Rajgad torna 26-27 Jan 2006

An account of the trek

Participants (7) :

Sanket Sangwikar, Ketan Khairnar, Manoj Pawar, Mayuresh Jog, Aniket Kate, Mahesh Shinde, Neelesh Sawant.

Destination: Rajgad to Torna trek

1. Climb Rajgad and Rajgad darshan
2. Rajgad to Torna walk
3. Climb Torna and Torna darshan
4. Get down from Torna

Journey: Kayan – Pune (by bus) – Nasrapur (by bus) – Gunjavne (Jeep) – Rajgad (Trek) – Torna (Trek) – Velhe (Trek) – Pune (bus)

An account by Sanket Sangwikar

Planning for the First time

For the first time in the trekking history we planned a trek three week before and yet the plan was executed. 4 of us confirmed, 2 joined at last moment, and 1 surprise addition from Ketan’s orkut contacts (Mahesh) reached Nasrapur at 4.00am. There was sudden wave of cold all over Maharashtra and Pune went down to 4 degrees, so you could imagine! We waited in chilled open space, negotiated with jeep drivers, took snaps, ate and finally agreed with a jeep driver to reach the base of Rajgad.

View of Rajgad wad really breathtaking from Gunjvne village. We could see the Indian flag on the fort. (It was 26^th Jan!) The first timers of Rajgad – Aniket, Mayuresh and Manoj – were all excited. In spite of me, Ketan and Neelesh been here before, without breaking our tradition, we went along the wrong path and then searched the correct one through water streams.

Aniket was carrying more than 3 kgs of fruits and cucumber and everybody was calling him ‘phalwala’. The rate of clicking snaps was directly proportional to the height we were climbing. Of course I managed to get some of my solos clicked. I was enjoying this route for the third time but still it was exciting.

Rajgad stay

After we claimed the space in Padmavati temple, Rajgad darshan started. We visited some places like Gunjavne Darwaja, tunnels of Suvela Machi, which were unseen last time. The fort is really amazing – the more you see, more you love it. Mayuresh – visitor of Raigad for many times – was also astonished to see the defense mechanism on the fort. The ‘Raju guide’ (that is me) was constantly speaking something. And Aniket was not finding any “application” of those things.

Evening was lot boring for me and Ketan while we were not able see anything new and were just waiting for the other people who had gone to see most magnificent part of the fort – Balekilla or citadel.

Dinner was literally a fast for Neelesh while we had only one slice bread and some parathas. (sorry Manoj! Not parathas but ‘theple’) Thanks that Ketan got the MTR packet boiled from the fellow trekkers. Neelesh was so hungry that he ate half of raw half boiled rice that no body else was touching. Ketan for the first time in his treks had brought enough food. Aniket was frustrated and counting jocks ++ for every PJ cracked by Mahesh.

Rajgad to Torna

Decision to leave Rajgad by 6.30am was scrapped by the chilling cold outside and we finally left at 8.30am. Manoj fully ‘enjoyed’ the freezing water and open space for his morning rituals. We left Rajgad from deeply hidden Alu darwaja of Sanjivani Machi. 4 of us drank the last glasses of buttermilk of Rajgad and of course lagged behind. We walked and walked along the hills appreciating the view of Rajgad behind and reached a tar road after crossing 7-8 hills. While everybody was tired, the board said we had just crossed 1 km and Torna is 10km ahead. But thanks that is was instruction for the tar road and not the trek route.

With very low morale, tired legs, time running to 11.00am, we started rethinking of Torna. Fortunately we found a hut on top of a hill, where we got water, buttemilk and morale; so we continued. Next 4-5 hills were crossed in one go with that energy in spite of losing the way twice. 5 more trekkers joined us on the way and twelve of headed for the first patch of Budhla Machi of Torna.

Rock patches of Budhla Machi

Mahesh was horribly tired due to his inappropriate trekking bag. Ketan was bravely fighting his heavy sack, torn at one of the belts. View of fortification of Torna was really amazing. The first rock patch was 60 degree steep but with loose sand on the rocks. The second one was horrible. If I had gone first, I would have dropped the idea of climbing it. Mayuresh though crossed that 90-degree steep patch and entered Torna; so did we.

Ah! We were on the fort finally. Now we just had to reach the Balekilla. But things are never simple. I got cramp in my leg, which had bone crack two moths back. It pained like hell. I thought the trek is over. I will have stay here for the night. But thanks to relispray and painkillers, I could do the trek ahead. I was praying for the easy route with my injured leg. But soon everybody was speechless to see the rock patch ahead.

The second one was nothing before this. This one was horizontal where you cannot tie a rope, 90 degree steep at both side and rocks of the width of less than1 foot below your feet. Everybody prayed for life and started for there was no return back on the second rock patch also. We had to go ahead. The environment was really tensed for us. Aniket was yelling at everyone who interrupted him with some question on the rock patch. He yelled at the other trek group also. But nobody was in the state of paying heed to it. Of course I cannot forget that he carried my heavy sack with the huge carry mat all over the rock patch to reduce my load.

We formed a chain where next person used to instruct the behind one where to keep feet and hands. We crossed rocks, turned around them, crawled, sat on the rocks, jumped but everybody crossed successfully. Affection for life is so strong that any of the feet did not slip, any hand did not let the rock leave.

We were frightened to cross the rock path of Harishchandragad in deep monsoon of July. But this rock patch was like doing Harishchandragad 4 times. The line “Zinda hoon main” held true for us as we entered the huge gate of Balekilla of Torna.

Getting down

No body was in the state of looking at Torna fort, but actually the fort had all its fortification in place. It had a nasty ambience where you do not want to stay much. After all it was effect of the superstition that Torna bears a ghost. Mayuresh was particular about leaving the fort before sunset.

We finished all he reaming parathas (this time it was not a fast!), drank lot of water and headed down to Velhe by another route of course. No body bothered clicking a single snap on Torna. Though this route is also steep, we felt it nothing before Budhla Machi rock patch. After all Torna is the highest fort in Pune district named as ‘Prachadgad’ by Shivaji. Throughout the trek Aniket was either speaking or yelling. He did not break that tradition while getting down also. He was the most enthusiastic in our group and literally ran ahead of us.

Misinformation conveyed

We all abused the Internet pages, which did not convey the proper information or rather conveyed misinformation about the rock patches. We will not recommend Rajgad to Torna trek for ant trek group unless you are experience with rock climbing. Doing Rajgad and Torna separately is the best way for general trek groups, that is what one of the wiser trek groups we met were going to follow.

Of course we enjoyed every moment of the trek. The fear at that time has turned into thrill now. While we say we will never do this trek again, we do not know what lies ahead.

