Thursday, December 14, 2006

Trek experiences I - Sinhagad

Its long time since I wanted to write about this in my blog…..

The most important part of my stay at pune, apart from those night shows and wonderful cooking, I did get a very good chance for a lot of adventures. All the treks, which I took here, are worth mentioning. Every weekend I make myself occupied by going around in pune. My friends here, native of pune, mock at me saying I have seen more places than them.

In and around pune one can find a lot of forts build by our great Shivaji. Though all are ruined a lot, they still act as places for tourist and as a boon for all great trekkers like me [he he he at least I should b telling like this about myself right].

SINHAGAD
My first experience for treck was to Sinhagad fort. It is just 25 kms from pune. From swargate u can take buses or even ricks [usually called 8 seaters] and is just an hour travel. From the base of the fort you can either start treking or can also take a vehicle. There are many private vans which help u in reaching the top of course they charge u. Its 700 meters high and is famous for trip-lovers as well as trekkers.

Inside the fort u have a small water resource called DEV TANK. The water here is very sweet and also cold. Also you have a lot of small tents where you can get kanda bhaji, sweet curd [this is served in small mud pots] and pithle-bhakari [this is a maharastrian dish and tastes good too]. This is very famous among the tourists. Many people come here just to eat these stuffs. They all are made in these tents and served hot. After a good trek you really feel its great relaxation to eat them. All through the trek u can have small shops selling buttermilk – a good companion for the trek.

I loved the entire trip and it being the first experience I was all the more excited. I dint leave any single stone unexplored. Another worth mentioning thing was the climate. Once we reached top the climate changed suddenly and first time I was able to feel myself amidst clouds. Of course we do go by flights and r well above the clouds or wade pass through them. But this was really different watching the clouds at a distance and they just pass through u making u blind folded. Also I got the chance to see the rain [its not required to mention that it was also for the first time]. At a little distance from our hill I could see the rain pouring down in the valley and also their slow moments towards us. It was fascinating to see rain coming towards me. The wait for the rain was the longest ever wait in my life. In a matter of 15-20 minutes the rain was there but its intensity reduced and turned out to be light drizzles…


Contd…….