Purandar Fort Trekking on 1st August

My venture continued…. I planned not to waste a single weekend in this monsoon and to cop up with that plan 1st of August I went to Purandar fort, this time with a huge team from my office. Actually this trip was planned by the office HR team. I just nominated my name there.
Purandar fort figures repeatedly in the rising of Shivaji against the Bijapur kingdom and the Mughals. Purandhar fort stands 4,472 ft. above the sea in the Western Ghats, 20 miles southeast of Pune. It actually consists of two forts - Purandar and Vajragad (or Rudramal). The latter is the smaller of the two and is on the eastern side of the main fort. The village Purandar takes its name from this fort.
We started our journey from office at around 7:30 after a handsome delay of 1 hr. we were 40 in count, had our breakfast in the bus itself and after a 1.5 hrs journey we reached the bottom of the fort. There was a formal road also to go up, but we planned to trek all the way to the top. So without wasting our time we started the trekking. Now what is trekking? If you say climbing up through the rocky surface of a hill is trekking then yes we were trekking. We had this kinda trek before also, however this one was different from all of them. This is because normally we were following the path which was marked by the footsteps of others who came here before, but some times we were encountering position where nothing can be decided where to go and how will we climb up. So we were making our own path. It was a real fun. Climbing up with the help of thorny bush and the muddy-slippery rocks made our lives tough, though we enjoyed because that is what we wanted to taste. We formed human chain to climb up helping each other. That day it was not heavily raining, so did not get enough natural water falls. The more high altitude we were reaching the more cloud covering we were getting. When we were about to reach Bini Darwaza, got a tiny water fall. Better late than never, we jumped into it and started enjoying the chilled water coming down from the hill top. It was so refreshing; we overcame all the fatigue we had to reach till here.
Our next venture was Bini Darwaza. This is one of the rarest things in Purandar fort which is still in good shape. Near to Bini Darwaza there was one statue of Murarbaji Deshpande, we clicked a lot of photographs there also. After that again we started trekking for the next destination, which was Delhi Darwaja. We climbed up there in very quick time then took a long break. There we sang songs, thanks to Sidhharth, Rahul and DD. Sidhharth was carrying his guitar and DD his bongo.
From Delhi Darwaja we started for our final destination, Kedhareshvar Temple, which is at the top of the fort. This final part of the trekking I found the most interesting. The weather also was awesome. The rain and cloud was playing hide and seek at its leisure. Walking down the jungle roads covered with fog and the only sound that one could hear was our footsteps…. Oh this was the experience of our lives. It looked as if we were flying through the clouds. The clouds covered us like blankets in the wintry afternoon. The temple was not so gorgeous with its architectural prospect but the surroundings made that temple so special. When the cloud was full on, nothing was visible around and it was like we were sitting in the heaven.
We were so amazed with the scenic beauty did not even notice how time went past. No one was bothered about lunch or anything else of the materialistic world. We were hungry and the only thing we had was biscuits. But no one was having any complain on that. Everyone was busy in posing in front of camera with their innovative ideas.
Finally we started our journey back to the bus. This time we decided to take an easier route however ended up following some weirder narrow path. A healthy competition was going on for finding the shortest path to get down. The more we got closer to the bus the more people started feeling hungry and thirsty. Eventually it became the motivation factor to get down quickly. Once we all reach safely, took a long tea break. While returning back we had our lunch in a road side dhaba on Pune-Bangalore Highway. As soon as the break got over, we started our journey back to Pune, with a good experience in memory.
At the end some important information for all the trek lovers and whoever wants to go there.
The place is very near to Pune, so if you want to go for a trek please start your journey as early as possible. Do not expect much to see in the fort, you won’t find any actually. There is no hotel/restaurant/tea stalls at the top of the fort and anywhere near to that. There is only one tea stall at the bottom of the hill. So be prepared with sufficient water/dry snacks/fast aids. One more important thing is, the rocks there is very loose so be careful while trekking. Do not get over excited. Your safety is in your hand.
What else????? Happy Trekking
P.S. During this trip only we planned tomorrow also. Tomorrow we are going to Bhandardata. So have to take rest. Till then Good Bye.

Bushi Dam, Zenith Waterfalls and Kund Mala trip

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

We did it. We discovered ocean of merriment, ocean of exuberance when we shown enough courage to lose the chance of taking rest in a lazy Saturday as usual. You got it right; once again I went for a trip this weekend. Monsoon season never let me down at least in this part of India. Every time it appears in front of me with its huge treasure of natural beauty.

