Lonavla- Lohghadh

On 29th Aug 2009 I, arunabha, ashish negi and his friend Sameer set for Lohgadh. After taking the pune expressway we arrived near Lonavla, and took the left turn and after passing through Lonavla market proceeded straight and joined the expressway again. After crossing the toll, we went straight and took right turn and proceeded towards Malavali. There is a crossing near the Malavli railway station and finally reached the Malavali village. The village was quite small with hardly 20-30 families and few small shops selling tea/biscuits/water bottles etc. We parked our car in the market and proceeded towards Lohgadh. There is a clear path towards which takes one to the fort and immediately near the village was Bhaje Caves. We however decided to first reach lohgadh. The walk was proving to be tiring since it was a steep climb and as we were descending up we could see the entire place- lush with greenery. The road was in pretty bad condition and hence one cannot take his vehicle. After walking for almost 45 minutes we arrived at a place where we could see 2 mountains –one on the right side and the other on the left side. The right one was Lohgadh and the one on the left was Visapur. We proceeded towards Lohgadh and arrived at the base of the fort- Lohgadwadi village. We had tea, biscuits before we started the climb. The village is pretty small- hardly 25-30 habitats, with small refreshment huts selling biscuits, tea, cold-drinks, wafers, mineral waters etc. there was a proper steps which took to the top of the mountain and we found monkeys greeting us in the start. We took roughly 20-25 minutes to reach the top, locals can be found selling tea, lemon-water. The scene at the top was amazingly beautiful with utter silence and peace. Immediately on reaching the top, there is a mosque like structure on the left side and small cannon. We walked straight towards the left side and came across a small temple and a tank with water. There was so much of fog that the place turned out to be surprisingly beautiful. We walked straight and came across a lake which contained water and was pretty clear. We kept on walking straight and came to a place called Vinchukata (resembles scorpions fangs). We climbed down and were a bit difficult and came to a place where we actually could go down, but we could see the end of the fort. We walked down and on the way once come across water-fall. We started our climb to Bhaje caves and roughly in 10-15 minutes we arrived at Bhaje caves- there is an entry fee of INR 5.00/ person. The caves are of small sizes and the total number of caves is around 22. However of importance is hardly 3-4 caves, and rest all are of not so importance. The place seems to be more visited by young college couples then by cave lover. We moved towards Karla caves which was on the other side of the road and is 12 k.m. from lonavla. The climb was of 20-25 minutes and finally we arrived at the summit after paying for the entry fee of INR 5.00/person. The caves were of larger size and much better than Bhaje. The caves were cut into the hill and there were several chaityas and viharas. The chaitya over here is the biggest in India and is really beautiful. Just outside the chaitya is Ekvira Devi temple.outside the chaitya there are beautiful carvings of elephants and there is a tall pole like structure resembling ashoka pillar. During rainy reason there was a water fall falling and was looking magnificient. Near the top there were stalls selling tea, water, wafers, eatables etc. there is a small hotel at the base of the climb and a parking lot with a toilet facility. Thus our journey came to an end.

Key Take Away: Carry sufficient stock of water, cap.

For Picyures visit the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30002962@N05/