Sinhagad - 'Gad aala par Sinha Gela'

Sinhagad Fort

Its been about 18 amazing months since I have been working in Pune. The weather here keeps pulling me away from Bombay which still remains my first love. Pune is surrounded by a lot of forts as it is in the midst of the Sahyadri's. Weekend getaway's are easy to plan when you are in Pune. Sinhagad, one of the forts of Shivaji Maharaj and which was under the Maratha Rule for a long time is just 45 kilometres away from Magarpatta (where I stay). It is at a height of 800 metres above sea level and the best part is you can drive all the way till the base of the fort. There is a 2 lane road all the way up till the base of the fort. The road is steep, curvey and in real bad condition. My room mates and I decided to visit Sinhagad one friday afternoon - you guessed it, we bunked work. It didnt require a lot of planning. Just the car to take us to the top and a camera is all we needed. Balvin, Kaushal and me started our short trip to Sinhagad.

Rain al the way (Balvin's creativity)

Google map on my mobile was our guide. Though I dont have GPS in my Blackberry Curve, google maps do the trick most of the times. We reached Katraj from Magarpatta and continued on the NH 4 till Khed - Shivapur Junction from where we had to take a right and go towards Kondanpur. Its very likely that one can miss this junction due to no proper sigboards on the way. If you do miss it - like us, then go straight till the toll naka (a few hundred metres from the junction), take a U -Turn and come back to this junction. If you dont want to drive all the way up, then you can get jeep or vans who ply towards Sinhagad very frequently. But believe me, driving or biking is real fun and you shouldnt miss it. Yes, the roads are bad but thats how these trails should be, isnt it?

Steep narrow road

From the Khed Shivapur junctions its an uphill journey passing through many villages and buffaloes on the way. Buffaloes are like the traffic controllers on these narrow roads - they stop, look at you, give a stare, wag their tail and move away when they want to. Only thing they missed to do was ask for our licences and the PUC - what a sigh of relief. The way has some real sharp turns which can easily test a novice driver to extreme limits. Modestly speaking, since it was me the scenario was different.  We were lucky since we went on a weekday we didnt get many vehicles coming from the opposite direction except a few bikes. It was drizzling all the way and the fog crowned the mountains almost throughout our journey. We halted a few times on the way for pictures and smoke. Balvin did some bharatnatyam steps in excitement as chennai cant even come close to having such natural beauty in its vicinity. He photographed some droplets on the windshield which looked really beautiful (check the pics).

Bharatnatyam in the greens



Ass load ;-)

Once at the top we had a grand welcome by a few asses. I mean, donkeys made way for us. Hard working asses they were (they had load on them) and seemed very disciplined and motivated. We had a good laugh at the asses - for reasons similar to why you may have had a smile reading this.

Continue to do your job even if you are an ass - our takeaway lesson.

Hidden Caves

One of the temples

Sinhagad has a rich history behind it, including the fights between Marathas and the Mughals. Sinhagad is in the centre of 3 other forts Rajgad, Purandar and Toma surrounding it. It is strategically placed. I had read in my school history books that Tanaji (Shivaji's trusted lieutenant) had climbed this fort from a steep valley using monitor lizard (ghorpad as they say) to hold the rope. Tanaji died fighting the Mughals in this same fort and his memorial exists here. Earlier this fort was called Kondana fort, its in the remembrance of Tanaji that it was renamed as Sinhagad (fort of the lion).



 

LionCAT

The fort is quiet big and interesting however it hasnt been managed properly. Another site where we and our goverment  have failed to protect our history. Many of the sites inside the fort including the memorial of one of Shivaji's son Rajaram is in shambles. There are a lot of hawkers in the fort who more than pressurize you to eat at their stalls. Half of our time went in answering them politely that we arent hungry - 'ata nahi ho, nantar yeto' were our words. There are a couple of ponds in the fort. They looked inviting for a swim but we decided otherwise. Actually, we didnt have extra pair of clothes. The view from the fort of the forts and valleys around is breathtaking.

The Madrasis

We saw a domesticated cat trying to hunt down birds and squirrels - ekdum discovery channel ke lion types. It failed in its attempts miserably though. But yes there was no sign of dejection on its face or may be I aint an animal phsychologist.

We spent about a couple of hours on the fort and then made our way back. While coming down we saw the khadakwasla lake and Dam far away. We wished we could have also gone there. May be some other time. Kurt Cobain and Metallica ruled the speakers of the car while we drove back.

Peace!

Paved path along the valley

Alternate view of the fort

The way we came