Mid April in Maharashtra is not the best time to head out for a Trek. Temperatures howering between 35 and 40 deg C and a sweltering Sun on you heads, you will agree don't make up great trekking weather...
But trekking freaks that we are, we still manage to head out in the hottest of weathers. Harishchandragad is one of my favourite haunts in this season, with a climb of 3 to 5 hours from the Khireshwar route in Summer , it doubles your appreciation for the awesome water that you can only get once you reach the Shiv Mandir..
This time round though we opted for a softer option. The Kolhapur region is dotted with some nice forts and in many cases you can drive right to the top. So it ended up being more of a trip than a trek. Though the overall drive from Pune and back in the hot weather and traffic at every toll booth and the n number of booths did sap out most of our energy !
We started at around 7 30 from Ashwin's place. There was no real plan except going to Kolhapur and even that wasn't certain till we crossed Wai Phata ! Stopping only for breakfast we reached Kolhapur at about 1, just in time for Lunch. It meant Padma hotel for us Non veg ppl and a place for Gokul for the veg. Both places are definitely recommended. Padma was a good alternative to Opel which is more famous.
Finally post lunch we decided that we were going to go to Bhudargad first.
Danny was to join us later at Gadhinglaj which was to be our base for the next fort.
Bhudargad is a 8 km drive from the Village of Gargoti. The winding ghat takes you right to the top of the fort. But trekking freaks that we are, we still manage to head out in the hottest of weathers. Harishchandragad is one of my favourite haunts in this season, with a climb of 3 to 5 hours from the Khireshwar route in Summer , it doubles your appreciation for the awesome water that you can only get once you reach the Shiv Mandir..
This time round though we opted for a softer option. The Kolhapur region is dotted with some nice forts and in many cases you can drive right to the top. So it ended up being more of a trip than a trek. Though the overall drive from Pune and back in the hot weather and traffic at every toll booth and the n number of booths did sap out most of our energy !
We started at around 7 30 from Ashwin's place. There was no real plan except going to Kolhapur and even that wasn't certain till we crossed Wai Phata ! Stopping only for breakfast we reached Kolhapur at about 1, just in time for Lunch. It meant Padma hotel for us Non veg ppl and a place for Gokul for the veg. Both places are definitely recommended. Padma was a good alternative to Opel which is more famous.
Finally post lunch we decided that we were going to go to Bhudargad first.
Danny was to join us later at Gadhinglaj which was to be our base for the next fort.
To be completed !
Comments
I been there too, Samangad is really a nice fort, Checkout some of my videos on youtube. I have uploaded andhar kothdi and chor khinda videos. Some more are there will upload them soon.
http://www.youtube.com/dhaneshmane
Thanks
Dhanesh Mane