Koraigad 18th June 2005

Well guys as sanket wrote abt last trek I eagerly want to pen down abt our trek on 18th june to koraigad.
Destination: Koraigad (23 kms from Lonavala exactly above amby valley)
Participants: Ketan,Sanket,Sushant,Janmajeya and Sandeep(first trek) Read on diff parts as : Twin-Spin, Dudes -1,Lal dabba journey,Lost and Found, Lunch with Sahyadri Mountains, Trek down, Rain and Dudes(ohhh again), Lal Dabba-2, TMC vs KDMC
highlihgts: total cost 180 Rs per head, Much of sightseeing in Lonavala, amby valley, bird watching from truck on return journey

Twin Spin: I woke up at 4.45am and reached Thane station and bought ticket to lonavala and was waiting for Indrayani.Bit nostalgic bcoz I used to go by same train every monday morn to pune 2 months back.There came one of my old buddies from my Pune trekker gang. I surmised as I talked with same guy 2 days back abt some plans.
How come this guy from in thane and what the hell he is doing in thane at tghis hour.He ignored me and went straight on.am bit frenzied went straight on to ask(why am not apply same attitude to gals :D)" Hello Mr Kedar, do u know me?" He gathered his thoughts and told me " Well, I am Mandar Kedar's twin bro". We boarded Indrayani, rest all joined at Kalyan. Afetr small round of intro to newbies we started discussing our fav topics Treks and affairs of school buddies, their know hows. This is becoz me and sanket being from same town and diff school we have enough topics to chew on. Well then i expressed my concern that korigad is not the dest for us if we wanaa do somes serious trek. No one was interested in Tung-Tikonaa(but that could have been much much better what say Jay, sandy ;P read on to read real story)

Dudes -1 : we alighted at Lonavala stn. kedar went on to catch lcoal train to chinchvad. Lonavala air already had done its magic on Sandy and sushant's mood. New to this and being excited. quite of course! Janmajeya(jay) insisted on breakfast after our packing of sandwitches in his fav hotel. meanwhile I bargained and got good deal for sandwitches. quite weird but it happened. well I enquired and bus was at 9.15. so we had abt 40 mins spare. In jay's fav hotel I bumped into my old buddies from Pune Infy.All of them in rockstar appearance with their mean m/c Pulsar 150 and 180 DTSi. One of them actually ditched our plan 1 day earlier. They were interested to join for ride but somewhat hesitant for trek. we parted our ways and again met at Koraigad base villege ambavane.
I being aware of eccentricities of my infy friends was ok but rest trek group shattered with thought that this drool brats actually do work for India's most fav company Infosys. This group must have njoyed their bike ride till amby valley. Much thanks to Mr. subrato shara for best roads in Maharshtra till amby valley and what scenic beauty this region has no one can imagine.Well its par Malshej and not famous.

Lal Dabba / Loast and Found: we started with state transport ST(lala dabba) from lonavala to Sahara lake city. We passed on empty bushy dam and its silly visitors.(damn silly, whats point in visiting dam which has no water) We moved on to reach INS shivaji and Air force juncture and entered ghats. Sanket with his digcam ready to take snaps.
But he being novice cant take pics of moving objects and was in same situation as hunter aiming for his pray.
This thing amused our fellow passengers nad villegers. We knew peth shahahpur is simplest route and from ambavane its steep climb. So we passed on Peth shahapur and alighted at Ambavane-Bhamburde juncture.
Infy dudes do reached here at same time. I hate them being called as dudes (" duh attitude") as they are as normal as any one fo us in workplace just trying o be different! they moved on to amby vally entrance.
we started on our way and reached a gate and realised Sahara grp had blocked this way. somehow we persuaded watchman and get ourself inside actiual territory.but after 30 mins also we aren;t able to get actual route. each time we reahced some exotic locations. Rocky patches, bamboo densities. oh my god we took almost 20 snapa there.A true heaven one could imagine. We asked neighboring watchemen and workers on the other side of fence that how to go up. NO one had done this.I thought why sahara emplyed these outsiders to look after a fort of Maratha King. well quite illogcal that one has reached till summit.
well sanket some how found our beloved " trekker arrow" on one rock. This is fav tricku used by trekers to make marks ont their way so that fellow trekkers can follow.This thing has been useful fro night treks especially.I was charged and covered 30% of total hike in one go. rest alsof followed and then just two breaks at some of relly difficut patches. They were quite risky one mistake. one slippage and one would doen direct 600-800 feet. I had some bitter exp at Lohgad-Vinchukata so I told them to follow steadily and everyone is now 5 mins away from summit. we climbed the rest with confidance nad we are on top ar 12.15 PM.Sandy,jay,sushant managed evrything in good spirit and confidance.

Lunch with sahyadri Mountains: We started to look around for familiar peaks and forts. I rather correctly identified Lohagad and Visapur. Sanket identified karnala peak(the famous thums up).This peak is such a dstinct peak.Not much height(1100 ft) but can be seen from most of the ranges being not a single range to hide it. Its almost 80-90 kms from where we were standing.God! sky was clear and we could see so many ranges of sahyadri.This very picture after long toll on body is real thing acts as a kick for me any future treks.
We moved on to side facing Amby valley. we just reached the edge and oh god is this posiible ? Am i in India?
This being rather straight fal down I told sandy come slowly nad please have a absolute surprising shock!
wow! Even one thought gone through mind, that I dont mind buying this home in partenership with 10 other guys.
Every bunglow is priced at 2.5 crores. This valley has helipad, runway for chartered flights and so mnay swimming pools.My eyes glued on those little huts for Indian cricket team and had a envy abt Parthhiv patel.whay there is so much economical gap in india? I felt poor whole day.
Moved on to Korai devi temple where we kept our bags started taking bites of packed veg s/w (sandwiches and not softwares). Finished our lunch and time for small nap now. well we actually avoided this and now praing for Rain.Clouds gathereed and every time moved on Lohagad.Me and sandy already out with wind-cheeters but rain didn't come.
Then we moved on to other part of fort where we saw some water reservoir and around thousands of frogs!(well its true) after lot of time we saw some gujju couple on fort who must have cme up from stairs a way from peth-shahapur.By this time we reached 100 snpas target. nad then started to climb down through stairs way t peth shahapur.

Trek Down:

We had bus to lonavala at 5.00pm but weren't aware that this is last bus.On the way sushnat pointed out that as famous marathi writer PuLa syas that maharshtra has 3 distinguishing comon traits as Mumbaikar,punekar and Nagpurkar he added one more as trekker. and their common trits as 1. trekker dont like stairs on fort 2. trekker never likes to reach top along with some other group or second to any other.
3. trekker hates totake gals with them for summit.(I am exception here) 4. trekker never leaves any plastic on fort and if possible collects prev scrap and dumps in his bag.
(myself follows first clause and dump those plastic bags in sankets bag :)) well there more traits, join the gang and explore...
We almost cursed sahara group for building those stairs.but much to kudos that is the only fort so much clean than any other forts.This whole fort gets in lights bcoz of floddlight at its base by sahara group. At the base we managed to find hand-mump("nalika-vihir" to sanket) then moved on to village peth-shahapur and we saw a bus going towards amabavane. so same bus is going to come back we ordered some tea nad oh god rain starts pouring me, sandy , sushant ,janmajeya already on road to enjoy that. finally our carrying wind cheeter was real worth.meand sandy enjoyed for 10 more minutes and saw the bus coming. me hinted jay, sandy that let it go. sanket realised that later after we hinted driver to do not wait. he almost started runnig carrying his bag. chhay wala told us that this was the last bus to lonavala but dont worry you wlil get somehtig till 1000 pm. it was 6pm and i dont know how weird it was saying you will get something in next four hours.
but bus was gone and so the rains ...... :( :(
Dudes-2:
we were waiting for some trnsport to take us bak to lonvala. their were pajeros,scorpios,tata safaris.but as I said we were poor ppl there. then we saw some trkeers were comig towards peth shahapur carriyng proper tre bags rucksags and drenched in rains. sanket w=enquired whats their plan. we were baffeled by fellow mumbaite's accent.Now I felt we are not mumbaikars. after bit of eye-hinting we decided to march towards lonavala and reach ghosalkhamb fataa. well trekkers weren't alone they did have their female friends with them too. we had quick eye on them and sandy.jay thouhgt it was worth leaving bus.sanket was cribing as he have to go to seepz next morn anyhow.well we stil on our way and no one is cared abt our sitiation.then there came lal dabaa but it wasnt st bus it was red colored truck. we were reay to give any amt to him but he insisted on only Rs 50 (5ppl for 22 kms ) so one more good deal.
Jay,Sandy still lost in thoughts of better halves of mumbai dudes.well this truck has peculiar thing.one extra wheel-tier has been placed at the back of drivers cabin. Jay quickly climbed up and soon all three were standing and enjoying everything on our way back.jay had very good eye but he missed one scene which we enjoyed on Lions point.Well now suddenly ppl on road in their accents,esttems,scodas felt envy abt our innovating way of enjoying truck ride.
soon we are back to lonavla. on our way to stn we got bus to kalyan-dombivali.Yeh we got stuck around sheel phataa but that price was negligible in front of what we enjoyed in daylight.

