Andharban Valley Trek

Andharban means a dark dense forest.  It is situated in Mulshi Taluka of Pune district, Maharashtra , India.

We started off our journey from Mumbai to Pimpari village by around 12:30 am .  It is almost 150 kms journey to reach the place in the early morning.  After breakfast and a brief introductory session, we headed towards the valley. There was a small dam with beautiful hills in the background.

Small farmlands and wild flowers captivated us as we crossed the small paths that lead to the hills. The trail continued to Independence Point along the valley sides. After a few minutes of walk, we reached the mouth of the valley.  Actual Andharban trek starts through the right side from here. But we decided to move ahead with a sudden descend into the valley.

The view coupled with wild flowers,  Bhira Dam at the end point, sky high mountains and tranquility  will surprise you.

Andharban has good flora in monsoon and there are  lots of things to see around.

It is a descend trek, where you are already on height and you will be descending till the end.  It is one of the most beautiful trek with lots of things to explore. The real test of endurance begins now.  There were few rock patches  and all of us crossed it without major hurdles. Then the group continued the walk through the rocks by climbing and jumping.

The light rays falling from different directions into the valley created some beautiful shades.

There were few more rock patches without a proper path and were difficult too. Not many trekkers would have chosen this path for Andharban trek before.  Volunteer's helped others to descend.  Those who had already crossed, got an opportunity to take some rest. It was somewhat difficult for first time trekkers.

There were small waterfalls on our way and we took few minutes break to click photographs. There were few rappelling patches and it took more time for all trekkers to descend.

The rock patches were difficult and there were no steps or hand rails to descend. The  descending is not that simple as it appears.

After crossing some big rocks, we reached a vast area with 2-3 waterfalls . The continuous sound of the waterfalls started hitting our ears in the silence.  The we walked towards the waterfall.  After a nice bath, we opened our food packets.

As you walk forward, the mountains slowly open up and start giving you a glimpse of the valley ahead.

Soon we reached the exit point of the valley. We were in the middle of nowhere. There was no proper way to descend and a huge valley was ahead us. We did not have proper equipment or guide to rappel down and we decided to stop our descend. 

The trek  took 4 hours altogether. It was around 3.00 PM when we started our ascending. This was new in this particular trek. By around 7 PM we reached the top of the valley. The last and final challenge is the long walk through the end of the valley to a village which marks the end of the trek.