Ghatghar to Ahupe

From Ghatghar the trail runs to the Naneghat starting point and drops 230 m, from 760 m to 530 m, where you meet a fork. Take the left split. A power line runs directly overhead with big electricity towers along it — that is your confirmation you are on the right line.

This ghatvaat carries no local name. The trail contours down a west-facing slope, the landscape shifting from open forest into open scrub. Watch for a small shrine along here. Sindoor shrines are usually a red figure on a black background; this one is the exact reverse — the shrine itself is black and the background is painted in sindoor.

From the Naneghat start to the roadhead is about 3 km, losing roughly 550 m, with farmlands towards the end. From the road it is 2 km south to the village of Singapur.

Yes, Singapur. There are several villages of that name in Maharashtra and you will pass two of them on the EST.

Look east from Singapur and you can see the rock face and the crest line you came down. The way back up is a ghatvaat called Darya Ghat.

It opens flat, farmlands giving way to open forest, and from around the 240 m contour it starts climbing — roughly 700 m of gain over 4 km on a thin trail, not a broad path.

Navigation through this forest is difficult. There is a trail here one hundred percent of the time. If you are not on it, it means you are not looking around. Spend the time to find it, because the penalty for losing it in a gully like this is not getting lost — it is climbing boulders you did not need to climb, and arriving at the saddle with nothing left.

About 50 m below the saddle there is a water spring. It is a puddle at the base rather than a flowing source, but the water is potable and it holds through the full EST season.

Over the saddle there is a shrine — the Dhakoba temple. The trail then drops from 950 m to 800 m, through dense forest at first, opening into scrub, and ends at a roadhead at the small hamlet of Ganpatichiwadi.

Backtrack about half a kilometre from Ganpatichiwadi, then climb out of the open scrub onto the plateau south of Darya Ghat.

The plateau is criss-crossed with cattle trails and there are offshoots everywhere. Stay on the mapped line — the landscape is wide and open enough that a wrong branch costs you real distance before you notice. Dhakoba hill is visible ahead.

There is one steep section on the climb, awkward on the way back down but not exposed. The top is a vantage point and it is very windy — stay back from the ledge. From here you can see Naneghat, Jivdhan, the whole line of Darya Ghat, the settlements of Singapur and Ishtyachiwadi, and the Konkan beyond. You are standing on the Sahyadri crest line looking back at your own route. There are no fort remains at Dhakoba despite the name.

From here the trail runs parallel to the crest line, holding about a kilometre back from the edge, so you are not walking the rim.

From Dhangarwadi, keep parallel to the crest line to reach Durg. As at Dhakoba, there is no fort — a temple complex, and what was once a watchtower.

From Durg the trail could drop straight down Khutyachi Waat to Rampur and climb back up Donicha Daar. That is the efficient line — less distance, less road. The EST does the opposite, and deliberately.

Khutyachi Waat is severely exposed and is far safer climbed than descended; descending one kilometre of it took me close to four hours. So the route goes down Donicha Daar and up Khutyachi Waat, at a cost of roughly 8 km including a 4 km repeat along the crest line, plus road walking at the end. If the detour looks like a mistake on the map, that is what it is buying.

From Durg, follow the edge of the plateau to the head of Donicha Daar. The entry is not straightforward: you can see the gully you need to get into, but there is no direct approach from the crest. The trail runs further south first, then contours back north to find the way in.

Dense forest at first, then the gully widens. Expect a small landslide section that takes real effort — this is an ankle-turning place, so slow down.

You will constantly be tempted to follow the main gully down its centre. Do not. There is almost always a trail alongside it, on the right bank, and it is both faster and safer. This is the navigation mistake this descent punishes.

Reading a gully properly — knowing that the watercourse is the drainage and not the path, and finding the bank line that shadows it — is one of the 16 skills taught in the HikeX Hiking Field Course. It is the difference between three hours and six on ground like this.

That said, you will not be out of the gully the whole way. There are stretches where the centre is the line, and one point where a wooden log has been laid across a big rock to help you get down it. But roughly ninety percent of the descent is on the bank trail.

The trail brings you to the hamlet of Waaghachiwadi, and from there down to the town of Rampur.

The climb from Rampur to the top is under 5 km with around 900 m of gain.

Standing at the base looking up at the drop of the crest line, you cannot believe there is a trail in it. That is distance blindness — the scale of a face flattens everything on it, and a route that exists reads as impossible. Stick to the mapped line.

Farmlands, then open scrub, then open forest, then a ridgeline, and you arrive quickly at the base of the rock face.

There is no water on this route. Carry at least 3 litres from Rampur — the adrenaline of this climb will make you drink far more than the distance suggests.

The strange quality of this ghatvaat is that it only ever shows you the next fifteen steps. You climb fifteen and cannot imagine how the line continues. Then the landscape opens and gives you fifteen more. That repeats the whole way up, and it is the most distinctive thing about the route.

If someone asks what the most adventurous route on the whole Epic Sahyadri Trail is in a literal sense, the answer is this one.

People do descend it but it is not recommended.

Near the top, watch for tiny rolling stones underfoot and dry grass that is genuinely slippery, arriving exactly when you are most tired. A contouring section and one last short climb put you back on the crest line, just south of Durg.

From here you repeat the 4 km of crest line back to the point where you dropped into Donicha Daar.

From here it is road all the way to Ahupe — 12.5 km with about 250 m of gain, through the settlements of Done and Pimpalghani. It is tar, and it carries almost no traffic, but it is one of the longest road sections on the entire Epic Sahyadri Trail.