed Madankhind and continued the traverse towards Kulang along the ledge. It is a steady steep ascent of steps in 3 parts with short patches of flat ground in between. Hitting a steady pace, the team managed to reach the top by 12.15 pm. Explored Kulangad – it’s a vast expanse with a lot of water cisterns. There are trenches built in the rocks to divert the rainwater to these cisterns and a dam like structure which let the overflowing water down the mountainside. It was interesting to see these engineering constructs that date back to 16th century.
Day 3 was a descent from Kulang. A steep flight of steps followed by descent through the forest patch leads to a the flat ground. A steady walk for about another 45 minutes brought us to the base village, Ambewadi, in Nashik district. We crossed a couple of farms and reached a small stream, our final destination that marked the end of our trek. We freshened up at the stream and then had a hot lunch of local cuisine cooked and brought to us by our local guide Bhau’s family. Post lunch it was time for our return journey to Pune.
All in all a tough trail that called for good fitness levels, utmost caution, climbing skills et al. A complete adventure experience.
(Purnima is a seasoned trekker and a person with varied interests. She is a BMC qualified active member of the association. She is also on the EC of KMA.)
