SNS @ Lohagad !

After attending only one practice session for Cricket I always knew that I had missed a great opportunity to play for SNS Cricket team. But then I had my reasons too, biggest being unable to get up at the ‘wee hours’ on a weekend :-P . I was looking forward to some other activity to just get a chance to interact with people outside the office. 

When Nirzari mailed about the outing to Lohagad, I was too excited since I like going out in nature and trekking is something I loved during college days. We all discussed over the lunch and decided to go. But then we realized that we were not the fittest people around especially after having pizza’s every other day ;-) None of us were prepared for it. We researched about the fort and came to a conclusion that trek was not that difficult and one of us would complete it for sure before any other ;-)

On the penultimate day, there was a group meeting and people were assigned roles for trek.  There were 17 participants led by Deepak. Javed was handling finance. Amit and Sanjay were the incharge of the headcounts, Vibhor and Kaushal were told to buy the rail tickets.  Deepak briefed us about the trek and pepped talked with Do’s and Don’t’s.  It was decided that we would travel by local train. On the next day, 11 of us gathered at Pune station and we boarded the 6.30 local. Others joined us at Shivajinagar and Dapodi stations and we were set to go to Malawli,  which is just before Lonavla. Few of us stood near the gate exploring the beauty of nature while others scrambled through the newspaper.  As the clock struck to 7.45 we reached Malawli. Thus began the adventure.

This was my first visit to Lohagad and apparently first trek since I joined SNS. Lohgad is around 9 kms from Malawli station.  We started walking from the station. After a walk of around half hour we reached Bhaja village. The climate was quite pleasant with mild showers. We found a small tapri, where a small girl took the breakfast order. We had asked for Pohe,missal paav and chai. Unlike normal hotels, people do not cook food in bulk. They do it per order. We were asked to wait for around 15-20 mins before her mother can make the foodstuff. Having Garam Garam Pohe & Chai in that drenched surrounding was a wonderful experience.  Pramod W. was told that Ashwin was unable to make it to the trek. We started our way up to Lohagadwadi. It was difficult for all of us to be in sync with eachother.  

Taking shortcuts and climbing up the hill was of some pain to some of us (especially Vibhor) who were unseasoned for a trek scenario. Amit and Ravi did give us encouragement so that we could be with everyone and were not left behind. We had cucumber on the way which gave the spike which we needed to gain energy and continue the journey. Javed, showed his expertise in singing to increase the moral in the camp and distracted  everyone from the uphill task.  A fortnight of rain had changed the surroundings considerably. The lush green carpets were quite soothing for eyes. After around an hour or so, we reached the Lohgadwadi. Reaching there, we placed order for lunch and reached the base of the fort.

This is the point from where we had to climb steps to reach the fort. Previously, Malawli was the only route to reach Lohgad. But now there is another route from Lonavla, from where you can even get your car upto Lohgadwadi. Since the fort is more accessible now there were reasonable numbers of trekkers that day.

Personally, I am not against these roads being built up to the forts. It allows more number of people to visit these historic places of immense importance. More number of people are able to see and feel our glorious past. With more number of visitors, even the local people, most of them are poor villagers, get benefited. They can earn some money by serving the visiting people. But I have always observed that easily accessible forts like Sinhagad, Pratapgad, etc. get more casual visitors, who are least bothered about the forts history. Most of them come there for a day’s picnic. They litter around these places. Such disrespect for such important places would definitely not go down well with a true trekker. I have even seen foreigners who come to these places, taking utmost care to keep the place clean. But most of the time it is our people who behave irresponsibly.

Anyways, coming back to our trek, we proceeded further towards the fort. The original fort was built in the 12th Century by Raja Bhoj. Later on it was brought into swaraj by Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The steps to the fort were rebuilt during his time. The location of the fort had strategic significance because travelers/traders from the deccan plateau used this route to travel to kalyan. The fort has multiple levels of fortification. Interestingly most of the fortification is still intact and in good shape.

On reaching half way up the fort, we were able to see the Pawna lake behind the fort. So huge is the reservoir that it can actually be seen from three sides of the fort. There are a couple of caves in between, which ideally must have been used as store house. Like most other forts on the sahyadri, you will find large number of monkeys over here. It took around 30-40 mins for us to reach the top of the fort. On the top, there is a small dargah just in front of the entrance.

We all were traversing along the boundary of the fort and exploring around clicking photographs. After a while, in process of pulling each others legs (especially Swapnil who had decided that he was going to swim in a pond ) we reached the other end of the fort. From here there is a long machi extending towards the expressway. This machi is famously known as Vinchukata, The most known point on Lohgad. The road which goes towards vinchukata was very adventurous. It was steep with valley at one end, only one person could walk towards the target at a time. Kaushal & Javed took the ownership to lead their respective teams to the target. After around 10-15 mins of brisk walk we reached the target. We sat on the walls of the fort and rested for a while enjoying the scenic beauty of nature, clicking snaps, making inappropriate boys jokes :-D :-P . While we were busy pulling jokes on each other, all of a sudden Ashwin made a grand entry on the machi. Later we discovered that he had drove all the way alone till Bhaja and trekked the same distance in just 1.5 hours which was exceptional. He brought methi parathe’s and cheese slices for all of us which was very cool. We chatted and clicked a few more snaps.

After about an hour, regaining breath, we started with the journey back to the dhabba, at the base of fort where we had ordered lunch. The rain gods started pouring down heavily. We were very lucky to capture a scene where we actually saw the rains coming to us gradually. That was the ‘wow’ moment of the day.

Reaching dhabba, we all were very hungry and enjoyed the veg and non-veg food. Not to forget Swapnil lost his cool at one stage on the boy who served us :-D .  It was so much of fun with sense of achievement while finally making the trek a success. Around, 3.30pm we started back for the railway station. We took shortcuts while going down the hill and it was much easier task now compared to morning.  Took a break for 15-20 mins at the chai wala and continued to the railway station to board the 5.30pm local.

That was how awesome it was having a day off from the routine of daily traffic, personal and professional obligations and just enjoying in the nature. That was the time where new relations for life were made. That was the place where colleagues were converted into friends with no barrier of juniors and seniors.

I really wish that there are more such kind of activities which take place at SNS on a more frequent note. This helps to grow us personally and professionally. I really wish more and more people joining in for such activities next time around. :-)

This was just a glimpse of fun which we had because we agreed upon

 “What happens in Lohagad stays in Lohagad “ :-D

-Sahil Shah (26-06-12)