Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Trek to Lohagad
A bit late in posting this but here it goes anyway. I had gone to a fort called Lohagad in the last month with three friends of mine, Harman, Aditya and Abhay. I must say I've been trekking before, but this was eventful in many ways.
We were supposed to take a 11:40 PM train to Malavli station which is just after Lonavala on the Mumbai Pune line. I reached early at V.T. station around 10 PM to check up and buy tickets for all of us. I asked someone where tickets for this train were available. To my horror, I learnt from the person that the train was standing on the platform about to leave in hardly 15 mins. Then followed a hectic sequence of back and forth calls to my friends. They had'nt left their homes as there was an hour left (as per the earlier plan at least). We finally decided to meet at Dadar station and hire a vehicle (bus, Sumo or Indica) going to Lonavala somehow.
My friends started arriving at times which reflected various degrees of Indian Standard Time (pun intended). Finally we booked an Indica for Malavli and were off on our way. The journey was quite pleasant with a nice breeze blowing in from the windows. Every time you go on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway you cannot help but admire the scenic beauty of it all. You see technology and elements fuse together as you go down this six-lane silver strip cutting through rock and rising above the Western Ghats.The interesting part followed when we reached Malavli. What we saw was a closed railway crossing. Here we were, four guys in a hired taxi waiting in front of the crossing ready to pay the driver, when suddenly, two policemen with lanterns were seen coming towards us. They ambled towards us cautiously, pointing their torches towards our faces and inspecting us. They took down our name, address, tel. no. Next, was a barrage of questions about why we were there at 2 AM in the night? We explained that we wanted to start off for Lohagad early in the morning and that’s why we’d reached late in the night. Out came the story of how this place was unsafe. "Just yesterday someone was murdered and his body was dumped on the tracks", "Two weeks back some people came in a car, killed the driver and ran off", were two of the stories that we heard from the policemen.
They ordered us to sit in one area on the platform with strict instructions not to move around at night. We were sufficiently spooked and unsettled enough, so we did as they said and promptly settled down. By now it was 2:30 AM and we were killing time and sleep with conversation which ranged from interesting to inane as the night progressed. Quite quickly we realized that the temperature was low enough and that except Abhay, the rest had not carried any warm clothing. Abhay retired to one seat and quickly dozed off.
Fortunately, Aditya had brought a light bed-sheet. It was the most comic sight with the three of us sitting on a bench, huddled together, and shivering uncontrollably, with the bed-sheet draped around us. This protection was not good enough for three people. To add to the problems, every now and then, someone would doze off, leaning down, pulling the sheet away. The passing trains thundered through, disturbing us even further. We must have managed to get a total of half an hour of sleep till the break of dawn. Around 6:30 AM we finally got up and decided that to start moving would be a better idea. At least some exertion would drive the cold away.
We first went to the Bhaje Caves, which date back to around 2000 BC. They are Buddhist in origin and the quaint dwellings and prayer halls have a haunting feeling. You imagine a time gone by when monks lived here, nestled in the hills in the solitude. The prayer halls with their immense rock-carved ‘stupas’ now have a dank air to them. There still exist some very beautiful and intricate sculptures and carvings on the walls of the dwellings. We spent some time soaking all the sights in.
From the Bhaje Caves we started off on our route to Lohagad. Some years the route to Lohagad, was a simple trail. I was surprised to see a “kutcha” road being constructed all the way towards the point between Lohagad and Visapur, which are twin forts. This reduced the fun of roughing it out for trekkers. The flipside is that this road will be of immense value to the population of Lohagad village, which is situated at the base of the fort.
It was a easy though steep climb of around 2-3 hours. We reached Lohagad village and went further up the massive steps leading to the fort entrance. An immense gate greets you and the ramparts of Lohagad fort come up in sight. This is one fort that still is in quite a good condition, as compared to the numerous other forts in the Sahyadris, which sadly lie in a decrepit condition. We spent a nice 2 hours walking around the fort. The fort gives you a commanding view from the top, for miles around. Pawna Lake was a shimmering electric blue. In the distance we could see Tung and Tikona forts. We went towards the rear of the hill. Here lies a very interesting natural formation. There is this enormous projection which stretches out for more than 500 metres. It is called the Vinchu Kata in Marathi (literally meaning Scorpion’s Sting). If you visualize the shape of the hill in its entirety, this colourful name suddenly strikes you as being quite apt indeed.
Then we descended from the fort to Lohagad village. Had a sumptuous meal of Pithla (a preparation made from Besan) and Bhakri (similar to a chapatti made of wheat, instead this is made of rice flour), which is quite a common dish in the interiors of Maharashtra. Even this simple preparation seemed like a king’s feast because we were ravenously hungry. We ate so much that we actually felt a bit groggy and no one was willing to start the descent towards Malavli immediately.
After a 15 min nap, we woke up and bade farewell to Lohagad. On the descent, naturally spirits were quite high as there was’nt any exertion at all. We reached down in not more than an hour. From Malavli, it was off to Mumbai. The routine train travel back to Mumbai is the most boring part of the trek. But no pain, no gain. Better than staying in the city and wasting a chance to be in the outdoors. All in all this was one trek, which I will never forget!
