Wednesday, May 21, 2008

It was great....the rajgad trek

I had the time of my life, when I climbed Rajgad fort with some of my best friends and office mates last weekend. It was challenging, tiring, sometimes scary, crazy, and very historic trek, all the way to the top, nearly. Nearly because even though I climbed the fort, there was a small fort(Bale Killa) inside Rajgad fort which is even higher and it involves rock climbing, and I decided to give it a miss, since I wanted to have reserve stamina to use while descending from the fort.
The trip began on friday, as the eleven of us left office to reach Maitri Park at chembur, from there we hailed a scorpio to Pune, and in few hours reached Swargate. Since the trip was not planned, we did not find any place to stay at 2 AM, other than ST depot. Fortunately we found a Sumo driver who was ready to take us to gunjavane, which is the base village. So by 7 am approximately we reached the village, freshened up at nearby hotel(rajgad pratishthan). Then started our trek to rajgad fort. I won't describe the trek, because it takes the fun out of it, and also makes me want to go back. The route we took i.e. Chor Darwaza is the toughest and the shortest route. After we reached the top it was pretty much routine. Do some sight seeing; have some food and water.; then take some rest and finally descend to ground zero. After coming down from the fort it was too late to head to swargate, and the next bus out of the base village was at 6 AM, so we stayed at hotel rajgad (at small house!) at night when it was very cold. It was just amazing to enjoy the chill, that too in the month of May! Then it was morning, we caught the 6 AM bus out of gunjavane and we were back at swargate and then in few hours back home.
I have not described the trek in detail, because of many reasons, like I am lazy, it spoils the mystery of such a place when you know too much, and not only that I am going to start a blog completely dedicated to forts, very very soon.
So that was the gist of things. To know more about Rajgad fort and its history, just search in google. I would recommend all of you to at least once visit this fort. This fort called as the king of forts. The fort that was never captured. The fort whose diameter is 40 km. This fort is so high you can see lots of forts from its top, forts like sinhgad, lingana, torna, purandar, and the far off raigad, many more. OK! enough of historic facts. Go in person to experience the magnificence.
Our next target is Fort Torna, of course I will climb this fort again, probably next year, as I did not climb Bale Killa this time around.

Shivteerth Rajgad Pratishthan at base village Gunjavane

Thats the fort from far, we climbed it from the right side

thats Torna Fort in the background

View from the top

the mighty sahyadri mountain range in all its sun-lit glory

Rajgad hotel and the foot of the fort where we spent the night.