Ravishing Rajgarh 🌄⚔️🚩 Part 1

It was 3:30 in the morning. I was sleeping in a flat in South Mumbai when my friend just woke me up saying " uth ja bhai train choot jayegi" . I said yes to him but slept for another 15 minutes 😝. But then i woke up and got ready . The adrenaline rushed in and we started the journey. We were going for a lesser known trek set amidst the wilderness near Mahabaleshwar region : The Rajgarh Fort trek 🌄.

First of all , i should tell you a little about Rajgarh Fort. The fort is situated in the Pune district of  Maharashtra. This Fort served as a capital for Maratha empire for 26 years under the rule of the greatest Maratha emperor Shivaji⚔️🚩. The fort is also famous for the burial of Afzal khan's head in the mahadarwaza of balle killa.

The nearest village is Gunjavane which is well connected by road . It  also serve as the base camp for the trek . There is a direct bus for it from Pune.

So back to our story , we hurried and reached the nearest train station Charni Road which was at walking distance from the flat. We then took a local train to Bandra station and met our other two fellow trekkers there. We had our reservations in the Indrayani express which arrived at 6 :15 and our journey to pune started . On the journey i met a senior citizen and had a great chat with him as his son was serving in the army as a doctor .This is what traveling does to you. It opens your world to new people , thoughts and experiences🙌.

Time flew and we reached Pune. It took us around 2 hours to reach Pune. From the railway station we took an auto for Swargate bus stand . But when we reached there we came to know that we missed the only bus which was serving for the destination😢 and the worst part was , we missed it by only 5 minutes😅 . But these are the challenges that you face when you travel. So we decided to go for an alternate route which would drop us a few villages away from Gunjavane . The journey was simple and there were a lot of poultry farms on the way and from lot i mean a lot.The bus dropped us at some village .I don't know the name of  the village .From there we took a shared cab which too dropped us 3 villages away from the destination . From there we tried to get hitchhiked but couldn't succeed in that too. So we started on our foot to Gunjavane but soon realised it was not as easy as we  thought. Although the weather was pleasant but it turned out as a pre trek walk of about 6 km crossing 3 villages which completely exhausted us😌. 

After crossing 3 villages and finally reaching Gunjavane , we took some rest . The clock was already ticking on our heads and we didn't want to miss the sunset . So after having some quick refreshment we started our trek . In the beginning it was so steep that we took a breather in every 5 minutes or so. Hopefully the weather was pleasant as it is always in the western ghats🌈 . On our way we had some redbull , cheesecakes and a little motivation from eachother from time to time . After two hours of rigorous trekking we reached the half point of the trek . The views started getting amazing from there on . The Western ghats has its own charm🌹. 

We continued our journey enjoying the pleasant weather and the alluring views . The trek in its last one-third part became dangerous and pretty much like mountain climbing then just trekking😬. After three and half hours we reached the unusual enterance of the fort. Yes, it was unusual as it was a Chor darwaja😅 and we entered the fort like "Chors"😝. 

Believe me guys , this was one point of the trek where i could have lost my life . The entrance of The Chor darwaza is so steep and arduous that if you don't do it in a certain way , you could lose your balance and your life too. Anyway we entered the lower part of the fort . There is a lake there and temple named  padmavat temple but we decided to carry on as we had to reach Balle killa, the highest point of the fort. So without wasting much time we started for a much tougher trek to Balle killa. It was a  difficult path to Balle killa as there were no fencing on steep points and one could easily lose his/her balance and fall in the valley. But helping eachother at such points we reached Balle killa in an hour or so and enjoyed the sunset 🌄.

The views were breathtaking , enchanting and  worth every inch of our efforts.

💛💚💙

Then we descended down to the padmavat temple situated in the lower half of the fort. I hope you enjoyed😊. The travel tale continues in the next blog😋.

🙏