Trek to Lohagarh..!!

Everyone wishes to travel and explore places.. Who doesn't like to do that? You ask anyone.. and almost 90% of them would say yes, I love nature. Well, the only sad part is out of those 90%, almost 80% of them are either lazy or do not find time to do this activity and I am no one special. Till yesterday, I was also a part of that group of people who WANTED / WISHED to travel and explore. But yes, with Berty Thomas & Prasad Nayak around.. I was inspired and understood one thing - If one wants to do something, he will do it.. no matter what.

So it began. My travelling expeditions. I have weekends off at my workplace. So, decided to google and find a nice trek route near and around Mumbai, my hometown. There were many results that came out, and I decided Lohagarh it was. This was my first trek (initiated on my own) and so, will always remain close to my heart. To add to this, I had my fantastic set of buddies willing to join me for this. I had actually planned this trek with Sourav (My college mate @ TAPMI) and Roshan. Then, Sourav had a sudden change in plan and had to back out. One night before the trek, we thought of inviting Ankit (Tanna) who imeediately said a Yes.mHe got along two more guys, Abhishek (Abu) and Franklin (Anna/Frankie). Our team of 5 was decided and we planned to meet at my building gate @ 4.00 am in the morning. 

Surprisingly, everyone was on time. We left from Dahisar stn. all exited. We got down @ Dadar and boarded another train headed towards Lonavla. We had a general compartment ticket - and gosh.. it was full so early in the morning, with crowd pouring in every time the train stopped. We finally reached Lonavla @ 8.10 am. From there, we had to catch a train to Malavli stn. which would take another 10 min in the train. Finally, we arrived at Malavli at 9.00 am. This was our base location. We were to start our trek from here.

I had borrowed a camera from my beloved sister, but had forgotten to buy new batteries. Luckily, we found a store there which sold batteries and also 50 paisa wala pepsi :) We bought those and started walking. We passed through a bridge over the Mumbai - Pune expressway where cars zoomed before we could even get a glance at them. Our next destination was Bhaja Caves. We climbed through the steps clicking photos along the way. Finally, we managed to reach the caves where we took a well deserved break and also clicked some pics.

Next, we were to cross another mountain and climb about 1600ft to reach Lohagarh fort. For that, we would have to first descent this mountain. The stairs were in the opposite direction of the Fort. We decided to climb down this mountain instead of taking the normal route, which turned out to be very adventurous. We were apprehensive about two motus in our group - TANNA & Abu. Well, it so turned out that Tanna started leading the way while Abu lagged behind. Well, finally all of us reached down and decided it was time for a break.

We started our climb on the next mountain which would lead us to the Fort. The view of the fort from the base of this mountain was amazing. It was huge and covered the entire top portion of the mountain. I had a very good feeling of climbing this mountain. I wanted to reach the top of the fort.. and get a glimpse of how it looks like. Well, it was a difficult climb only because of the immense heat. I realized we were loosing a lot of fluid and so, decided on taking frequent breaks. By now, Abu was down. He was unable to walk and started panting. We took a food break. After eating apples and drinking Glucon D, all of us felt refreshed but for Abu. He was saying, he didn;t want to climb up and would stay there. However, we could not leave him there and convinced him that we would be taking frequent breaks. And this is how it went on for another 2 grueling hours. The last hour being the toughest, where we had ran out of water.

Finally, we reached the base of the fort. We could see a small hut from distance. When we reached there, an old lady was selling Lemonade. She gave us water to quench our thirst. We just sat down there and had that lemonade. It felt as if we didn't need anything else at that moment. That lemonade was priceless. Aaha, I forgot to mention one thing. Our friendly dog, that we had come across after climbing down from the Bhaje caves was still accompanying us. It rested when we rested. It was our guide and had come been with us for like 3 hrs. We gave him some biscuits to eat. The base of the fort was another 10 mins away.

After reaching the base of Lohagarh fort at around 12 pm, we decided to have our lunch in one of the houses there. We requested Amruta kaki (we came to know her name later) to make some food for us. We washed our hands, put water on our faces (it felt amazing) and sat down on their small varanda to eat. "Kanda Pohe", "Kanda Bhaji" (Onion Pakodas)and "Taak" (butter milk) was served and it was mind blowing. We ate like animals. The taste was authentic. I will never forget the taste of that Kanda Pohe. And yes, our friendly dog was still with us resting there in the shade. However, this was the last we saw her. She left us there and went down again, may be to guide someone else.

The climb to the top of the fort was another 30 - 45 mins. After a lot of effort and cribbing from Abu - we finally reached the gate of the fort which we thought was the top. We still had a long way to go. We kept climbing. Finally, we managed to reach the tip of the fort where were clicked pics. The view was brilliant. Absolutely stunning. I felt very strong even though I was exhausted. I got a feeling, I had conquered that fort. (I know, too dramatic.. but yes, it was like that). We were there for some more time and then decided we should climb down.

Our climb down wasn't difficult but painful as our legs were tired. We reached the Lemonade spot in 25 mins, from where we had taken around 1.5 hrs to reach the top. We had another round of the awesome lemonade juice and started descending down. It so happened that we decided to take shortcuts, and found one which directly took us to the bottom of the mountain. It was steep, risky, adventurous but fun. Abu descended all the way through the path. We finally met him at the base and walked our way back to Malavli stn. From there, we got a local to Lonavla stn at around 5.30 pm.

Our trek was awesome and we were looking at the pics while waiting for our train to arrive. We had a general ticket again, and AGAIN it was crowded. Infact, this time.. it was difficult for us to even make space to stand comfortably. After the entire days trek, our legs had gone numb. We stood like that for 2 hours after which we got place to sit at Kalyan.

Then, from Dadar, we caught a Virar bound train and reached home by 9.30 pm. It was a great trek along with Roshan, Frankie, Abu and Tanna (Who was named HABIBEE - bcoz of the look, handkerchief tied on the head and wearing a twisted cap). Yes, it was indeed was super fun. Though every part of my body hurt badly, I had a peaceful sleep and a very content feeling that finally my expedition kicked off. I could still feel the toughness of the fort, the heat.. and the thirst..

This trek gave me enough strength to move on in life and explore more beautiful places around. And that is what I plan to do.

Cheers..!!