Our experience at Lohagad/Visapur - Jul 15, 2007

On Sunday, July 15 2007, six of us (AJ, Vikash, Sameer, Elvira, Aldrin and me) set off on a trek to Lohagad. I woke up around 3:30 am in the morning and the first thing I did was to call up our driver (AJ) asking him to be on time. We were supposed to start at 5 am in the morning but ended up leaving Mumbai around 6 am. We had a pleasant drive from Mumbai to Lonavala with no traffic and listening to some good Music from AJ’s collection.

Our breakfast was at Lonavala and we were looking forward to an interesting journey ahead. Around 8 am, we reached the Lohagad base and started our trek. Initially, it seemed to be a very easy climb but 15 minutes later, we realized that it ain’t gona be that easy. We then reached a place where one path takes us to Lohagad and other path to Visapur Fort. Being a Sunday, it was crowded and most of the people were heading towards Lohagad. Hence, we decided to head for Visapur Fort.

The scenary was beautiful but the roads were muddy and we had a tough time climbing up the hill. We lost our way twice and then finally had to hire two kids to show us the way. There were occasional showers and the rocks were slippery so some of us had already started working on our will – one wrong move and you could end up falling on your head. In fact, I fell on the same knee thrice – it’s the worst thing that could happen on a trek.

Finally, after a lot of hardship we reached the top of the fort around 1130 am. It was a very beautiful sight as we were surrounded by lush green trees and hills. We found a good place to sit where the sight was beautiful. We spent about 1 hour on the top enjoying the strong breeze and eating some good food. We then started our journey back downhill. I assumed the journey downhill to be quick and easy. But to our surprise we were slipping and sliding our way back down. Due to the knee injury I could not keep my leg straight so I had to take help from Vikash while climbing down.

Once we reached the base, we were surprised to see the crowd there. There were people dancing and singing. Some of them were so sloshed that they didn’t know what they were doing. Well! I must say it was a very funny sight.

I would say it was a very challenging journey with lots of ups and downs, bruises and injuries…but overall….yeah it was FUN.