Trip to Malsej Ghat

It was freezing cold, the night was dark, and the fog so thick it made us almost blind. I lay down on the floor, outside a roadside shop, trying my best to manage atleast a small power nap. Besides me, Prince and Denver lay asleep. I was surprised that they could even manage to get it, despite the harsh conditions.  It was 3 am in the morning, pitch black all around, we had finally reached our destination after a long bus ride, Malsej Ghat. I had long wanted to go to this place, but never knew it would come at the most unexpected of times.

3am midst the fog and darkness

Malshej ghat is situated in Pune district near the borders of Thane and Ahmednagar districts. It is a mountain pass in the Western Ghats range. Malshej Ghat is one of the developing hill station in Maharashtra. And a monsoon destination.

10pm at Dadar station, the 3 of us were headed for a trek to Harihar fort with a group of other trekkers in a totally planned pick and drop trip. As we were waiting we discussed the beauty in adventures that lies in totally blind unplanned trips. In a sudden change of heart, we decided we rather head out on our own. Malsej Ghat was the destination we chose.  We took a train to Kalyan, and reached there around 12am. We had expected that we may have to spend the night sleeping at the Kalyan ST stand, but fortune favored us, and the was one last bus at 12.30am heading towards Malsej Ghat. The journey was much longer than we anticipated. It took us 2hours in the bus to reach our destination.  We were dropped of one stop ahead of the MTDC resort.

We were glad we reached finally, although we were completely clueless as to where we were. All we could see at a distance was a small light flickering  , and in pitch darkness we headed towards it.  It was a small roadside shop; fortunately for us it was open at 3am. We had tea there and decided we take a small stroll ahead. After a little while, we found a closed shop , which had a roof. So we decided to wait there until the sun rises.

At 5am we headed towards a dam that we could see from our shelter. It was a really long walk, probably 5km or such. But the view was awesome, and totally worth it. Its there where we witnessed the early morning sunrise. The dam was known as Pimpalgoan Joga dam, which is an earth fill dam. At times, you really felt as if we were in heaven itself.

After the long walk , we headed back to the main highway, where we had our breakfast and decided to explore the surrounding places. Malsej Ghat is best explored in a car or a bike. Walking is not the best option , as places are situated Km’s apart. During proper monsoon, the road is filled with waterfall views every few minutes apart.

We headed towards the MTDC resort , from there towards the many view points that were available. There is not much to do at Malsej Ghat, except admire nature at its best. The vews were beautiful, the climate just perfect.

The best way to get to Malsej Gaht from Mumbai is Mentioned below:
1- Take a train headed towards Kalyan on the Central railway line

2- From Kalyan head towards the ST stand on the west. There are buses every hour.

3- Take any bus headed towards Ahmednagar. Malsej Ghat is a stop in between.

4- The duration of the Journey will be around 2 hours from Kalyan.

There are buses from Malsej Ghat every 30 minutes heading towards Titwala or Klayan. But what you really need to brace yourself for, is a really long 2 hour ST bus journey. Ofcourse unless you have your own vehicle.