Lohagad Fort Trek

  

A beautiful fort with its unique structure and an easy climb make Lohagad fort- also known as the Iron Fort, as one of the more popular destinations to visit near Lonavala.

In the dripping wet Mumbai monsoon, it was hard to travel between places.  On a cold and rainy Sunday morning, we a gang of 15 started from Mumbai in a reserved bus at around 6 am.  After around 140 kms travel, we reached Malavli. Just 3 kms travel from Malavli, we reached Bhaje village by 9 am. This place is located near Lonavala which is near Pune in Maharashtra.  There is a beautiful waterfall, which is used for bathing as well as washing clothes. The greenery coupled with the waterfall makes it a picnic spot.

There was a house offering food. We had Misal-Paav and tea for breakfast.  We ordered for lunch also from there, so that they can keep it ready when we come down.

We started walk from Bhaje village. Soon we reached to Gomukh Khind. From here, you need to take right to go to Lohagad and left to go to Visapur. After walking for 2 hours, we reached the base village named Lohagadwadi.

Rain welcomed us when we reached at base village.  I put my mobile and purse into the plastic cover.

view of Lohagad Fort from bottom

From the base, stone steps are laid till the top. Climb to the top of the fort should take around 45 minutes. Monsoon showers resulted water flows on the steps which makes them a bit slippery.  Climbing on stone steps was quite easy task and we reached at the top soon. The fort is still in a good condition and relatively clean. Many of the structures on the fort are still intact.

The fort has four entrances. Of these, Maha Darwaja has the most exquisite sculptures and carvings on and around it. Other entrances are Ganesh Darwaja,  Narayan Darwaja and Hanuman Darwaja. After crossing those four gates, we reached the vast open space on the top. On top of the fort, there is a Mahadev temple and lots of man made water tanks in various sizes. These were created as reservoirs for storing water accumulated during the monsoon.

Once you entered through the last gate, you can see an old gate on left. It was raining heavily so we didn't get a chance to click any photo. We were walking in clouds and unable to see any natural beauty around fort.

Soon we reached Laxmi caves which has many rooms and can accomodate 50 people at a time.

Then we moved ahead towards Vinchukata. On the way to Vinchukata, you can see newly built Dargah. This is the tomb of Sheikh Umar.

There is a long and narrow wall called Vinchukata (Marathi for Scorpion's tail) because of its shape. It was used to keep a watch on enemies and activities in the nearby region. This structure juts out from the main section of the fort and requires an additional 20 minutes of walking to reach the edge. We waited till cloud got away and gave us a beautiful view of Vinchukata point. Such tremendously beautiful formation of nature is something to cherish.

After taking in the spectacular bird’s-eye view of  the surroundings, it was time to walk down.  Soon we reached at the base village. It took two hours to reach back to the Bhaje village.  When we reached Bhaje village, a delicious lunch of bhakri,  rice, daal and chicken curry was waiting for us.  After lunch, we proceeded to Mumbai.