TheFreeBird
I was looking for a place away from the crowds & it is very difficult to find something peaceful on weekends especially in monsoon. While i had gone to KP falls in Khopoli last weekend , i found some locals walking through the tunnel to reach NathBaba caves. I was shocked to see them walk more than km long tunnels with trains every 10-15 minutes . Therefore I decided to find another safer route where we would not have to risk walking through such long tunnels for NathBaba trek. Some may ask me that Niraj I think the name of caves is a bit different from waht i have heard . yes because the Nath Baba caves are also known as Gambhirnath caves / Gorakshanath caves / Nagnath caves. More adventures like this one at the end of the post.
The view from the caves is very beautiful and with good weather one can easily spot Songiri, Rajmachi , Matheran , Karnala, Manikgad, Irshalgad, Prabalgad. However before i could take out my camera the clouds arrived and couldn’t get a clear view. Nonetheless the place is very peaceful. Have a look at my reel below to get a feel of the place.
How to reach Nagnath Gambhirnath NathBaba Caves ?
All possible routes for the caves are mentioned below
Route 1: The base village for Nagnath caves is Station Thakurwadi ( Location ) in Karjat from where you can trek to caves via service tunnel. This is the one which i prefer & recommend & described for this blog.
Route 2: The base village for Nagnath caves is Station Thakurwadi from where you walk on railway track towards Lonavla ( should not take the service tunnel mentioned in Route 1) You walk on track to reach here ( same point coming from Lonavla Route 4) & then there is small path that goes up to the caves from the left side – takes about 10 minutes of climbing).
Route 3: You can also reach here from the railway track coming from KP falls in Khopoli . You will need to walk through atleast 3 long tunnels ( one is 1km long other two are shorter) for about 2 kms to reach here from where there is small trek route of 10mins which would be risky in monsoon or you can walk further ahead through a fourth tunnel ( tunnel no 32) after which you can meet the route from Route 1.
Route 4: You can also reach here from the railway track coming from Lonavla side. From Monkey hill Cabin location – walk straight till here & then there is small path that goes up to the caves from the right side – takes about 10 minutes of climbing). Again this involves lots of walking on track
Route 5: There is another path which comes from Kelavli Railway station which meets Route 1 after the catch siding, but it involves additional 2 hours of walking to reach here
I dont recommend routes 3 & 4 as it involves lots of walking on railway tracks & long tunnels which is very risky & plain idiotic. Route 5 is also a bit tedious and unmarked . Hence i took route no. 1 which is described further & route no. 2 while returning.
Karjat > Kondivade > Station Thakurwadi ( Trek start point) > Nagnath Caves
Karjat is the nearest big Railway station with more frequency. Technically Station Thakurwadi is the nearest station (less frequency)
Auto-Rickshaw: From Karjat Station you can walk for some 10 minutes to reach Shreeram Pul / Bridge from where you will get Rickshaws to Kondiwade village. ( 200 Rs for the entire Rickshaw. 25-30 Rs for Sharing). You can ask the driver to drop you to Station Thakurwadi for an extra amount.
ST Bus: After you reach the Karjat railway station walk to the bus stand and enquire. There are many bus going from Karjat to Khandpe. Ask them to drop for Kondana caves. From the drop point you will need to walk 4 km if you dont get any rickshaw till Station Thakurwadi
Private Vehicle: Drive all the way to Karjat and take right from after Shreeram pul . Continue to Station Thakurwadi . The road is a bit rough after Kondivade. However is doable by your car till Station Thakurwadi village
Once you have reached Station Thakurwadi walk towards the railway station cabin besides the village from where the small trek starts.
Khane me Kya hia ?? Food :
As you can see in the above route everything passes over railway tracks & dense forests you wont get any stalls here. Better carry your own food. Cave does have a natural rock cut water tank , but i am not sure if the water is drinkable. Carry your own water. ( checkout my trek food & trek gear )
Alongwith Nagnath caves trek you can also visit Kondana Caves which is located in the opposite hill. Both these short treks can be easily planned in a day
My Journey to Nagnath Caves: TheFreeBird’s story
These days especially in monsoon everything is crowded. I hate crowds. Hence i was trying to figure out some offbeat trek for the weekend .Bamm….i remembered NathBaba Caves. After researching a bit me & my friend started off towards Station Thakurwadi on my Xpulse bike. Station cabin is 2 minutes of walk from the village. Besides the cabin is a route which leads to service tunnel from where we can cross over to the other side of the hill with relative ease
After crossing the tracks near the Thakurwadi cabin towards the tunnel the vegetation turns a bit dense and finally trek ka feel ana chalu hota hai. On reaching the service tunnel we feel like we have discovered something ancient cave and it probably leads to some hidden treasure. The tunnel is pretty long & dark. Glad everyone has torch in their mobiles these days. This part of the trek got me excited
It takes 5 minutes to cross the tunnel but we took 15 because reels naam ki bhi koi chij hoti hai. The tunnel is pretty cold esp in monsoon and that tunnel itself was worth our travel time to reach here. Just out of the tunnel we reach an old Catch siding.
You will ask Niraj what is catch siding?? Ruko jara.. sabr karo.. batata hoon..The trains coming down from Lonavala towards Karjat side sometime may have break failures especially the goods carrier ones because of constant slope , so this inclined track is built to reduce the speed of such break free trains and make them to stop by finally sliding them in sand
The route is straight from here onwards and you can find railway people here working constantly on the tracks can guide you to reach Nathbaba caves just in case you have any confusion
I hate walking on tracks and more so inside railway tunnels. But then there are no other routes & this one seemed to be the one with minimum railway exposure and smallest tunnel crossings.
Soon we crossed two tunnels to reach tunnel no 32 , from where we started our small trek towards NathBaba Caves. This caves are also known as Gambhirnath Caves . And some posters enroute mention it as Gorakshanath caves & even Nagnath caves.
From here started a short trek which passed through some large trees. If it was 50 years back before all the trains invaded the mountains this place would have been a dense , silent forest. And if you meditated here in such peaceful caves you would have definitely found God . For me for whom nature is god this place is surely blissful & heavenly.
Once we reached here there was no crowd at all. Entire place was at our service. And it served us well with this breath taking view
The cave itself was built in rock wall of the mountain. The front part seemed to be walled with stones to create an inner sanctum of positivity
The orange opening for Gambhirnath Caves was very small barely enough for me to cross it. What it symbolised to me is all men & women, rich & poor , short & tall are equal in nature. And we must keep our big egos outside to get into this Gods world.
Inside this cave was another inner cave with an even smaller entry. The first entrance needed to remove all the ego & arrogance. The second ones asked to reduce even the smaller amounts of attitude within
Finally inside we meditated for a while & felt certain positive vibes . Happy souls. After half an hour we came out of the cave rejuvenated & had some fresh air reaching to us through the lavish green sahyadri. I would have loved to stay here overnight but may be some other day. We got from the Route 2 mentioned in the map at the start of the blog , reached Station Thakurwadi .
On my bike . Get set Go.
Bye !!
That’s it for the Nathbaba caves blog.
If you have any doubts add a comment at the end of this post or reach out to me on my social media channels(at the end of this page). I also create ambience sahyadri videos on youtube.
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