This time we went to Bushi Dam, Zenith Water Fall & Kund Mala. Bushi Dam is a very common place in Lonavala, so huge crowd was expected. Just to avoid the crowd our plan was to reach there early. Executing the same plan I got the first pick up sharp at 5 in the morning. Maloy was with me. From my place we went to pick up didi from Bund Garden. After that we took Abhishekh from Aundh and all the others from Nigdi. With everyone’s successful contribution (being on time) finally we departed from Nigdi at around 7:45 am. Let me first tell you about the members of the group. Most of the people are from my Didi’s office. Out of them Abhishekh, Ruchi, Seema, Anmol, Anirban; I met them before also during trip and other activity. This time I got few new friends in form of Karthik, Gaurav, Chiru, Piyusha, Reshmi and Himadri. In the bus I was as usual sitting on the last seat with a complete view of the entire team. I remember the first thing we discussed is the language barrier. We started in Hindi but ended in an embarrassing position realizing that Karthik does not know hindi at all and Even Chiru is also not comfortable. We are five Bengalis in this bus, so some Bengali chit chat was also going on here and there; all of a sudden Maloy shown his skill in Tamil being a Bengali and started talking with Karthik. Everyone was confused which language can bridge us. Ultimately we decided to help Karthik and interpret everything in English. The main reason behind this is we were about to start Antakshari, which cannot continue in English.


We had our breakfast in the bus itself, bread-butter and jam. Then we started singing. The theme was decided “Vehicle”. Everyone contributed with their knowledge and signing skill. Me, Abhishek and Anmol we even danced. Mhmmmmm lets be fair, most of us danced in the bus. Don’t know how time went past and we reached to Bushi Dam. Reaching there it was just matter of time when we all got wet in spite of having umbrella, wind cheater and every pre cautions of not getting wet. I don’t know why we carried so many things when we all knew this trip is all about to enjoy the monsoon, rain, and waterfall. When we reached at the Dam, there were not many people around. We started clicking snaps in wildest of pose. In the Dam there were steps for free flow of excess water; Anmol started climbing the steps fighting against the water stream coming down. Everyone followed the leader. Didi took the safer route to climb up. I wanted to climb up through the water, however for the camera’s safety, had to take the dry steps. Most unfortunate thing is I could not save the camera also after this. Its display got damaged because of water.


After enjoying the Bushi Dam, we started conquering the water fall which is filling the dam. We spent there more than an hour. We climbed up the rocks. It was bit risky, still we did it. I was not in very good mood that time because of my camera. But how could I have my off bit mood with so much fun around. Soon I forgot all about my camera. Once we finished our exploration in that water fall we came back to the tempo traveler.

We had our lunch in Kamat hotel. I don’t want to talk anything about the food. Just one suggestion to everyone, DON’T GO TO THAT HOTEL EVER.
Our next venture was Zenith Water Fall. This is not a very famous place in Lonavala. This is actually in Khopoli Village near a company named Zenith. We had to do a lot of R&D to reach there. Once we reach there, got down from the bus and almost walked 1 km to reach at the bottom of water fall. Ohhhh….. My………. God. What a view it was. I can’t explain how gorgeous the waterfall was. Till date all the water falls I have seen here, in most of them water shutter down on rocks. But here a little pond is created at the bottom with a depth of 3-4 feet. This is what made it different from other waterfalls. Since this place is not so famous, there was not a huge rush, which made the atmosphere more soothing. We have shown all our jumping, diving, swimming skill there. Unfortunately almost everyone was in water so not much snaps we could take with the camera, but permanent snaps have been taken into the memory, no doubt in that.

Our next target was Kund Mala. In between we changed our wet cloths in a road side hotel and a good tea break. When we reached Kund Mala, the sun was ready to end his shift for the day, so we were running out of time. Lot many plans are already made to be executed. Kund Mala is basically a series of pond as I read on the internet. Kund means pond and Mala means chain. I drew a picture of the place based on this information; however in reality I hardly identified any series of Ponds. But the place was cool and that is what it matters most for me. We spent almost an hour on the rocky bank of the so called pond/river. As per plan we prepared bhel and had it. Along with that we had lot more photography also as usual.
As soon as the sun disappeared with its last ray for the day we started our journey back to Pune, with a good experience in memory.

At the end, a special thanks to didi and Abhishek to arrange the trip and including me. A special thanks to all the other members to make the trip so memorable. We are from different part of India, talk different language but it’s our culture which teaches us to stay together, enjoy together and that is what creates the bond.

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.

Definitely this is not the end of the season. A long monsoon is waiting for us; I am not going to miss a single weekend. So… next plan is on its way.

P.S.: My camera has started working when it dried up. So next time more photographs I can click.