We were supposed to take a 11:40 PM train to Malavli station which is just after Lonavala on the Mumbai Pune line. I reached early at V.T. station around 10 PM to check up and buy tickets for all of us. I asked someone where tickets for this train were available. To my horror, I learnt from the person that the train was standing on the platform about to leave in hardly 15 mins. Then followed a hectic sequence of back and forth calls to my friends. They had'nt left their homes as there was an hour left (as per the earlier plan at least). We finally decided to meet at Dadar station and hire a vehicle (bus, Sumo or Indica) going to Lonavala somehow.
My friends started arriving at times which reflected various degrees of Indian Standard Time (pun intended). Finally we booked an Indica for Malavli and were off on our way. The journey was quite pleasant with a nice breeze blowing in from the windows. Every time you go on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway you cannot help but admire the scenic beauty of it all. You see technology and elements fuse together as you go down this six-lane silver strip cutting through rock and rising above the Western Ghats.The interesting part followed when we reached Malavli. What we saw was a closed railway crossing. Here we were, four guys in a hired taxi waiting in front of the crossing ready to pay the driver, when suddenly, two policemen with lanterns were seen coming towards us. They ambled towards us cautiously, pointing their torches towards our faces and inspecting us. They took down our name, address, tel. no. Next, was a barrage of questions about why we were there at 2 AM in the night? We explained that we wanted to start off for Lohagad early in the morning and that’s why we’d reached late in the night. Out came the story of how this place was unsafe. "Just yesterday someone was murdered and his body was dumped on the tracks", "Two weeks back some people came in a car, killed the driver and ran off", were two of the stories that we heard from the policemen.
They ordered us to sit in one area on the platform with strict instructions not to move around at night. We were sufficiently spooked and unsettled enough, so we did as they said and promptly settled down. By now it was 2:30 AM and we were killing time and sleep with conversation which ranged from interesting to inane as the night progressed. Quite quickly we realized that the temperature was low enough and that except Abhay, the rest had not carried any warm clothing. Abhay retired to one seat and quickly dozed off.
Fortunately, Aditya had brought a light bed-sheet. It was the most comic sight with the three of us sitting on a bench, huddled together, and shivering uncontrollably, with the bed-sheet draped around us. This protection was not good enough for three people. To add to the problems, every now and then, someone would doze off, leaning down, pulling the sheet away. The passing trains thundered through, disturbing us even further. We must have managed to get a total of half an hour of sleep till the break of dawn. Around 6:30 AM we finally got up and decided that to start moving would be a better idea. At least some exertion would drive the cold away.
We first went to the Bhaje Caves, which date back to around 2000 BC. They are Buddhist in origin and the quaint dwellings and prayer halls have a haunting feeling. You imagine a time gone by when monks lived here, nestled in the hills in the solitude. The prayer halls with their immense rock-carved ‘stupas’ now have a dank air to them. There still exist some very beautiful and intricate sculptures and carvings on the walls of the dwellings. We spent some time soaking all the sights in.
From the Bhaje Caves we started off on our route to Lohagad. Some years the route to Lohagad, was a simple trail. I was surprised to see a “kutcha” road being constructed all the way towards the point between Lohagad and Visapur, which are twin forts. This reduced the fun of roughing it out for trekkers. The flipside is that this road will be of immense value to the population of Lohagad village, which is situated at the base of the fort.
It was a easy though steep climb of around 2-3 hours. We reached Lohagad village and went further up the massive steps leading to the fort entrance. An immense gate greets you and the ramparts of Lohagad fort come up in sight. This is one fort that still is in quite a good condition, as compared to the numerous other forts in the Sahyadris, which sadly lie in a decrepit condition. We spent a nice 2 hours walking around the fort. The fort gives you a commanding view from the top, for miles around. Pawna Lake was a shimmering electric blue. In the distance we could see Tung and Tikona forts. We went towards the rear of the hill. Here lies a very interesting natural formation. There is this enormous projection which stretches out for more than 500 metres. It is called the Vinchu Kata in Marathi (literally meaning Scorpion’s Sting). If you visualize the shape of the hill in its entirety, this colourful name suddenly strikes you as being quite apt indeed.
Then we descended from the fort to Lohagad village. Had a sumptuous meal of Pithla (a preparation made from Besan) and Bhakri (similar to a chapatti made of wheat, instead this is made of rice flour), which is quite a common dish in the interiors of Maharashtra. Even this simple preparation seemed like a king’s feast because we were ravenously hungry. We ate so much that we actually felt a bit groggy and no one was willing to start the descent towards Malavli immediately.
After a 15 min nap, we woke up and bade farewell to Lohagad. On the descent, naturally spirits were quite high as there was’nt any exertion at all. We reached down in not more than an hour. From Malavli, it was off to Mumbai. The routine train travel back to Mumbai is the most boring part of the trek. But no pain, no gain. Better than staying in the city and wasting a chance to be in the outdoors. All in all this was one trek, which I will never forget!
