It was a September morning, with a broad expanse of pure sky across which large clouds, like mountains of silver, moved in majestic slowness. The wet mettalic road disappered in the grass, and the cool breeze running through my hair made me forget about the bumpy ride that took us here. An infinite number of small rivulets were flowing down along the slopes; they remove small bits of the slope and leave traces of their passage in light grooves.
Rajmachi Fort is situated in Lonavla region, on the top of the Western Ghats. The highway from Khopoli to Khandala-Lonavla, known as Borghat, is an ancient trade route. Overseas trade of the Western India and the Deccan was carried through the ports of Chaul, Revdanda, etc., on the western coast. The trade route passing through the Borghat connected these ports to the region around Pune and beyond on the Deccan plateau. Fort Rajmachi was built to control the trade route of Borghat. There are two Fortresses on Rajmachi –the taller one in the east is Shrivardhan and the other in the west is Manoranjan.
The trek begins after you cross some paddy fields, initially there are no steep climbs, and you just have through walk through some mud puddles, Manisha managed to get her foot stuck in one of those, others followed soon. After five minutes of walking, the slopes got steeper and the forest grew denser. Soon we reached a vantage point where I paused to get a panoramic view of the entire mountain chain, bathed in gentle sunlight. The small river that we had crossed at the foothills looked like a silver thread from here, on the other side we could see the three-layered mountain towering above us, this place never ceases to amaze me. A few more minutes of walking took us to a plateau from here on the mountain across the valley we could see a train going towards Pune slowly climbing up the Borghat, one enjoys some great hills of Sahyadri to the left. This particular section of Sahyadri is commanded by a pair of citadels of Rajmachi - Shrivardhan and Manoranjan. Rajmachi has quiet a lot of significance because of its vital position - keeping an eye on the Borghat, and the beauty that it offers has mesmerized the trekkers for since long.
We thought we had lost our way, and had almost decided to return back, but then out of nowhere we saw this man coming out of the woods. He said he would take us to the top and would also arrange for our food. We agreed to go with him and after walking for an hour or so we finally reached the hamlet of Udhewadi. There is nothing much to be done once you reach here, for me the journey is more important than the destination. People come to this place for various reasons of their own. But people like us come here because we enjoy the long and thrilling trek that takes us here; we come here to enjoy the sheer thrill of trekking in the Sahyadris.
Udhewadi, a hamlet of 22 houses, is situated on the plateau of the fort Rajmachi. As there is no pucca approach road to Rajmachi, one has to trek on foot the distance of 15 km. from Lonavla, to reach Rajmachi-Udhewadi. During the dry season after monsoon, one can take a jeep upto Rajmachi. However, the road is rough and the journey is not comfortable. All inhabitants of Udhewadi belong to Mahadev Koli community, which is a Scheduled Tribe. During the rainy season they grow Nagli (a coarse millet). They also rear cattle and goat, keep poultry, collect timber from the forest and make bamboo baskets to supplement their incomes.
There is nothing much to be done once you reach the top. Leaving the forts behind we started to walk along the rugged road that would take us to Lonavla. We passed through vast grasslands where cattle were grazing freely; they didn’t even bother to look at us as we passed by. We could see some waterfalls popping out of the dense forest, they looked like strings of silver and then disappear in the forest below. The walk to Lonavla was not as treacherous as the path that we had followed while coming up from Karjat side. This route offered a spectacular view of the Bhor Ghats and we could occasionally hear the chugging of the trains that were traveling to Pune.
Finally after walking for three and half hours we reached the Mumbai Pune Expressway. After asking for directions from a few locals we managed to reach the “Lonavla Bus Stand” from where we parted our ways. But before parting a long-standing debate was resolved without a single word being uttered. We had found a perfect place for “chasing the clouds”.
Rajmachi Fort is situated in Lonavla region, on the top of the Western Ghats. The highway from Khopoli to Khandala-Lonavla, known as Borghat, is an ancient trade route. Overseas trade of the Western India and the Deccan was carried through the ports of Chaul, Revdanda, etc., on the western coast. The trade route passing through the Borghat connected these ports to the region around Pune and beyond on the Deccan plateau. Fort Rajmachi was built to control the trade route of Borghat. There are two Fortresses on Rajmachi –the taller one in the east is Shrivardhan and the other in the west is Manoranjan.
The trek begins after you cross some paddy fields, initially there are no steep climbs, and you just have through walk through some mud puddles, Manisha managed to get her foot stuck in one of those, others followed soon. After five minutes of walking, the slopes got steeper and the forest grew denser. Soon we reached a vantage point where I paused to get a panoramic view of the entire mountain chain, bathed in gentle sunlight. The small river that we had crossed at the foothills looked like a silver thread from here, on the other side we could see the three-layered mountain towering above us, this place never ceases to amaze me. A few more minutes of walking took us to a plateau from here on the mountain across the valley we could see a train going towards Pune slowly climbing up the Borghat, one enjoys some great hills of Sahyadri to the left. This particular section of Sahyadri is commanded by a pair of citadels of Rajmachi - Shrivardhan and Manoranjan. Rajmachi has quiet a lot of significance because of its vital position - keeping an eye on the Borghat, and the beauty that it offers has mesmerized the trekkers for since long.
We thought we had lost our way, and had almost decided to return back, but then out of nowhere we saw this man coming out of the woods. He said he would take us to the top and would also arrange for our food. We agreed to go with him and after walking for an hour or so we finally reached the hamlet of Udhewadi. There is nothing much to be done once you reach here, for me the journey is more important than the destination. People come to this place for various reasons of their own. But people like us come here because we enjoy the long and thrilling trek that takes us here; we come here to enjoy the sheer thrill of trekking in the Sahyadris.
Udhewadi, a hamlet of 22 houses, is situated on the plateau of the fort Rajmachi. As there is no pucca approach road to Rajmachi, one has to trek on foot the distance of 15 km. from Lonavla, to reach Rajmachi-Udhewadi. During the dry season after monsoon, one can take a jeep upto Rajmachi. However, the road is rough and the journey is not comfortable. All inhabitants of Udhewadi belong to Mahadev Koli community, which is a Scheduled Tribe. During the rainy season they grow Nagli (a coarse millet). They also rear cattle and goat, keep poultry, collect timber from the forest and make bamboo baskets to supplement their incomes.
There is nothing much to be done once you reach the top. Leaving the forts behind we started to walk along the rugged road that would take us to Lonavla. We passed through vast grasslands where cattle were grazing freely; they didn’t even bother to look at us as we passed by. We could see some waterfalls popping out of the dense forest, they looked like strings of silver and then disappear in the forest below. The walk to Lonavla was not as treacherous as the path that we had followed while coming up from Karjat side. This route offered a spectacular view of the Bhor Ghats and we could occasionally hear the chugging of the trains that were traveling to Pune.
Finally after walking for three and half hours we reached the Mumbai Pune Expressway. After asking for directions from a few locals we managed to reach the “Lonavla Bus Stand” from where we parted our ways. But before parting a long-standing debate was resolved without a single word being uttered. We had found a perfect place for “chasing the clouds”.
1 comment:
Nice blog. I like the way you descrived it. Cool
VM
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