TREK : RAJGAD TORNA

Location: Pune Region

Elevation : Torna fort : 4604ft 

    Rajgad fort:4514ft

Category (Difficulty): Medium

Endurance Level: High

Total Member: 5

Date: 11 October – 13 October 2011

TREK PLAN to Torna & Rajgad

From the return journey of Purandar fort, the Lear group(Abhishek Bawkar n Kedar Tambe) decided to go for Torna Rajgad Trek. It was 3 day trek. The main idea behind this 3 day Trek was to celebrate the Kojagiri poornima on the King of fort i.e. Rajgad & then to walk along the ridges of the hill and then  to reach Torna fort.

The Lear group planned this trek on a week-day as Kojagiri was on Tuesday night. Thus I had to took leave from office. Oh!! My God,I had to take 3 CL’s  for this trek.

The trekking days decided were Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I kept my fingers crossed so that the trek does not get extended and I can attend office on Friday hopefully.

Total trek team includes 5 members:-

1) Abhishek Bawkar

2) Kedar Tambe

3 ) Amey

4) Atul Dhuri

5) Myself (Abhijit K)

Preplan

I had borrow digital camera from my office friend,& I had leave early from office for packing. But guess what, the camera was not charged & there was no electricity in my home due to load shedding. Such a bad luck.

Anyhow  I had to go ahead , I packed up my trekking bag  which includes snacks like  big goodday biscuits in case of emergency. On the other side, Abhishek n Kedar brought their brand new tent for the trek.

Journey Begins

We caught  the  ST bus from Mumbai-Central ST depot at 12.30 am. I slept well but we got bad traffic jam due to the heavy vehicles on NH4 highway which disturbed my sleep. We alighted at Nasrapur at 6.00am (supposed to be 5.00am) & then caught a vehicle for Gunjavane (Base village of Rajgad).

The morning climate was pleasant where the birds were chirping sweetly. The local dairy was collecting milk from a villager who is the supplier for that diary.

We reached Gunjavane at 7.30am, where you can get breakfast like poha, upma n some biscuits for breakfast in Gunjaven & also lunch . We placed order for lunch & dinner in Gunjavne itself.

We moved towards Rajgad fort at 8.15am after re- filling our fuel engine. Kedar, Abhishek, Amey were loaded with heavy weight rucksack on their backs. The sky was almost clear, no signs of rain at all. There were two dogs present at that time which became our guide & they headed our trek for a change. I had given them names Basanti and  Viru respectively. The climb was good, but Kedar finding it a little tiresome as he had just recovered from illness & the weakness due to the illness was still present. But still Kedar managed very well. During this trail we did some photography (bird-watching).

Climbing Rajgad

ATOP Rajgad

We reached the top of the hill at 12:00pm. We entered from Chor Darwaja. We first went to Padmavati Talao which belongs to Padmavati Machi. Rajgad fort contains 3 Machi's viz. Padmavati Machi, Suvela Machi, Sanjivani Machi & Balekilla (the main operating junction of the fort). Padmavati Mandir is a good option for shelter(u will come to know  later why). We settled down at Padmavati Mandir , by that time it was already afternoon & our lunch also arrived at the same time. We all grabbed  our food packet which consists of Bhakri, Pithale and Thecha which added spicy flavor to our lunch. Viru & Basanti got their shares too. After we had  our stomachs full ,everyone was in a  sleepy mood. Our next plan was  supposed to be Balekilla and  then Suvela Machi on the same.

 day & the following  day after that, visit to  Sanjivani Machi was decided.After taking  a good nap, we made a move for the Balekilla. To go there, you will find 2 routes, one is (right side) which will lead you towards Sanjivani Machi & another is for Balekilla and Suvela Machi. We first went to Balekilla. From the top of Balekilla (Citadel), the panaromic view was simply excellent. Indeed, we were happy that we were able to visit such a beautiful historical place built by our ancesters. Citadel place is worth watching destination. On the background, nature started turning its shade. We saw an army of cloud forming in the sky. We missed our Sunset due to the dense cloud formation. We had to wrap up our plan for the Suvela Machi n eventually Nedhe plan also. During that time, Viru returned back to his home,but Basanti was still with us. Nature still had more surprises for us.

