Trek To Lohgarh

“Garh” means fort. Maharashtra has many forts. Most of the forts in Maharashtra, whether up in the hills or near the seas are associated with Shivaji. –the great Maratha warrior. He constructed quite a few forts and conquered many which were built by the earlier rulers. These forts are good for trekking, and with monsoons around, they are the favoured destination of the young crowd of Pune and Mumbai and all the places in between ….

Trekking is always fun with a bigger group. This time, we went to Lohgarh. On the central railway line, one can get down on the Malavali railway station which is one station before Lonawala if you are going from Pune. Coming out of the station, there is a bridge over the expressway. Around one km later, one will find the parking lot for the vehicles and small shacks for tea and snacks. There are few houses, and they also provide rooms for changing clothes which is really required in the monsoons.

If you are coming from Pune in your own vehicle, come on the old Pune-Mumbai highway and take a left turn there for Malavali village. That road will come towards Malavali station. You will find Vedanta Academy on your left side on this road. It is around 6-7 kms inside.

We started from home around 7.30 in the morning and started the trek at 10.30 am. It did’t take that long to reach the place itself, we stopped for breakfast at a dhaba. We were the first customers and a big group, so the breakfast took its own sweet time. We also had home made sandwiches prepared by Chaya’ mother. They were simply delicious. She was very considerate to have got for all of us with a bottle of ketchup along !! Really sweet.

The trek is quite simple. From the base of the trek, left road goes to the Bhaje caves, another popular tourist destination. The road on the right goes to the base of the fort. The path is a pebbled road, sufficiently wide. There is a beautiful waterfall just at the base of the trek. It has all the elements that bathing in the waterfall can provide, a forceful waterfall, a firm place to stand under the water and at a lower level, the pool of water where the less daring can spend some time and then go up. Good for the families too, where all of then can go without much fear. And take some memorable snaps. We decided to spend time here on way back.

It was raining all along. Sometimes drizzling but also heavy rain as we climbed up. The scenery was changing, the land looked like pockets of water and greenery. Some birds were singing very beautifully, could spot only few doves here and there. There were some tea shacks on the way, where we had chai with bhajia. The trek was steep only at some places, so we went at a good speed. At the base of the fort, there are again some hotels, better equipped ones. They would provide proper meals. And snacks and tea etc. The people were from the village living there and providing these services to the tourists.

The steps to the fort are like they should be , big steps. But again, not too steep. There was a big school group visiting the fort that day. A bunch of excited school kids, their energy levels were supremely higher of-course. We reached the top in no time. The view from the top was enchanting. The fort is not in a very good state. It needs to be preserved.

On the top, the rain drenched us completely, the wind was treacherous, and I felt I should have got some extra clothing. And there was no shelter. We were in the open. Could not see much ahead as it was all fog. We walked for some distance and found a dargah. We stood on the side of a wall of this dargah and thought of helping ourselves with the food that we had packed with us. This wall of dargah protected us from wind to some extent and we could stand firmly. Out came everything, and we were done in less than 20 minutes, a standing lunch.

There was a long way one could walk and have good views provided the weather was good. But it was so full of fog that we decided not to go forward and started walking back.

Climbing down is what tells how tired you are. I was completely drenched and hunger pangs gone, it was perfect time for a nap but there was no way in the rains. And when we started to climb down, the legs were showing their presence. Few of us started singing songs, Vinod was busy taking photographs. After a while, it was pouring and it was very blissful. For quite a distance, I was walking alone, and it was so wonderful to be in the midst of beauty of nature, at a moment it felt I was encompassing everything ….

We came down to the waterfall, and I was so fully drenched and so full of the experience already, that I didn’t want to go and play in the waterfall. Almost everyone from the group was already there. They were really having a good time out there.

Finally, the trip came to end at 6 in the evening. We changed into dried clothes and hurried towards Pune. We all were really hungry as we did not have a proper lunch. We stopped for a hearty meal as part of the Vinod’ birthday treat at Sadanand Resorts and it was a day really well spent.

Would love to go again there, this time to explore Bhaje caves.

More pictures of this trek are here

Amidst Shivaliks

Our visit to Shimla also (like most others ) happened without much planning. We had 3-4 days time and we were in Haridwar. One option was to come to Delhi with the Dhyanyatra group and then go somewhere from there or to go from Haridwar itself. Checking out the options, Jaipur was on a high priority. Other cooler places like Nainital etc would have required much more travel. We had to cancel Jaipur thinking it would be hot and after coming from Himalayas, we may not really enjoy such drastic change in climate. Being there is one thing, but moving around to explore a place needs better weather condition. So, Shimla came as a natural choice. One can also go to Dehradun or Mussoorie but that can be covered in one day trip, so we had to drop that. There are buses to Kalka from Haridwar, but they are not very comfortable for the overnight journey, we were told. No volvos yet. There is a train till Ambala and from there one can take another train to Kalka. Kalka to Shimla can be covered either by the train which takes you through the forest in six hours or one can go by bus in 3 hours. Our train was a passenger train and it was stopping at many places. We were not in a hurry as long as we were sure to get a connecting train. Finally, our train reached Ambala at 4 in the morning. We could get some good sleep in the train. We did not have to wait for long at Ambala and at 4.45 am, we could catch the Jodhpur Kalka train. This train, coming from Jodhpur separates into 2 and one part goes to Kalka while the other proceeds to Haridwar. In the hurry to board the train, we boarded the one going to Haridwar only to be told in time by fellow passengers that you have to board the other one. Luckily, we didn’t miss the train. We reached Kalka by 7.30 in the morning. We freshened up and had some real tasty cutlets in the railway restaurant at the station. I think the potatoes you get there are very good quality. We took an auto to the bus stand which is very near to the railway station, hardly one km. We got Shimla bound bus within 5 minutes. And we were again in the mountains climbing up, going through the rich flora of the place. It was very pleasant weather and people were all smiles and fresh, going about their businesses. We reached Shimla by 12.30 pm and at the bus stop, we were greeted by some porters, some taxi union people telling us about their services. We had some rough idea about the place as read in the travel books. Porters here have a good business model. They charge very minimum from the customers, lift their luggage upto the hotel and they are paid by the hotel for bringing in the customers. We were quite surprised when he asked only for 20 bucks and walked with us uphill , almost a km. There is no easy way. One can take taxi and each trip would cost you 200 bucks as they have to come10 km for a distance which can be covered on foot in 1 km. We did not have much luggage, so used the cheaper option. The porter suggested a very good hotel, only thing one had to climb further compared to other hotels. But it was secluded, provided very good view and ambience was really good. We were I think the only people in hotel at that time, it added to getting a good service all the time.

