Trek to Lohagad

I can only say one thing after this trek, easy one for all to trek. All you had to do is walk and walk unless you choose a difficult path to have some thrill. This trek was full of moments that I will cherish my entire life.

Lohagad is a majestic fort situated in Pune district and the closest accessible village by road is Lohagadwadi while by train is Malavali which is the very next station on Lonavala-Pune route. It is roughly 9 k.m. from Malavali station. We were a small group of three Musketeers hoping for some adventure and the first shock we received was at Kalyan station when Sushrut forgot to take his wallet. At that instant his face was worth seeing to be captured. Unfortunately that expression lasted for a few seconds as the thought of me taking his photo early morning in that state made him smile. He was regretting the whole trek of not being able to buy chocolate fudge of some good outlet at Lonavala. At that point we figured out that his reliance *mobile* is more important to him than his wallet. Our journey started and I took the photo of Rajmachi mountain as seen from the railway route. As soon as we reached the Lonavala station, we took local train tickets and just boarded the train before it took off. The trek begins from Malavali railway station. For those who want to go by road from Mumbai, catch the old Mumbai-Pune highway after Lonavala, take a left turn at an appropriate sign on the road going for Malavali. Also there is a direct road going to the base of the fort from Pune. After crossing the expressway on a small suspension type bridge, I noticed that the Malavali was bisected by the express way and the villagers might be having a tough time to cross the village everytime for work.

We reached Bhaje village and followed a small group like ours who took us through paddy fields instead of the road. The first sight of Visapur fort was mind blowing and the walls of the fort were clearly visible from base. The climb we thought was becoming monotonous with no such challenges on the path. Hence we decided to take some short cut path to avoid the road. We climbed for half an hour till we reached a place where there was space left between Lohagad and Visapur forts for movement of air. And at that point the wind was moving at such a high speed that we being pushed in the direction of wind. For the first time I sensed the power of wind. After crossing that windy area we reached the footsteps of the fort. The steps are well maintained though broken at some places. The view from every point of the fort was breath taking and the Pawana dam was visible from that place. We were told that five forts are visible from Lohagad. The fort was well maintained with strong walls and gates. Every point view was best for a snap but the clouds and fear of rains coming at any instant holed our cameras in our bags. As we climbed higher and higher, the visibility reduced considerably. We followed a small group of children which was headed by an elderly person as they were going to Vinchu ‘tok’. But huge dense fog blocked our way and cold started gripping us due to rains. The droplets of the rains were sharper than the prickle of a needle and that experience was worth remembering. At that moment cold started gripping us and we decided to retreat our steps towards vinchu tok as the road towards it was a small path and chances of slipping were more due to the gushing wind. We came towards the main entrance and started descending down. There are some good stalls at the base of fort and a small snack refreshed us.

The descend was simple and we decided to visit Bhaje caves via a different route. We came across a path which was dangerous to go as there was no guarantee where the path will go. I decided to retreat my steps and the other two went in that direction only to be found out that they were helped by a local guide to be bought down. I was happy that it did not go with them as it was extremely risky to go on the path they had chosen. In the end we did not visit Bhaje caves! On our way towards Bhaje there were numerous waterfalls and we resisted ourselves in going in them as the aftereffects of cold would have been disastrous.

Now the climax of our trek. We reached Lonavala around five p.m. and let three trains go as we had reservation on Indrayani express. We sat there in cold only to be relieved by hot coffee we drank. The train came and as usual we ordered a family sitting on our seats to get up. They showed their tickets and we showed them ours only to find out that we were issued tickets of 25^th September, 2009 instead of 25^th July,2009. 25000 volt shock gripped my body as this was a human error of the railway clerk and we all three were unable to see our mistake before boarding our train. We traveled ticketless and were lucky ones as the ticket checker went in front of us without asking us tickets. A close shave!

The total duration of trek is roughly two hours to the top and anyone can endure this trek. Lohagad is place to be near Lonavala and a fort worth to watch. Easy one for first timers and everyone will enjoy it.