Trek to Tung Fort
It started with a call at 11 pm and in 3 mins of brief talk, the weekend plan was fixed! We all reached at a friend’s place at 5 am in Hinjewadi – the other part of the city and thus began our journey to Tung fort.
It was a beautiful morning a bit cloudy but no signs of rain.
We stopped on route to satiate our hunger because that’s what Treks are about – food.
Well, the breakfast was horrible. Hence, I filled myself with a few biscuits.
The roads till Lonawala were smooth and the views creamier.
We passed through the Lake and took a brief stop at some Shivling point.
Now, this is the first time I visited some-point at Lonawala and I assume its called Shivling point as it faces a Shivling shaped hill at some distance. But I could be wrong. The spot was surrounded by verdant greenery and there a few decent tourists besides us.
To make it a memorable visit, we decided to click a picture of all us together and we came up with this. Now our memory has failed us to distinguish who is who. But that’s ok, everyone was looking good that’s why we don’t show our faces :P.
Finally, we reached the big Tung fort parking and saw a Hanuman Temple there. This place looked very peaceful.
History :
Adil Shahi Dynaty(1600) –> Shivaji Maharaj(1657) –> Mughals(1665).
Interestingly, Mughals destroyed the villages near the fort but they still couldn’t get control of it until the Treaty of Purandar was signed.
Ascend:
The ascend started with stairs and then treading over rocks. Some of the patches were a bit steep maybe that’s why its also called Kathingad (Difficult).
The higher you climb, the better the view. While going us we saw an old villager going down with a pot in his hand. I wondered how easily he could move on the route. He told us that he used to come here daily and something more in Marathi which I couldn’t understand.
We sat on the edge to enjoy the view. The fort is at a higher elevation than Lonavala and it is surrounded by water on 3 sides.
The sharp conical peak you see is where we had to reach – It was used to monitor the enemy activities.
It took us about 1 Hr to reach the top and then we saw there was a temple of Tungi Devi. Coincidentally, it was also the 3rd day of Navratri.
We also went inside the temple. I noticed the clothes worn by the idol were new, the burning flame and some wet rocky floor. I realized that the old man must be talking about this – coming to the temple every day to pay respects to the Devi.
Wonderful to see how faith can people climb mountains. Some could capture the fort but couldn’t rule the hearts.
We spent about a good 30 mins on the top of the fort before going down. Descend took us about the same time and we reached the parking.
All of us – Santosh, Me, Shailesh and Vikas.