Lohagad Trek

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The Iron Fort – as known to Lohagad – is one of the strongest forts in Maharastra and obviously is in much better condition withstanding the scorching heat of summer and relentless rain in the monsoon. The name Iron Fort henceforth bears enough significance of its strength and power.

On Friday, we started planning for a trek on saturday for entire group. We selected Lohagad since it was supposed to be a trek for beginners like me. Many people promised, many showed interest, then after showing reasons many dropped off the plan; But finally 7 of us stuck together to make this trip successful. So a special thanks goes to Sandeep, Sopal, Rasika, Shubhangi, Ishant and Rahul- in no particular order. And obviously, The Seventh Person is me.

We chalked out the mission on Phone calls. The plan was – 6 of us(who are from Pune) will meet near Wakad Fly-Over at 7.00AM, travel to Malavli on bikes and reach there after an hour or so and then Pick-Up Rasika (who is from Mumbai, will meet us at Malavli Station), travel to Lohagad village (Triple on One Bike) via Lonawala and start the trek, We’d come back following the reverse order of the plan. We also outlined who’ll be riding with whom on the bikes and promised to meet at the Wakad at 7.00 am Sharp.

But, as usual there are few late-comers in every plan… Rahul picked me up at 7.15 in the morning on the D-day and we were at Wakad by 7.40 am. We reached Malavli Station at 8.40 am, where Rasika was waiting for us. Then, we all (me, rahul and Rasika- Triple Seated) traveled to Lonawala. We stopped at a small food joint to have our breakfast – Tea and garma-garam Wadapav. The greenery already started making itself visible, like a teaser of a movie. So without wasting much time, we were started off for further journey.

We drove to Lonavla railway station and then were at the mercy of locals (due to no sign boards) to guide us to Lohagadwadi (10 km from railway station) which is the base camp for the trek. The road had many steep hair-pin bends and is relatively empty. As we were about to reach at the base camp, we spotted a nice location and stopped our bikes there to capture Pics….

At the basecamp, we parked our vehicals at a Small Dhaba, had chai there and set out for our trek. We started the trek at 10.30 am, equipped with cameras, waterbottle and windcheaters. There are huge steps for most part which makes it easy to climb, but the rain and the moss made the climb challenging. We also had company in the form of monkeys, which were dangling and running here and there; and we all girls were getting scared of them. The trek was enjoyable because of lovely monsoon, as it was raining little-little after some intervals.

Lohagad is a beautiful fort in a beautiful location,But thankfully, it has survived the commercialization and the mess that other forts has been subjected to near Pune. The fort is still in a good condition and relatively clean. Many of the structures on the fort are still intact and climbing the fort would give you the feeling of actually climbing a fort rather than walk on “made in 21st century” concrete steps!

Rain was our constant companion with us but we didn't bother because that was the fun – walking in the rain. Everyone seemed to have high spirits. We took much time to climb up the fort, as we stopped for every possible photo opportunity. Once we reached the Top, we were stunned by the exciting views of pavna lake, visapur fort and the greenery around. But what won my heart were the stunning 360 degree views which the fort offered and a reverse rain phenomenon in which we got completely drenched!.

The fort has five huge gates. The top of the fort has a temple dedicated to shivaji, hanuman and Mahadev. There is a Ghumat on Top. A set of caves on the right of the entrance were used to store the wealth of Surat raids During reign of Shivaji Maharaj. The fort has a big pond, and small small fishes in it….We all sat by the pond’s side dipping our legs in it.

Later we started our march towards Vinchukata fortification, and really the trek towards fortification was quite tough because of rains. We were carefully trying to climb down, sometimes we were crawling on knees as well, But in this tough descend, Rahul supported me lot and hold my hand for entire duration…This was the best part of trek, we enjoyed it very much….

After enjoying and having yummy dhoklas on Machi for over an hour, we began our descent towards base through harsh rain and slippery stairs trying to hold each other so as to avoid slipping… The descent was much tougher but the excitement was not yet over.

We were drenched as we reached the base camp, but a hearty lunch of omlet and jhunka bhakar was a perfect end to a trek.

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