We came back to Padmavati Temple at 7pm. Our dinner had already come from the base village. After finishing dinner, we started camping our brand new tent. I also learnt how to pitch the tent .Chit-chat session had started after pitching the tent.Slowly the cool blowing breeze refreshed our surroundings. But our happiness had not last longer. The speed of the wind increased very quickly.The clouds started roaring all over the fort. Nature changed so quickly before we could ever imagine. It started to rain along with the harsh blowing wind. Our tent had been swaying due to the force of wind. But we were still in the tent & fighting the force of the wind. But nature betrayed our camping option. In front of nature, we had to accept defeat and we had to undo our camping tent at 9pm. After vigorous testing of our brand new tent in this harsh weather, we had decided to go to Padmavati temple. Padmavati temple really served us good purpose of shelter. One solar-lamp in Padmavati temple lightened through the entire night which was sufficient for all of us. The rain, clouds and storm ruined our Kojagiri Pournima plan. But still Kedar had surprise for us in stock. He gave the surprize at 10pm. Kedar had brought (condensed) milk for Kojagiri Pornima. After drinking the Masala milk, we could imagine full moon behind the cloud. Everyone retired for the day quickly. One window of the temple was continuously shattering the entire night due to the wind which disturbed our peaceful sleep. It was raining like cats and dogs the entire full night alongwith the rumbling of the clouds. The next day we had decided to visit Sanjivani Machi early in the morning to catch the sunrise but again the clouds deceived that plan also. We woke up early in the morning & went back to our beds after seeing the army of clouds waiting for us to come out.

The clouds ruined our sun-rise watching plan also but we got little more sleep due to these clouds. Nature almost went against us to stop our every event but we were stubborn and never gave up hope. At the top of the Machi, there was a little arrangement for breakfast. We got Poha for breakfast. We had stomaches full, as we got advise from Kedar that dont depend on lunch as we might skip lunch. The floor was damp. We had taken the darshan of Suvela Machi & Nedhe from a distance. We departed from the Padmavati Mandir at 9:45am and headed towards the Sanjivani Machi. Even Bas anti was also with us.

    We had to go a long way towards the Torna fort. Within one hour, we reached the Sanjivani Machi. The beautiful construction & grand exotic work of this Machi enchanted us. After the Sanjivani Machi, we met the villager who was selling Buttermilk in desolate moorland. After enquiring him, he told that he saw our group climbing down from Sanjivani Machi. After crossing the village, we reached ridges of the hills. Sprawling lavish landscapes tempted our attention. We had set a destination target which was small hut which was on the route. But the way to reach the hut was going through the Damber(Tar) road. These are the key hints of the trek i.e. tar road & small hut. We took halt at the small hut where we could re- fill our bottles with buttermilk.

It was nice experience walking on the ridges, but the walking distance was too much.

Ridge

After crossing the small hut, the surroundings became desolate moorland. We again halted at 3:30pm for snacks under a small tree. Big trees are rarely seen on the route. Slow motion of breeze of wind blowing smoothly implies that don’t worry, we will also be with you for your company. Basanti was still with us.

I even insisted  Basanti to go back but she choose  trekking with us than going back home. At 5pm, we hurried through our way, fortunately there was villager to the left side of the ridges. On the way, there was one farmer entertaining their cows. He guided us to the correct path. After walking half an hour, we took rest. Everybody was quite tired. We could see Budhla Machi from there. We almost walking from 9:45pm onwards, everybody were fatigued alot.

Kedar had strived to catch his breath. In between, the nature signaled time out by drizzling.  We prayed earnestly to natures that please wait only 1 hour for the tire-some people who came along far away for trekking. Guess what, our request was accepted by the mighty nature.

Climbing Budhla Machi

In this way,we lend one hour from nature. Kedar had set the target, i.e. Menghai Devi temple. Menghai Devi temple was the only option for shelter, I guess so. We could see flag of the temple only from there.  We started climbing Budhla Machi in exhausted condition. There was one small ladder there also to assist the trekkers. I climbed 2nd in position of the ladder. I was thinking now how Basanti would make it. I saw downwards, Basanti was not there, she was ahead of me only. Basanti skipped the ladder intelligently.  This climb was also associated with rock patch. It seems it was an  not easy task & in exhausted condition, it made more  difficult. On the route, there are rail-links for support & rock patch to test our strength skill.  I really admired Basanti’s effort.

Torna

The Sun was almost on the edge of the shore. There was hardly any light was present, somehow we managed to reach the Menghai Devi temple at 6:45 during the dusk-time. Our condition was really bad. We travelled overall 9 hours walk from morning. Now please don’t expect electricity in the temple. There was a provision for solar lamp but only framework was remained of solar panel & battery case.

