37 SGNP Treks
Two Treks in Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) .... from Thane,Manpada Gate
The weather was nice and cool in Jan-Feb and it seemed a perfect time to do some treks, longer than the daily morning walk-climb to the yewoor-hill. So, we did 2 treks: (1) Trek to the Mundi Peak & back and (2) A walk through the park's forest trails, to exit from the Borivili Gate.
Use cursors buttons at Map's top-left corner ... to move around the map and zoom-in/out
I am lucky to have SGNP as my backyard!
I live in Thane (a suburb of Mumbai) that is on the eastern fringe of the huge SGNP. SGNP with its green forest, hills and lakes, is sandwiched between the suburbs of Vikhroli, Bhandup, Mulund and Thane on east and the suburbs of Goregaon, Borivali, Dahisar etc. on the west. One big advantage of staying here in Thane, for me, is that I can go for my daily morning walk into SGNP and climb up the forest-trails to the top of the small Yewoor-Hill (alt:200M/663ft). This is a perfect daily routine for me to keep fit and ever-ready for the longer treks in Himalayas.
Recently, a college classmate (1972) of mine, Prabal, retired and settled down in Thane. He too started coming for the morning trek-walk to Yewoor Hill. This winter the weather has been cooler than normal and so we decided to do a few longer treks in the SGNP area. Our first target was to climb the tall peak (called "Mundi" by the locals here) which stood just to the west of our usual climb area.
(1) Yewoor Mundi Trek - 20th Jan 2010
We hired a local villager from Vanitapada, to guide us to the top of Mundi. We first climbed our usual hill (alt:663ft) and then climbed down into the valley to our Guide Devram's home in Vanitapada and then climbed steadily to the top of Mundi (1430ft). I carried my GPS and summary stats from that:
An aerial view of the huge green SGNP (from Google Earth) with Borivali on West and Thane on East. The Yellow line is the Mundi trek track and the Pink-line from Vanitapada to Borivali
Outward to Mundi:
Dep: 7:06am Arr: 9:38am Total dist = 5.1KM
Total Time: 2H:33M (incl reststops 10-15 mins)
Altitudes: Gate 234ft Yewoor-Top: 663ft Vanitapada:426ft Mundi-Top 1430ft
Return from Mundi:
Dep: 10:17am Arr: 12:20am
Total dist = 4.8KM
Total Time: 2H:02M (incl reststops 5-10 mins)
The GPS trek-tracks are available in the "Files" page and they have been traced as Yellow-Line on Google Earth Image shown below:
Our Guide Devram on Top of Mundi
Mundi Trek Path-line (Click on Image to Enlarge)
KS and Prabal - Happy to be on top!
Prabal checks his mobile signal strength on Mundi
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Another view of Yewoor-Mundi Track (Click to Enlarge)
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2) Thane-Borivali Trek - 11th February 2010
Both of us were quite happy with the Mundi trek and Prabal wanted us to do the walk to Borivali through the SGNP at earliest, before weather turns hot to summer. So we again fixed up Devram and he brought along another boy Babu who knew the path to Borivali better.
We met at the SGNP-gate at 7:00AM and climbed up the Yewoor-hill and then all the way down to Vanitapada and picked Devram and Babu. It was long walk through thick dense forest. Initially, we followed a dry river-stream bed (flows torrentially in monsoon) until the Waterfall point was reached. Ofcourse, there was no waterfall now, but a big pool of green stagnant water was collected at the base of that.
Prabal on the dry river bed we followed initially
Waterfall Point
After continuing along the dry stream bed for some more time we detouring a hillock and then started climbing the range of hills, to reach a low col facing west.
The Col had a top-plateau with open ground and a crude cricket pitch with sticks for stump. We could see Borivali skyline of skyscrapers from here to the west. We stopped here for a snack of Sandwiches and then continued down-hill through thick forest and a different kind of vegetation than on Thane side.
Soon we hit a clear and wide trail and passed a small man-made dam; to create a waterhole for the animals?
Prabal and the big mango tree near Vanitapada
Prabal (L) and me in the forest near Vanitapada
The Thane-Borivali trek path - Yellow from Thane to Vanitapada and then Pink from there to Borivali Exit (Click to Enlarge)
The dam and the water-hole lake
Another 2 Kms and we exited on to a single-lane tar road, with a signpost saying we had come out of the "Shilonda-Trail". Walked a further Km down the tar road towards Kanheri Caves. But before we reached Kanheri we turned right and headed out the Borivali gate to Western Expressway at around 1:00PM. We caught a bus and returned to Thane via Ghodbunder road.
Here we turned right, towards the SGNP Borivili gate
Trek Summary Stats (a bit rounded):
Started from Yewoor Gate at : 7:00AM
Reached Borivili W.Expway at : 1:15PM
Total time = 6Hrs 15Mins (incl Lunch & Rest stops)
Prabal remembers his cricket days; on top of the Ridge
Devram, Prabal and Babu on the Ridge-top ... with Borivili skyline in the far hazy distance
The Shilonda Trail sign-post ... as we exit from trail to tar road .... we came down this very trail for last 4-5KMs
Distances:
Yewoor Gate to Vanitapada : 2.7 KM
Vanitapada to Lunch Spot : 6.1 KM
Lunch Pt. to Borivili W/Exp : 5.7 KM
Total Distance Walked ......: 14.5 KM
For me it was a looong 14.5KM walk today ... but for Prabal it was more than 20Kms as he had walked all the way from his home to SGNP-gate!! But, then I claim carrying 50% more body-weight all the way!!!
GPS-Tracs are available for download in Files Page.
The gate on the trail .... where we came out from
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