{"id":931,"date":"2019-04-20T07:27:21","date_gmt":"2019-04-20T07:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gauravw.com\/?p=931"},"modified":"2020-04-19T07:01:16","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T07:01:16","slug":"night-trek-to-rajgad-fort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gauravw.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/night-trek-to-rajgad-fort\/","title":{"rendered":"Night Trek to Rajgad Fort"},"content":{"rendered":"

“It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves<\/em>“. These lines are apt for every ruler who had captured this mammoth fort which spreads in all directions. Shivaji the great<\/strong> ruled Rajgad for more than 25 years during the Mughal era in India. No wonder that the historians attached the epithet “great” after his name which portrayed his strong will and determination to overcome the mighty enemy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To witness the grandeur and explore the fort, one needs to understand its structure. If you haven’t been to Rajgad before then make sure to read about it here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ascend<\/u><\/strong>
The trek was organized by Maharastra Desha where around 30 folks from Pune and Mumbai registered for the event. We began from Pune at around midnight in tempo traveler. After reaching the base camp, we started to ascend at 3 am. It was a dark moonless night, so we relied on our torches to illumine the way for us. The initial patch felt cool nonetheless, it was difficult to walk on. (On our return, we saw it was sand <\/em>!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Snake
Sign board<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The journey had just begun so all were fired up to keep our pace high, still, some of us lagged behind to which one of the volunteers warned us to keep moving together as it was a jungle. No sooner had he spoken – this board which indicated about the species of snakes found here was before our eyes. It added excitement in the air but also helped us to stay vigilant. Though, I really wished to see a real one sometime \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Steps
Steps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\n\nAfter about an hour or more, the terrain had changed and we walked on the hard steps for some time. They said these steps were built in Shivaji’s period i.e the 17th century. \n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pali
Pali Darwaza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The starry night was a treat to the eyes and the shutterbug in me couldn’t resist the temptation to capture it. Looking at the tents, it felt as if we would be served breakfast here, shouldn’t there be some reward for climbing up incessantly for 2.5 hours(ignoring a few\/many short breaks). And then I sat to exhibit the achievement of making it here so comfortably; volunteers asked us all to follow them. What? There was more to this? We obeyed their command in the anticipation of breakfast! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Starry
Starry night at the fort (enlarge the image to see)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Balekilla<\/u><\/strong>
We now walked on a narrow strip with rocks on one end and moat on the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The view from the narrow strip<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Going<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Balekilla is the highest point of the fort, everything was visible from here and by that I mean, not just the entire Rajgad but the surrounding forts as well – Purandar, Sinhagad, Torna<\/strong>. The altitude of this place is about 4500 ft and we had managed to reach here just in time for the Sunrise <\/strong>:). The magnificent rise of the sun from the horizon between the mountains spellbound us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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