Maadhe Ghaat Trek

Madhe ghaat is situated at around 60 km from Pune.

Its a trek in which we have to first Descend and then ascend.

It was my very first Trek and was very excited about it.  We left from Pune early and reached Velhe.
At the base we reached at a hotel and had breakfast there.

We had a "brief history" and "warm up" session and it started raining, and at the same time it started to rain, which was expected.

We then start walking towards the fall and reached at the top of waterfall. it was so foggy there that we were not even able to see the waterfal. The weather was too awesome, raining all the time.
and there was greenery all over the place.

We then started to descend to the base of the water fall.

The path was rocky and slippery but not risky or hard at all, it was time taking though. We were able to see the waterfall though from all over the way.

However after walking down for around 2 hrs we found water there with smooth flow.  Then played in the water and have lunch there.

For lunch we had taken packed food "Thecha Paratha" which is quite popular here. and it should be as we can get it packed from anywhere these place and its tasty.

Once we were done we walked for around 1-2 km to the other end from where we were supposed to ascend.

Now comes the best part of trekking.

Since we were strictly not allowed to take any photos when ascending as it was not considered safe for this big group as its sometime hard to manage the pace. so I do not have the same.

We had to ascend from the path which was too narrow. On one side the mountain with long grass was there and other side there was nothing but edge, Although both sides there was tall grass so we have the way for walking one person at a time  We all were behind each other. The view was too astonishing and then fog started to come follow us.

We reached at the Top and then we walked for another 1 km to parking area where we parked our vehicles . We had tea there with localities and cool down session after which we travelled back to our places.

It was my very first trek so worth remembering!

Raigad Trek And Murud Beach day 2

Continue from day 1...

We woke up around 6 AM and freshen up ourselves. And we walked toward the Shivaji samadhi.

It was beside a temple of Shiva. We visited and them rushed towards the edge of the fort as we did not want to miss the sunrise. We sat there clicked some, too many , actually pictures.

It rise around 7 according to the pictures i clicked.
It was beautiful. We clicked group pictures also.

Then we all headed back to shelter for the breakfast and tea. And then we proceeded for descend. As I know the path is not very hard, I tried to make it little tough for myself by carrying extra weight.

Some group members did a great job of collecting plastic waste throughout the way and brought them down.

We came back down around 11:30 AM and headed to Murud.

Earlier we planned to visit Janjira fort but as we got a little late we decided to Visit the Murud beach only.

From Raigad we reached Murud around 5 PM we played a lot in the sea and then had shower.

We were back ready at 7. We sat there and saw the beautiful sunset.It was my first sunset watching at a beach.

It was beautiful indeed.Then we had dinner at a local restaurant and left for pune around 9.

Raigad Trek And Murud Beach day 1

Raigad is famous for being capital of Maratha empire. We planned to visit and stay there for the night, explore it on next day and then to come back.

Altogether we were a group of 32 people from Pune so we had booked a private bus for convenience. 

We planned to reach the base by 4 so we can climb to the top and witness the sunset.

 However it was a big group so took some more time than expected to reach the top.

The path was not very difficult. Most of the part have stairs. And some places are simple but full of clay.

At the time of ascend we could see school students are coming bacm from the fort. So we were kind of shock to see their enthusiast.

At the base  we clicked some pictures and then we proceeded to the way. As I shared the path is not very difficult but stairs take our test.

We managed to reach the "Maha Darwaja " before sunset and waited for the rest of us. Once they arrived we walked towards the top.

Then we left for the top where the statue of Shivaji Lies.It was dark so we moved Forward towards the local shelter hall where we were supposed to stay.

We reached there and fresehen up. We just sat there and introduced to each other along with lot of fun and performed some other group interaction activities.

Around 930 our dinner was ready which was prepared by the locals. It was bhakhari (chapati made of rice floor) daal sbji and rice. It was goood.

We had that and then we went up to the statue. There is a big ground there where we stood in a circle and listened to the story of greatness of Shivaji who is Considered and worshipped as a god. We switched off all of our torches and felt the peace.

Around 11 we came back to the shelter. Burn some fire and celebrated our own Lohdi.

The locals managed bedsheets for us so we did not need to take all of these things ourselves.

It was a cheerful evening we made some jokes on each other then dont know when we slept.

Continue to day 2....