that was the story and u can join next trek on 17th July

MahuliGad 5th June 2005

An account of the trek

An account by Sanket Sangwikar

Date: 5^th June 2005

Destination: Mahuligad near Shahapur (Dist Thane).

Participants: Sanket Sangwikar, Ketan Khairnar, Aniket Kate, Aniket Lonkar, Sourabh Sil, Mandar Date, Abhijit Jawdekar

We all left for Mahuligad after getting our bags packed with food and most important WATER. We didn’t want to make this similar to our Karnala trek, when we would have paid twice if someone was ready to give us even drops of water, but no one turned up. So everyone was having two liter of water each.

But it was all in vain! The fort was so huge, lengthy and exhaustive that by the time we reached half the height, we had finished 70% of Water.

The way was excellent, passing through dense forests, tall tress and large rocks. The architecture was reminding us Rajgad again and again. The fort seemed to be miles away even if you are 80% done with the trek. The last 20% was damn fast and wickedly rocky.

Mandar gave off after first half an hour only. Abhijit persuaded him to go further and they form a small negotiation team, which was coming up with an ant’s speed. We could watch hem coming from the top of the fort. Every five minutes Mandar would say to Abhijit, “Enough, this is my final destination. I will sleep here. You go ahead.” He had finished all the food and water, they both had in their bags, by the time he reached the top.

The fort had remains of Entrance door, caves, walls of fortification. The top of the fort is flat, wide, exceptionally large and covered with dense forest of Jambul trees. Mahuligad has two more neighboring forts, connected with its top, called as bhndargad and palasgad. We couldn’t visit them though. It would have taken one more day of trek to see all the three forts completely.

We searched and searched for the water on the fort, and finally got a tank of clean drinking water, which was like an energy tonic for us. After we found water, everybody realized how much hungry he was and all food was finished within next 15 minutes. After their stomach was full of food and throats wet with fresh cool water, Mandar and Sourabh started again with their typical jokes and comments. Aniket K was speaking continuously as usual irrespective scarcity of water.

Abijit got a cramp in his leg so we got down from the fort a little late. Bless Ketan for he could arrange an auto direct to Asangaon station packed with all 7 of us. In all, the trek was excellent and magnificent though a little more exhaustive.

Addendum by Sanket Sangwikar

The Great I, brought the digicam with me and forgot to bring the cells. Soon whole Asangaon town came to know that there exist some 6V batteries in the world. But after a lot of abuses and taunts from the kind fellow trekkers, I had to convey the bitter fact that we cannot take any photo on this trek.

Comments

Comment by Mandar Date

This was little exaggerated. Abhijit and I did not finish all water and food in our bags. I had spared a 1ltr water, which we used after meals. I also had biscuits and bakarwadi. Abhijit spared 5 ladu and some water

Mandar.

Comment by Sourabh Sil

Really very well written..

How cld you forget to mention the 7 people in one rick ride(Bajaj Test ride)!!! :-) And also your wisdom to bring the Digicam but not the batteries. And how even the Panwala was trying to help us with the Batteries he must have never heard of.

We can also add the climbing down in 3 groups..

One of Ketan and Aniket to find a Vehicle so that others did not need to walk another 2 kms to find one. They really did cover good ground to come down quickly and luckily Ketan got a bike ride once they reached the Ganpati Mandir situated at the base of the Fort.

The second of Aniket.K and Sourabh.. These 2 were really interested to climb down really fast, specially Aniket.K.. Sourabh was hardly able to keep pace with him since his natural instinct was to run, irrespective of the steep slope or barren flat land!! At one point he told Sourabh that he will slow down a bit and then in the next moment he was running to the Bemusement of Sourabh. And Due to this company Anilket.K was able to learn the typical jokes!! They were also able to find the Echo point on the Slope which was a bit wayward from the actual path to the fort.

The Third and not the least were Sanket, Mandar and Abhijit. Kudos to Abhijit for he braved his cramps to climb down the rocky and treacherous paths of the Fort, where probably one wrong step wld have meant the last step of life. And the only job that Sanket did was to give indication that they were safe for the second group who were blowing there hearts out every now and then with his name to get some communication going between the second and the third group.

Ya, Mandar even I feel it is a bit exaggerated.. Kya kare woh jo tum loggo ne kiya woh to papi pet ke liye tha.. :-)) and also y you were able to get the 30 mins sleep before climbing the rest of the fort!!

Thanks and Regards,

Sourabh Sil.

Purandar,vajragad,malhargad 24-25 June

An account of the trek

Date: 24^th and 25^th June 2005

Destination: Malhargad, Purandar and Vajragad (Taluka Purandar, Dist Pune.)

An account by Sanket Sangwikar

The fuzzy plans as usual

The trek plans were fuzzy till Friday. People in the list were dropping for offices on Saturday. So we had some final calls to each other and took a poll but decided to go ahead. Manoj was quite determined this time. Though we were just 3 from here, 4 new guys from Pune joined for Purandar trek on Sunday.

Mandar had gone to Pune on Friday night. So I called him at 6.25am and you can imagine what I would have heard from the other side. Journey by Indrayani Express was quite enjoyable as we got two seats and luckily the two unknown guys reserving those seats didn’t appear at all.

At Shivaji-nagar, Monoj made me go mad, when he called his friend from iFlex, Pune for a visit in a hotel. We were supposed to be there for the trek!! But she took only half an hour and we were soon at swargate to get a bus for Saswad. Mandar had brought a raincoat cap and it was looking quite comedy. We took that opportunity to the fullest to make fun of him.

The easiest Malhargad, but we made it difficult!

Date: 24^th June 2005

Destination: Malhargad near Saswad (taluka Purandar, Dist Pune).

Participants: Sanket Sangwikar, Manoj Pawar, Mandar Date

After we reached Saswad we decided to put our bags in a hotel room. We enquired and got 3 names. But the name Mohini was tempting Mandar. “It looks it would be a good hotel” The mohini of Hotel Mohini made us stay there. It was ok for one or two day stay but you cannot eat anywhere in Saswad without keeping a glass of water ready beside.

