Road Trip to Madhe Ghat Waterfall

A visit to Madhe Ghat was on the plans for quite some time. In fact, the first time when i heard about Madhe Ghat was when i saw an article saying that a new route was planned cutting through Madhe. This route, when completed, would become the shortest across the mountain range and would make places such as Raigad much closer. Then when i searched for this area, i saw that it had a huge waterfall.

We always go on a trip every independence day and this time(2013), it was to Madhe Ghat. I didn’t manage a big group, so it was just us and Sunil’s family in two Xylos.

Route to Madhe Ghat from Pune(Magarpatta): There are two options you can choose from. 1) Go on a round trip like we did: Pune – Khadakwasla – Sinhagad – Pabe Ghat – Velhe – Madhe Ghat – Velhe – Nasrapur Phata – Pune 2) go and return by the same route Pune – Nasrapur – Velhe – Madhe and back through the same route. Both the maps are given below.

The round trip route we chose was amazing. Usually people go to Sinhagad and return. This route goes around Sinhagad, takes a left and cuts across the range to reach the route coming from Nasrapur. Both the routes are of the same distance. Take this round trip if you love nature. The roads are narrow, but not bad.

After you take a left beyond Sinhagad, you will go for a while and then cross Pabe Ghat. This is a beautiful pass. In fact, you will criss-cross multiple ranges and you will be climbing up and down them. I think i counted almost 7 such ranges on the whole trip. Pabe Ghat is a beautiful stretch surrounded by green mountains on all sides.

After you cross Velhe, you will see Torna on your left. Just after this, there was a small waterfall by the side of the road. This was an opportunity for the kids (and us) to spend some time on the water.

After a few more pass crossings, you finally reach a turn on the road, where the road to the right goes towards Madhe ghat. There are sign boards. Also, you should see tons of vehicles parked haphazardly on the road. Getting a parking spot was a nightmare. From the parking lot, there is a kuchcha stretch of around a km to reach the top of the waterfall. Some people on two wheelers had lot of fun trying to navigate this slippery stretch. So, technically you have to walk for around a km one way. And if it rains (as it was was when we went), it becomes even more fun (or worse) depending on the way you see it).

After this walk, you reach a plateau which is the top of the fall. You can walk right unto the edge from where the fall begins. The 270 deg view from this plateau is nothing short of amazing. What you are looking at is the entire Varandha range side-on. You can actually climb down to the bottom of the fall (not suitable with kids). Notice the people at the bottom on the last photo below.To get a full view of the fall, you have to walk a bit further to the next cliff which faces the falls. The mist was playing hide and seek with us throughout the 30 mins we were there near the falls. The rain and the mist made it a memorable photographic experience.

We came back through the Nasrapur-NH4 route. It was a wonderful independence day road trip!