Vadakumbhroshi to Metatale

After a 1 km road walk, a steep forest trail climbs directly to Pratapgarh, bypassing the fort's road access entirely.

Pratapgarh is unusual among EST forts — it's a lived-in fort, with a settlement built up all around it (comparable to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan). The summit holds a large statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on horseback, and the fort is a genuinely striking vantage point.

The trailhead is tricky to find — it starts right from Pratapgarh's staircases, so you'll need to come back down to the fort's parking area first. From there, a trail through open scrub leads to the temple of Ram Vardaini Mata at the Par Pass saddle.

A ridgeline trail with heavy grass cover leads to the remote settlement of Kandoshi. Early starts (around 7 AM) make it likely you'll cross paths with locals — young and old — carrying milk canisters up to supply Pratapgarh, walking the opposite direction.

A vantage-point ridgeline — with real mapping potential in the adjacent valley — leads to the roadhead at Kudpan. Two villages share the name here: Kudpan Budruk (larger) and Kudpan Khurd (smaller). The EST runs through Kudpan Budruk.

Nigada Ghat's entry point is the trickiest part of this leg to find. Once located, a good trail descends toward the Konkan side — through open forest, a dry riverbed, then flat valley land where an approved dam project is now under active construction (trucks and earthworks visible close to the trail at the base). A flat kaccha path carries you the rest of the way into Vadgaon Budruk.

Vadgaon Budruk is largely a ghost village — most houses were found locked and empty, part of the same rural-to-urban migration pattern affecting other hamlets on the EST.

A 1 km road walk from Vadgaon Budruk leads to a split toward Kalambani Khurd. From there, an open-scrub trail crosses a dry riverbed on an iron bridge into Birmani (Lower) — southeast of Vadgaon Budruk, at 300 m elevation.

The trail follows a beautiful forested stretch along a dry riverbed, forks into a gully, and climbs from a base near 300 m up to a saddle near 800 m. The line is clear throughout with good ground clues, and there's a notable tree near the top marked with visible leopard claws.

Past the saddle, the trail reaches the Hatlot valley. The EST does not turn east to the village of Hatlot here — it continues north, toward Birmani.

From roughly 750 m, a dense-forest trail contours along the center of a ridgeline for about 2 km. It's not very wide or evident underfoot, but it is mapped — stick to the line. Around the 2 km mark, Upper Birmani comes into view across the valley to the north.

From there, the trail follows a ridge nose down into the Birmani valley. Upper Birmani is connected by road.

6 km · roughly 80–90 m of gain and drop, flat throughout. A rural tertiary road with near-zero traffic.

A well-maintained trail — this is a daily commuter route for locals who live at the base of Mahabaleshwar and hike up to work on the plateau each day, so it's kept in very good condition.

The stage ends at Metatale.

Worth noting: Vada Kumbhroshi and Metatale sit just 3 km apart in a straight line, despite this stage's 41 km route through Pratapgarh and both ghatvaats — the EST trades directness for the fuller experience of the landscape.