Lohgad

Fort Lohgad
Height : 3450 ft (above MSL)
Region : Maval
Grade : Easy

This was my second trek with Saurabh, Chetan, Deepak and Avinash. Lohgad is situated 9km from Malavli station. Vehicles go upto the foot of the fort and then there are easy steps to climb.

I started from Chinchwad at 7.00am towards Lonavala.Met Chetan who had boarded from Pimpri and met Sauri at Talegaon. Deepak and Avinash joined us at Malavli.

There is no bus from Malavli. We started walking along the road towards Lohgad. After 20 mins we reached a village where we stopped and had tea and again started. We started walking through lush fields....the environment was excellent to say.

Some time later towards the right we could see the Bhaje Caves. These caves are of much importance and are said to be of the Buddhist Era.

Next we had to cross a small hill. Though there is a road going up it is winding so walking along it takes most of your time so we decided to take shortcuts...already i and chetan were panting and Deepak and Saurabh further pushed us....:) .We could see the fort at a distance. It looked huge.
We took some photo graphs and again started walking.

Now we were on top of the hill after 1.5 hrs. N we were walking towards Lohgad.To the right we could see the vast expanse of the Visapur Fort. It is another awesome fort. Now we were at the base village (name not known). We started up the steps which were normal ones. We then got towards the darwaza...it was good. Then we started exploring some stuff...some said that an underground route goes directly from here to Sihangad :))

We got on top of the fort after climbing some 100-200 steps. Took photos. There is a masjid on top of the fort. It was learnt that Muslim rulers had also ruled here so the masjid. Then we started walking the perimeter of the fort. At the end was the most amazing form I had ever seen in my whole life. The "Vinchu Naangi" (Scorpion Fang) was an amazing site. It was a part of the fort.

To get to there we had to cross a rock patch which was well my first one. I descended with much difficulty and fear so as not to roll off the edge :)

Finally we started walking along the nangi walls and reached the end. Cool air was blowing and we sat there saying nothing and enjoying the nature. Finally we started back from there and again the rock patch to be climbed. I climbed again with much difficulty with help of Deepak and Saurabh.

We had lunch and then started down the fort. After 2 hours we arrived at Malavli station in the hot sun exhausted and boarded a local to Pune. Lohgad also done - trek count : 2 !