The Formidable Lohagad

It was Saturday morning Anurag asked me to plan something for a day trip. I had lot of house-hold jobs to do. But traveling is always my priority. So, thought of giving a second visit to Lohagad, called Pratham & Veer and completed all my pending works by night.

We started early morning on Sunday. Pratham n I met at Pune station and Veer joined us from Akurdi (Anurag couldn't make it due to some reason). We got down at Malwali and we started walking. One can take auto (Rs. 15/head) to the base village Bhajegaon (1.5 km). From there one need to walk around 6km to reach Lohagad.

The route to Lohagad is not only easy but very scenic. At Bhajegaon, there's a Buddhist cave, named after the village name. There's a single route passing Bhaje caves which enroutes to Lohagad.

Bhaje Caves

The route is quite a tiring one. You just need to walk, walk and walk. We had sweet corn and tea on the way. Vispur is another majestic fort near to Lohagad heardly 500 m. On the way to Lohagad, you'll find a Submarine structured hill and that's Visapur fort. You need to pass Visapur on your left Lohagad. The troll is Lohagad is always on your right through out the trek but at times it seems the route is never ending.

Visapur Fort

Pratham posing

Lohagad

Lohagad at an elevation of 3,450 feet in the bank of Indrayni river and Pavana Dam delivers a heavenly view all around.

Lohagad (The Iron Fort) is one of the strongest and most famous of Deccan forts and is probably a settlement of very great age. The fort stands had been under the rule of the Satavahanas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Yadavas, Bahamanis, Nizamshahis, Mughals and Marathas. It is mentioned as one of the Bahmani forts taken by Malik Ahmad when (1489) he established himself as an independent ruler. In 1564, Burhan Nizam Shah II. afterwards the seventh Ahmadnagar king (1590-1594) was confined here during his brother's reign. On the fall of the Ahmadnagar' dynasty in 1637, lohagad passed to the Bijapur kings, but was soon after (1648) wrested from them by Shivaji. In 1665, after the successes of Jaising and Dilawar Khan, Shivaji was forced to cede lohagad to Aurangzeb. Only five years later (1670), in the successful operations that followed Tanaji Malusre's capture of Sinhgad, Lohagad was surprised by the Marathas, and afterwards made a sub-divisional head-quarters and treasury.

The entrance to this fort is impressive and is aptly called 'Delhi Gate'. There are three gates one after the other. Despite being such an old fort, the construction is still well intact.

We reached at the top in 30-35minutes. It was drizzling more and more on the top. So, had one more round of tea.

Due to cloud and rain, the visibility of surroundings had been reduced; so we moved forward to the end of Lohagad, The Scorpion's Tale. It is the most exciting part and is named by its shape. The only difficult part comparing the whole trek. It's stiff, so looking down is a hell of an experience.

The Scorpion's Tale

 

 
We posed and clicked a lot. Had food. It's the farthest point at Lohagad.

 

It's time to explorer the rest of the fort. So, started returning at the top again.

This is another exciting place. A small stream flowing down from  the top and guess what... the heavy wind throwing that stream back to the top... Simply extraordinary!!!

As we started descending, we captured more photos. Usually, Lohagad attracts variety of birds, but this I hardly found, may be because of rain.

Visapur Fort

There are numerous springs on the way to Lohagad. While returning we had some time in hand and so went for the fun.

The fun had become little bitter as an insect bite me in the water. But, it's a worth visiting Lohagad in Monsoon. The trek is easy with medium endurance and the surroundings are splendid.