Rohida or Vichitragad Fort Trek...

 ( 9th, Nov.2020,Sunday)

This was our first trek after the lock-down during COVID 19 pandemic. We have started our trekking activities long back around around 1988...

Our earliest trek was probably Vasota...we have successfully completed Vasota around 1989 ..that time there were no restrictions for trekking in that area. We have enjoyed our 3 stays and 4 days in the great woodland on Sanhyadri mountain range.

Anyway, for Rohida we were the team of four friends...

Kedar....Kedar Damle

Mantha...Mandar Thakurdesai

Hanmya....Himanshu Ranade

Kedar....Kedar Damle

and 

Me....Nitin Hadap

We started at 6.00am from Pune by a self driven car, and had our breakfast at famous roadside spot on Pune-Satara road "Shriram-Vadapaw".

we took u-turn and aftr 10km, on Bhor-Mahad Rd, we turned left. From the city of Bhor we turned left from Shivaji Putala and parked our car at the village Bazarwadi.

Started walking at 9.00 am and the sequence was kedar, Mantha,Sameer and me. All other were confident enough to climb the fort Rohida. I was not so confident as was admitted to hospital in July 2019 due to Pneumonia and sort of H1N1.Thus it was a test of my stamina...and I have decided to learn from it.

after 20 to 25 minutes I started facig a birthing issue. heavy breathing...shortness of breathing...but with additions of holts n short breaks, I finally reached on the fort after 1 hour...thanks to Hanmya...

The fort is not too huge, but very  interesting.. having a restored door.

At the door we saw two inscriptions along both sides of it.

1. Deonagari

2. Persian

adorned wth two elephant on both the sides....

The bastions were intact and cleaned by the voluntary organization called 'shiva-durga pratishthan'.

The fort is called Vichitragad also.

It has great water supy- system probably one of the best water suply- systems on the forts of Maharashtra...

It has approx. 7 lakes and out of which 2 are used for drinking water and rest are for the other uses...

The fort also has an old toilet block called "Shuchakupa"

As our regular practice Mantha had carried all the material for making tae. And he took the trouble of making tea for us ...and we all enjoyed the tea sitting under the three trees on the tableland.

A gentle man called Amod Wagha came at the spot where we were having tea...he and his team had taken great efforts to clean the fort and restore the water systems. During the cleaning the team discovered the artifacts belongs to Maratha empire.

It is kept near the temple for display. In the temple a brick of 40 kg is kept. The brick was made up of lead.

The bastions were well dressed and stiff.

We interacted with other travelers and get down back to the Bazarwadi around 2.30pm.

This was a wonderful trek...