5 days of Diwali Holiday [Thursday to Monday... Thank you deloitte (I did got few calls in between)], but this holiday just cant go without a trek, however this is October and october heat is in full flow, so I was apprehensive about weather any trek will take place or not. But any ways we decided to take chance and go to Lohagad (a small trek near Lonavala), as usual there were few back outs and a lot of convincing so finally 5 people decided to go for a trek (Me, Satish, Kaivalya, Harshad and Sujay).
So the trek day was decided the one after Diwali (Lakshmi Pujan) i.e. Sunday. It was not the usual trek day where 6 o clock start would mean 730 start, everyone came to my pl
ace at sharp 620 and we started towards the fort at 630. This time I decided to take my 800 usually I dont take my Car to any trek as I love to ride my Rx135 (The best bike) but Car is the only reason that few people were coming so I had to take Car. Maruti 800 performed better than I expected, we reached Malavali (Place from where one can go to fort) in an hours time. Then there was a stop at Malavali railway crossing, we were waiting for more than 10 minutes and were fed up so decided to take our breakfast while the gate was closed, needless to say a Misal Pav, the misal was very oily, from the rail crossing we came across a bridge on express way after crossing it we reached the base village of the Gad (Bhaje) one can go to Bhaje caves from here too there is a staircase made to reach there.
Coming back to the trek, we started climbing up One thing I want to make clear here is Lohagad is noway a small fort (at least from Malavali), I mean there is a motor way which directly goes to the base of the fort (Sounds borrringgggg), we were climbing for almost two hours (With a lot of photo sessions in between). There is another fort Visapur just opposite of Lohagad, we didnt pay much attention to it as it was simply not in the plan.
We reached Lohagad at around 10 there are lot of stairs to climb in, I hate stairs it makes the trek more tiring,but we could get a lot of photo points, one can catch an excellent view of at least 3 forts from Lohagad, Tikona, Tung and of course Visapur. It cleared most of my doubts I was always unsure about the forts which one can see from another fort, but at least for now I can spot and identify few forts (may be I am becoming a trekker a real good one hahahahha).
There are not many spots left on Lohagad save Vinchu Kata which is amazing. Its all plain
land with few temples, mosque and a small lake and of course few cannons and भगवा झेंडा. Lohagad seeing was over in an hour and we came down at 1130. Now Satish and myself were thinking, man!! we have got a lot of time and we could see one more fort standing in front of us i.e. Visapur, and it was calling us at least me and Satish could hear it, however others didnt have the same feeling (Kaivalya and Sujay ,Harshad was open to join both sides) and we were facing a strong resistance (hehehe) but we stick to our plan called up few people asked village people about the way and we decided to move ahead and go towards Visapur.
Now a little about Visapur, It is huge and a newcomer absolutely has no clue about how to go even if he has all the information (Well unless he is a little daring) we started walking towards the way told to us, we also spotted few guys going ahead and were relaxed thinking we were on the right track. Cool!!!! soon the initial resistance by Kaivalya and Sujay was falling and they were also coming with us, but it was not as smooth as we thought cause as we were busy in our photo session and making fun of Kaivalya and Sujay those guys ahead of us vanished in the jungle and we absolutely had no clue where they had gone, Hmm Kaivalya and Sujay were now on offensive and were insisting on moving back, we had a problem. But me and Satish decided to trust our instinct and decided to move ahead, I would like to state here that trusting your instinct is not always a good idea especially on a trek where one has not come before, cause things can go horribly wrong and worst too, also there was an incidence in just last month where one trek group from Mumbai was stuck at Visapur unable to move anywhere. So logically speaking concern shown by Kaivalya and Sujay was not entirely uncalled for. Soon after exploring couple of routes we lost hope of finding a way and were moving towards Malavali.
But some times when you have lost all the hope Its time for some divine intervention, we spotted one man going alone we just spot his bag and Satish ran behind him asking about where is he going and we met a REAL TREKKER, Mr. Surve (Mr. trekker) (from Chinchwad) (may be in his late 30s), wow he was going alone on the fort, later we learned from him that he finishes Lohagad---->Visapur---->Bhaje Caves in just 3 1/2 hours from Malavali station. Which is beyond cool, he told us to follow him which me, Satish and Harshad agreed immediately, Kaivalya and Sujay had their reservation but after knowing fully well that they were deep in Jungle and finding a way out was difficult and well I used my undue influence, I told them that they had to catch a train (Heheheh) well after some more persuasion they agreed to come I mean they had too.