We took an auto for village Sonori to visit Malhargad. The road was horrible. We understood why the rickshaw-wala took Rs. 120 for just 6km. Only a real brave could drive along the way. To our surprise Sonori village was looking rich enough and historic also. It had many huge old temples made up of in black-stone. The palace of Sardar Panse is a miniature of Shaniwar-wada. It has 6 bastions and a huge temple inside. The remains are quite enormous to tell the real glory of the palace. Sardar Panse was admiral of the army of Madhavro Peshwe. He built a fort near sonori to keep watch on Dive-ghat which leads to Pune. This is Malhargad. The fort is not a real mountain fort like those of Shivaji. But it looked like a check post. It has been built in red and black-stone with bastions and fortification clearly in place. The fort is recent (built in 1757 to 1760) and has two large temples and huge entrance doors.

From the bottom it looked so simple to climb that hill but the entrance was on other side. So we took a turn for it and soon got lost. For such a simple trek it was really annoying for us to get lost. We could see the doors at the top but the way was making rounds around the fort at the bottom. So we decided to climb up the hill and it was really tough as we went up. Finally after 15-20 minutes, we jumped into the fort from the fort walls. “Tanaji nantar aamhich”!!

On reaching the top we did investigation and found that we had climbed by the only toughest part of the fort. All other sides were so simple!! We spent 2-3 hours there in photo sessions and exploring the secret entrances and other things. We were trying and finally managed to take photos of Mandar with that comedy cap. He was trying to delete them but we took the cam from his hands. At about 4.00pm we started going down. We took last 5.00pm bus to Saswad and reached hotel room. The fort and the photos J both were worth a look.

Stroll in Saswad

I was feeling very uneasy due to acidity since I had had very little since morning and was waiting eagerly to vomit so that I will feel better. After I did we went to see Saswad. It looked like a large town with its village like appearance intact. Saswad was long time Peshwa residence before Bajirao Peshwe moved to Pune at about 1719 or so. After that it was given to Sardar Purandare for control. The centre of the city has 3-4 huge palatial “wada”, (buildings with wide protecting walls) built by Purandare. The largest of them is Purandare Wada - really monstrous with 3 story walls for protection and thousands of holes in it for firing through guns. The entrance door is larger than even Shaniwar-wada.

The backside of this wada has equally large Bhairavnath temple with ample amount of open space inside. We could witness a great show of ropes there. 10-12 people were holding each end of the set of ropes tied 12 feet high. They were having a patterned dance to weave the ropes and then reverse pattern to unweave it. The unweaving was really tough and even if a single guy misses his step the ropes would have started weaving again. The dance was going on with an inviting music being played on Puneri Dhol, but it was unlike we play in Ganpati.

By the time we reached back my acidity had gone so bad, that I slept in the room while the other two went to see the Sopandev temple. It was also quite good, I heard later. Finally I took Eno and ate in the hotel. Felt really better.

Night in there

This was first time in my 2-day treks’ history, when I was not staying on the fort but in a hotel. The night was quite eventful with

• Mandar trying to delete those snaps of comedy cap. But he didn’t know how to delete them.
• I changed the camera menu to Japanese so that he couldn’t do anything.
• Manoj had set the alarm in his mobile and royally revealed the fact he had never hears it.
• For half an hour, Manoj and I had conversation on different mobile models and Mandar was really frustrated since he wanted to sleep (or wanted us asleep to get his hand over the camera.)

Kille Purandar and Vajragad

Date: 25^th June 2005

Destination: Purandar and Vajragad near narayanpur (Dist Pune).

Participants: Sanket, Manoj Mandar, Amal, Vivek, Shital (he is a guy), Amit

For very long I had wished to see this one - One of the favorite forts of Shivaji. Every stone of Purandar speaks some history. 1000-1200 years old temples, Shivaji’s first war after he started creating a new kingdom, Murarbaji’s war with Diler Khan, Sambhaji’s (Shivaji’s son) birth place, Private fort of Peshwe, Peshwa Sawai Madhavrao’s birth place, British and Indian Army training Camps, NCC Camps… Purandar has been a centre of army movements for centuries till 1985.

We reached the base by 9.00 and started by the trek route. There is also vehicle route, which takes 2 hours on foot. The trek route was easy enough and soon we were at Bini Darwaja, which is the first one at Purandar Mountains. This leads to two forts – Vajragad at left hand and Real Purandar fort in front. Weather was very cool and rain had blessed us and did not turn up any time. First time we were without any food stock and a single water bottle but it was working fine for us. We headed ahead to balekilla, but I soon discovered I had again forgot the printouts of the information in the bags put at base of the fort. I had to recollect what I had read. The route to kedareshwar temple in balekilla was a bit tiring but gave view of the whole valley at both sides. We were agape to see the vast area, which can be controlled by this vast fort. Purandar is really vast and there is so much to see here. Since bikes can come up to Bini Darwaja, you get to see some youth from Pune and Saswad too.

After chanting some hymns in the temple’s cool stony echoing insides, the seven of us headed for Vajragad. Amal was singing Marathi song “vedhat marathe veer daudale saat” which was fitting to the incident. As usual I misguided the lot and took a longer route but we were on the fort in 20-25 minutes. Vajragad was also interesting with large rocks here and there. We had a short photo session here. Mandar’s attempts to delete snaps were still going on unsuccessfully.

Riding down

After some rest we headed down and the route was now very easy unlike while climbing. Mandar and I were almost running down as if we were riding a horse and soon it started showing the result. Our legs were badly aching, while “slow and steady” Monoj reached the bottom quite comfortably. During the whole trek, Mandar was after taking his solo photos. May be, he wanted a perfect photo to show it while arranging the marriage J. After we reached Pune station, we felt the emptiness in the stomach and filled it with some snacks.

The trek was really great. We would have really missed a great fun had we cancelled it.

harishchandraGad 4-5 March 2006

Participants: Ketan, Mandar, Nikash, Rohit, Sandeep, Sanket (alphabetical order J )

1) To go or not to go

After our last trek to Rajgad-Torna (26-27 Jan 2k6) I was bit reluctant to visit the places I have been before. It’s like listening to same song again with lyrics on your lips. But like some musical symphony, this recent trek also made us feel light and gave us sense of some achievement. It won’t be good to say this was just like every other trek we did in last 2-3 years. Sanket said most of us are now on the new juncture of our careers and in very much possibility we will take different paths may be 6-7 months from now and this trek gang won’t be the same at that time. We decided about this trek and almost sealed this as the last trek for us this season. Manoj dropped out at the very last moment and

We (me and Rohit) decided to join this trip. Finished packing bag and food within 45 minutes and called Rohit. Me and Rohit reached Kalyan by 11.30 a.m. as decided.

2) Bus and walk till Khireshwar at night

Finally all of us headed to Khubi phata by 12.30 am bus. Me and Sanket were talking on myriad topics throughout the journey. I guess that’s why we have lot of enthusiasm to arrange such awkward treks which most of the normal guys and our parents didn't comprehend. When we say we are going to trek; there are lot of different reactions to that. Some people say it as rubbish idea. Some say just ‘well’ and ignore the whole thing. Some are enthusiastic to join us but will never do so. They themselves know this and we tooJ. Some are interested in reading our trek accounts and pictures onlyJ. Let it be. We don't care as we our self don't know what drives us to mountains. It makes us calm; helps to strengthen friendship. Somehow it also makes us pure in thoughts and makes us bold to take decisions in split second in real life too. I agree that Trek is not the only thing for that but for some of us it is and it will be. Bored ;) Ok We reached Khubi phata at 3.30 am. After searching for 5 minutes using torch we started walking on road beside Kukdi-dam. This walk itself takes around 45 min- 1 hour. We reached at around 4.15a.m. /4.30 a.m. to Khireshwar. We slept outside one of the house cum Hotel. Rohit forgot to bring bed-sheets/sleeping bag. I opened my sleeping bag fully and then all of us had a small nap till 6.30 in the morning.