The temple is spacious enough to accommodate 15 people at a time. We even didn’t think about pitching the tent. Water cistern was available in front of the temple on 2 min distance away by walking. Our 1 hour limit given by the nature expired, rain started pouring heavily. Everyone’s water bottles were empty. I did not have the guts to fetch water from the water cistern. Amey & Atul were ready to fetch the water. The temple was lightened by the head-lamp of Abhishek. It was raining very heavily outside the temple. We took little rest of 1 hour and then we had also carried rice along with us to make khichdi, but there was no option available to cook. We could not lit anything not even candle in the heavy rain. We only had 1 big Maggie packet, half big Good-day packet & Tang packet. My stomach started grumbling due to hunger, but there was no way to cook anything. Basanti looked hungry & thin too, might be thinking why I opted for this group.

We got 3 good-day biscuits per head (Basanti also included). Now the only option left with us was to eat RAW Maggie. Abhishek took 2-3 small packets of Maggie, shatter into small pieces of Maggie-Ready to eat dinner. Now I could say that Maggie recipe could made in 2 minutes. If ever we send this recipe to Maggie, definitely they will us reward for this. “Meri Maggie, pyarri Maggie, Kacchi Maggie”. We all gobbled it quickly. Abhishek prepared cold-drinks by mixing TANG powder in water. We drunk TANG within a gulp. No way to provide TANG to Basanti. Basanti remained still by licking out her tongue. We finished our formality of dinner. The night was just dark jet-black.  The weather was quite chilled due to the heavy rains. Everyone was trying to sleep with their empty stomachs, initially it was a difficult task but later everyone slept with a lot of effort and fatigue. Of Course of nature turned placid in the morning. Morning was rinsed with clear sky and with damp floor. The backside of the temple gave excellent panoramic view. The picturesque view outside magnetized our attention. The clouds sprinted out. Now you can understand why this fort is difficult to invade, as chief of the fort could keep eye on the vast sprawling surroundings easily.

Mengai Temple

We completed our early morning activities. We did not have so called breakfast or kind of snacks to eat. We did scenic photography (with an empty stomach) & started descending early. We skipped our plan of visiting Zhunajar Machi because of time (or may be its hunger attack). We were climbing down in Velhe village (Torna-peth). On the route, there were  rock-patches & also Rail-links to assist the  trekkers. But it was difficult task when you are carrying tons of goods on your shoulder. Abhishek found proof of leopard on the plateau descending to Torna fort. But we didnt ’t get appointment with the leopard ,indeed,. On the descending trail, we saw a small hut for having buttermilk, but when we actually reached there it was empty.   While arriving towards the base village of the Torna fort, there was a river bed (not much big), where the villagers used to wash their clothes in the bed of the river.We had not bathed for 2 days. When we saw the bed of the river, wow! Amey goes for washing his face. Guess what, I also mimicked him but not the same and I went for bath. It seems that due to hunger, initially the group was not in a mood to bath, may be the appetite was stopping them. Later we realized that after half an hour we somehow managed to get lunch. After that, they also took opportunity to bathe after 2 days. The water was little cold but

everybody enjoyed bathing after 2 days. We were all feeling fresh. We then hurried to the hotel directly then.

We entered the hotel., the hotel was not so crowded. Basanti also came inside the hotel. I brought four biscuit packs for Basanti. We ordered full lunch thali for all of us individually. We were also waiting for lunch deliberately. Once lunch arrived, we started gobbling it quickly. Lunch included  2-3 items of gravy, bhakaris, dal-rice (all were unlimited). I also drunk 2-3 glass of buttermilk (It is very normal for me & abnormal to Kedar). Basanti was still hungry, so I brought more  3 biscuit packets  for Basanti. We moved towards the ST stand, where we came to know that we had missed ST bus just 5 minutes ago.  There was one dairy shop in front of the ST stand. I was just observing the shop & my eyes were stuck onto the Amrkhand. I quickly had a taste for Amrkhand (sweet dish after food). In village side, jeep, tracks were widely used for public transportation.  We opted for the same. We waved off Basanti. Basanti shifted from Gunjavane to Torna Peth. The jeep was only till Nasrapur. The jeep was not crowded before occupying seat. Everyone being asleep till Nasarapur. We reached Nasarapur and we really had to do exercise a lot to catch d ST bus for Swargate (Pune). On the National highway 4/ Pune Banglore highway, no ST bus could be stopped. Eventually a bus stopped which had came from Velhe village itself. As we reached  the Swargate ST stand, we saw one  empty ST bus for Vasai. I thought the bus was just came from Vasai. I enquired about the same bus and got the information that the bus was leaving for Vasai in 5 minutes. Hushh. No more fighting for travelling, what a sign of relief. Everybody was feeling little stressed out, but it was worth the trekking trip.

Summary:

We planned to celebrate Kojagiri Pornima, but nature showed us a different color that day. But on the other hand, we witnessed one of the historical places of our ancestors. The massive construction still withstand strongly. It is really a crown garland in Maharashtra’s treasure.