Tikona Fort alias Vitandgad Trek
A mail popped up in every one’s mail box with the text reading,
And all nature lovers popped up in their respective seats. This meant something was being planned. I quickly put the work aside and opened my mailbox. But ohhh where was the mail? it was directly moved to the “CGI Extra Curricular” folder.
First look at the mail, and it was clear it was a trek. Yeeeee, I had waited so long for this now. Since October 2008 this was going to be my first trek. How could I miss this chance? I hurriedly opened the excel to put my name in the list as fast as I can, but there were already few names before me.
Some hiccups here n there, some confirming, some dropping out due to various reasons, finally on the day of the trek 18th July2009, 23 of us boarded the bus to the beautiful and exciting nature visit.
Swati Pu(Swati Puranik rena
med in this trek) took charge from Borivali and one by one till Panvel people joined in from Kandivali, Andheri, Powai, Mulund, Chembur, Vashi. Mulund joining people as always were late. It was decided that next time they are late, they will be penalized for the time. The bus journey was full of Antakshari. The “Bhesura Group” left their mark on the Antakshri session. Idli breaffat was served in the bus. Thanks to my mom and wife Bhagyashree. Our first halt was at Expressway Food Mall for tea/coffee.
Then after, was like ahhhh… journey through the streets of Khandala and Lonavla we were in clouds. Jiten and myself doing the navigator job, we finally reached the base village of the fort, “Tikona Peth”. All bags packed, rain-suits on we were all ready to start mission Tikona.
Path to the fort went through the village and then through muddy roads we started walking towards the fort. Local boy helped us with the path, which he claimed was short distance. I knew that, it was going to be tough for all the people with us. But though of going with his suggestion and we started our journey way up the hard path to the fort.
5 min walk and we were greeted with the hard wind with the speed of at least 30-40km/hr. Balancing our bags, clothing and belongings, we managed to cross the open space. Now was a difficult way ahead. A narrow stretch of land leading behind the bushes is the only thing we could see for as long as we can see. Tanmay and Swati Pawar took the lead to find path.
On our way, some places we had to cross the small drenches which were formed because of land slide, we had to climb rock patches that were all wet and slippery, climb some big steps. But
Advantage Fantoosh were not going to return back. Helping each other, holding hands, pulling people up, pushing some heavy weight upwards, we reached the top of the fort in no time.
Reacing top first went into the Vitandeshwar Mahadev temple on the fort. And climbed some more to reach the top most point of the fort ‘BaleKilla’. Ahaaa what a view. Pawna lake spread across the Mawal Proviance. And Tung Fort standing out just next to the Pawna dam. Cool breeze and light showers made the feeling just too good to explain.
We had climbed for almost 1hr 30min now, everyone pulled out their tiffins, jitne’s mom had packed some Parathas for all of us. The hungry stomachs attacked the Dahi-Chatni and Paratha’s. Post lunch everyone pulled out their cameras and shooting session was on.
Fortunately we enjoyed so many different climate changes on the Fort. At one instant it was so cloudy and foggy that we could hardly see 20m distance. The next moment it was sunny and clouds cleared so fast, the next moment is started raining. Strong wind made splashes of rain on our tired faces. Instant refresher that it was, we enjoyed it for some time and started our way down.
This time we decided to take the other path to descend, which goes around the fort and is a long but comparatively safe route. Amit, one fellow from professional trekk
ing group guided us down the fort. Midway we took a cup of tea. Taking photographs and walking through muddy, rice farms, slippery, muddy roads, we made it to our bus.
As we were behind the schedule, we had to skip Bedse caves. An we went straight to Kamath’s at Khandala. Everyone munched on to some snacks there and we started the return journey. Singing old light song we reached Panvel in no time. Jiten and Kalyan gang got off the bus here. Then one by one every one reached their home places and almost 11.00pm Swati Pu left the bus at Borivali station. By 11.30pm every one was safe in there homes and resting tired bodies, dreaming of next trek.
All in all, it is a simple trek to enjoy nature’s bounty. Indeed a beautiful place to be!
Trek Info:Route: Lonavala - Kamshet - Kale Colony - Tikona Peth - Tikona Fort
Distance: Approx 30kms from lonavala town
Time: Uphill: 1 Hr 30mins Downhill: 45minutes.to 1 Hr
Transport: Preferably hire a cab
Best time to visit: Monsoon!
Endurance: low Difficulty : low