Torna to Rajgad Trek

We reached Velhe at around 8.30 AM. There we have  breakfast at a restaurant. It’s a good restaurant for trekkers It has capacity for 50+ people at once. Offers multiple eatables. We left for trek at around 9:20AM from base.

There is a road in parallel by which you can reach at some height using vehicles, we took another route having small trail passing from some fields.

At some height we took a small break beneath a tree . Wind was really cool and good there.

After that we went up and found a place where we could stand, at the other side a water body was visible.

We were like in middle from top and bottom.

At round 11:30 we found a little water trail, there is some water from rocks which is too cold! Its not drinkable but it really chilled for temp.

Then we start to climb, the path was normally rocks but there are some railings to the top which are lifesaver and helps to climb easily.

We reached at “Bini gate” at around 11:40 AM. We had lime water there (locals selling) 

sat at the fort and clicked a few pictures, wind was really good. (and point location)

Then from there is a watch tower “Jhunjar Machi” beside the main wall(it’s a little risky as we have to do like mountaineering without safety).

We reached at Jhunjar Machi at 1245 pm clicked few pictures and came back to fort wall.

We energized ourselves and left for Rajgad from KonkadDarwaja at (1320 hrs) 

We have to take this path to reach to Rajgadh fort expected time was 6 hrs.The path have 20+ small ups downs there.

The path is mix of small jungle types small trees, open route , long grass and all.

As we were about to reach Rajgadh we found road (Velhe road ) at 1634 hrs.

We started to ascend again. The last part was really tough, its full of steep climb  and much risky. I could not click pictures there as its not safe to do so and was tired also. 

It was about to be sunset soon, we did not wanted to miss that so we climbed up fast and at entrance near fort wall we stopped and waitedfor sunset. 

We had some eat and clicked few pictures, sun set around 1745 hrs.  All the tiredness and efforts we put seemed worthy when we saw the sunset. It was really beautiful.

It was dark now, but we had to walk around 1 hr more to reach Padmavati temple where we planned to stay for the night. We had torches and lights so we walked and reached around in 50 minutes.

We sat down there for a while.

In the temple there is sufficient space to accommodate many peoples. There were many groups of trekkers and others. There are also many local peoples available there, they cook food for dinner. 
sell water bottles breakfast tea lime juice and many ore things are available there.

We asked “Bhau" to cook food for us and waited there. They cooked the local “Bhakhri”  which was really good.

There were also multiple Tamboos there, not sure if the trekkers bring their own or its available with locals.

We had dinner and we went to sleep. Peoples also slept outside the temple, but it didn’t seem safe to us as there were small insects , snakes along with crabs there. 

We planned to wake early to enjoy Sunrise.

Day 2 starts

We woke up at around 0530 hrs and decided to walk to “Suvela Machi” to enjoy the sunrise. Walked for 1-2 kms and we waited at a place and enjoyed for sunrise clicked few pics. (and point location)

It was really fascinating.

Then we walked towards Suvela Machi . Reached and clicked pics. The wind was too hard,  seems really risky to stand. 

My ear start to ache so I put on cap and jacket. At around 0740 hrs we started to walk back to Padmavati to have breakfast and tea.

In between there is rock hole we climbed up clicked few(and point location) And by 0840hrs we were back at Padmavati temple. Had really tasty Poha and Tea.

We were full and energetic. We left our bags with Ganesh Bhau(The local peoples are really trustful and good, we even had dinner yesterday and they told that we can pay in the morniing when we will leave. They charge a little more but that’s justifiable as they do a lot of efforts to bring all these things so high)

At 0920 hrs we left for Baale killa which is the main fort (clicked pic of the board (and point location)) At 950 hrs we were at top and clicked pic 

The path to the top again was lot risky and hence did not cliked pics for the same.

At 1005 hrs we decided to walk down. At around 1040 we reached Padmavati temple, packed our bags, paid Ganesh Bhau for lunch and all(was a long bill though) and started to walk down.

At 1100 hrs we reached at "Chor Darwaja" (exist gate from Rajgadh) and continued to walk down.

At around 1230 hrs we reached at the base from where trek trail starts from Rajgadh. And headed back to Pune.

You can check out my Trell post for the same.

https://trell.co/trail/torna-to-rajgadh-trek-2days-a411a68e6ee8