Trek to Harishchandragad via TolarKhind

I had done a trek to Harishchandragad on 1st-2nd Sep. Harishchandragad is the fort situated in Ahmednagar District. There is a temple on the top which is well built.
Trek Location
Name: Harishcandragad
Base Village : Khireshwar Base
Distance: 210kms from Mumbai(approx)
Route to reach base: From mumbai take eastern express way and get down at khubi fata. From khumbi fata take left nad reach the Khireshwar base village
Ascent time: 4.5hrs
Descent time: 4.5hrs
Height of the Naneghat fort: 4710ft
Trek Experience:I reached Kalyan by 10:40 pm. Trek Organizers stopped the ST bus for me. I got into the bus. Reached Savarne, where there is an abandoned Police chowki by 12:20 am. Waited for few more members to join. By 1:00 all the members have been joined. Had dinner.However due to some technical issues we dropped off the plan to take the Nalichi Vaat route. so planned to take the route via Tolarkhind. By 1:20 decision has been made to go to Khubi fata and then do the trek. I got a truck(filled with ACs) by 3:20 am. Reached Khubi fata by 4:30 am. Then got ready and started towards the base village Khireshwar by 4:55. Reached the base, had morning breakfast and started Ascent. The root is very slippery. Little drizzling was there. I reached the TolarKhind. The rockpatches were very slippery.Once I crossed the rockpatches, was surrounded by greenary and flowers. The trail was amazing. The view was fantastic with little drizzles and droplets on the flowers. I reached the top of Harishchandragad by 11:30 am. Went to the cave. Taken rest. ordered Rice, Roti , bhaaji for lunch from the villager who is preparing in the cave adjacent to ours. Had lunch by 3:00 pm and went to Temple for darshan and left for Kokan Kada(the best place to be during monsoon). However due to fog,clouds and rain not able to view the base of the hill from the top of Kokan khada. But there is continuous wind flow. It sarted raining heavily. However due to strong wind rain was carried away from the place where I was standing. It was fabulous to watch. Returned to the cave by 6:00 pm.
                                            Played some games in the cave. Started cooking Maggie and Soup. Organizers are very good at cooking as well. All the equipment was brought for cooking. Had dinner by 8:30 pm. Had gossiped upto 10:30 and then slept in the caves. Sunday Morning got up by 5:30 am and got ready and started descent towards the base village by 6:30 am. Now I have taken a route via Cartoon Network(there will be 7 hills which need to cross by traversing - While ascent taken a route via Balekilla) This route is covered with nice colourful flowers. The route was quite scary while descent due to wet rocks. By 11:30 am reached the base. Went to a small dam nearby. IT was very good. Had some photshoot and then started towards the Khubi fata. We got a jeep on the way. Boarded it and reached Khubi fata by 12:30. Got a ST bus to Kalyan station. Reached station by 3:00 pm. So reached home safely. All is well.
                                 

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Tomato Bhaaji

Ingredients
1) Tomato - 3
2) Green Chillies - 2
3) Malai - 100 ml
4) Methi - 10 gms
5) Jeera - 15 gms
6) Ground nuts - 30 gms
7) coriander powder  - 10 gms
8) Red Chilli powder - 5 gms
9) Asafoetida(hing) - 5 gms
10) Mustard seeds - 5 gms
11) Turmeric powder - 5 gms
12) Salt - 1 and half
13) Ginger - 5 gms

Procedure
1. Take a bowl of water and boil it.
2. Once the water is boiled add two tomatoes to it and boil them. close the bowl with a lid. Once boiled, take the tomatoes into a vessel and pour cold water on them.
3. Take one tomato(slice into pieces), ginger(chop finely), green chillies(cut into small pieces) in a mixer and grind them. Take the mix into a separate bowl.
4. Take Mustard Seeds, Jeera(10 gms) and Methi into a pan and fry them until they change to brown colour.
5. Take the above fried items along with groundnuts into a mixer and add little water and grind them. Take the paste into a separate vessel.
6. Take two spoons of oil in a pan and heat it. Add Jeera to it.
7. Add Coriander powder turmeric powder in the pan.
8. After two mins add the tomatoes paste(prepared in step 3), Asafoetida in the pan and heat until the oil gets separate.
9. Add Malai and add the paste(prepared in step 5) to the pan, mix the ingredients well.
10. Add Red Chilli powder and mix well until the oil gets separate.
11. Add water as per the required levels for the gravy thickness(in general 200 ml of water would be sufficent).
12. Add salt to it, mix all the ingredients thouroughly and boil them. Close the pan with the lid and put the falme in low.
13. Remove the skin of the tomatoes(boiled as per step 2) and cut into 4 pieces, one horizontal and one vertical but the base of tomato base should not be cut.
14. Add the sliced tomatoes to the gravy. ensure that entire tomato gets the gravy and heat it for 2 -3 mins with pan closed with the lid.
15. Serve the hot Tomato Bhaaji.
                               

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