Please add meanwhile stories. I was fast asleep and didn’t heard any of those screams and running helter-skelter by Mandar. It was quite cold and it was good after humid Mumbai weather and dripping sweat.

3) Climb

We started Climb after tea and Pohe at Hotel Tejas at Khireshwar. Khireshwar is the base village for Harishchandragad. Original Khireshwar village is now under dam and this new village is relocated Khireshwar village (Courtesy: Sanket). Five of us were there for our last visit to Harishchandragad in July 2006. We realized that we slept at some other place. Last time we had our tea in Hotel Aishwarya whose owner had told us at that time that there is no danger as rain had stopped since last night. But he had also refused to accompany us at that time. He knew that we are the same people who had had terrible night on Harishchandragad in July. I waved hand to him in anticipation. We then started walking to our destination. Everyone seemed to be validating the path we lead at that time. The way till Rock patch is very dense so didn’t faced any problems from scorching sun. We had enough water with us. That also helped a lot. We reached halfway to Tolar Khind. This is the fantasy spot of Sandeep where he wants to do romance with his would-be. It is a good location and you can see whole dam from there. In our last visit one school picnic was arranged till this spot. Good idea and really good location especially in monsoon where you can enjoy lot of waterfalls on the way till and in scenery till this spot. We took another 15 minutes to reach Tolar Khind. Khind is the place where two mountains are connected. We had long halt there. Enjoyed cucumber/carrot with water J. We had good photo session there. This khind also connects to Kalsubai Sanctuary and way through it leads to some village called “KotuL”.

After 5 minutes we reached first rock patch. We finished it quite easily and then reached to the base of second rock patch. This one is more dangerous than first. Everyone recollected where Manya and vinu had there date with destiny in last visit. They were survivors or victims. That is the point of major discussionJ. We will take that offline.

We reached top of Harishchandragad in flat 2 hours and another 15 minutes.

4) Old Memories

We knew mistakes we did last time. Every time you reach to top of the fort you are relived and can enjoy some time. In case of Harishchandragad it is quite different. The game is not finished yet mate. You have to cross another 6 small hillocks to reach shelter. We recalled the last photo of our last visit. That was there at that very spot. No one had pleasant memories after that. This time there was no danger of Rain and it was 10.30 a.m. We started walking after 15 minutes break and crossed around 3 small hillocks. Memories started to gather about those dreaded moments where we were clueless and nothing seemed to be helping us. Last time we were there at that spot but had barely 30 odd minutes before it gets dark. We walked and walked then but no obvious sign of shelter. At last we had reached one small temple (ghumaTi) then, we debated a lot and decided that we have lost our way. It would be better; if we go to some place where we could hide our self from raining sky. This time we reached the same place where we sat whole night for first ray of sun. We also took some snapshots there. I guess that was longest night for all of us. And now we realized that we were actually only 50 meters away from temple last time. We laughed at ourselves now. But such was the nature’s show that time. It showed us the cruelty of nature. So Man is not a man as he is now without nature. Protect nature and it will protect you sometime. That was the lesson

5) Temple and stay

We soon reached temple at around 11.45 a.m. One group has reached there earlier. We decided to stay in one of the rooms opposite to Harishchandreshwar temple. We offered our prayers after coconut breaking ceremony which we could not do last time. It was good choice to stay there as it was quite warm in the night also. We had 2-3 hour nap in till 4 in the evening. The temple was really marvelous piece of architecture and is the gem of the old era. It had survived centuries for now.

6) Evening at Kokankada

In the evening at around 4.45 we stared marching towards Kokankada. It was the only motivation for me to climb 3500 feet from base of Harishchandragad. When we reached Kokankada everyone was speechless to see the wonder of nature. It is completely concave semispherical structure. It has spellbound height of around 1500 ft and circumference of around 3 quarters of kilometer. One of the mavericks of Kokankada threw himself down from that place some years back. That was sad but true. Some one for other trek gang started talking about other accidents on such peaks. Everyone was listening to him. Actually it was quite disgusting for that moment to listen and talk such things. We walked on one side till the place where “nalichi vaat” connects Kokankada at its top. We had lot of solo pictures to remember this visit at that spot. Some one threw water down the kokankada. It went around 15-20 meters high above our heads and came back as rainJ.

Go and visit this place and enjoy the sunset there. It depicts the true picture of beautiful nature in your mind. We said bye to sun and headed back towards temple.

7) Night dinner and some songs

We settled soon in our room opposite to temple. Also finished whatever we had brought for dinner. We also ordered Pithala-Bhaalari for 2 of us. That was good really for my appetite. Soon we started singing all melodies. It started with Sandeep Khare songs then to Sonu Nigam then Shaan, Euphoria. Meanwhile one Powada from Sanket also some oldies like “Kisaka rastaa dekhe”. It was fun singing together. Later we shifted to other place where camp-fire was lit by other group. One of them had such a good command over his voice; he left everyone spellbound by his singing.” Myanaatun UsaLe taravaarichi paat, veDaat maraThe veer douDale saat” then he also sang ons “shetakari geet” (farmer folk song). It was sort of really good mehfil of all unknown buddies having common interest “trekking”.

8) Climb down

We had good nights sleep. I woke up at around 6.15 with first ray of sun. Finished my chores in open air J. By 7.15 everyone was up and everyone was happy for coming for this trek. We had tea and biscuits and then started to pack up our bags. Finally we left temple at 8.15 and reached the starting point of HarishchandraGad by 9.10 or so. Descent was simple and less toll-taking on our bodies. After rock patches it was routine job to walk and walk down the descent. We reached Hotel Aishwarya by 11 or so. Sanket discussed with hotel owner about different way which is shorter and reaches temple faster. We had Upma and tea there and after that regular “Joy” session.

9) Khireshwar temple and walk back to Khubi phata

This time we decided to visit another temple in Khireshwar village which is also centuries old. Everyone was happy about mission accomplishment and hence quite lazy to reach khubi phata. On the way to Khubi Phata after visiting temple Mandar went to complete some regular assignement. We had nice time in nearby water bodies which rejuvenated all of us. Soon Mandar and Sanket started talking about climbing “Hadasar” fort in front of us. We reached Khubi Phata by 1 p.m and got a bus to Kalyan.

HarishchandraGad 23 July 2005

Participants (10) :

Sanket, Sandeep, Ketan, Manoj, Shrikant, Rohit, Aashay, Harish, Vinayak, Pallav.

Destination: Harishchandragad near Malshej ghat

Base Village: Kheereshwar

Journey: Kayan - KhubiPhata (by bus to Nagar) – Kheereshwar (walk 5 km)

The good start

The start of the trek project was excellent. Planning, analysis, design phases were initiated and performed well by Manoj. This time neither Ketan nor me were among the organizers. Manoj scanned all the information, mailed them and kept track of the people who are coming and a team of 7-8 trekkers rose up for the Trek to Harishchandragad.

I was rather surprised to see that the participants were ready for this exhaustive trek even in the successive week of our Sarasgad trek. An enthusiasm really worth appreciation!