It was quite chill in the evening when we set out to explore the market. It was a pleasant surprise to find that it was a Karva Chauth day. It is a festival where women fast for the whole day for the long life of their husbands. They break their fast only after seeing the moon and giving the first offering to the moon. They dress in the best of their bridal dresses and ornaments. I was seeing this festival being celebrated for the first time. Though it is very common in North India, I do not know why but at our home it has not been observed. Most of the people were tourists and lot of local people also. They were out on the street with their husbands, all looking at the sky for that. Waiting for moon to show in a hill station can be a very long process. We were there for almost two hours and the moon had not shown up. The shops were closing and we went back to hotel and as we were reaching hotel, we heard lot of crackers as well as cheers of people. Moon did show up and everyone must have been happy. Also met a few people on the way who were really hungry and decided not to wait too long. I like such pleasant surprises. I don’t know if I could have seen this festival in such a setting any other time. Being there at the right moment unplanned is pure luck.

Next day we hired a taxi for the whole day for Kufri and Golf course. Kufri is at good height. But not well developed as a tourist place. When there is snow and people can try out skiing, it may be really good, but there is not much to see there. On top of that, we did not like the way the horse riders take tourists for a ride. They would give wrong information which was really sad. For a very short distance which was hardly one kilometre, they made us to use the horses saying the road is not good and it is 4km distance. We wanted to save time and agreed to what they said. I think tourist places should respect the tourism and the people who come with so much of enthusiasm. By cheating, they kill all the enthusiasm. There were not sufficient good eating places also in Kufri, there was one good restaurant who would charge 50 bucks only for entry. They did have the pleasure rides etc which we were not interested in, but only for using the restaurant, one has to pay some money was unheard of. We managed to talk to the owner on mobile and convinced him to let us in without paying anything. On top of that we found that there is a road coming all the way very close to the point where the view point is. Our taxi driver did not tell us about its existence. It is planned to have entry from one point where taxis can park and people can take the horses to go one km distance. One can pray in a temple devoted to snake god which is at this place to give some common sense to people so that innocent people do not go feeling cheated.

We did climb on to Yaks brought in only for the photograph sessions. After Kufri, we went to see the Helipad. The president’ vacation home is very near to this place. It was a very picturesque route. On the way back, we had some parathas with hot chai. It was really good. We had to go back to Kufri as we remembered that we left our bag of woolens that we purchased, near the Yak while climbing for the photograph. This time we used the road to reach the place faster and managed to get back the bag. But that took away some time from our schedule. Our taxi driver was not enthusiastic to take us to golf course but we promised to pay for the extra hour and he agreed. The golf course is a century old. It is set in a very beautiful setting. All surrounded by the deodhar tree, this place is very wonderful. There are few cottages spread on the huge forest area. One can easily spend whole day walking in the woods. We had only half an hour to explore the place. That was the end of the day and we reached back in an hours time to taxi stand. Took the lift back to Mall road. We had to do some shopping for souvenirs. Shops here close early. Luckily, we entered a Tibetan shop and we could get everything there. In-fact, other shops were closing by the time we left the place. Next day, we had to take 10.30 am train to Kalka and the shops open only after 10, so this was the only time left for us to transact in the market place. Next morning, we had a heavy breakfast of Chole Bhature and Aloo paratha thinking we would be reaching Kalka only by 4.30 pm and to avoid eating in the stations in between. The food at hotel was really good, whatever we tried, was so well made. But I was surprised and sad that they did not have rajmah in their menu. I so much wanted to have that. Distance from hotel to station is around 1.5 kms. We decided to walk down so that we can see the place also. We had not come on that road before. It was a Thursday morning, and at 9 am as we were walking down, we found students walking to their schools, people going to the offices. The whole way was going down this time, so it was very pleasant walking in the sun. Shimla is the state capital of Himachal Pradesh, so lot of administrative buildings are in the city. On this road, we came across many such buildings. On reaching the station, we were pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness of the place. This is the first Indian station I have come across which is maintained in such a fashion. It has the architecture of British times, green and yellow colour theme which looks very cheerful. The restaurant at the station was also class. This kind of welcome they should provide at all other places in Shimla and also at all the tourist places in India. The train journey through the forest was a real treat to the eyes. The flowers of the forests and the tall deodhar trees for the company; we did not realize how six hours passed.