Koraigad

After long while at last the dawn arrived when I climbed this fort. I was planning this trek but some things used to come in between and it used to be postponed.

I left my place at 4:30am sharp. 15 minutes walk took me to railway station. Now I called up Prasad Dingankar-our guide for the trek. He said he was up and would be leaving soon. Then I ringed up Siddhesh-he was coming with us for the first time. He was an old friend of mine and Prasad. He was not answering the call, neither mine nor Prasad’s. I thought he was asleep was bound to miss the train. I had almost counted him out when he gave me a ring and said that he was ready and would be leaving from his house soon. Now this news was very good news to me. Train arrived after 15minutes and I proceeded towards Thane station.

I had some Mumbai marathoners with me. Their attire was very much similar to mine. The only difference was that I was carrying a 5kg rucksack on my shoulders and they were not. They seemed to be almost as excited about their marathon as I was about my trek. I reached Thane station and bought tickets for three of us-Me, Prasad and Siddhesh. Soon I met Prasad here and after sometime Siddhesh arrived. We were chatting and reliving our good old times. Manali called to tell us that train was on time and she had boarded it. Natasha also said that she would be leaving from her house soon. Everything seemed to be as per the schedule.

Train arrived at 6:15am sharp and we boarded the train successfully! The train was very much crowded and movement of people from one compartment to another made the matters worse. The train journey was spent in old memories and other life experiences. Other than this, the journey was non-happening. Our train pulled into Lonavala Station at 8:20am. From here we moved towards ST depot. Natasha and Rishabh met us here. Till now we had no idea that Rishabh was also coming. But it was a pleasant surprise.

After regular enquiries about the bus and all we got together and discussed about other things and the route that we were going to take. Once the bus arrived, we moved into it and were shocked to know that the bus had a 45minutes halt before leaving Lonavala. Our fooling continued from where we had left it in our previous trek to Visapur. We were not concerned about the presence of other passengers. We just continued doing our things. Others also seemed to enjoy our masti!

The bus started at 9:15am and we were expecting that it would take us around half an hour or something roundabout. Even after more than 45minutes had passed, there seemed to be no sign of our village. While in the bus we saw some beautiful landscapes. We saw Bushi dam, INS Shivaji and Lion’s point from the bus. The weather was nice-cool and pleasant. After around 50minutes we reached village peth-Shahapur. This is the village that we were supposed to start our trek from.

On getting down from the bus, we first enquired about the returning bus and timetable at around 5pm. They told us that the last bus is at 3:30pm but it is not sure. The jeep services are available which cost Rs.30 till 4:30 pm after that it varies. So keeping in mind that we had get here by 3pm we started. The route was normal-Trees on both sides and ankle tall dry grass. It was good all along. We could see Tikona and Tung fort from here. But still we were not sure of it being them. The climb started with our leader Prasad on the lead. Rest of us just followed him. As usual we retraced our way in search of a better way. At last we found one and then started our climb. It was not very physically tiring during this patch. Then we took one wrong turn!!!!!!!!

The way moved in upward direction. It was covered with loose soil and stones. We had to watch our step while climbing as to avoid dislodging some stone and hurting the person behind us. This was a very difficult task as to get a grip we had to find some firm footing and it was almost impossible over here. Moving up this way for 15minutes or so we reached a point where the route divided into two parts. I decided to take one route while Prasad was taking the other. Others just waited over here for a breather. Most of us were sweating by now. Natasha had a small bruise on her wrist and Rishabh and Manali were attending to it. When I and Prasad returned from our respective routes the answer was negative for both. This meant that now we had to climb down this patch again. It was another daunting task now. This time we made sure that no one was hurt and took our own sweet time to climb down.

From here we took other way and encountered a flight of stairs. These were to lead us to the fort. We again had a quick breather and a photo session. Then again we resumed our trek. In another 10 minutes we reached the temple of lord Ganesh. We prayed here and then continued. On our way we found two caves. One even had a small water tank in it. We again had some quick snaps of the landscape. From here we could see a huge range of mountain from here. The Amby valley project in the village below was a sight to behold. Another 10minutes took us inside the fort through Ganesh Darwaja. We had some pictures her and also the only group picture.

Once inside the fort, we saw two cannons lying near the entrance. Then we saw two huge lakes in the center of the fort. On moving along its border, we called our respective homes to tell them that we had done the summit!!!!!!!!!!!

We saw the huge mountain range in front of us. The row houses of the Amby Valley project below us, Ambavne village, runway for the small airport there and many other things. Then we moved towards the lake had some fun with the frogs in there and moved on to search for some place to have lunch. After searching for sometime we found a cool and cozy place near the temple of goddess “Korai”. She is the main goddess of this fort and hence the fort is named after her. There is a long cannon-118inches long-near this temple. It is the biggest of the 5 cannons present on the fort. We had our lunch here and then moved to see the rest of the fort. We moved towards other entrance to the fort. This route comes from Ambavne village. It is a very treacherous but adventurous route to take.

Over here found two more cannons. There was secret passage way to somewhere but it was blocked. The other similar passageway took us to a new wing of the fort. It was very interesting to go down that way and then emerge from the small opening over there. We moved on to watch other things. I even brushed up some of the rock climbing skills over a small patch here. It was a fine experience. We were again back to the cannon that we had seen.

Clock said it was 2:30pm now and we had to move down now. Soon we bid adieu to the fort and left with our backs towards Ganesh Darawaja.

We had some beautiful incidents in this trek. The memories of them are going to be with us for a long, long time. I badly missed Tej and Ninad on this trek. As usual we left nothing but our footprints and brought nothing but sweet memories of this fort along with us.