Manoj had sent a mail to everybody to be on Kalyan ST-stand at “sharp” 6.30am. But he himself was there 15 minutes late. And by the time we were ready to get into the bus, everybody was abusing by the name of Pallav, who had given a good news that he was in Dadar and will take one more hour to reach. Finally everybody came and we headed towards Khubu Phata at sharp 8.15am. But we thought not to worry. We had two whole days of the trek this time. Ketan, who could not suppress the urge for Harishchandragad and feared that there would be nobody to go with him again, was a surprise addition to the trek-team.

The journey was quite uneventful with Vinayak and Shrikant fast asleep at yhe back. Even the amazing greenery and waterfalls of Malshej ghat could not hamper their sleep. Harish and me were busy trying to take snaps but in vain!

Weather and the motivation ahead

At khubi phata, we were really astonished to see huge dam of Kheereshwar on which we had to walk for about 1 and ½ hours. Though the walk was very boring, we didn’t at all feel it because of so many motivations walking ahead of us. There was a large group of youngsters of High school came for a one day picnic and those Chembur girls provided quite an inspiration for us to reach them fast. Sandy was especially obsessed for it with his sunglasses on. (Surprisingly this time ‘tall dark and handsome’ comment was not passed by anybody)

As we kept on walking, weather started becoming worse. There was strong winds, heavy rains and clouds everywhere. None of the mountains ahead was visible. The wind was trying to blow those girls away and Sandy was seriously thinking of giving them hand.

By the time we reached Kheereshwar, I was totally demoraled by the weather and trying to convince Ketan to return back and do Naneghat instead. I was afraid whether all 10 of us will have that guts to erach the top in those clouds and mighty winds. But the villager at whose place we had Pohe and Tea told that the weather is better than yesterday night and a group has already gone ahead. So my plans were crossed off and we headed towards Tolar Khind.

Tolar Khind

We climbed for about 1 and ½ hours with out usual photo sessions. Aashay, Pallav and Ketan were far ahead. I kept on bobbling about the team spirit and all to Ketan. So to avoid this constant trouble, he started walking with us. Soon we found Aashay and Pallav coming back and saying there is huge rock path to cross and let us return back. Everybody was appalled at the site and the arrow saying we have to cross this. We were almost done with the decision when Harish and Shrikant started getting down along a water stream and found that there was a detour, which was easier. This also had arrow marks. We should have understood here that those arrows are misguiding at many places and should have acted accordingly but then the whole history up on the fort would have happened.

As we kept walking for half an hour more we found a board saying that was Tolar Khind surrounded by Harishchandragad-Kalsubai Forest sanctuary. This is where the 600 feet steep rock patch starts. We found 2-3 villagers coming but they were pretty fast to keep out pace with them. They accompanied us for 1/3 of the patch where railings were present. Manoj had continued his pace of slipping throughout till here. Thank God! he did not slip on the rock patch heading into deep valley.

The 600 feet Rock Patch

This was an experience of life. Everybody remembered how they loved their family and prayed God to save. We had to think where to keep the foot before heading ahead. The rope we had was falling short by feet or so. So Ketan, Aashay or me were holding it at one end. Shrikant was helping people to cross the patches. Vinayak had literally slipped at the last crossing and was shivering. “I am hugging my mum as soon as I get down there” “I love my parents… I want to meet them again” Everybody was thinking of Life and God. And of course it was true. The place was so amazing and beautiful…deep valley down, a rock at your feet…clouds below you…harsh sounds of winds…dripping rain…when a person reaches the limit of natural beauty he can not think of anything else but God and death. There is nothing so truthful…so pure than this.

The fright and tension suddenly turned to thrill, excitement and relief as soon as we reached the top. Everybody cheered, shouted, hugged and clicked the snaps. A great sense of achievement filled out heart.

In search of the temple

It was 5.30 by the time we reached the top. We had to find the temple before dark otherwise we would have been screwed badly. But in vain! We were in the clouds and could not see 10 feet ahead. Aashay and me searched for the temple ahead very fast but were afraid to go much ahead since both of us were not having torches. The fort is so vast, that it can bear 3-4 big cities on its top. There are large mountains and thousands of water streams no the top. We had a nasty feeling that we were yet at the base and every surrounding mountain is separate fort. The way went on and on till eternity and those arrows still present giving us directions. (I am going to kill that person marking arrows.)

Soon it was so dark that we formed a line and rules as to how to proceed. Aashay and me were ahead and Harish and Ketan at back. The rock patch was nothing as compared to tension of what will happen if we don’t find the temple or caves.

The unforgettable night

We found old remains, small temples of shiva and a pons and got more confused whether we are heading to Harishchandreswar temple or Taramati Mountain. The maps were all out and being referred every now and then. They were all wet and so did us. At last we lost our patience and decided to head back. Aashay and me had thought of a place in such emergency while coming. It was a thicket with less wind blow. We built a small tent like pitiable thing with out bed sheets and crept in to have dinner. Everybody was hungry and soon a big lot of Puri, shrikhand, bread and butter etc. vanished. Rain had blessed us for an hour. And we prayed it to bless us for the rest of the night too.

It was hardly 8.00pm and clock was suddenly running like a speed of tortoise. We sung prayers, aartis, stotras…couldn’t think of Hindi film songs. Ketan started for it but no body responded much. Nothing proved useful. God had decided to punish us badly. Because just after we relaxed in that dry, windless tent, rains started pouring again and soon the bed sheets started leaking drop by drop. A stream of water started flowing from the higher end towards out place and we had to sit in the water.

Condition of everybody was really bad. Legs folded…sleep in the eyes…cold and rains…wet windcheaters…leaking bed sheets above…rattling frogs and birds…fear of some animal or snake (everybody feared for it but nobody mentioned). Ketan had shrewdly moved to the centre with the view that is some animal comes… and we were howling at him. Of course he was the only one to think of singing any song or speaking. He was the only dry person throughout the night. Condition of Rohit was the worst. He and Harish were holding plastic bags to collect the leaking water and throw away. In spite of all this fiasco, Vinayak was sleeping and, to our envy, snoring loudly. Aashay’s battery instruments and torches proved useful, since matchboxes were wet and wind was putting out by the candles.

10.00…10.20 …10.40…we were trying to sleep…12.00 …12.05 …12.06…wind is so strong…put some more bed sheets in all the 4 directions …1.10 …1.30 … … 5.30 …Shrikant, Pallav were out in the rain on the insulator sheet…6.00…hey, get up…darkness is fading…finally everybody lifted their numb, cramped, aching body parts, stretched and got ready.

We formed 2 large ropes by putting knots at the end of 6 bed sheets. Those served well while getting down, except that they were wet and heavy. We threw many food items, bed sheets, napkins, towels, all wet and increasing weight in out bags… everybody was frightened but not speaking of it. We started at 7.00am and reached the entrance of the fort by 8.30am. Manoj crossed all his records of slipping and the morale was so down by the time we reached entrance that Sandy was asking us with sadness if there was another way to get down from the fort.

God saved us!!

We started with the coconut ceremony with the coconut we had brought for the God Harishchandreshwar (He didn’t turn up to us). Getting down the rock patch was quite eventful with out new heavy ropes tied at the two ends. People got the morale back as we crossed 2-3 rock patches. We met a group of 6-7 trekkers [They must be professional trekkers], who were climbing the rock patch as if they are strolling in the garden. Within an hour we were back in Tolar Khind and thanked God to get us down alive.

