Trekking Trip to Loahgad

Date: 22nd May 2005
Starting Team Size: 7
Returning team size: 7

Loahgad brief: 52 kms. away from Pune, atop an impressive hill, these majestic forts were built in the 18th century. ridge and are ideal for trekking.

Started at 6:30 AM from Pune - Lonavala local, got down at Malavli. Loahgad fort is 9 Kms from Malavli station. Started from the foot of the hill at 7:30 AM. Reached a village about 3 kms from the station...(Could also have driven, only if some one had got a car !!! ). Took some Water, Cold drinks, chewing gums etc for the hot and exhaustive journey ahead. Sun was already bright and Hot.

8:30 AM: Walked for a distance of around 2 kms to reach the foot of a water fall. It was completely dried up. Decided to make the journey more adventurous by taking the dried up path of the water fall to reach the top. Was less dangerous and exhaustive then thought of. But kind of lost the way after reaching the top. Took the directions form the locals there and continued the journey.

11:00 AM: Reached a place where the paths for Loahgad and Visapur digress. We had no clue which way to take. Finally decided to go to Loahgad as it was a bit nearer and suggested by some locals there. By this time the sun was really "summer" hot. The number of breaks increased (Meena: lets wait here for some time). Some had doubts in reaching the top. But kept walking and climbing.

12:00 PM: Finally reached the entrance of the fort. The cold breeze at the entrance was worth the journey taken. We started moving around the fort taking snaps. All were hungry and decided to have our lunch. Started looking for some shady place (chaya as worded by Meena). But then decided to take a look at the long stretch of mountain (of about 2 Kms I guess) which takes to the end marked by a flag. But could not find a trace of greenery (no not the one you are thinking about..). Then decided to take a snap and return back for lunch.

1:00 PM: Running out of water. Started hunting for water on that deserted fort. A local was carrying some water. Filled our bottles with the cold water and asked him for directions for the place to find some more water. Some of us went to fetch more water...but to our surprise found "tadpoles" and other heavenly creatures have a dip in the cold water in the hot summer. Hey....wait....some had already consumed the water and were showing the symptoms of "tadpole behavior"...they were surely affected by the tadpole virus.

1:30: no shady (chaya) in sight...settled for the cover of the entrance gate and had our lunch...sandwiches and some fruits...took a small nap...but decided to vacate the place as we were disturbed by the "junta.." moving in and out of the gate. But there was a big problem here....which non of us had anticipated. All tried there bit to get it resolved but all failed....then it took all of us to get that thing moving...and that was to change the state of our maharaja from static to kinetic, there by proving the Newton's laws of motion. Started our down ward descend.

2:30: Reached a small hotel / dhaba / dabba / what ever u want to call it...and had a glass of cold lime juice. Then all started to sing...(which was hardly audible to themselves...). Unable to bear our melodious voices, the owner of the dhaba chased us out. We found refuge under a tree and again took a small nap...only to be chased away by some goats... :(

3:30: The sun was still smiling at us...so decided to have a cup of tea. The dhabba were we had the lime juice decided not to take the risk of providing us tea and again listen to the melodies...so had to find another hotel. Had our cup of tea...trying to decide if it was made of goat's milk or cow's...or was there any milk at all?

4:30: Again faced the same task of getting our maharaja to move. We started on our final leg of journey back home. The descend was quite easy then expected. But the heat was still taking our breaths away...

5:00: Reached the village where we started our trekking in the morning. Had some water...took some rest and decide to move ahead.

6:00: Reached the railway station...our supermodels had a makeover...had a photo session and took the local train back @ 6:30.

Members: nRao (Maharaja), SRK, Hari, Praveen, Meena, Mona and ME.

This was my last trekking trip in Pune before returning back to Bangalore.