The WildWanderer: passion

Wednesday, 12 October 2016

Summer trek to the Iron Fort- Lohagad, Malavli

Welcome back….

It was February and summer was ready to make some hot performances.

One day my Partner, Jay called me asking for a trek as he and his friends were desperate for a break.

After a good 40 minutes discussion, considering the Pros and cons, “Dil pe bhaari, aur Jeb pe halka”, level of fitness of participants etc. we settled on Lohagad.

famous view that represents Lohagad

The Iron fort of Chhatrapati shivaji Maharaj. Simple, decent but still not to be taken for granted, such is the grade of Lohagad.

Lohagad (iron fort) is one of the many hill forts of Maharashtra, it rises to an elevation of 1,033 m (3,389 ft) above sea level. The fort is connected to the neighboring Visapur fort by a small range. The fort was under the Maratha empire for the majority of time, with a short period of 5 years under the Mughal empire.

Lohagad has a long history with several dynasties occupying it at different periods of time: Satavahanas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Yadavas, Bahamanis, Nizams, Mughals and Marathas. Shivaji Maharaj captured it in 1648 CE, but he was forced to surrender it to the Mughals in 1665 CE by the Treaty of Purandar. Shivaji Maharaj recaptured the fort in 1670 CE and used it for keeping his treasury. This fort was used to keep the loot from Surat. Later in Peshwa time Nana Phadnavis used this fort for living for sometime and built several structures in the fort such as a big tank and a step-well.

Early morning of 28th February, we started our journey by The “All time hit, Jam Packed” Indrayani express trying to get in and out during our entire journey. Finally we somehow managed to alight at Lonavala, and till we can come to our senses, the departure of connecting EMU Local to Pune was announced, but lucky to catch the train.

WCAM-3AC/6P and other WAG-7 await their duty as bankers at Karjat

Malavli is the next station from Lonavala Towards pune, on the right you can clearly see 2 mighty forts, Visapur and Lohagad.

We got down at Malavli and started to walk, with the village view around us, we were enjoying the vicinity.

deserted Malavli station

Group photo

pic wahi.. location nayi

seems like Kaante film k heroes

After walking for some 20 minutes we had our breakfast and continued our journey.

anna Jevayla.. jevaylaa.....

To the left lies Karla caves, a complex of shrines built by Buddhist monks around 3rd to 2nd century B.C

Bhaje caves

The tar road goes to till the base of Lohagad fort. Slowly with the increasing heat, each soldier was surrendering and denying to go ahead.

let me try my hands on a DSLR

exhaustion starts

Since I had always stressed on finding new routes, we continued the search for another route apart from the regular HOT tar road. Here we took a right into the forest which had a small walkway moving towards the fort. From here you can get a clear glimpse of the Mighty Lohagad fort.

side view of Lohagad with Vinchukata

Taking breaks and sipping on with Electral water, the group managed to find a way which was so cool and into the dense shadows of over grown trees, that they decided to stop there itself.

After a big break of 30 mins, where 2-3 were almost asleep, we wokeup all and started again.

Climbing from the narrow area was so challenging and tricky, but all managed to make it easily.

new route

this must be a waterfall in monsoon

Alas… the heat and Tar road met us again. So walking along quickly from the area, we reached the base of Lohagad fort.

Visapur fort

Most people take their food here. U can get nice and hot breakfast, Lunch with option of Veg/ Non Veg and most important… WATER.

Easily accessible and proper maintenance of some areas kept us happy about the preservation and conservation of Forts under Maharashtra tourism.

aamche Raje... _/\_

Board detailing about the fort

Here we were greeted by our ancestors who were expecting some food from people, at times I hate such So called Educated” fools who hit these little monkeys if they try to snatch bags from you.

Ancestral family ....hahahaha

We were enjoying the cool breeze and kept walking and doing photography.

Visapur Fort - Parallel view

Clicked some nice photographs at every entrance admiring the structures and ideology behind making such structures.

Bastion

Since we were a bit in hurry to explore the Vinchukata (Scorpion’s Tail) we directly headed towards it crossing the hexagonal pond and nearby places.

