Sinhgad fort is the nearest fort to Pune city. On the weekend of 9th Jul 2011 me & my two colleagues Subhash Darade & Sandip Daware decided to climb up the Sinhgad fort for hiking. We got together near khadkwasala dam & took a quick breakfast from a street vendor.
There are two main ways to go to Sinhgad fort from the base. One road is ghat road using which one can go to the top ( Machi ) by vehicle. Another road is for trekkers. We selected the second option. We reached the base of the fort ( Donaje Village ). In this village, you can park your vehicles by paying nominal parking fees to villagers.
We started climbing at 8:20 AM.
In below photo Sinhgad top looks hidden in the clouds. It was not raining much.
We started climbing. There were very few groups to accompany us. Generally, Sinhgad is a favorite destination of Pune people. We talked with one old couple getting down from the fort. They had started early in the morning & come down within two hours.
With few minutes of climbing, there was a beautiful view of a waterfall.
Such scenery is refreshing. One does not feel tiredness of the physical activity. There are tough to climb slopes. But always there is one hard to climb short way & one long but easy way. We were using tough routes.
Here comes a beautiful view of Sinhgad Valley ( I should say “Maval” valley )
Climbing Sinhgad fort is a test of your physical endurance. We took about two to three small breaks. Since all of us are regular in exercise so we managed to reach the first gate for fort within one hour & fifteen minutes.
By the time we reached there, a lot of visitors already reached on the fort by vehicle using easy way. Many vendors sell boiled ground nuts, buttermilk, cucumber, raw mango etc food items.
Fort inside the gate is a huge area with a lot of points to see. At the entrance, there is a location map one can refer to
Some pictures on the fort.
We visited many points on the fort. Wind point is a place where high wind for valley comes on the fort. The wind is so high that you could hardly stand there. A small water stream falling in the valley was getting sprinkled up high in the air.
We walked all over the fort for a couple of hours & had typical Marathi lunch “Vange Bharit, Bhakari & Bhaji”
The weather on the fort was cloudy.
We took about one hour to come back down the fort. That was a really good experience. I also shot few videos. I shall post them here soon.
View all photos of this visit on https://picasaweb.google.com/iphotic/20110709_SinhgadHiking