Rohida Fort - Kenjal Gad & फसलेला Raireshwar

As our Yo trek group members Durgesh & Rohan escaped from Rohida-Raireshwar trek. KK & me decided to follow the first rule of trek & that is not to cancel the trek if any member gets cancelled. As the plan was to leave early from Pune, visit Rohida & later Raireshwar. Kenjalgad was also in our mind but we don't wanted to make it in hurry so we decided to visit Kenjalgad only if we get time after visiting Rohida & Raireshwar. It was possible only if we leaved early morning from Pune. There was no worry of travelling as i already borrowed Durgesh's bike on friday night. We decided to meet at Swargate on sharp 5:30. We both were not aware of the route & didn't get time to check detail's at office. I googled the route details, maps n everything. Slept at 1:30AM & got up at 4:30AM. After having bath & cuppa tea, i reached Swargate at 5:30 but as usual KK was not there. KK came after i read all the news about Kedarnath flood. We started moving towards Katraj around 6:20am.

Plan was straight forward, drive on Mumbai-B'lore highway upto Kapoorhol & take right turn for Bhor, reach rohida fort first & then Raireshwar. Rain was stopped & morning was quite pleasant. Clouds were moving above the head. KK & me got indulged in gossip such a way that we forgot to take right turn for Bhor from Shindewadi & we came to know it after moving 10 KM ahead. Later took U turn & moved towards Bhor. As we thought there must be large road for Bhor & some boards which indicates the direction but there was no such board on the highway. So make sure you take right turn from Shindiwadi which is 5-6 KM ahead of Kapoorhol. Bhor is around 12 KM from highway. As you reached in Bhor, the statue of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj catches your eyes which is in the middle of the road. Just take left for Rohida which is around 8-10KM from Bhor or go straight towards Mahad for Raireshwar. Choice is yours. we moved to Rohida fort. Bajarwadi is the base village of rohida.

Parked bike at primary school & we were hungry. We forgot to have breakfast on highway as we missed the road & there was no chau-mau food in our bag. As there was no tea shop at Bajarwadi so it was like dream come true even if we get Parle-G from any small shop. Somebody told the Kiranna store's address, we took Parle-G & i told shopkeeper that it would be great if we get a cuppa tea. He said if u want i'll tell my wife to make it. We were pleased. We said please make it for us but you have to take money for the tea & he refused. Later he told that his family makes lunch for many trekkers. When i heard lunch i became more hungry & asked uncle that can you please tell aunty to make Kande-Poha for us. Uncle packed poha in carry bag & told another uncle to show us his house & tell her wife to make poha n tea for us. We leaved Khopde's house after having poha & tea.

We started climbing Rohida Fort at 8:30 AM. Fort is not so high but climb is straight forward. You can see main door & walls of the forts along with Buruj from the village. We managed to reach at the top of the fort in an hour while having photography as it was quite clear climate. There are 3 main doors which are in quite good condition. If you wanna see the beauty of Buruj then you must visit Rohida. There are 6 buruj & each buruj is unique & very huge. All the buruj are clean & well maintained by fort lovers. You can enjoy speedy wind on the each buruj of Rohida. Due to high speed wind, the Rohida Fort is very popular among the trekkers & Of course it should be as we enjoyed it a lot. Really it was huge speedy wind. There is a temple on the center of the fort. One more thing of the fort mostly impressed me is the fort has managed great rain water harvesting. However this fort is not as large as Rajgad, Sinhagad but there are many water tanks. 'Store water as much as you can' thats the simple solution to overcome drought. We didn't even learn simple things from history or we don't wanna learn. We started descending, after spending 2 hours on the fort.

Later i come to know that you can climb this fort from Ambavde village as well but this route is quite tricky & long. It needs 2-3 hrs to reach the top of the fort from Aambavade village. So next time will visit Rohida from this route.

I have read the history of the Rohida fort in many books. This fort was the property of Banddal who cosider himself King before it comes under Hindavi Swaraj. Shivaji Maharaj asked Krashnaji Banddal to come under Hindavi Swaraj or get ready to fight & Baji Prabhu Deshpande who was Pradhan of Banddal suggested to reply if you wanna fight then come today itself. Shivaji Maharaj was already planted his men in & around the fort. Shivaji Maharaj attacked the fort on same day though it was dark moon & capture the fort. Krashanji Banddal got killed but Baji Prabhu didn't accept the defeat. Baji Prabhu agreed when Shivaji Maharaj personally met him & explained him why he want to build Swarajya.

We came back to bhor around 12:30. Had meals & moved towards Mahad as our next destination was to reach Raireshwar where Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj took Hindavi Swarajya oath & my friend KK wanted to take oath of starting development for our mobile app :-). To visit Raireshawar go straight towards Mahad & take left once you reach Aambavade village which is around 8-10KM from Bhor. Follow the road without asking anyone from Aabavade & you will be at Ghera-Kenjal. आंबवडे गावापासून ते घेरा-केंजळ पर्यंतचा परिसर आतिशय नयनरम्य आहे. पावसात न्हाउन निघालेला हिरवागार परिसर अत्यंत मोहक दिसत होता. गाडी चालवताना हात सोडून वाऱ्याचा feel घ्यावासा वाटत होता आणि समोर दिसणारा केंजळगड रागाने म्हणत होता, 'ह्म्म्म रायरेश्वराला जाताय वाटतं वेळ मिळाला तर भेटा आह्माला पण'. केंजळगडाकडे बघताना असे वाटत होते कि हा डोंगर तयार झाल्यावर त्याच्या डोक्यावर निसर्गाने अलगद वरचा दगडी भाग जणू काही शीर-टोप म्हणून घातला आहे. रायरेश्वराला आणि केंजळ गडाला जाणारा एकच रस्ता आहे. फार मोठा घाट आहे आणि घाट रस्ता फार खराब आहे. या घाटाचे नाव घेरा-केंजळ आहे. याच मार्गाने पुढे मांढरदेवी(काळूबाई)ला जाता येते.

