I heard of the newly found fort called Mohangad near the Varandha ghat discovered by Sachin Joshi who's an assistant researcher at Deccan College. Lots of debate was there whether its a fort or not as there was no any fortification found on the top of the hill.
Lets check some history of the MohanGad. Don't worry I'm not gonna bore you as the fort has not much history. When Afzal Khan came to finish Shivaji Maharaj & Swarajya created by him. Before that Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj had written a letter to Baji Prabhu Deshpande that keep some people on the fort & make the fort usable. Rename the fort from Jasloadgad to Mohangad. This is the only reference of Mohangad. I have read this in Baji Prabhu a book written by Ranjit Desai & Shivaji the great authored by Shinde & Naik. After reading all stuff I was eagerly waiting to visit this fort since a very long time.
The fort is located in Hirdas Maval area.
We were 12 people, leaved Pune around 7AM & reached MohanGad around 11AM at the base of the fort. As we wasted 1 hr to have breakfast. To reach Mohangad drive towards Satara on Mumbai-B'lore Highway. Take right from Kapoorhol to Bhor. Reach the Bhor & drive towards Mahad. The journey from Bhor to Mohangad is simply awesome. You can see the Bhatghar dam which looks awesome while water getting down from the wall mostly in Monsoon. Road from Bhor to Mohangad is not so good but its drivable(in Marathi :-). Distance from Pune to Bhor is around 50-60 KM. Bhor to the Mohangad is about 30 KM but the its completely Ghat road so have to drive slowly. You can see the white water lake at the left side which is covered by dense forest. Natural beauty is just speechless. You must feel to stop at every corner of the road & see the lake sight as much as you want. I must suggest leave Pune as early as you can so that you can spend time for photography. Don't involve in scenic too much that you could miss the left turn towards Mohangad from the main road. Keep your eyes on a road at left side after driving around 20 KM from Bhor & on the side of the road there is a board which doesn't clearly indicate. Mohangad is also called Durgada so you can see the Durgada on the board. Here take left & drive for 2-3 KM you can see a quite large temple of Janani Mata. Just park your vehicle with driver & tight your shoes less. To reach Mohangad, You can catch the Mahad bus via Bhor & get down at Durgada phata.
Exactly opposite of the temple there is small walk path goes into the greenery. This path leads you at the top of the Mohangad. I heard that there is one more way from the Village towards fort but we follow the one from Janani Mata temple as this path is hard to climb as compared to other one. Path is almost straight forward there is no any "bhulbhaliyaa" type path. While traversing to one of the rock you can't see the path clearly but you can get it. It might take 1:30 - 2 hrs to reach the fort depends on how fast you walk. There is just a small temple at the top. The fort has no remains of any fortification & top has a very small space to construct so not sure whether it was a fort. I'm sure there must be some importance to this place that's why it must be Mohangad. The main advantage of this fort is you can keep eye on large nearby area. You can easily see the walls of Pratapgad where Shivaji Maharaj killed Afzal Khan from the top of the fort on backside. You can easily see Rohida, Rajgad & Torna fort as well from Mohangad.
Later we came down at the temple & had the lunch. Around 2PM we started descending the fort & reached at the base in 30-40 min. I took the rest at base temple while waiting for others. Later we moved towards Varandha Ghat which is on the way towards Mahad to visit Kavlya Gad. Varandha Ghat is just around 10-12 KM away from Mohangad.
Varandha Ghat is just awesome & must place in Monsoon. Its very scenic place. Just google it, see the images. "चारी बाजूला खोल दरी आणि कड्या कपाऱ्यातून पडणारे धबधबे पाहून तुम्ही जर पुणेकर असाल तर आतून एकच आवाज येईल एकच नंबरर्र्र..!!!". In Monsoon the nature is at its best in this place. Guys plan for the Varandha Ghat if you haven't visited this place. You must visit Varandha Ghat at any cost.
We moved towards Kavlya Gad which is very close to the Varandha Ghat. Its just a small hill.
Kavlya gad has no history. Yesubaai wife of Chatrapati Sambhaji Raje helped Rajaraam Maharaj to escape from Auragzeb & Rajaram Maharaj used this way to reach Jinji from Raigad. The path leads to Kavlya is very slippery and sloping downward, but not much dangerous. Initially i thought we will reach the extreme point in an 15-20 min. but one needs to cross some small hills. It took around 1 hr to reach kavlya. The pathwalk was covered by 6-7 feet tall karvi bushes. One can easily identify the Rajgad & Torna fort from Kavlya. You can see the Raigad as well. The ghat road looks just awesome which looks like Kumbarli ghat from Jungli Jaygad. After spending half an hour we came back to Varandha ghat had garam garam Kanda Bhaji with tea while enjoying the beauty of varandha ghat. We leaved from Varandha ghat around 6:30 & reached Pune at 9:30.
Tons of thanks to Arvind Patil for the awesome pics from his cam. I have posted some more pics on Facebook. Just Click here.