Once again everybody remembered of their organ called stomach and filled it with Puti and Kachori. Harish and me were so afraid of the water already dripped in our digicam that we had not taken them out since we reached the top. we reached back to Kheereshwar at 11.30 and rested their for an hour with Pohe and tea. There was not a single part of the body, which was not aching. And the walk on the dam seemed impossible and infinite. After we get the bus back to Kalyan, all of us were asleep even before Malshej ghat came.

In the end…

The fort was really amazing and vast, just that we had chosen wrong time and headed into the clouds. We were so fascinated by the variety of natural beauty there that everybody was ready to come once again to Harishchandragad (but not in monsoon). We are surely going there again…to find the temple of Harishchandreshwar and worship him with the coconut.

Sarasgad 17th July 2005

An account of the trek

An account by Ketan Khairnar

Date: 17^th July 2005

Destination: Sarasgad near Pali (taluka Sudhagad), Khopoli region.

Participants: Sanket Sangwikar, Ketan Khainar, Aniket Lonkar, Sourabh Sil, Mandar Date, Sandeep Patil, Shrikant Meshram, Harish Shanbag, Manoj Pawar, Rohit Saxena (TOTAL 10)

Guys,

This has become norm now for me and our group for penning down trek stories and also handling logistic and finances for these small one-day outings. Yeah, new story is out to read for all. This is about our yesterdays trek to Sarasgad near Pali. Yes you are right the one near Ballaleshwar(one of the shtavinayaks).

Bus

Me and Sanket kept threshold of four people to go for trek, but on Friday there were around 13-14 people in mailing list and actual participants turned out to be 10. First large group for any of my treks.

Participants: Ketan, Sanket, Rohit, Sandeep, Manoj, Aniket, Saurabh, Harish, Mandar, Shrikant [5 i-Flexers and 4 Patnites (I was the only person to know all 10 people though)]

After lot of plans and canceling them out on Saturday day night we gave green signal to catch bus from Thane to Pali to avoid changing of buses/trains/six seaters. What? You don’t know six-seaters, you must come for some trek to realize what wonderful mode of transport it is! It is called as six-seater for namesake though. It could carry as large as 15 people comfortably (Comfort always have been relative term for centuries J)

Well we took 6.15 Thane-Pali bus to our destination. Everybody came on time; that was good sign of discipline. It is much needed for anything in life. Think the eccentricities and how one guy can ruin the whole fun at the start only. We took last seats in bus and Manoj who promised to doze off, did really good work. Me, sandy, Rohit kept our word not to disturb him in his occasional solid plans like sleeping on picnic day, planning treks for four of his girl friends (I have put %20 by decision). We reached Panvel and Rohit, Sandy,Shrikant went out to buy vada pav for themselves and got whip from somebody for selfish concern. Soon we reached Khopoli passing behind Mahad (One of the Ashtavinayaks) where we came back again from trek. From khopoli we took diversion from the road which heads Pune. This particular road leads to Tamhini ghat which climbs up from Konkan to Pune(Mulshi). Tamhini ghat is also favorite one day picnic spots to look out in future treks this monsoon. On the way to Pali we passed out villages like Pedli,parli,Karwar,Devnhave an dthen reached Pali finally.

Ganeshdarshan

Ganpati has been my favorite god since schooldays. I realize him beside me in all the good things and bad too. I remember him in pains only that is the fallacy on my side.

There was as such no rush in Mandir and everybody got enough time for praying for monetary and spiritual blessings from Ballaleshwar. I read small stories depicted using pictures on wall and then we all sat outside for 10-15 minutes more. I have been experiencing this particular thing for each of my trek. When you go out and then sat alone and suddenly things those come out your head/mind is some kind of nostalgia. Don’t know why and about what? But it is always peace to my mind and some unique moment to cherish.

Beside the mandir there was “Houd” (swimming pool) where Ian Thorpe of Pali showing us his stamina and sometimes flexing his muscles. Maybe because of sandy who was out in sleeveless Tee. Went to local restaurant ordered Misal-Pav, vada-pav and 1 by 6 pohe. Saurabh thought that was some kind of free lunch party and paid the price later on J

We also packed up the Puri-bhaji and Better water bottled better for all of us. Enquired about other local spots to visit besides route to summit for day; Singled out “Unhere” for later in day. Unhere is abt 3kms from pali and has natural hot water springs. Well we didn’t go there in the end.

Climb

We started climbing after quick change in avatar (clothes). Me headed for wrong way, which was more interesting than the route, found out by Sanket. Then started snaps session at each halt. Meanwhile saurabh was exhausted as he was carrying heavy load in bag and his belly too. After a while we reached flat green plateau where we saw some cows (“Gay” in Marathi) whispering among themselves who are these guys? My eyes found tail-baila twin walls. This is famous for rock-climbers and is near mulshi around 50-60 km from Pali. After 15 minutes trek we again reached another flat plateu and then straight climb ahead. Saurabh and me interchanged bags. We could see steps from there but way to them was dismal as it was steep ridge there. Everybody asked fellow trekkers which were ahead and already reached steps in their innovative ways while Harish was capturing the response form zooming in his camera. Got the response headed for route and after 20-25 mins we reached the steps to darwaja of fort. As we could out figure out the steps from 300-500 feet below; you could easily tell that those were massive step. We had lengthiest snap session at this point. Then we climbed 96 massive steps. Literally each step was as high as your knee. Somehow Sanket, aniket and me were lagging behind first time trekkers but I managed to reach fort as well as citadel first.

After reaching fort search for water began, asked the shepherds there and they just pointed out ways to Water Tanks. Don’t you think this shepherds and language, which is not spoken, reminds you of Alchemist? But we were not after some treasure any way. But Rohit, we saw that shepherd dog was scratching surface! Oh, my god we missed that omen.

Things followed after this very fast we reached citadel. Shiomadir was already occupied by trekkers, which were ahead us so we decided to finish our packed lunch outside Darga atop. Thought of taking small nap but have to reach ‘Unhere” also. So packed out bags and waste-papers-plastics in separate bags. We started trekking down with full speed. We had competitors as sheep. They have more advantage but we managed give them run for their money (perfect use of phrase at non-perfect place) till some distance. I watched some program on NATGEO as how they could manage to go any place on mountains. We took around 70-80 minutes to reach base of the fort. On the return way we came down from completely different route so reached at the other end of village.

Mahad varadVinayak

We soon found six-seater, I managed to persuade him to take us to mahad. Reached Mahad, took Darshan of Varad-Vinayak. Me, Harish and sandy had a tilak on our forehead. Took snaps and then headed for Khopoli railway station. This train travel was toll on our body as being Sunday It looked like all youth of Thane, Mumbai were at khopoli and scene was as chaotic as shown in the movie Titanic when ship was soon to sunk. We traveled without ticket to respective destination.

Addendum by Sanket Sangwikar

Hey

Nice one. Just to add some:

Our despair

As we reached Pali, we could easily spot a small hill behind the village and recognized it as Sarasgad. Ketan and me were really disappointed to see the lack of height and remembered of the trek to Korigad. We hadn’t imagined the trek to be so simple. But soon we learnt that you should not underestimate any of the Shivaji’s forts. This fort was also unique with its own way.

