A bastion among the clouds !!

There we were, 7 of us (not related to the 7 wonders of the world :P) at the Malavli station (just before Lonavla). The sweet scent in the air was sooo much refreshing, a change from the otherwise polluted Pune environment !!

So, started our trek (I prefer to call it that, sounds FUNDOO :P) to LOHAGAD. 100m into the trek and we were already beginning to enjoy it. We were standing on a bridge spanning across the Mumbai-Pune Expressway... on the bridge.. the E-way spanned till the horizon on both the sides... awesome!!

And after what seemed like only a few seconds (but actually a whole 20 mins), we continued. As we were treading across a village, it seemed that all the bulls out there were seduced by VEDANG's charms... all of em WANTED him !! (to be fair, he was wearing a bright red T-shirt). And as we passed the village and Vedang rejected all the advances... we 7 jewels started composing a poem on our dear friend VINAYAK ... it went something like
"ek hota Vinayak...
to vikayala gela kitak nashak...." etc etc... (check out FRIENDZ blog for the entire poem)
and then as we were done with the poem, we entered the wonderful world of nature!... streams of clear water flowing along the kaccha road we were treading, clouds obscuring the pinnacle of mountains, brief spells of rain, greenery all over and the brief glimpses of the fort among the clouds .. all sooo mesmerising !! On one side were the vast expanses of plains and on the other the intimidating mountains...

1:30 hours into the trek, and we reached a place that would leave Kashmir far behind. Two mountain ranges crawling towards one another, both pointed at their ends with steep slopes. On the left range sat royally the Visapur fort and on the right, the LOHAGAD fort. Both majestic. we were there in the valley between them mesmerized by their royalty. The clouds and the slight sunshine permanently imprinted the view on our minds.

and SO, we continued (for the fear of overrunning the Google server with too much data, I'll skip over to the point where we actually reached the fort). So, after climbing just about 30-40 steps, we realised why Shivaji maharaj chose this location to build the fort. Well, I don't have words to describe the point and frankly no words could suffice. Here's a sample pic :


Next, we entered the fort. It is in such a good shape. No one would believe it was built 100s of years ago. The holes in the walls for firing arms, the huge doors, the small dark chambers, even the unharmed steps, the intimidating walls, all sooo beautiful !


and we explored the fort for nearly half an hour. Then we reached a Darga. we could barely discern the structure among the thick fog although we were barely 20-25 m away from it. The ravine on the left and the NOTHING on the right (Actually, a thick cloud cover:P) and the rain now pouring. It was the perfect spot for a katta. So, we sat there and chatted chatted chatted while basking in the heavenly atmosphere.

Here's a pic of the darga:



None of us wanted to leave, so we continued up the hill in now, even a thicker cloud cover. There we reached a well. The biggest one I have seen till date. We couldn't see the other end of the well.. but till the point we could discern, the well had no end!
A perfect spot for a horror movie:P. by then, the rain had gained such a momentum as to be comparable to the Mumbai rains. we could actually feel the rain slapping us on our backs. So we had make a move. But, took shelter in a nearby shelter!
There we unleashed our musical instincts which never subjugated until we reached Pune. We sung all the songs right from "Pardesi Pardesi jana nahi ..." :P ... to "Yaaron Dosti ....". (and we could make out the irritation on CHIRAYU' face... ofcourse.. what would a musician feel to face such a mass-distortion of awesome songs!! .. we could totally understand.. but our spirits couldn't... and we continued.............................

and let me not bore u with our return journey.. which was every bit as exciting as the climb.
I guess.. this was by far the bessst trek I ever had !!!
And I would never forget the lovely place, only second to Kashmir. The best part of the trek was that we were almost alone in the entire fort which kinda made us feel like the kings of the fort! ...

a must visit place !!