Season's 1st trek to Lohagad

This year as rain started late our trekking group was more and more eager to go for our 1st ever trek in the season.So, all were waiting for those teeny weeny droplets to become heavy downpour.I always think that heavy rains sets the right mood for trek.So, after my mood was set for trek, we all started planning and that ended with Trek to Lohgad and visapur on 11th and 12th of July.We wanted to do both the treks so planned to stay on 11th on Lonavala platform.
Hurdles could not stop us from planning and we did lots of RnD about Lohagad and visapur. As most of our RnD was over Internet which is definitely the not authenticated source of information , we were still worried about food availability,way to reach Lohagad and then from there to visapur.huh, but, we : the organizers made our way through it. The credit goes to Me and Swapnil lele. Thanks swapnil :)

Oh, now, little bit about the hurdles i faced from Girl's side.First of all, out of all girls in our group, i was the only one who was Excited rather jumpy about the trek ( obviously yaar , i was the organiser :) )So, the big challenge before me was to increase the number of girls. Thanks to Rajashree who quickly agreed to come down with me from Pune. I somehow managed to convince Bhakti and her friend to come from mumbai.So, all program was set and we all puneits started off on 11th night with a LATE passenger. :( .To add into our bad-luck were the passing points that delayed us by 2 hours. Mean-time, our mumbai group was on time and reached lonavala properly :) . That long journey by passenger was heavenly. A bit of excitement, eagerness to meet someone and a sweet pain of wait that is what i felt in that journey.Though, we all were syncing up on mobiles but still everyone was excited about our head start of trek :) .I enjoyed my late night journey by late passenger by sitting at the door with a cool breeze coming my way :D
We reached finally at 3 and the wait was over :) .We all were re-united for our great trek.I just felt right to be there with my group.Everything was perfect and with perfect moments captured in camera :)

Then we all opted for a cup of tea far from lonavala rail-way station so that we could explore the area little at such a wee hours :D.while coming back ,we were accompanied by heavy rain and there started our enjoyment and never ending fun.We all boarded the first train going to malawali from lonavala so reached there in few minutes after leaving lonavala.As soon as we came out of malawali station we found a Dhaba with plates of ready-to-serve bhajis and wadas.Huh, that was the most sought for thing and we didn't miss the opportunity.We made that dhabewala do a TEA for ever-thirsty us :D hmmmmm.All just loved that dhaba so much, that some of us took nap in there :( and there we got late.so, our trek started @ 6 and amateur photographers like us started capturing beauty of nature in their cameras.So, again LATE start that lead to cancelling of visapur later :(

Our walk towards the Lohgad fort was rainy but with full of fun.All were in cheery mood and so could not stop laughing and making fun of whichever FUNNY things we encounter :P .so, no one knew when we started somewhat steep patch.huh. now was the real start of trekking :) .those, who were leading started lagging behind.I was at behind since start ,so, when wanted to move forward ,couldnt leave those poor chaps behind,so, did a job of boosting them to make fast moves so that we can patch up the distance. but, alas, till we reach "gaymukh khind" , there were 2 parts in our group.1 was tooo enthusiastic and went ahead and 1 was still lagging behind... Now, i was in the back group and we stopped to eat bhutta . Ummm, yummy.

we reached over lohgad from it's payatha in 45 minutes. Lohgad is a small fort with very less construction left on fort.When, we reached on fort we were surrounded by thick fog.As no one was on fort before, i was planned for that :D .i had a printed map of fort which guided us to Lakshmi kothi , which was used as store room at the time of Shivaji maharaj. Then, we saw a Mandir and a darga on the fort. By the time, all were feeling tired and so, v decided to descend the fort. Descending time we took was just of 15 minutes :)

After descending down, all were so hungry that we settled our self in a hut shaped hotel and ordered whatever food available .After pet pooja we started a HOTT discussion on whether to go for Visapur or not. Majority public was out so with Most of the ayes we decided not to go for visapur :( .Instead of that all were settled for idea of getting-all-wet-at-waterfall :D .We opted for a big waterfall and not-so-crowded one :)

As soon as ,we all reached waterfall sight, oh my god, we all dashed into water together.It was fun.There was a natural slide created due to flow of water.Many of us njoyed it.Among the girl, i was the only one who dared to do go for that slid :) .surely, it was fun, but, there were chances of bruises too.Yepp, i got one there.but, chalta hain :D

Finally, we came out of waterfall and began our journey towards railway station.Now, that was our destination. while coming down, that lohgad area was so over-crowded that i felt like i m in heart of pune :( .All cheap public ,though, there were police around to control the drunken public.

Luckily, my family planned a outing nearby so, they came by car to pick puneits :) .so, our return journey was smooth in tata sumo :) ..

Map of Lohagad that i found on TreKshitiZ.com