Camping at the Shelte Water Lake near Kohoj Fort in Maharashtra.

Monday, July 10, 2017

Shelte Water Lake is located at Shelte Village, which is located near Vaghote village. Vaghote village is the landmark. Vaghote village is located very close to the Manor Wada road. By train the closest railway station is Palghar. From there one can either board a ST bus or a chartered rickshaw or switch tum tum at Tain village to get here. The closest fort is Kohoj. 

View from Shelte Water Lake near Kohoj Fort in Maharashtra

 I had traveled by the side of Shelte Water Lake thrice, as it took me three attempts to conquer Kohoj fort. This is my first camping trip, hoping everything goes well is all that was in my head.

This trip was planned with office colleagues and finally on the D day it was just Hansel and me who ventured on this trip. Remember Hansel, he had accompanied me to Aswali Dam and Shiv Kalin Vihir in Badlapur.

Shelte Water Lake near Kohoj Fort in Maharashtra

We met at 1 PM at Amboli near my place, then filled petrol and then off we went via the western express Highway to Manor. The directions to Vaghote village are tagged on google maps. It is around 90 km away. i.e around 2 hours to reach.

Kohoj Fort in the backdrop

As it was the month of May, it was hot. Though we were travelling on the bike the sun still managed to burn the skin off my hand as it was not covered. I should have taken Hansel's advise and worn a long sleeve shirt.

Road leading to Kohoj Fort from Shelte Water lake

We crossed the Versova bridge aka Vasai bridge without any traffic. Which was good. The roads were clear and hence we picked up on speed to reach destination. We took just one pit stop and finally we were at the base village of Vaghote. We got off the Manor Wada road and asked the locals for directions as a lot of changes have been geographically made to the land. Google Maps was of not much help now as these were village roads and the all looked the same.

That's Hansel and Me

Finally after asking a couple of locals for directions we were finally at the Shelte Water Lake. The locals call it the "Bhandara."

The time was now 3:30 PM on my watch. It was hot as hell here. We parked the bike in the shade of a tree and sat there to kill time. Thanks to the tree we were greeted with the winds at regular intervals.

That's the tent and the bike

Many kids from the villages nearby were in the water, either bathing or cooling themselves from the summer heat. The women folk were busy washing clothes in the lake water. This water is surely not fit for consumption purposes.

Hansel setup to explore the lake surroundings in search of dry twigs so that we can have a bonfire post sundown. He managed to accumulate a lot of twigs, I had carried newspapers for easy combustion and we were lucky to get a matchstick box filled with matchstick right at the place where we had parked his bike.

Sun is setting

The weather was playing games with us, suddenly there was cool breeze blowing and suddenly there was no breeze as at all.

As this was my first camping trip, I had carried powerbank, USB LED light, mosquito repellent, along with food and plenty of water,  we didn't carry any liquor as we were on a camping trip. Hansel pitched the tent,  though one of the rods gave in, we still managed to make use of the bike to provide support to our tent.

Another pic of Hansel and Me

Hansel lighted the bon fire. It was a pleasant evening, we talked and talked and finally we were bored talking so we decided to eat supper. Supper comprised of mashed potatoes, boiled chicken with coriander and tomatoes. I agree the food was bland but it was high in carbohydrates and protein. Felt super energized. LOL.

There were a bunch of locals, who too had come to the lake side to have a small party. They asked us if we were carrying liquor and if we could share the same with them. We informed them that we were not carrying liquor, but they could join us for supper as we had food in plenty.

Waters of Shelte Lake

The locals had got with them a float (truck tube) and a fishing net, one of them sat on the float and setup the fishing net  in the lake. They too had lit a bonfire. We could see three more bonfires lit around the lake premises. Interesting , not sure if they were locals or campers.

The locals who were having a party, managed to catch some fish, cook it in a chatty and had their full and finally called it a night at around 10:30 PM.

Bonfire

I too called it a night, the tent could accommodate two people, had we parked the bags outside the tent. But as we had the bags inside only one person could sleep in it.

Hansel had made up his mind that he would stay awake all night long. What and Why were the questions popping up in my head. But that's what he wanted to do. Not sure as there was nothing to do in the dead of the night. I handed him over my phones so that he could keep himself occupied by surfing the internet or watching movies that were already on the phone. Both Vodafone and Reliance Jio had strong signals here, sadly the breeze was playing up, which made sleeping a difficult task for me. Not sure if I was suffering from Sleep Wake Disorder. But I didn't manage to get deep sleep. See the photos clicked by Hansel, I am sleeping, half my body is outside the tent.

Dinner : Mashed Potato and Boiled Chicken

We woke up, or should I say I woke up around 5:45 AM. It was dawn then. Hansel managed to get some good snaps of the surrounding till then.

Dawn

As it was pleasant in the morning, we decided to go for a walk around the lake premises. We didn't cover the entire lake premises, but just a small part of it. The sound of the birds chirping on the trees was music to our ears. I was so happy to hear that sound. It was much better than the sound of the alarm which wakes me up, everyday.

That's Me

We saw a fisherman, who had come early, he headed to the waters, not sure if he was trying to put the net or trying to remove the net. Hoping that he gets a good catch.

Dawn

We then freshened up, and decided to head back to Amboli. We left around 7:45 AM to reach Amboli at 9:00 AM. As there was hardly any traffic on the road, and the weather was all gloomy we managed to speed up on the highway.

Kohoj Fort and Shelte Water Lake

We managed to cover the entire trip in Rs.600 for two. Impressive na.