Trekking with amazing nature view!. Review on Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary

Tungareshwar is a place near Mumbai, which I can say, is unexplored by many trekkers. This place was declared as Sanctuary very recently and if you are looking for catching up some time with the birds, then this place will offer you a good deal! For trekkers, this place offers an amazing trekking path with waterfalls, with lush green surroundings and while climbing up to the Ashram, it will offer you view of the lush green mountains!

One can reach the Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary spot by taking

1. local to Vasai road

2.From Vasai road, ST bus going to Khaman village but you have to alight at Tungareshwar Phata stop

1. From Phata, walk around a mile (you come across the Western Express Highway and have to cross this) to reach the Sanctuary gate.

From this gate, it is around 3kms light trekking path to reach the old and famous Shiv mandir. This temple is very old and houses the Shiva lingam. The temple is well maintained and one can take rest for sometime over there. You can choose the makeshift hotels available around the temple to have some snacks (I did not try any).

From temple, either one can backtrack or if you have the zeal of trekking 7kms, one can proceed forward to climb around 2000ft of this mountain to reach an Ashram. This trekking path is very beautiful but very rocky that can make anyone tired! Climbing up, you realize and you can see the very beauty of the nature where you can see lot of mountains and experience the cold wave breeze from the lush green surroundings.

Since this place is declared as sanctuary, we were expecting some animals and yes, we found one...a wild animal...and it was a reddish-brown Crab! You get this thruout your path, right from Big daddies to small kiddies! :)

Please note that since it is an UP path throughout the 7kms route, it is better to carry lot of water and some chocolates and some mint kind of eatables, above all few Electrol packets so that whenever you feel tired, you can take a break and bring in some energy to your body.

During the trekking, the icing on the cake was heavy rains that made us drench as well as made the atmosphere so foggy that the visibility became dead low! Sometimes, it was the feeling that we were walking in between clouds!!

Finally, after 2.5hrs of hard trekking, we reached the Ashram. Nothing big to boast of but hats off to the people staying there, on the hill station and hats off to the people who built a temple, a office building and a assembly hall, in that place! One can take rest in the assembly hall and relax for sometime.

Fine, what goes up has to come down! so, we had to return back to land again (since we were on the hilltop!) and thus, we started the descend back from there. Took nearly 2hrs to trek down and reached safely to home!

Now, when I look back, that day was my rendezvous with the nature, with the hills, with the greenery, that will remain in my memories for many years to come!