Mr. trekker told us a lot of things about the trekking and shared his experiences which were really inspiring he also told us the things to carry while going on a trek which included a electro l powder, a 50ft rope which obviously we never carried in any of the treks, he told us you can take risk as long as you have adequate water and he actually praised Kaivalya and Sujay that the decision to move back was a wise one if one doesnot know the way. Told us to refrain from taking unnecessary risks, well he also commented on my nails and told me to cut them, it is risky he told me जर तु जीवाच्या आकांताने एखादा दगड पकडायला गेलास तर पहिल्यांदी तुझे नख तुटतील which is obviously painful and told us a lot of his trek experiences. He had done all the treks which we are dreaming about.
A little about the trek, Visapur trek is more tiring especially in the October heat I think it would be best in the rainy season. So after climbing up for about half an hour from the dead water fall we reached the top of
Visapur. It is huge as per Mr. trekker at least 2 cricket stadiums could fit in the plane land. No idea about that but it was huge. We were dead tired when we reached the top and sat near a cave like place for at least 10-15 minutes, there was not much to see (rather we were very tired to see anything more) so we decided to move down, Thank god we had Mr. Trekker he showed us the way (staircase ) taking us down towards base village Bhaje, at least there are staircase about 30% of the way and then a small pavement sort of road till end (In the end the road meets the staircase to Bhaje Caves from where one can reach the base village Bhaje. The road was not good and Sujay fell down twice, I slipped couple of times even though there was no rain so in rainy season this road is obviously risky, there was one more road which goes to Bhaje caves and from there one can take the stair case which we did not take thinking it would take long (I think we were wrong).
This was a memorable trek for more than one reason not only we managed to trek two forts in one day, we also met Mr. Trekker who taught us many things. There were usual funny moments like Harshad taking snaps of anything (absolutely anything), ego clashes between Satish and Kaivalya or Sujay cracking the joke of the day (Very situational)
I asked him तुला भुक लागली आहे का?
He said, नाही पण मला भुक लागु शकते....
End of the day we were v
ery tired thankfully we came in the Car else it could have been difficult. After diwali it will be again busy season of audits may be I wont get next few weekends off so it was a great experience. Learned a lot of things in this trek. This trek was not possible without the guys in the picture.
So the trek day was decided the one after Diwali (Lakshmi Pujan) i.e. Sunday. It was not the usual trek day where 6 o clock start would mean 730 start, everyone came to my pl
ace at sharp 620 and we started towards the fort at 630. This time I decided to take my 800 usually I dont take my Car to any trek as I love to ride my Rx135 (The best bike) but Car is the only reason that few people were coming so I had to take Car. Maruti 800 performed better than I expected, we reached Malavali (Place from where one can go to fort) in an hours time. Then there was a stop at Malavali railway crossing, we were waiting for more than 10 minutes and were fed up so decided to take our breakfast while the gate was closed, needless to say a Misal Pav, the misal was very oily, from the rail crossing we came across a bridge on express way after crossing it we reached the base village of the Gad (Bhaje) one can go to Bhaje caves from here too there is a staircase made to reach there. Coming back to the trek, we started climbing up One thing I want to make clear here is Lohagad is noway a small fort (at least from Malavali), I mean there is a motor way which directly goes to the base of the fort (Sounds borrringgggg), we were climbing for almost two hours (With a lot of photo sessions in between). There is another fort Visapur just opposite of Lohagad, we didnt pay much attention to it as it was simply not in the plan.
We reached Lohagad at around 10 there are lot of stairs to climb in, I hate stairs it makes the trek more tiring,but we could get a lot of photo points, one can catch an excellent view of at least 3 forts from Lohagad, Tikona, Tung and of course Visapur. It cleared most of my doubts I was always unsure about the forts which one can see from another fort, but at least for now I can spot and identify few forts (may be I am becoming a trekker a real good one hahahahha).
