Thanks to GHAC and the Organizer Dr.shri for conducting a wonderful event to explore the forts and cave in Rajmachi. In GHAC event page before the event date, so many people showed their interest to join with us to explore the forts in Lonavala. But, many of them were not able to turn up due to work schedules and other inexplicable reasons. They really missed the natural world and the wonderful experience we had.
We are here trying to share our experience to help you set
your plans perfectly well in order to explore this place.We are a team of nine boys with little knowledge on trekking and many of us were new to GHAC club. Before hand, our organizer had given us some very useful trekking instructions, things to bring, route plan, what to do and what not to do etc. We were pretty much clear with how we were going to spend our two days there.
We started off with all inexplicable enthusiasm:
Reaching our destination – the next day:
Next Day Morning, we reached Pune at or around 2:00 am and
from there we caught another train to Lonavala Station. We all had improper sleep
during our journey but were able to have found ourselves a bit energetic by
reaching the station at or about 3:00 am. It was drizzling and we thought to go
by auto-rickshaw to avoid getting drenched in the rain but they were charging
very high (even for a smaller 4 km distance!!!). We decided to walk for 4km towards
Tungarli Dam and it was early
morning, so we were ambling along, warming up ourselves a bit as we had ample
amount of time.
None of us were aware of the route to dam and there were many diversions on our way. We took help of the pedestrians on the road (even a funny incident happened between our organizer and a drunkard man.
Essence of the trekking – reaching the dam
None of us were aware of the route to dam and there were many diversions on our way. We took help of the pedestrians on the road (even a funny incident happened between our organizer and a drunkard man.
Essence of the trekking – reaching the dam
Dam was on small uphill and the place was covered with the fog.
The area there was lush greenery of the grass reflecting the brightness of the light
on the trek path and we have not used much of our torch light to move towards
the dam.
We reached the dam in the morning at or around 5:00am and were even a bit confused with the route which leads to the Rajmachi fort. We decided to explore the dam till the fog cleared away. We were just anxiously waiting for the warmer day light.
Our actual trek started early in the morning at 6:30 am.
Rajmachi Fort was about some 15 km from Tungarli
Dam. Rajmachi is a small village in
the rugged mountain of sahyadri in india. The trek was easier and the surrounding scenic
view of the Sahyadri Mountains is speechless. We were breathing fresh air and trekking
on in the mountainous area. The top of the hills was covered with clouds. The
fog was showering on us, the light breeze, flanking Greenery and the mountainous
area with the water flowing from the mountains really forced us to stay a bit
longer there and capture everything in our camera.
We reached the dam in the morning at or around 5:00am and were even a bit confused with the route which leads to the Rajmachi fort. We decided to explore the dam till the fog cleared away. We were just anxiously waiting for the warmer day light.
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| Fort Covered with Clouds |
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| Flying Fox |
After 3 hours of continuous
trekking
After 3 hours of perpetual trekking in the mountainous area,
we found few guys at the edge of one of those mountains beside the water stream
and a small hotel nearby. The guys were from local village and their team name is
Rajmachi Adventurers. They were busy
with the equipments to setup the flying
fox and waterfall repelling for cooperate event (they conduct rappelling event
for minimum team size of 20 people).
We followed the water stream till the edge and it has 150
fts drop waterfall then water continuous floating for a distance and again has
a big waterfall which goes into the valley (It is risk to reach the second
waterfall in monsoon season). We were
lucky to have reached the place at the time of set up and had a good deal.
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| 150Ft Water Rappelling |
Trekking towards the
village fort:
We continued our trek to the fort and heavy rains starting
hinting us frequently and trek route become difficult and damp path however we
have managed to reach the rajmachi by 5PM. We can see the two forts from the villages
which were built by Emperor Shivaji during 17th century. The taller one in the
east is Shrivardhan fort and the other in the west is Manaranjan fort. The
taller one was covered with cloud and we couldn’t able to see the high of the
fort. We walk up to the top of the hill and the place was amazing with historical
monuments, a large caves, secret exit gate, water storage tank, walls etc from
the top of the fort we can see the panoramic view of the mountains. Clouds
arrested the Sun and day has become dark, rain hitting us and the rock path
were sleeper while descending to the village.  |
| Manaranjan fort. |
Next day morning, we took the route directions to kondhanecaves but unfortunately we are trekking to the wrong trail which leads to
lonavala. We released and communicate to the villages to guide us till the
caves. It was completely down hills and curved edges with deep drop. It took us
4 hours to reach the cave. The Buddhist caves on the western slope of Rajmachi
plateau (at present known as Kondhane caves) were carved in the period around
200 BC. We have fun at waterfalls and explored the caves and trekked from
jungle stream to reach nearest village Udhewadi.tavelled to karjat station and
next morning Hyderabad.
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| Sahyadri mountains |
How to reach: From Hyderabad we have train facilities, bus and flight services
to Pune and Mumbai. From there we can local train to lonavala.
Things to bring: trekking shoes with ankle support, first aid kit, rain sheet and
torch light.
Food and
Restaurants: food and
stay is available in rajmachi and Udhewadi village. It is was the famous
trekking spot for nearest city and energy food stalls you can find many on the
trekking route
Cost: unlimited veg
food with two eggs is 100 INR and night stay per person is 30 INR
Permission:
Rajmachi entry fees is 5 INR for the maintenance of the fort
Trek level: Easy to medium
and the best time to visit is between September and February
2 comments:
Good description..keep them coming.
Good bro...... If possible take me with you.......
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