Kothaligad #Peth fort...journey begins.....

                August 15 Independence Day ,the day whole india celebrate our independence,we wanted to celebrate Independence Day differently thought lets go for a trek and so we did though many of our friends could not come ,but 2 of us decided we will still go and meet Trekkers there and so the journey began.Dhiraj his few friends and me decided to go ahead with our plans. 

                 We left Mumbai early morng for Karjat. What a beautiful drive whole way was soo green , the weather was sooo amazing . Though it  was not raining which worried us a little bit but we said never mind we will enjoy irrespective of no rains. "Nothing was going to stop us".. Was our motto that day...

                We had some lovely home made cheese sandwich and chutney sandwiches ,the tasty sandwich and the beautiful scenery and in the background some truckers playing patriotic song boosted us more. We reached Karjat around 10:30 am. Met a group of Trekkers and started the climb to kothligad with lots of confusions and laughters. The climb to the main village was all uphill but thanks to our marathon training, we didn't find the walk difficult. And the breath taking view made us forget all our tiredness. It took us over one and half hour to reach the village ,the view up there was something that just makes one forget everything ,the huge mountains the lovely waterfall and peace mesmerized us... Whenever I see the mountains it makes me feel so protected and suddenly all my worries look so small. After spending some time down in the village we started our climb to the fort,oh my god it was quite a difficult walk luckily the weather God was good to us ,it  was cool and it rained too , coz of  which the path had become mucky and slippery, but fun ,each trekker held each other's hand gave each other support during the climb and made the difficult climb easy and fun, at that time I felt the true meaning of unity , each trekker there had no reservations each one was just supporting each other. Each one was encouraging the other which was the fun of it. We reached the second highest point, what a view if the village view was breath taking than this was something beyond that. We spent some time there checked out the cave saw some lovely carving, the water reseviour, and a canon made by British I guess for it had some English words. And after spending some amazing time there we started climbing to the top,this walk was from inside the cave with lots of steps ,the  steps were soo high and steep, so a little difficult to climb and the crowd was there too so it took a little while to climb . Huffing and puffing we reached the top ,what an achievement each one of us felt , each person were just soo happy reaching the top and the view around was something my eyes experienced ,but my lips can't express . We just sat there taking in the fresh air and the breath taking view. We had some lovely home cooked pulao and home baked chocolate cake  yummy. We sat there for sometime ,met some people shared experiences . Sometimes it fun to meet strangers talking knowing each other. After spending some beautiful moment there we started our walk down.

                   My friend dhiraj says when we come for trek we should explore every part of the trek , so following him like a true friend we decided to do the most difficult part of the trek the circle round the mountain. Prayer in our heart and holding the mountain for support and making sure we don't look down we started the journey ,oh wow ...what an experience. Lovely breeze and view made us forget all our fright. We were so mesmerized with view that we forgot to click photos too. But memory of that is printed in my mind for ever. That experience was something that I can never forget . Thank you dhiraj for encouraging us . After that lovely experience we were in a hypnotised state ,the whole walk down we were just laughing smiling happy and talking abt that amazing experience. The down hill was a cake walk,maybe we were soo happy so we didn't feel the walk down difficult at all. 

                  When we reached down we had some lovely tea and the villager told us to check out the dam ,they said it is a beautiful spot to go. So we went there ,honestly speaking we didn't like the place much coz of the way people had littered and spoilt the place, we were about to leave when we meet this uncle,  Nivruti  kaka  soo sweet man he lived there and gave us some history about the other fort bhimashanker which has a shiv linga what a mountain, he told us when the rains are good u can see wonderful waterfalls and he spoke to us about the temple there. He was such lovely person ,filled with life and peace. There was so much innocence in him which made us fall in love with him. After biding him good bye and promising him that we would come back again we left the place , we freshened up in a small hotel and started our journey back home. The whole way back the fresh air and silence and the mountains covered with fog kept us mesmerized totally, till we reached the noisy city .

                   Let me share some information about Kothligad #Peth fort. It's one of many forts Shivaji had . The height of the fort is 3100 ft. With many reservoir ,caves ,where they hid their weapons, and kept a watch on their enemies . When climbing this fort u wonder how Shivaji and his warrior climbed these forts , and once u climb the fort you realise why Shivaji was called the best warrior. It was a perfect Independence Day for all of us...

Peth fort