Lohgad and Bhaja Caves Trip

Last to last weekend on 14th May’11, some of the folks from office decided to trek the Lohgad fort.It is one of the many hill forts of Chatrapati Shivaji and situated 52 km from Pune in western India.

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We decided to start at 4:30 AM from our office, so that we can see the sunrise there and can return back before noon.We all met our office and we started around 5:00 AM, which is not bad.We reached at Malwali station at 6:20 AM and had tea and Vada-Pav.
At 6:45 AM we satrted to trek. Some of us were doing the trek for the first time and just after trekking for less than a Kilometer, they started to scream .. How much more ???  I am tired……. etc. But don’t worry no one gave up and we continued. We even had a race. Before this I trekked 2-3 times, long back.
We reached to the top for the fort at 8AM. The air was so pure that you can feel the difference while breathing. Then we all visited the point called Scorpian Tail and before retuning back to the fort we visited a Dargah. It was around 11 AM by then. While coming down we brought down few raw mangos from the mango tree using rock pieces. One of the group came down quickly and decided to visit the Bhaja caves as well. I was left behind as I was accompanying one of our team member who was very tired, so decided to dropped the idea for visit Bhaja caves this time.

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And the last weekend I persuaded my wife and friends to visit the Bhaja Caves.We went to Sunday, 22nd May’11. Earlier we thought to go in morning but that doesn’t work out, so went in the evening. We started from my home at around 5:30 PM.  This time I went on my Bike.

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We reached there at 6:30 PM and we were at caves 15 minutes later. Bhaja caves are group of 22 rock-cut caves. It is one to the important Buddhist centres of Hinayana faith in Maharashtra. We came down around 7:30 had had pesal tea(special tea), which was expensive but not very pesal. While returning we had dinner at Toni Da Dabha and came back at 11 PM.
Both were nice trips but I enjoyed the second one most as I was with my wife and close friends. Also on the bike you can enjoy the view more. In monsoon , area around Lohgad would be much more beautiful. I will try to visit it again in this year only.

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