Trek to Lohgadh Fort

Location: near Lonavala/Pune/Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Attractions: Fort, Trekking, Bhaje Caves

Best time to visit: Monsson (July-Sep)

Route:

We started from Mira Road, Mumbai.

Drive to Godbandar road, drive towards Thane and take left for Kalwa at Court-naka junction. Take immediate right after Kalwa bridge to connect to Thane-Belapur road. Drive on this road until you see the ramp for Mumbai-Pune express way after Panvel. Drive towards Lonavala and take first exit to Lonavala and keep driving on that road for ~13-14Kms until you see the board for Karle, from there take right to reach Malavali station. Cross the railways and you will be at the Bhaje caves in 2minutes drive.  

Trek path is really easy to walk, I saw kids enjoying the trek. From halfway it’s a tar road till the lohgadh village making your walk very comfortable.

There is one more path to reach lohgadh village via vehicle, you can drive all the way up to the base village lohgadh and then you just need to trek for 20-30 minutes to reach the top of the fort. We did not drive up to the village but I think that road should be good as many villagers must be commuting via that path to bring their stuff and run their business.

Lohgadh:
Yes!! It happened. The day really came when I and my five cousins started the journey to Lohgadh from Mira road (Mumbai). It was 29^th June 2013, 5.30am when all of us started the royal ride in my cousin’s sweet heart Honda City.

Enjoying Pohas

We planned to take Mumbai-pune express way via Thane-Belapur road. We reached Bhaje caves at around 9am, There is a good parking place at the base near temple. We were the second to reach there so found good parking place just near the entrance. 

It was 9.30am by the time we finished our breakfast at local stall and started our trek. We hardly walked for 2minutes and we saw the big water fall on our left which was really tempting, but we all wanted to first complete our trek and enjoy this water fall may be later while we return. Trek path was good, it could be very muddy but lots of stones have been laid on the path to keep it safe and less muddy. 

Lohgadh covered by the clouds

Two distinct hills are visible right from the start. The one on the right side is Lohgadh, and on the left it is Visapur. The top of both the hills were covered by the clouds, may be to keep us enthusiastic and eager to reach there and explore it. We could see some nice water falls on the way. Once you reach some heights, you will see the fields of base village in different shades of green. It was bit foggy so the view was not clear but still it looked great with bright green shades.We reached halfway and the road became even better. Now it was a tar road. You will see this road dividing the two hills of Visapur and Lohgadh. 

Visapur 

Visapur fort looked amazing with clouds around it. There were two triangular peaks one above other. The clouds made the upper peak bit blurry making the lower peak very prominent and scenic. One of my cousin started comparing it with Titanic, and it did look like the extreme triangular end of the big ship, seen from the ground level. Most of the time, I kept looking at that hill through my lens until I could capture the justifiable picture of that view. By 11am we were at the lohgadh village. Before moving ahead, we had some tea and funny pictures of us posing with my cousin’s cowboy hat.

We at the Lohgadh village

He really lifted it up

The strong walls of the fort were clearly visible from the village. Just at the beginning of the path there is a board giving the brief history of this fort along with the map. You will see cannons kept right before the steps start. We had some funny moments there with one of my cousin who has the personality to lift those cannons. We walked further and from half way the Pavana Lake became visible. The lake is really big and the way it is spread between the hills adds more to the overall beauty of that view.

Pavana Lake

Entrance to Lohgadh Fort

In no time we reached the first entrance of the fort, the view of this fort with entrance was suiting its personality. The informative board at the base of the fort mentioned about five entrances named “Ganesh Darwaja”, “Maha Darwaja”, “Nana Darwaja”, “Trayambakeshwar Darwaja” and “Hanuman Darwaja”. We crossed all the entrances and reached the flat area on the top of the fort. 

