Valley of shadows....Adventure trek rappelling in Sandhan Valley

Adventure trek Sandhan Valley

Normally every trek starts with climbing and then descending, but first time in my life I did a trek where there was no climbing, only descending till the end. The adventures trek was Sandhan Valley. Sandhan Valley is situated in the western Ghats of Sahyadri. The valley is located on the west side of beautiful Bhandardhara region near Samrad village. The village itself is located approx.  at 3000 feet's above sea level. Valley is surrounded by Alang, Malang, Kulang, Kalsubai, Ratangad and Ajoba mountain range.
As decide we started our journey on friday evening. we all are coming from different places so we have decided to meet at a Kanjurmarg Bridge. As usual our friend Suraj came late by half an hour & we started our journey at 10:30 pm. Is too cold outside so we decided to take a short tea break.

Valley of shadows Trek Sandhan valley Bhandardhara Maharashtra

After taking garama garam bhajiya along with tea we have started our journey at 1:30 for Samrad village. After driving an hour we reached an dead end , then we realize that we forgot the route; we are trying to call Datta (Our Trek Guide) but his phone is not reachable. Thanks to Gaurav's GPS which becomes our guide for Samrad Village. 

sleeping time Valley of shadows Trek Sandhan valley Bhandardhara Maharashtra

At 4:30 AM we reached the small yet very beautiful Samrad village. We took halt at our trek guide Datta’s house. He was the one who was going to give us technical support required at 3 patches. We reached too early for trek. After 7 hours journey our team needs some rest, so Duta provide us the space to sleep. Most of our team members take a rest in their sleeping bags which we had brought for us for the trek. 

After morning rituals, datta bhau provide us garama garam Poha for breakfast along with the tea.
Having heavy breakfast we are ready for trek along with our sleeping bags, before starting our journey we take a group photo.

Group photo Valley of shadows Trek Sandhan valley Bhandardhara Maharashtra

Konkan Kada Valley of shadows Adventure Trek Sandhan valley Bhandardhara Maharashtra

After group photo we started our trek at 8.15 Am. Before starting our trek Datta take us to visit Konkan kada ,divine feeling of being in the heavens. We cant control ourselves to click pics. We click some beautiful pics.

Valley of shadows Adventure Trek Sandhan valley Bhandardhara Maharashtra

We started our trek early in the morning with an intention at the back of our minds to reach Karoli Ghat Base camp by 5PM.  After 15mints of our trek we found ourselves in the mountainous valley, covered on two sides by hills, reaching to the height of 150fts. Water was mildly gushing through the spaces between the rocks and we followed the water flow. After crossing some big rocks, we found a small water pound (Water was actually flowing through the rock-cave) 

Chale chalo... we are singing this song encouraging each other to move further... Crossing this, we started bouldering the valley and reached the second water pool. The level of the water was 5fts and the rock was slippery. Me, Rakesh & Somu went into the water pool to get the luggage passed on, helped other people to come onto the other end of the water pool. Then again, we started bouldering the rock. It was completely at a descending level. Vrashank, and Minal were tired and faced some difficulty in carrying their bags and boulder. However, they managed pretty well, somehow

The water level in the first pool was below waist height and in the second pool it was above the waist height. (The water level changes according to the season). By observing my clothes anyone cam get the idea about water level.

Valley of shadows Adventure Trek Sandhan valley Bhandardhara Maharashtra

We were passing between two huge mountains range. The sun was spreading its rays but the mountains were just blocking it from reaching us. Sandhan Valley is also called as Valley of Shadow as it hardly allows the sun rays to reach the bottom. The valley is also an awesome place for photographers.

Valley of shadows Adventure Trek Sandhan valley Bhandardhara Maharashtra

The descending is not that simple as it looks. We need to make way from many big rocks. The main problem faced while descending is that we were always in the search of shortest and the easiest path but there is no such path. 6 member of our group went ahead and 3 guys stayed back  as they were finding it difficult to descend. The path till the first rappelling point is very time consuming.

We all are waiting for our rest team members to join us for rappelling. While waiting for our rest team members we found our one of team member kunal  is sleeping within 5 minutes. After around 6 hours of walk on the rocky path we reached the 1st rappelling patch.  The first rappelling patch is about 45 feet. By 3 PM the we all completed our  1st rappelling patch.

Rappelling Valley of shadows Adventure Trek Sandhan valley Bhandardhara Maharashtra

Rakesh started rappelling first and managed tactfully well and rappelled down. We then decided to rappel rest of the team. Rakesh was enjoying rappelling so he went up one more time to experience rappelling .At 4 we started our journey towards the second patch.Due to lack of time, we rappelled down faster, and then continued trekking and reached the second rock patch. We had told the guide to make sure that everyone of our team will reach the second rappelling patch. 2nd and 3rd rappelling are of just 10 -15 feets as compare to 1st one but are as thrilling as the first one.

Thanks to the two girls coz of them we even enjoyed rappelling as by the time we reached the 3rd and the last patch it was about to dark.

We reached our camp at around 6.15 PM. Beautiful sky packed with shining stars, chilled weather made us forget the tiredness. After the delicious dinner we decided to sleep, so we can get up early and enjoy the next day trek. Shafali wants tea to drink so I asked to Datta bhau to plz arrange cup of tea for shef & some how he manage to provide us black tea. Every one was so tired , they slept within an hour after dinner.

Breakfast Valley of shadows Adventure Trek Sandhan valley Bhandardhara Maharashtra

Early morning we started our return journey. The rocky path was back in the trek. After an hour trek we had a break for Breakfast. We had Garama garam Poha as breakfast and Tea.

Valley of shadows Adventure Trek Sandhan valley Bhandardhara Maharashtra

After our breakfast we started our return journey with full of energy. After  moving 30-45 minutes we all get puzzled when we saw how to clear a this tricky patch. Then Datta climb the stone and tie a heavy thread (Wire) to tree and drop other end of the tread for us to climb. God knows how we cleared that phase but definitely everyone enjoyed that phase of climbing.

Datta Bhau Valley of shadows Adventure Trek Sandhan valley Bhandardhara Maharashtra

Dutta bhau was the man who helps us to climb this patch very easily , salute to him to carry our heavy weight bags.

Valley of shadows Adventure Trek Sandhan valley Bhandardhara Maharashtra

When everyone clears that phase we started our journey again , but this time less rocky  patch and we found a tree shadow where we take rest . There is one more straight climb patch we have to cover .After completing this last difficult patch everyone want to take rest for some time .
After walking about an hour we reached the plain ground and then we speed up our speed when we saw village.
This was my first ever trek that got concluded in the day light. And yes Sandhan Valley trek was the most thrilling and memorable trek till now for us.