Life Ho To Aisee: पुन्हा एकदा 'राजगड'

Rajmachi trek participants liked the night trek very much and hence I immediately planned our next night trek to Rajgad on 22 April. Later the date was changed to Saturday 23rd.

‌As the trek date came close, the group started to shrink from 11 to 8 to 7 and finally only 6 were available. That to Krishnat joining on the day! We planned to reach base village Gunjavane by car. Sachin, Krishnat, Atul joined in Ashwin's Duster and Vir picked me up from my home. Except Atul and me, all others were first timers to Rajgad fort.

‌Our group has a great reputation of planning the trek perfectly, however missing the timelines by 1-1.5 hrs!! So no wonder as same thing happened this time as well!! As per the plan, we were supposed to reach base village Gunjavane by 8:00 PM and we reached by 9:45 PM. We had a stop 25 kms before Gunjavane for tea and Parle G; hence we did not take a break and started to hike immediately.

‌Last few Rajgad trek observations:
1. We missed the initial route and took little more time to correct ourselves.
2. We took 2 hrs to reach Chor Darawaja on the fort. That was our best time so far!

‌This was Sachin's first trek. His last attempt (?) to Sinhgad was not great, however he said he has improved his endurance. Keeping all these in mind, I anticipated to take 2.5 hrs this time to reach and was cautious enough to cover the initial portion quickly. Weather was pleasant with little coldness in air. A day before, it was full moon night, hence we expected better moon light. We did not get enough of moon light though as moon rise was post 10 PM.

‌Rajgad route is quite easy nowadays. It is mix of plateau and hill climb as mentioned below:
- Initial walk on almost flat land followed by small hillock. Once we reach here, we have to take left else chances of missing the route.
- 10 mins of plateau walk followed by first steep walk.
- Little plateau, then small gradient walk followed by second hill walk
- Last flat walk of 5-10 mins towards right followed by well secured climb through rock cut steps to reach Chor Darawaja (चोर दरवाजा) .
We took 3 breaks of sufficient time on the way and reached on top in 1 hr 40 mins. I guess weather played an important role in minimizing the fatigue.

‌There were many groups already reached at Rajgad and we crossed 2 more groups on the way. Hence we decided to move to the Padmavati temple quickly to secure place for sleep. Fortunately we got good place (near the wall). After settling and resting for 10 mins, we came out and had our wonderful dinner in the beautiful moonlight!!

‌We got a descent sleep, except couple of interventions from rats around, which managed to eat our remaining parathas and a gentle touch (??) to Ashwin's chiks :) Next day our plan was to visit Balekilla quickly and start to descend as early as possible. Previously I visited Balekilla twice, but only till the main gate. This time, we decided to roam on the plateau and discover more things. We can clearly see forts like Lingana and Raigad along with Sinhgad, Purandar and Torana off course!!

View of the surrounding area was very clear and we took lots of photos here, courtsey Ashwin! We visited Sadar (सदर), ruins of palace (राजवाड्याचे अवशेष), moon shaped lake (चंद्राकृती टाके) and a temple (ब्रह्मेश्वर मंदिर).

‌Due to tedious rock climbing (though with proper support structure), Ashwin and Sachin said that they will not visit Balekilla again... After the Balekilla visit, we rushed back to the temple and had our breakfast and tea. We started back at 10 AM and reached Gunjavane at 11:50 AM. We collected plastic bottles (almost 3 full bags) during our return journey. We had couple of stops for lemon juice (typically I have the moto to spend at such places to boost local economy!), hence we immediately left for home from Gunjavane.
Vir and I concluded the trek with delicious pithale bhakari (पिठलं भाकरी) at Kailas :)