Trek path: Malavli to Karle by auto, Karle to Bhaje by auto, Bhaje to Lohagadvadi trek, Lohagadvadi to Lohagad by foot with overnight stay in caves, Lohagadvadi to Visapur trek, Visapur to Pavnanagar by foot, Pavnanagar to Karunj by jeep, Karunj to Bedse by foot, Bedse to Kamshet by bus.
Time required:
Malavli to Karle by auto: 15 minutes
Karle village to caves: 30 minutes
Karle to Bhaje by auto: 30 minutes
Bhaje village to caves: 20 minutes
Bhaje to Lohagadvadi trek: 1:30 - 2:00 hours
Lohagadvadi to Lohagad by foot: 30 minutes
Lohagadvadi to Visapur trek: 30 minutes
Visapur to Pavnanagar by foot: 2 hours (we have some doubt about the route we took)
Pavnanagar to Karunj by jeep: 15 minutes
Karunj to Bedse: 30 minutes
Height:
Lohagad: 1000 metres (3300 feet)
Visapur: 1020 metres (3400 feet)
Trekking experience required: Complete novice trek
Fitness required: Since this is a very ordinary trek, it can be carried out by any person of any age and fitness. The only place where fitness counts is if you have planned an overnight stay in the Lohagad caves in which case you should be able to handle cold weather.
Fear factor: Absolutely nil
trek story:
This time on our itinerary was to see the twin forts of Lohagad and Visapur and the triplet caves of Karle, Bhaje and Bedse, which house the ancient Buddhist architectural works. Since this was a long trip, we needed two full days and a very early start to finish everything. As usual we started things off from Kalyan station.
Kalyan to Lonavla:
Being one of the most well-connected railway routes in India, there are about 25 direct connection trains to choose from to cover this lap of the trip. Both Kalyan and Lonavla fall within the famous Mumbai - Pune route which is a heritage route, part of the first railway route built in India. Connecting the country's two busiest hubs, trains during the workdays are packed with office commuters and during the weekend with trekkers. So it is necessary to make a nice clean start and catch the earliest of trains. The answer to this is to catch the Indore-Pune express which leaves Kalyan at 5:20 am. It should reach Lonavla by 7:00 am. It is not at all crowded due to its early timing. However it is difficult for a person who does not live in Kalyan to catch this train. So we had to miss this and take a local to Karjat and from there look for options which would take us to Lonavla. But when we reached Karjat by local, the next train Mumbai - Pune Indrayani express was not too far behind. So we waited for it and boarded it. This train however was filled to brim with weekend traffic and so we had to stand near the door for the entire duration of the commute. However that did allow us to see the Rajmachi forts, which for us was an earlier trek. So we could relive that trek again. Shortly after we reached Lonavla. From here, we spotted a Pune local train which would take us to Malavli, the nearest link to Karle caves. We boarded the local and reached Malavli after a short time.
Malavli to Karle:
At Malavli, the autos told us that they would take 60 rupees to go to Karle. We were only two and that worked out a bit too much per head. Luckily we met three more trekkers who accompanied us all the way upto the Visapur trek spending the night with us at Lohagad. So the five of us shared one auto, and since we were overloading the auto, we spent 70 rupees at 14 per head. But we soon reached Karle village. From there it was a 15-30 minutes staircase climb to the middle of the mountain upto the rock-cut caves. We climbed very easily and reached the wonderful caves, paying the entry fees of 5 rupees per head. I have to say the main caves with the stupa and all the dwelling niches are in a pretty good condition and were cleaner compared to when I visited them last. However there is a new edifice which has cropped up in front of the cave entrance. The last time I visited the caves, one could see the interiors of the caves from quite a way away. Now however the cave's entrance is blocked by an Ekveera temple. The placing of this temple couldnt have been worse. It blocks the cave view completely. This temple structure is a scar on the face of Karle. Any devotee of Ekveera please forgive me for my blaspheme, but I cant help scorning the placement of this unneeded temple here. The caves now play second fiddle to the temple. The architectures of the caves, the wooden arch beams, the statues and the pillar with four lion heads, each aspect is an architectural wonder. This also goes for the two storeys of rock cut rooms used by the ancient travellers to rest overnight. However the second storey is forbidden for entry to public. The Karle mountain also gives a panoramic view of the mountains and valleys around the Lonavla - Pune region. One can see Lohagad and Visapur forts from distance and a lot of other important forts around this old Shivaji powerhouse. After we decided that it was time to move on and descended down the stairs to catch an auto for Bhaje caves.
