Rohida aka Vichitragad Trek

Fort: Rohida aka Vichitragad aka Binicha Killa
Height : 3650 ft (above MSL)
Base village : Mankarwadi / Bajarwadi (near Bhor)
Grade : Easy

Deepak and me were deciding on a 1 day trek to some good place and we instantly said "Rohida". Rohida is a fort near Bhor and a nice one day trek. So it was decided we leave at 6am from Pune on 15th Feb 2008 and do the trek.


Started at 5.40am from home and picked up Deepak at IT park near Bopodi and went ahead to his friends room at Swargate. Vikas (Deepak's friend) joined in here and Tushar (old acquaintance from the VOF trek) too joined in. So me and Deep on my bike and Tushar and Vikas on Tushar's bike.

Tushar wanted cash so he was searching for an ATM but we didnt get any until Katraj and there we learnt that the old Katraj ghat was under repairs so we had to take the new bypass and backtrack upto the new bridge and ahead via the new Katraj tunnel. So off we went. The morning was chilly but not very much.

Going ahead and making good time we refueled and stopped at Natraj for breakfast. Breakfast was good with tea and I was full. Starting ahead we reached Kapurhol (the turn to Balaji temple) and turned towards Bhor (leaving the NH4 just after the HP petrol pump) and then we reached Bhor in about 20 mins. Wading through bad roads and narrow bylanes in Bhor we arrived at Shivaji Chowk from where we had to take the road to Mandhardevi enroute Mankarwadi the base village of Rohida.

Going ahead about 6 km there is a turn to the right through an arch clearly specifying Rohida 5km. The roads here are good. In some time we could see Rohida from the back, looked imposing now, post some photos went ahead. We passed Bajarwadi. Going ahead we found a small bus-stop for Mankarwadi and turned left from here , there are signboards here for Rohida fort.

Going in the village we kept our bikes at a villagers place. We also found out that there is ample place to sleep there in the temple if need be and we do a night trek.

We started climbing keeping the fort in the front , there is a clear path to climb up. After some distance we need to climb up a small hillock, do not climb from the side, make it on top of the hillock. We could see the front fortifications and the front door clearly now and the bastions on either side. Continuing ahead over loose stones and scree we reached the main door.

Most of the fort walls are gone but the bastions remain. The Raireshwar trust is rebuilding this fort with donations from many people to restore it to its past glory and also making people knowledgeable by distributing small books (Rs.10 each) about the history and stuff. Going inside the first door we found a second higher door ahead. The 2nd door is intact and has some carvings.

Entering the 2nd door and taking a right we can see the 3rd door and then we enter the fort. There is a flag fluttering bang in front of the door ahead. The 3rd door has some inscriptions on top of it.

Going ahead we have a board giving some information about the fort , on the left there is the Rohideshwar temple. Work is going on here to restore it and also create a garden in front and construct rooms on top to woo tourists. The area on top of the fort is quite small.

There are in total around 6-7 water tanks on the top but none of them is potable. All have green algae moss cover on top of them. On top it takes a max of 30 mins to roam about. Having done that and post some photos we came to the temple had darshan and came back to the 2nd door at about 11am to have some snacks. Post that we started climbing down to the base.

The climb down was uneventful and the sun had started burning but we made it in good time about 30 mins to the base and sat for some time had some more snacks and started for home at about 12.15pm.

Reached home about 3pm after having lunch on the way. Nice ideal 1 day trek!