Rohida Fort is also known as Vichitragad.
Monsoon of 2019 in
Pune and I was up and ready for another trek. But this time wanted to cover some
unexplored / less crowded fort in this region.
It was a quick plan of our office colleague and we agreed
for Rohda, considering it was easy(which eventually was not) and less crowded.
This fort is around 10KM from Bhor village .
We started (from Wakad) early around 7AM by car. As we hit
the highway and left the city behind we all were amazed by seeing the beauty of
lush green mountains around the city.
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| On the way |
This trek was supposed to be easy one until we put “Rohida
Fort” as destination in Google Map, instead of Bazarwadi village. To reach to
the fort there is a regular easy way from Bazarwadi village (a small school
from where trek starts). But there is another way to reach at top which
connects to the opposite part of fort. And we took second route ☺.
So If you are going , ask for Bazarwadi village , Bazi pasalkar Vidyalaya.
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| It was that easy when we started |
We could see a small terrain going up and we started to follow that but I have no idea how it got disappeared.
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But we knew the direction of fort so we kept moving. In between
we found this landscape. It was actually beautiful
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| Some breathtaking views |
From this point we were able to see the fort but we also
noticed that there is no clear path and we literally have to climb a big mountain
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| Fort could be seen from this point |
We moved from there towards that big mountain. Till this
time I could not spot a single trekker there .Now we were sure that this is not
the usual path and we started from wrong point. We should be heading to
Bazarwadi. Only motivation was the sight of fort which was waiting to welcome
us.
But as we were going up it was getting difficult and
slippery . There was not much rain though. At some point, it was so steep that
we were not able to walk. We literally had to crawl. Mind each step and try to
fix your shoes in small roots of plants for support .
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| ...and we all though it would be easy climb |
This continued around 1 hr and we found some people were
coming from actual root. So finally two routes merges at some point and we were
much happier.
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| This view could never get old |
After crossing the final patch we reached at top and magic
of wind begun. Fort is huge but similar to all other forts in Pune. We took a
round of that and it started raining heavily. It get super windy there that
anyone could be blown away.
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| First Dwar (door) of fort |
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| View from the fort |
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| Walking over clouds |
After exploring the fort we had lunch (which we carried as
there is nothing at all for food / water) .It was time to get down and another twist.
We took the same path to get down from where we started knowing that descend
will be much difficult, because our car was parked there .But few villagers
stopped us to go from that side . As it rained very heavily, it was more
slippery than earlier .Like very good boys we listened to him quietly took the regular route to get down towards
Bazarwadi.
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| View of fort from regular route |
This route was really very easy and beautiful .The intensity
of wind at some points was immense. There were small waterfalls which were
flowing in reverse due to crazy wind. Lush green colors of grass around you
reminds you how beautiful nature can be. You are left with 360 degree view of
green mountains , some waterfalls and only thing you could hear was the insane
windy noise .
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| This school should be the start point |
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| Bazarwadi |
It took around 1.5 hours to get down .We got down safely at
bazarwadi and took a lift initial point where we left our car and started towards
city just thinking “what if we started from regular route and not go to hidden
route”
General Information:
Things to carry : Enough water
Some
packed Food
Mobile
cover , extra pair of cloths
Time to ascend : 2.5 hours
Time to get down : 1.5 hours
Best time to visit : July to Octber
Base village : Bazarwadi (Start the trek following the
terrain from school)
Please do not litter , this fort is very clean let’s
maintain it.
