Sudhagad Reloaded

29th Aug  11.00pm : 

I'm ready with my bags packed. Ready to go for sleep. I have to wake up in early morning tomorrow. Why?.. ofcoarse Going for an outing. Trek to sudhagad.

Its my general problem, whenever I'm going out I'm unable to sleep pevious night. Same happened this time also. Till 12'o clock I could not sleep. So I decided to stay awake. Had a small peg of old Monk, so added it in hot water and drank it as medicine. still no chances of sleep. So decided to play games on my PC. 

29th Aug  2.00pm : 

At around 2'0 clock. I felt it would have been very good if I had some cigrattes. So I went to Swargate, to have some tea and stock of cigarettes. Oh....!! this reminds me of my old days when we used to come here while studying in nights. This deserves a blog to be written on this topic.

The reason to write here is to let you know 'I start my outings one day prior'. This is due to excitement.

Then I had my bath, and left for swargate bus stand at 4.30 pm. Had some breakfast, coffee and boarded a bus to mumbai(via old highway). I had to get down at Khopoli.

I was to join my group (Ambernath friends) at Khopoli. So I made a call to Sham, he said till now everything was on track. So had a nap. Just before lonavala Sham called back and told they have Sushant and Gauri missed the Khopoli train, and they will be boarding Karjat train. Others will get down at Karjat. Now it was confirmed, that we will as always start late. I get angry on late commers, coz I'm never late.

Bus entered the Bhor ghat, and the climate was amazing. This is best part of pune mumbai route. I reached khopoli at 7'0 clock. 

I had a idea that my group will be late, so I decide to go to Astavinayak ganpati at Mahad. I boarded a sharing six sitter at khopoli, and got down at Mahad fata. I had a 1 km walk to the temple, spent some time there and came back to Khopoli. After waiting for an hour or so, I got a call from Sham that they have arrived at khopoli bus stop. 

Now from 1 we were 12 people group. We boarded a Pune Roha bus and got down at Pali. At Pali Amey joined us. He was waiting for a long time there. Also he had brought Lunch for us (Chapatti, and batata bhaji.) After having darshan and food we hired 2 6 seaters (Rs. 150 each), and got down at Dhondase village.

We started our climb at around 1 pm. On the way we were enjoying, pulling each others legs and having fun. After about 1 hr walk we realised we are on wrong way. Here myself and sham had a show of some map reading skills. we anaysed the mountain in fron of us and decide further direction to walk. And yes we were right. after 10-15 mins walk we were back on track. Then we had a break near a small stream(due to monsoon season). The water there was very good. Then we started back. since we had started in afternoon the walk was tiring in the scorching sun.

Kedar Nimkar- He is an episode in our group. He was working hard in gym from 4-5 months. And was romaing around making a show of his bisceps, triceps and the bag he had bought from Delhi. The bag was really amazing and was very suitable for climbing Mt. Everest, but not Sudhagad. It was heavy and bulky. so he was totally exhausted. And guy who was behaving as a Lion had become a tame goat now. So Rakesh decide tos take his bag. Rakesh has lot of power but he nevre shows off. Hats off to you Rakesh.

We reache a small temple from where our steap climb started. No no it was not difficult but was exhaustive. The steps were huge. and from here we could realise that we have not climbed even 1/2 height of the gad. then we took rest at a water tank. Regular trekkers will have no objection drinking water from this tank, but Our group excluding me had . So it was decided we will not drink water from this tank. Though I wanted to do so. So I filled my bottle with this water, in case anyone has an emergency. NowI realised gas cylinder I was carrying was giving me back-ache. I had a minor injury due to it.

Then we were climbing , climbing and climbing. It was 4.30 now still we had not reached maha darwaja. Every time anyone asked me I used to convince them that it is 15 minutes ahead.

Everyone started cursing for taking this route. Also there were some questions like why people go for a trek. and da.da.da.da... 

There were some people who were really enjoying this walk. And did not curse for a single time, they were Sham and his wife Beena, and Rakesh. Of coarse me also.  Why?.. because I'm writting this blog. They say that winners create history. But one thing is also true, people study history from books, and I'm writing this book ;) 

And finally we saw Maha darwaja in front of us... Oh it was a one of great kind's of entrance i've seen till date. There was a small water stream. we drank some water did a bit of photography and started walking. After about 15 minutes we reached  top in front of Bhorai temple. This fort also has a panta sachiv wada to stay. But none of us would have walked a single step more. So this temple was going to be our place of stay. we had some rest on the lush green ground outside of the temple, then we went in. We changed and went to become fresh. Some answered there natures call. Them best thing while trekking is answering natures call in open air, along with cool breeze 

Here outside the temple we saw a big skull of buffelo. Though everyone forgot to take its snap.

Now everyone were hungry. sSo we had our food (chapatti and batata bhaji) Thanks Ameya. After that I agreed to make tea. I'm a good cook but this time I made worst tea in my life. But everyone enjoyed this tea ;) (Remember I'm owner of thi s blog) . Then there was post-mortem report of theat tea.

Sun was about to set and we were chatting outside the temple. Some of us visited lake nearby.

Then we had a round of chanting different mantras. Amey, Rajeshree and Beena were leading this session. And a duffer among us (no need to mention its Kedar) was the only person who did not know a single word of it. Thanks to ur were western culture kedar.

Dinner time. All girls led this front by making wonderful khichadi. After dinner we had a chat, then it was bed time. Some were so tired that others could not convince them to have a debate or a discussion.

Good morning everyone. We attended the natures call and myself and sushant did some photography. Cleaning vessels is a boring job and some who had not done single piece of work last night were forced to clean them.

Pohe, Phodnichi Poli argument. After Tea coffee session breakfast was to be made. We had some Chappatis left with us. So Amey and Rajeshree were going to make Phodnichi poli, and myself and Sham were going to make Pohe. We made Pohe first and left very less masala ingredients to make Phodnichi poli. This was , coz we had a bet whether Pohe would taste gr8 or Pho-Po.

As we started eating we discovered that inspite of our efforts to make pohe taste good were in vain. We cud not show this to them, so wetook lots of Pho-Po and coverd it with small layer of Pohe. :)) Atleast Phopo tasted so gr8 that we did not feel bad for making pohe. Thanks Rajeshree and Amey.

At last we got some time to see the fort together. There was an argument whether we shud carry our heavy luggage with us. I being experienced suggested every-one to keep luggage in temple and then rome. But no one paid heed to my advice. They did not want to come back as well as they did not want to take risk of keeping things unattended. I being a bit  adamant kept my bag there. Then we visited this beautiful fort. Had some snaps, and lots of comments related to the snake-holes.

While returning we visited the Panta sachiv wada over there. It was wonderful experience. With ppl trying there hands on camera. 

We started to climb down the fort and reach Patshapur. There was asteep descent and a wonderful ladder to climb down. I've not seen sucha a gr8 ladder on any of the forts. Condition of the ladder is very good. While coming we had taken cel numbers of the 6-seater driver. We called them and asked to reach Patshapur. 

From here we reached pali. We booked 2-6seaters from Pali to karjat. I was dropped at khopoli.

One Joke - I got the same ST bus at khopoli which I had left at pali, coz I wanted to be with the group for some more time.

From here I got down at lonavla due to rush in the bus, held a cab at lonavla and came back to pune.

A wonderful journey ends.

Thanks guys for making my trip Precious.

Just see the Greenary behind.  I'll upload more images later.