Enchanting Sinhagad

The plan was to go together. All four members of the team on my short term assignment in Pune. As the assignment drew to close and I started winding up, I asked my team members for trekking to Sinhagad on my last weekend at Pune. Eventually there were only two of us left. We decided to go for trekking on Sunday, November 28, 2010.

At 0545 hrs  I called up Rahul Prabhune to wake him up. He picked me from the Swar Gate in his Santro around 0700 hrs. We  drove to Sinhagad base, halting on the way at Khadakwasla. We reached the base around 0745 hrs parked the car there. The climb began at around 0800 hrs. The trek starts with gradual stony path and is easier for initial part. It gets steeper and rocky as one moves up. We had to do some rock climbing in some creeks.

On the way there were a couple of small shops selling lime water, mineral water, cucumbers and Indian goose berries.  The trek is mostly rocky and green. We stopped at places to see the view about us and breathe some fresh air. 

At around 0930 hrs we were at the stairs of the fort. We climbed the top of the gate and gazed at the view around us. It was a feeling of a conquerer.

After taking few pictures we further dwelled on the mountain. The remnants of the fort are just few walls, gates and a chamber. Though much bigger than Purandar it is more like a table land. 

There are around 3-4 small desi style food joints (dont know what else to call them). I liked the arrangements for the customers. They had mats laid under the shade of low bushes where one can sit, lie down and relax and have the local marathi food. We had bhajji or onion pakodas (fried nuggets of onion and gram flour paste)  and then curd in small mud pots for the starters. 

After lying down for a while we had the 'Jhunka Bhakri' comprising of Pithla(local dish made from gram flour) and Bhakri(Jowar chapati). A cup of tea and then we got up to explore rest of the place.

A little further on the table land we saw that some people were doing rappling across the valley. I hurried myself to find out. It turned out that I was right. We quickly paid 100 bucks to the guys operating the sport. I quickly got into rappling gears, a harness and within minutes I was hanging from the rope through a harness and moving to the other end of the valley. It was an amazing experience. 

We started the descent around 12 and reached the base around 1. We drove off to the city chatting about the wonderful experience that I had. As for Rahul, he was a regular to Sinhagad during his childhood. For me, Sinhagad would remain one of the best experiences in the Maratha land. 

In the wilderness of Purandar

It was the afternoon of Sunday, November 21, 2010. I dragged myself out of slumber and lethargy somehow and convinced myself to visit Sinhagad fort before I leave Pune in another 10 days. I was having my lunch and browsing net on my phone to get directions to Sinhagad, when a link to a blog about a trip to Purandar caught my eye. By the time I finished my lunch I had decided to spend rest of the day trekking at Purandar fort. A quick look at the directions to the Purandar indicated that I need to take PMPML bus from Hadapsar bus station to Saswad, from there I need to go to Narayanpur and take a diversion towards left to Purandar fort and then trek/climb my way up to the Purandar fort.

Purandar is 40 km south east of pune at a height of 1398 metres above sea level and stands on a huge mountain. Oldest mention of Purandar fort dates back to somewhere around 13th century. In 14th century , Bahamani sultans built few structures comprising of bastions and walls. For over a hundred years, right till the late 16th century it remained under Nizamshahi rulers. The fort was given as Jagir to Maloji Bhosale, grandfather of Shivaji around 1596 AD. In 1665, Mughal forces under Jai Singh and Dilir Khan captured it and Shivaji surrendered it along with 23 other forts. Shivaji recaptured it in 1670 AD. Later in 1818 AD, British captured it. During the Second World War, the German war prisoners were kept here.

As I boarded the state transport bus from Hadapsar bus station, It started drizzling as predicted by the weather software on my phone. Technology these days does not walk, it leaps. But that's another story. The road to Saswad meanders through neatly cut roads through the western ghats. This stretch is called Dive ghat. A major part of the road has hills running parallel to it. It was sunny and rain has stopped now. I got down at Saswad around 3:00 pm.

During my solitary adventures through varied geographies in India, auto rickshaw has played the role of a life boat. I have scaled heights and traversed cities with this poor man's cow. So again, here I was planning to take an auto rickshaw to Purandar base and then start climbing. After failing to strike a deal with couple of auto rickshaw drivers, I decided that its better to take a shared transit to Narayanpur from rickshaw stand a little over 1 km from bus stop. I wallked to the place and got into a shared auto rickshaw. Suddenly it started raining heavily and I witnessed another indigenous invention, 'jugad'. There were two canvas flaps tied in front of our seat in the rickshaw. The driver pulled them out and attached them on both sides of the rickshaw virtually like doors to a cab. I was dumbstruck.

Through the blog that I read earlier in afternoon, I knew that the diversion to Purandar bears a signboard with Shivaji's image on it. When we passed it I asked the driver about the way to the fort and about the signboard but he insisted that the way was on the right. A few metres ahead we got stuck in a traffic jam. I got down and started walkin another 200 metres and I was standing at Narayanpur bus stand. After some enquiry it turned that I need to go back to the diversion again and go in the direction indicated by the signboard. I cursed the auto rickshaw driver as it was getting late it was almost 4:00 pm.

I came back to diversion and tried to get some transport to the foot of the mountain. I tried hitchhiking but no use as there were very few people going that way. As a last resort I stopped another auto rickshaw. The driver told me that its no use going to the foot of the hill and start climbing now as it will get dark and the gates to the fort / cantonment will be closed. There is a battalion stationed at the top that closes the gates after dusk. He can take me up and bring me back to Saswad, if I pay him a little extra. After debating his motives of earning a little extra from a non-local, in my head, I reluctantly agreed to the deal, but told him that I will take as much time as I wish.

The climb began via tar road till I reached the gates. Beyond the gates the road is just mud and stones. I passed two abandoned structures of churches which looked beautiful set in the lush green and hilly backdrop. I stopped to take few pictures and moved on. There is a gate to the left of the road a little lower from it. It is usually referred as Dilli darwaza. I kept treading the muddy path passed another abandoned structre which probably used to be an eating joint. There is house next to that structure, one with burnt clay tiles roofing, popularly known as 'khaprail'. I was overjoyed to find that there was a small tea shop in that house. I made a mental not of having tea there on my descent.

There were steps beside the house that led to a temple. Instead of taking the usual path to the top I went to the back of the courtyard of the temple and started climbing through the muddy creeks. It was slipper as it has rained but could not deter me from moving ahead. It is not that tough a trek. I passed the normal path and people on that a couple of time during my ascent. I had to bend down to find my way through the thick bushes at some places. In less than one hour I was at the steps of the fort.

I gazed around and felt the scenery about me for a while. The ruins of the fort just have one solid structure with wall, a round structure and two gates. Rest of it is just ruined walls. So, not much of a fort though but a good place to trek, sit back and relax. At the top there two ridges run to Vajragarh fort and a temple respectively. Since it was getting dark, I sat there for another half an hour and then started descending.

At some point I felt I have lost my way as I was taking the creeks again. By the time I reached temple courtyard it was dark. I had some tea at the tea shop. While returning, I met two armymen. They were going to close the gates. With some interesting conversation with them, I moved to my auto rickshaw which was waiting at the gates. It took me to Saswad from where I boarded the bus to Pune. On the way it rained heavily. And as I got down in Pune, I had a reason to come back again to Purandar. Visit the Vajragarh and do the entire trek. Well, haven't I thought same about places that I havent visited second time in my life.