Trek to Sinhagadh Fort

Location: near Pune, Maharashtra, India
Attractions: Fort, Trekking
Best time to visit: Monsoon (July - Sep)

Route:
I started from Wakad, Pune.

Drive to Mumbai-Pune bypass road from wakad and drive towards Satara for 17Kms to reach the point where Sinhagadh road crosses your path, Boards will guide you to take the right. Then simply follow the sinhagadh road via Khadakwasala lake. 

You can drive all the way up to the top by paying fees OR you can opt for trek from the base which is ~4Kms from the toll junction.

I did not drive to the top, but roads looked steep and narrow.

Sinhagadh:
Its been more than a year for me in Pune, I wanted to explore the fort Sinhagadh since I came to Pune. Unfortunately last monsoon got wasted completely in just planning and hectic work schedules, but this time I was more deterministic to conquer this fort by any means.

22 June 2013 was the day when me and my friend decided to explore this place. I started from Wakad at around 9.30am, picked up my friend from Baner and journey started to the fort on my Honda Twister.

We took Mumbai-Pune bypass road, crossed Warje and took a right for the Sinhagadh road. This road goes via Khadakwasala. Khadakwasala is a good spot to stop by and enjoy the Butta and lake view. We spent almost 2hours there, taking pictures and watching the crowd enjoying in the lake. I think this place can be a quick stress buster on any of your weekend if you are staying in Pune. I being from Mumbai, I miss the beaches in Pune. But I think this is like a mini beach in Pune. Advantage is that this place is not really far from Pune, anytime you can drive to this place and enjoy the view and fresh air. If you are on the way to Sinhagadh, route via Khadakwasala is recommended.

Khadakwasala Lake

From Khadakwasala, Sinhagadh base is hardly 20minutes drive. You can drive all the way up to the Top of the fort or you can take trek path. We being more interested in trek decided to take the trek path (I could not dare to drive Twister on such steep roads). 

The monsoon had just started, but it was already bright green all around. We could see the clouds masking the top of the Gadh, but “Doordarshan tower” was really standing tall and was clearly visible. Weather was good, not raining and not too sunny. Initial 40-50 minutes trek is not really difficult but the real one starts once you reach the half way when the path gets more steep and rocky. But when you turn back the view will make you feel better and keep up the spirit. You could see the local people having their small setups and serving you “Junka-Bhakar”, “Kanda-Bhaji”, “Pitla-Bhakari” and “Tea/Coffee”. Many families were enjoying the food there. 

After almost 2hrs of trekking we reached the top. We could see the clouds travelling and getting set to shower on us.  We could see the black clouds approaching us and at some points sunlight could pass through the clouds and was illuminating the green mountains, this view looked really beautiful. I tried my best to capture it.

View from the top

We moved on and entered the fort through “Pune Darwaja”. Whenever I see such entrance my mind gets overwhelmed by the thoughts that how magnificent our history is!! How great those people were!!

One of the entrance to fort

I found the fort bit messy at places but not really that bad in totality. There are proper paths made to walk and explore the points. 

Slowly sun disappeared and it was all cloudy. At times we were literally walking through the clouds, we could hardly see any boards or what is ahead of us  in next 1meter. We followed the path and people, it led us to the heaven. Yes Heaven !! The famous “Hawa Point” from where you get the fresh air along with the magnificent view of Sahyadri lanes and Khadakwasala lake. Clouds were playing the trick, they kept on making us feel their presence and making everything invisible in front of us. You get to see the bright lake and sahyadris and in next few seconds clouds will hide everything and you will feel as if you are lost in white space, but again in few seconds you see that magnificent view. I had never ever experienced it before. I will always remember those 15 minutes that we spent at that point. May be for this moment you must try your luck here, every monsoon.

View of Khadakwasala lake and Sahyadris

Next we headed towards the “Kalyan Darwaja “. I found this place bit scary as there were no people around and it was getting dark as it was 6pm. Considering that we need to walk down to the base before it gets too dark, we decided to return. I was bit upset that we missed on some important points, especially TanajiMalusare’s statue/samadhi after whom this fort was named as Sinhagadh. But never mind this was not the last visit to this place.

Foggy view

We spent nearly two and half hours at the top taking pictures and enjoying tea and the funny jokes and poses for photographs by people all around us. We started down trek at around 6.45pm. We comfortably reached down to the base well within hour. The feeling that I had when we got down was fantastic, and was excited to visit this fort again with bigger gang…..So stay tuned for the next visit…..

 

Some numbers:

• Trek duration (up) ~ 2hrs 
• Trek duration (down) ~ 1hr 
• Total journey ~ 14hrs  
• Total distance travelled (to and fro Wakad, Pune) ~ 90kms

Tips:

• Take the route via Khadakwasala. 

• Plan your trek so that you can spend at least 3-4hrs at the top of the fort. (You don’t want to miss on the photos at the top and spending more time at Hawa point with Chai,buttas and friends). 

For more photos visit: more pics