Karle to Bhaje:
Once again all five of us crammed into one auto which took 120 rupees at 24 per head. At Bhaje village, we saw signs of a receding rainy season. Waterfalls had reduced to trickles and the rocks were reflecting the sunlight. So it was going to be a tiring climb from the village along the stairs to the caves. It was not too tiring, but it was sweltering and we sweated profusely. But the view from the top and the caves themselves were great. There was not too much of a crowd and there was lot of time and space to explore each of the rock cut rooms. The main room was spacious like any typical Buddhist cave with a giant stupa standing at the far end. There was also a seperate rock cut chamber which was full of miniature stupas. From outside towards one side of the mountain we could see the Mumbai - Pune express highway and the railway tracks nearby. On the other side, we could see Lohagad, with its famous Vinchu Kata (Scorpion's Sting), which is a narrow ledge extending a long way from the mountain and ending into a Buruj (fort bastion). After resting for some time we left for the gentle climb all the way upto Lohagadvadi.
Bhaje to Lohagadvadi:
The route from Bhaje caves to Lohagadvadi is a paved path all the way upto the village. It took us about 1:30 to 2:00 hours to complete it. The route is a gentle road and not a typical mountain trek. This is what makes it easy for anyone to reach Lohagad. Along the way, the road gives a breathtaking view of the Valvan lake which has the Valvan dam near Lonavla. After completing the walk we came to the outskirts of Lohagadvadi village where the road overlooks the Lohagad mountain and the Visapur mountain on each side. The path splits into two, one going straight to Lohagadvadi and one branching off left towards Visapur. This point is marked with a stone statue of a cow. So this point is called Gai Mukh Khind (Cow's Face Col). We continued onto Lohagadvadi, setting Visapur aside for the next morning. At Lohagadvadi we had lunch and also waited for some time while our hosts prepared our dinner for our overnight stay at the Lohagad caves. Just before it was evening we set off for Lohagad.
Lohagadvadi to Lohagad:
There is proper staircase from Lohagadvadi to Lohagad which leads us through the awesome defence constructions, compact antechambers and a brilliantly breathtaking view of the Pavna lake with Tungi and Tikona forts on its two banks. Lohagad was the place where Marathas stashed away all the loot that they plundered when they invaded Surat. It is rumoured that fortuitous trekkers still find some of the loot every now and then. We never found any. We were blown away by the clever construction of the fort which was highly impregnable if the enemy were to approach from below the mountain. Also mindblowing were the imperious view of Visapur, the massive Pavna lake, Tungi and the pyramid like Tikona. We reached the top after crossing 8 ancient gates.
Lohagad:
The top was a spacious flat top with a mosque just inside the entrance. We saw a bit around the area and then decided to find a place to stay where we could leave our things and continue onto Vinchu Kata. We found two caves, one of which was really filthy and another one invitingly clean. It seemed like no other trekking group was interesting in an overnight stay so we got a place overlooking the cave entrance. We then moved on towards Vinchu Kata. The path has two lakes along the way and a place which looked like the quarters of the fort-in-charge in those days. Also could be seen was the massive flat top of Visapur mountain. It was likely that the enemy could have attacked Lohagad from Visapur with the help of cannon balls. We could also see the Bhaje caves at a distance below us now. The highway and railways were even further below. The Vinchu Kata looked impressive from some distance. It looked better and better as we approached it. To reach the end, we had to negotiate a small path which ran along the slope of the mountain. Rainy season here would have been a bit risky. We reached the bastion wall and sat on it for a long, long time waiting for the sunset, but instead watching the sun being blocked by the clouds. We also saw a falcon gliding smoothly at a little height above us. One thing here to warn you is that dont carry too many loose things, there are monkeys here waiting to pounce on anything that can be grabbed. Take care of cell phones and cameras. Luckily nothing like that happened to us.