Some of the people stayed back and others rushed towards the tip.

enroute- Vinchukata

side view - Vinchukata

The cool breeze refreshed and we did a solid “GHOSHNAAA”

Returned back and started our decend. However one of my friend started to exhaust, cant wait for him as we were already running behind schedule and wanted to move towards Lonavala. he took lift from a passerby bike and met us at station.

It is always a preferred option to have food/ Lunch at Lonavala than Malavli as you have more alternatives for food and Transport here.

Lonavala station

Since it was a Sunday we had a super Non-Veg lunch.

Luckily we had ample time to click some pics at station waiting for the train.

WCM-6 reting at trip shed

Finally our day ended with Cramped legs, Exhausted body but refreshed Mind and soul.

See you again….

Jai Maharashtra.

Aapla- Sumya

Monday, 30 May 2016

Night Trek and Camping at Mrugagad, Khopoli

Greetings fellow Readers,

Its been long time I took to write, but was waiting for some super exciting visit.

It happened last week, my buddy Nilesh Kambli was getting bored sitting at home and even I had to postpone some event due to some reason.

So… we were free to move out. We called up Shraddhesh Jadhav, our friend, partner and guide for this trek.

It was 21^st May, the entire day went hectic with loads of work. What kept us alive was Full moon night.

Since Shraddhesh was to come from Office and that too from Borivali, we had to postpone our timings. After coordination, we decided to meet at “Shree Duttguru snacks, Panvel”

But as I reached early, I took a glimpse of the food available at the stores, unfortunately, these stores close down by 10-10.30 so the only food available is the leftover.

Another reason being upcoming stalls of Chinese food at tea centres.

So we decided to move on and took the Khopoli road… it was almost 9.30pm

The Ride was just incomparable, No Traffic, super clean road, and cool breeze.

We stopped at Chouk Phata. The road here diverts to different location, Left goes to Matheran/ Karjat and straight goes to Pune.

After having “Bhurji Pav and Garma garam Cutting” we moved onto our destination

The road was so smooth we didn’t recognize we were riding @ flat 70kmph.

While on Khopoli Pali road, we had to take a Left for Jambhulpada.

Initial road was very patchy and gave us the feel of OFF-ROAD riding.

The full moon was our Guiding star.

Suddenly Shraddhesh had an Headon collision with a grasshopper. (Hahahahaha)

That gave us an opportunity to stop for a while and we gazed the beautiful moon and stars around for sometime.

One can never get this feeling….. even if you stay in Bungalow worth crores.

Finally reached the base of Mrugagad – Bhelivsave Gaav

It was almost midnight. Parked our bikes and started our search for the Route.

“Durgveer Pratishthan – Seveche Thaai Tatpar, Durgveer Nirantar”

The direction board set up by Durgveer Pratishthan

It is basically a Voluntary group of similar thinking people who strive hard for Preservation and conservation of FORTS of Maharashtra.

This group visits villages around the Forts and conduct Social, Cultural and Educational sessions providing indepth knowledge of the Fort and its importance so that they may extend their helping hand as much as possible.

Nice work Guys….

We found some Boards and arrow marking made by volunteers that took us into a dense forest,

Little moonlight reaching the ground, weird sounds of insects, and specially the horrifying sound of dry leaves being cracked under our feet….. such moments just take your breath away.

With some tricky twists and turns… we neared the top of the fort within an hour.

Now the challenge lies to climb the steep stairs carved in the rocks.

Somehow managed to reach the top and lay down for sometime relaxing with the cool breeze and gazing the lightened Bhelivsave village below.

the little lightened Bhelivsave Village

Opened up the tent, bolted the ends and put our bags in….

Tent set up

Shraddhesh checking the Space available

Nilesh took out his Nikon, and I took out my Canon (Cameras) and started experimenting on clicking pictures here and there.

Full Moon on the night of Buddha Pournima

Finally, at 3am we decided to call off the day.

tiny little mountains hid under morning Fog

Next morning we woke up at around 6 am….. and waited for Durgveer volunteers to arrive. Small portion of cisterns are yet to be cleaned before monsoons.

We were out of Water and had to wait for them.