There are not many spots left on Lohagad save Vinchu Kata which is amazing. Its all plain
land with few temples, mosque and a small lake and of course few cannons and भगवा झेंडा. Lohagad seeing was over in an hour and we came down at 1130. Now Satish and myself were thinking, man!! we have got a lot of time and we could see one more fort standing in front of us i.e. Visapur, and it was calling us at least me and Satish could hear it, however others didnt have the same feeling (Kaivalya and Sujay ,Harshad was open to join both sides) and we were facing a strong resistance (hehehe) but we stick to our plan called up few people asked village people about the way and we decided to move ahead and go towards Visapur. Now a little about Visapur, It is huge and a newcomer absolutely has no clue about how to go even if he has all the information (Well unless he is a little daring) we started walking towards the way told to us, we also spotted few guys going ahead and were relaxed thinking we were on the right track. Cool!!!! soon the initial resistance by Kaivalya and Sujay was falling and they were also coming with us, but it was not as smooth as we thought cause as we were busy in our photo session and making fun of Kaivalya and Sujay those guys ahead of us vanished in the jungle and we absolutely had no clue where they had gone, Hmm Kaivalya and Sujay were now on offensive and were insisting on moving back, we had a problem. But me and Satish decided to trust our instinct and decided to move ahead, I would like to state here that trusting your instinct is not always a good idea especially on a trek where one has not come before, cause things can go horribly wrong and worst too, also there was an incidence in just last month where one trek group from Mumbai was stuck at Visapur unable to move anywhere. So logically speaking concern shown by Kaivalya and Sujay was not entirely uncalled for. Soon after exploring couple of routes we lost hope of finding a way and were moving towards Malavali.
But some times when you have lost all the hope Its time for some divine intervention, we spotted one man going alone we just spot his bag and Satish ran behind him asking about where is he going and we met a REAL TREKKER, Mr. Surve (Mr. trekker) (from Chinchwad) (may be in his late 30s), wow he was going alone on the fort, later we learned from him that he finishes Lohagad---->Visapur---->Bhaje Caves in just 3 1/2 hours from Malavali station. Which is beyond cool, he told us to follow him which me, Satish and Harshad agreed immediately, Kaivalya and Sujay had their reservation but after knowing fully well that they were deep in Jungle and finding a way out was difficult and well I used my undue influence, I told them that they had to catch a train (Heheheh) well after some more persuasion they agreed to come I mean they had too.
Mr. trekker told us a lot of things about the trekking and shared his experiences which were really inspiring he also told us the things to carry while going on a trek which included a electro l powder, a 50ft rope which obviously we never carried in any of the treks, he told us you can take risk as long as you have adequate water and he actually praised Kaivalya and Sujay that the decision to move back was a wise one if one doesnot know the way. Told us to refrain from taking unnecessary risks, well he also commented on my nails and told me to cut them, it is risky he told me जर तु जीवाच्या आकांताने एखादा दगड पकडायला गेलास तर पहिल्यांदी तुझे नख तुटतील which is obviously painful and told us a lot of his trek experiences. He had done all the treks which we are dreaming about.
A little about the trek, Visapur trek is more tiring especially in the October heat I think it would be best in the rainy season. So after climbing up for about half an hour from the dead water fall we reached the top of
Visapur. It is huge as per Mr. trekker at least 2 cricket stadiums could fit in the plane land. No idea about that but it was huge. We were dead tired when we reached the top and sat near a cave like place for at least 10-15 minutes, there was not much to see (rather we were very tired to see anything more) so we decided to move down, Thank god we had Mr. Trekker he showed us the way (staircase ) taking us down towards base village Bhaje, at least there are staircase about 30% of the way and then a small pavement sort of road till end (In the end the road meets the staircase to Bhaje Caves from where one can reach the base village Bhaje. The road was not good and Sujay fell down twice, I slipped couple of times even though there was no rain so in rainy season this road is obviously risky, there was one more road which goes to Bhaje caves and from there one can take the stair case which we did not take thinking it would take long (I think we were wrong). This was a memorable trek for more than one reason not only we managed to trek two forts in one day, we also met Mr. Trekker who taught us many things. There were usual funny moments like Harshad taking snaps of anything (absolutely anything), ego clashes between Satish and Kaivalya or Sujay cracking the joke of the day (Very situational)
I asked him तुला भुक लागली आहे का?
He said, नाही पण मला भुक लागु शकते....
End of the day we were v
ery tired thankfully we came in the Car else it could have been difficult. After diwali it will be again busy season of audits may be I wont get next few weekends off so it was a great experience. Learned a lot of things in this trek. This trek was not possible without the guys in the picture.
0 comments:
Post a Comment