Now weather started playing tricks, it became fogy all around us and it started raining too. My cousins really enjoyed this weather and were shouting like mad people. There was a point behind the shiv temple, where you can see the water getting pushed back from the edge because of strong wind hitting the edge. I could not capture this view as there was no way to keep my lens away from that strong force of water drops attacking us. When the wind calmed down a bit, It looked as if small diamonds are showering up from the edge. I had never seen such a view before. We marched further towards the small hill which looked like the top most point of the lohgadh. It was all fogy, we could just see a blurred flag. We kept walking towards it, and when we reached there we could see many people around us who were not at all visible from the distance. Now we were at the top, my cousins screamed and shouted again to feel it more.

Lohgadh is famous for the point called “Vichhu kanta” (The scorpion sting), We checked the map of the fort and started walking towards the direction of Vichhu-Kanta. 5-7 minutes walk led us to the point which again gave the treat to our sense of vision. The long narrow hill with the shape of scorpion sting and in the shades of green looked amazing. This view was on and off in the fog, but we waited there until I could capture the clear view of the sting. You can walk down to the extreme end of the sting, but as it was fogy we decided not to walk that path.

Vichhu Kanta (The Scorpion Sting)

Going with plants

The band man

After spending roughly 1.5hr at the top, We started walking back towards the entrance to get down. On the way we saw that there were many people coming up with small plants in their hands. We saw many band-guys climbing up with their drums and wearing orange t-shirts with Pune label. I inquired to one of the band guy and he said there is some event which will be shot there at the top but he did not know much about it. We reached the lohgadh village in some 15-20 minutes. I could relate to the comments of that band guy, when I saw big setups of cameras and tripods getting ready at the base to take them up to the top for shooting the event.


We enjoyed the local lunch at the lohgadh village and started our trek down to the Bhaje caves by 3.30pm. Weather was getting clear now and I had the fantastic view of hills and shades of green in the fields, creating mosaic pattern. We reached the base in roughly 1hr and took steps to climb up the Bhaje caves.

The view of green fields

It took hardly 20 minutes to reach the Bhaje caves. You have to pay entry fees of 5/- Rs per person to enter the caves. These caves are maintained by the archaeologists  I did not find any great things there in the caves except the place which is known as “Prayer hall” which has the shivlinga type of structure called “Stupa” surrounded by  many pillars completing arcs at the ceiling. 

Prayer hall with stupa

There are small caves where you can get in and see from inside the caves through the water rolling as small falls. I found these caves as a place for some fun photographs, especially if you are in a bigger group or with people who are very much interested in getting themselves captured in mischievous poses.

My cousin desperate for his solos 

At the end of the caves, there is a wonderful water fall. I found people enjoying and having more fun at this water fall, may be they came to enjoy this fall and not the caves. Even my cousins had a good bath there. We spent roughly 1.5hr and then decided to move down. In hardly 15 minutes we were down at the base.

Water fall at Bhaje caves

We were done with the day’s plan, now it was time to relax and have some vada-pav and coffee. We enjoyed the snacks and watched people dancing under water fall at the bhaje caves base. People may get older year by year, but when it comes to have fun in monsoon under water fall, then I think age has no limitations.

Finally we decided to leave the place and to head towards Pune to my place. We left at around 6.30pm and reached Wakad,Pune by 8pm.

This trip was really special to me, as it was the very first time we cousins went out for trekking. They were the first guests for me since I relocated to Pune 1.5yrs back. And yes about photography, this was my first attempt to try composing HDR images. I clicked majority of the pictures to make HDR images out of it. 

The Gang

Some numbers:

• Trek duration (UP - from Bhaje caves base to Lohgadh village): 1.5hrs
• Trek duration (UP - from Lohgadh village to top of the fort): 30mins
• Trek duration (DOWN – Fort to Lohgadh village): 20mins
• Trek duration (DOWN – Lohgadh village to Bhaje caves base): 1hr
• Trek duration Bhaje caves (UP): 30mins
• Trek duration Bhaje caves base (DOWN): 20mins
• Total distance travelled (from Mira road, Mumbai to Bhaje caves base): ~120Kms
• Total distance travelled (from Bhaje caves base to Wakad, Pune): ~60Kms
• Total duration of Journey: ~14.5hrs

Tips:

• You should take trek path via Bhaje caves, Its worth walking the entire path to reach lohgadh village.

For more fun pictures you can visit,

More pictures of this trip