Kille Sarasgad

The fort had external stout walls and bastions. The way to the fort at the later stage passed through 96 steps carved in a small rocky lane. Amazingly Sarasgad has exceptionally large number of ponds and tanks carved in the caves at the base of citadel. Most of them are worth drinking. Also fort has many caves worth a night stay. The way and the fort both were covered with lush green tender grass you would want sleep on forever. The way to Citadel was a bit tricky and was a good place to have lunch.

Coming Down

Trekkers generally never like to come down by the same route. More the unexpected better it is. May be that’s why we took another way to get down which was chorDarwaja. Unlike the usual chor-vaat (Secret route) of the other forts, this one was exceptionally lengthy and unique one. The steps were not built but carved in large rocks. It was only us who needed those steps to get down. The goats and their shepherds, who were coming behind us, seem to have applied Fevi-quick to their feet not to fall down.

Photo-Sessions

This time we had a bit longer photo-sessions having lots of greenery and caves to shoot. The ‘Tall, Dark and Handsome’ Sandy was soon on his way to model himself. (I don’t what is going on in iFlex currently!!)

The RAIN

There wasn’t a single drop of water throughout the day. This was the only thing missing in the whole enjoyment. The clouds blessed us throughout the day but didn’t pour. Of course, after reaching the fort we forgot about it and were too engaged to explore the beauty of the fort. It was only while climbing when we were wishing for it badly.

Regards,

Sanket

संकेत सांगवीकर

Addendum by Ketan Khairnar

Well I forgot to add some things:

Mandar was the only person who optimized his trekking efforts in some ways

Like

1. Don’t go to each and every place unless it is must see

2. Accompany the guys who has most resources (food and water)

3. Searching for water is not my job, you are honored to find me on this trek

4. Take regular rest despite what others say

5. Carry minimum baggage

This was really good way to minimize toll on our body. I am impressed, Mandar!

Local talent: When we reached down at the base one of the shepherd guys accompanying us showed us his unique stunt.

You know bicycle kick; he did that same thing 3-4 times in one go. Me and manoj were the only people to see this particular thing

On the way back to Mahad I had a little chat with our Six-seater driver, He said there is some aborigine “Adivaasi” quack, who had done good business by selling local (so called junglee) drugs to patients around Khopoli, Kalyan and nearby places. He has a tata Safari, two other tata utility vehicles and truck.

Even one minister had visited his place. Need some innovative ways like this to make money J

Addendum by Manoj Pawar

The start of the trek was on a lil wrong track with the group moving ahead on a seemingly new route up the hill. The guys who were in the lead wud have had to think of untrod paths till Sanket found a well worn path up the base hills…. We reached a first level plateau region fairly easily. With just a couple of stops where we were trying to replenish our fallin water levels… reaching the second flat level took some effort coz our bodies had till then just started to heat up with the strain….

We had a small photo session here where the actual climb up to the hill fort was to start…. From the flat level, Sanket/ aniket/ Ketan were able to identify some of the neighboring hill forts like Tail baila, and some ‘Teen kawdicha dongar’ and sudhagad and the like. After cooling off for some time under a burning sun here we started looking out for routes to climb up…. From the flat land, hardly anything was visible except a rock wall imposing on us …. We then spotted some other group of people already making its way up the fort… so we thot, why not just ask for a way to lead us up… what started with a few whistles to attract their attention then gave way to hand signals, which both the groups could decipher…. Amidst some exasperation, somebody just called out and surprisingly there voices floated down fairly loud too… what a waste to have tried some stupid hand signals when we could have easily talked our way up !!!!!!!

The later part of the trek actually going uphill was a bit easier coz our bodies had warmed up sufficiently enough…. Rohit was leading the troop for a fairly long time. A few halts here and there up the rocky patch and sandy disrobing himself off his sweaty bodice …. And we had reached the series of steps cut in the rocks. The small ledge at the base of the steps served as an ideal location for Ketan being sworn as a new age Peshwa… complete with personal servants…. The photo session here was extensive with all of us challenging the ‘so-called’ models on Page 3. And yes… the view down here was gr8 …. With us spotting a river winding down the land below us. Sanket, Manoj and Shrikant tried going in a small cave armed with a mobile torch, but the darkness was enough for us to turn back quiet…

The flight of steps up to the main darwaja were not carved keeping us in mind, so high were they that we had to climb on all fours at some places…. We had already reached up the main fort level…. Some of us then went off in the search of water in the fort cisterns… but had to return empty handed… we then decided to go a little higher and managed to find ‘clearer’ water in one of the houd’s above. Everybody was already suffering from the sun’s heat that we decided to have a small shower of sorts… vanity conscious sandy cudn’t resist a proper fash-wash therapy here …. And rohit taking to the cooling literally, dipping his feet in the water… any call for food was thrown to the winds by wing leader Sanket ordering one and all to reach atop the ballekilla to have food.

The climb to the citadel top was uneventful with the troop treading cautiously on loose stones. Nobody could have been interested to be found at the bottom of a hill or hanging upside down from some tree branch in case he had some extra slice of luck, so utmost care saw us through to the top nestling a cool terrace of sorts in front of a ‘shah pir baba’ Samadhi and a shiv mandir. The open ground in front of the pir baba mandir served as our table as we first went quiet to eat food … and then started talking as we were filling up. Resting atop the citadel gave way for climbing down to the main fort level and then down a circuitous path down steps cut in rocks accompanying flat footed sheep and sure footed shepherds to come out to the main road…

Comments

Comment by Aniket Lonkar

hey guys..

Had a wonderful time yesterday.... couldnt say good bye to every one though due to the gardi in the train... :-)…Hope no one was caught travelling ticketless...

Comment by Sandeep Patil

Nicely written by Ketan….and It was good to read and analyze what we did yesterday…

Frankly speaking, I was somewhat nervous when Sanket and Ketan were saying that Sarasgadh is looking small and trekking will be simple like Koraigad. But later I enjoyed trekking and it was really good experience.

Comment by Manoj Pawar

Sandy, you got to be kiddin when u say that the place looked small … ask me or mandar and we were awed at the very sight of the fort as we alighted the bus … neways … we were kinda amateurs and you are now a real pro… ‘hunk’ I wud have said but then that wud be too much for a day … and I cant lie that much ;-) neways …. way to go … Tall Dark and Handsome man …. Put some clothes on !!!!!!!! It wud be easier for the guys to bear you …

It was good enough and Ketan and Sanket have done a wonderful job with the keyboard chronicling the trek … about future plans and Ketan’s concerns abt my gfs … I think we can go to Harishchandragad next week..

Comment by Shrikant Meshram

This story seems to me as the bestseller than any Harry potter books. Nicely written and while reading these I was surely taken to the yesterday battle field (Killa) which we had a plan to raid… But the British (and some lovebirds.... Amit + Pradnya = LOVE etc. etc. etc.) didn’t left any stone for us to claim J.

Well composed!! Great to read. Actually I was not able to say good bye to all bcos of my condition + Titanic effect on the boat (Yesterday I was so tired that I couldn't make a diff. that we were traveling on a train or boat… bcos it seemed yesterday in the train that I was floating and hello I wasn't drunk ok!!(Most of the time the floating effect comes after drinking only) ).

So thnx for all the wonderful moments yesterday which we all shared and I m really lucky to be the part of such a 'Fantastic 10' series which just started on AIR from yesterday morning at 6:15 AM. Looking forward for next adventure.