Trek to Tandulwadi Fort

With the trek to Kohoj fort completed we started to look for newer places to trek, then i came across this article about Tandulwadi fort another fort that was located near Virar, more precisely Saphale. After trying to ask people to join the trek

How to Reach Tandulwadi Fort:

We travelled to Tandulwadi using the Public Transport, a Train to Andheri and from there another train (Dahanu Local), We got down at Saphale Railway Station from where we took a tum tum and got down at the base of Tandulwadi Fort (Tandulwadi). There is also a Bus from Saphale Railway station every hour or so which takes you to the Base village Tandulwadi.

The Tandulwadi Trek:

It took us around 30 mins to reach the base village of the Tandulwadi Fort, Tandulwadi. Once we reached the base we could see the fort. The trek starts From between the school and some office.

We asked at the base for the trek route to a few children who said the route was straight and it wouldn’t be very difficult to complete the trek and would take around 2 hours to reach the top. The trek started through a village slowly taking us through farms and then to a Dam which was dried. After crossing the dried lake/ dam we entered the forest from where the trek actually started.

The climb to the top was actually not that difficult and was a mix of steep and normal climbs through forests. This trek we did not take much breaks and kept on walking as we had something to eat before we had started the trek.

The Route can be a little difficult and confusing at times but its marked with arrows and if you follow the arrows you can make it to the top without any trouble. Similarly like KOHOJ the weather here was also humid and lack of wind made the trek a little difficult, I think its something to do with the treks on the western line.

Finally after 2 hours of walking through the forest and rocky patches we reached the plateau from where we could clearly see the Tandulwadi fort, We thought that we would reach the top in some time but we were wrong.On the way to the top we came across a sign saying Aitihasik Marg which was supposed be a long cut according to the locals. So we followed the locals through the shortcut which was a much steeper and difficult path.

Once reaching the top there is nothing much to see other than a few water tanks from where we could get our bottles filled but the water is not clean. After resting near the tanks for some time we started our descent through the longer route.The longer route is a little zig zag and might be a bit difficult to follow but there are arrows marked and if you keep moving away from the mountain by keeping it to your right you should be safe.

We were at the base of Tandulwadi Fort in around 2 hours, We then took a Rickshaw to Saphale Railway Station from the Highway. On reaching Near the station we were very hungry so stopped at a local restaurant and had some Manchurian Rice. After which we rushed to the Station to catch the 4:10 Dadar to Andheri and then a Metro back to Ghatkopar.