Once we returned, darkness was setting in, so we gathered dry wood and twigs in order to light a campfire to keep us warm. Beside the fire we had our packed dinner, talked for a long time and then went to sleep inside the caves. Every now and then, we would check for intruders or prowlers. Pravin kept himself awake and busy, every now and then rekindling the camp fire by adding more wood, twigs or leaves. Thankfully the fire kept us warm throughout the night.
To Visapur:
The next morning we got up before sunrise and quickly descended down to Lohagadvadi and had a quick breakfast and tea. We proceeded towards Gai Mukh Khind for the fork towards Visapur. We took the Visapur path and reached the base from where we could trek along a rocky path. Even from below the mountain we saw that this fort had a huge bastion and that the flat area on the top of the mountain could house a whole city. We reached the top pretty easily. The path along Visapur is dotted with a wide variety of wild and colourful flowers, but none more fascinating than the Garvi flower, a bright violet coloured bloom which grows once every seven years. There were lots of them growing on their bushes and littered around on the ground around the bushes. We took about half an hour to reach the summit of Visapur. Here we could see that the flat surface was enormous and expansive. We could put about 20 football fields on the flat plateau-like top of Visapur. One side of the mountain overlooks Lohagad, Tung, Tikona and Pavna lake. The other side which we reached by walking along the perimeter of the mountain overlooked the Bhaje caves, the highway and the railways. And on the third side, the Indrayani river meandered around the valleys of the Sahyadri ranges.
There was a very huge ruined township on top of the Visapur mountain and huge tall bastion all around the mountain to protect from enemies. Recessed in the bastion walls were huge windows for watching over the entire area. The view from the windows was breathtaking and also steep and scary. In the centre of the mountain top was an old Hanuman relief with a water cistern around it. Nearby a small hillock led to the highest point of Lohagad and Visapur put together. From this point, we could see all the way upto Korigad fort, quite a distance away behing the Tung fort. We looked around the massive Visapur fort ruins for a while and when we were done, Pravin, Parag and Ramith parted ways as they had to go home while I and Yogesh decided to move on to Bedse caves.
To Pavnanagar:
From Visapur, maniacally long road took us to a village called Mahagaon and from there we reached Pavnanagar also called Kale Colony. This is the main centre for transport towards Pavna lake from Kamshet railway station and the Express highway. However the path we took upto here from Visapur took us hours and we suspect there must be a shorter way around that we were not told by the localites. It seemed that we came in an arc path instead of a straight line. Anyway we had lunch at Pavnanagar and searched for options to go to Bedse caves.
To Bedse caves:
From Pavnanagar, taxi jeeps are available, which ply towards Kamshet. One has to get down at a village named Karunj from where it is a 2.5 km walk upto Bedse. We got down at Karunj and trudged all the way upto Bedse village from where a new staircase rises all the way to the Bedse caves. The heat was taking its toll on us and we took it really easy instead of our usually high speed trekking that we did throughout the rainy season. But the sight of the caves and its exquisite architecture blew us away and momentarily we forgot our tiredness. The caves seemed very similar to the Karle caves that we had visited a day earlier. The same kind of pillars and stone carvings, the central stupa in the main hall, the dwelling rooms with ancient Brahmi script carvings by travellers. We even found a newly shed snake skin on the floor of one of the rooms. Outside the caves, there were cleverly constructed canals and water cisterns to capture the rain water falling from the mountain top above and collecting it for the drier seasons. The caves are a couple of millenia old, but in extremely good condition and the whole tiresome walk was worth it.
Back Home:
While going back home, we followed the following steps.
* Walk from Bedse to Karunj
* ST bus from Karunj to Kamshet
* Local train from Kamshet to Lonavla
* Indrayani express from Lonavla to Kalyan
All in all I am pretty satisfied with this trek, because we covered 5 locations in 2 days and the view from all these places was great. In fact we found that September - October is the best time to come trekking to Sahyadris, since the pesky rain clouds go away and dont block our view and the green vegetation that looks so beautiful on the hills are still left since the moisture from the monsoon is still not fully dried away.
I will always remember this trek as the most beautiful and photogenic trek of all. So much so that i require a seperate album to display the photos instead of inside this blog itself.
View the photo album here.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
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