Monsoon Garbett Trek
Lately, I have been very passionate about going on treks and doing some offbeat adventures every weekend. So last weekend I went on a monsoon trek to Garbett Plateau. And it was a wondrous monsoon trek experience which I cannot wait to share.
Garbett point dwells on the South-west side of Matheran Hills which extends a magnificent view of the complete Garbett Plateau. There are many routes you can opt to trek to the Garbett Point, we started our trek from Bhivpuri Town.
- Type: Trek
- Height: 2625 feet above sea level
- Range: Matheran
- Endurance level: Medium
- Time: 4-5 Hours
- Expense: 1000 per person/-
- Nearest railway station: Karjat (Central Railway)
- Base Village: Diksal village
How to reach Garbett Trek start point:
We got an early morning local train from Thane to Bhivpuri Station as our meeting time was 8:00 am, if you planning the trek from Pune you can catch a train till Karjat and get a local train to Bhivpuri from there.
The ticket cost us around 20 Rs. one side, we took a return to avoid any hassle after the trek. We planned our trek outing with Wandering Souls and we were a total of 28 people fro this trek. We started with delicious breakfast and chai just outside the station road. Would suggest to freshen up here and buy any snacks or water, once the trek starts you won’t find any shop on the way to purchase.
Next, we headed our way to Dhom Dam (Diksal village) which is the start point of the trek.
Garbett trek journey:
Garbett Trek is a moderate level trek when it comes to difficulty. It will take around 4-5 hours to complete the trek, which includes 3/4 hours of ascend and 1 hour of descending to reach Matheran Taxi Point which was our endpoint of the trek. There are few stretches while climbing is steep and during monsoons, it gets slippery so make sure to wear good comfortable grip shoes.
If you are planning during summer make sure to complete the trek before noon as it gets extremely hot in the afternoon. The opening trail is a soil path, which crosses the Tatoba Temple and brings you to the Dhom dam also called as Bhivpuri Lake.
We had a brief introduction session here with our group and guide. The view of the mountains covered with lush green grasses was scenic and breathtaking.
As it was monsoon there were many waterfalls which you could glance through distance. The best part of the trek was crossing the roaring water flow of the lake, it was adventurous and exciting.
After a small ascend we reached a small village on the hilly terrain named Sagachiwadi. Crossing the beautiful rice paddy fields we took a short break at the local village, where we had some hot tea and a quick toilet break. The locals over there are very helpful if you are trekking alone or new to the place you can ask the locals they will surely help you and guide you in the right direction.
The next phase was the difficult one- where the climb gets steeper and slippery during monsoons. But once you cross this, you are very close to the Garbett Plateau. Roughly about 30 to 40 minutes would take to hike up at the plateau. The plateau was filled with lush green grasses and fog all around, we couldn’t see much and the wind was strong plus it was pouring heavily.
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We stopped there for about 20 mins to enjoy the view but the clouds didn’t allow us to get the view. The experience was mindblowing and felt like we were on top of the clouds. Once you reach the plateau, you can either climb up to the Garbett point or descend to the Dasturi Naka through the jungle which was our trekking endpoint.
As it was monsoon with zero visibility we decided to descend to Dasturi Naka through jungles which took about an hour to reach the taxi stand. For our return journey, we took a shared taxi to reach Neral station from Dasturi Naka. If you are wet you can get freshen up at the Neral station, make sure to carry extra clothes to wear after the trek.
Garbett Trek Cost:
I had planned my trek with Wandering Souls(link) so they charged me 700Rs/- for the trek activity which included breakfast, guide, refreshment and transfers back to Neral station. Exclusion is the train tickets, personal snacks, water etc which are basic.
Do carry light snacks, protein bars, water etc as you are sure to feel hungry & thirsty while trekking and once the trek starts you will not find any shops. The entire activity cost me around 900 Rs. including the lunch, transfer and train tickets which I feel is very reasonable and pocket-friendly.
It was a wonderful experience, being a second monsoon trek which I could complete. Well, the trekking adventure doesn’t end here, before the monsoon ends I also managed to trek the Visapur fort in Lonavala.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzj35kOgmjA/?igshid=1t4l1v09lo15z
Also read: My first monsoon trek was- Tikona Trek