As the road was very bad so we parked bike in the middle of ghat & started walking towards Raireshwar fort. You can see the Kenjalgad easily but not Raireshwar. To reach Kenjalgad take left turn & for Raireshwar just continue the path & walk for 1-2 hrs. We were moved towards Raireshwar but a trekker group were moving towards KenjalGad & they thought that we wanted to visit KenjalGad but not Raireshwar so they signalled to follow them from long distance. As we also not aware how far was Raireshwar from there so we followed the group which was lost in dense as we reached near the small village. AS there are many paths towards the fort & there is dense so i asked a small village boy to take us to the fort but KK forced me to follow him & boy was not agree for 50 bucks. It was raining, climb was straight forward & there was no proper path. I was quite tired & told KK i'll kill him he missed the road. Finally in half an hour, we came in-front of KenjalGad.

It was really amazing view of KenjalGad. On the left side you can see the back water of Bhatghar dam & on the other side of the dam you can easily see the Kamal Gad. This view was very scenic. After 10 min's walk there are wide steps which takes you to the top of the fort & same steps gets you back. :). These steps are very wide & one side is closed by a big rock patch. You can see some fortification at the fort. There is small temple. After having very pure water, We rested for a while & went to see explore the fort. उन-पावसाचा खेळ चालू होता. डोंगरातून नागमोडी वळण घेत गेलेला मांढरदेवीचा रस्ता तर खूप छान दिसत होता. जंगली जयगडावरून कुंभार्लीचा घाट जसा दिसतो अगदी तसाच हा घाट दिसत होता. डाव्या बाजूला रायरेश्वर दिसतो. या गडावर दोन चुन्याच्या घाणे आहेत. एकाच गडावर दोन चुन्याचे घाणे पहिल्यांदाच पाहिले. एका ठिकाणी गडावरून खाली पाणी पडत होते आणि तेच पाणी खालून येणाऱ्या वाऱ्यामुळे परत तुषारांच्या रुपात वर येत होते. थोडं अमाझिंग वाटलं. तासाभरात गड फिरून झाला साधारण ३:३० वाजले होते मग रायरेश्वरला जायचं नक्की केलं म्हणून short-cut ने गड उतरायचं ठरवलं. पावसाने वाट निसरडी झाली होती आणि ज्या वाटेने आम्ही उतरायचं ठरवलं मला नाही वाटत त्या वाटेने सहसा कोणी उतरलं असेल. ही वात आता पर्यंतच्या माझ्या ट्रेक मधली सर्वात बिकट आणि आवडलेली वाट. गर्द झाडी मधून आम्ही अक्षरश: घसरत गड उतरत होतो. कारण उठून चालायचं म्हणजे डोक्याला झाडाच्या फांद्या लागायच्या. मग काय खाली shoes वर बसून थोडा झोक दिला की घसरत घसरत खाली जात होतो. मध्ये मध्ये तर इच्छा असूनही थांबता येत नव्हते. मला KK कडे बघून आणि त्याला माझ्याकडे बघून हसू काही केल्या आवरत नव्हते. त्या अर्ध्या तासाच्या त्या patch आम्हाला अगदी बालिश करून सोडले होते. खूप मज्जा आली.

Soon we reached small school at the village our back side & shoes were completely filled by mud. I was trying to clear my shoes & KK told that he lost his cell phone while getting down from the fort. I was shocked as it was dense forest & how are you going to climb the path which was very difficult to get down. It was raining as well. I called on KK's cell phone & it was ringing so KK told me to stay at school & keep calling on his cell. KK is real trekker so he told me don't worry i'll find myself. I was sure he'll find it. KK went to find his cell & my cell's batttery was getting weak. I called Durgesh who was having bath at 4PM. Aniket received call & i told him to tell Durgesh to keep calling on KK's cell until he receive it. After 15-20 min KK came back with his cell phone. We had a cup of black tea from villagers. It was 4:30PM & we decided to moved towards Raireshar. After walking 10-15 min, suddenly we changed our mind & cancelled the Raireshwar as it was getting dark & we were already tired. We moved toward Pune around 5PM.

We stopped at Ambavade village. I read somewhere that there is an old suspension bridge & a popular Nageshwar temple at Amabavde village. You can see the suspension bridge from the main road. This bridge is built by Pant Sachiv of Bhor Shankaraji Narayan in memory of his Mother. Crossed the suspension bridge & visited Nageshwar temple. After that we visited Narveer Kanhoji Jedhe's Samadhi. Kanhoji Jedhe was initially with Shahaji Maharaj & later he supported Shivaji Maharaj as Shahaji Raje suggested him. You can see Jeeva Mahala's samadhi besides Kanohji Jedhe's samadhi. Jeeva saved Shivaji Maharaj from Sayyad banda who was with Afzal khan. We left Aabavade village around 6PM.

It was pouring down while coming back to Pune. We were wet thoroughly & wanted to have some hot-spicy snacks & cuppa tea. We stopped at Kailas Bhel at Khed Shivapur one of the popular hotel which was moved to a brand new food court. We completed our journey by having fatty Vadapaav, Bhaji with hot cup of tea & reached Pune around 7-8 pm!