Visapur Trek

Blogging after a long time. Me and Gads had been planning to go for a trek ever since the summer vacations began. The best time to go is once the rains have come because the weather becomes cool and the landscape turns into a majestic shade of green. With the monsoons playing truant this year our wait extended into july..but the wait was worth it!

We boarded the 8am local at Pune Station for Malvali. Malvali is a station just short of Lonavla. We reached after an hour and asked round for directions to the Lohagad-Visapur trail. We took an auto to the base of the fort. Our plan was to trek to both Lohagad and the Visapur forts but a local warned that the Visapur trail was not advisable as it wound up through dense jungle and getting lost was a possibility. We started walking our way up and after an hour we could see the entire town and even beyond it below us. A train was crossing the plain below and it looked so small- like drawing a straight line on a blank piece of paper. After the initial delight of taking in the views ,walking on the cobbled road got irritating and at times tiring. The cobbled path ended at a tri section. Now, the last thing we'd wanted was choosing a path. The left one we could see was winding away to another hill.The remaining two, however, went straight up. On a hunch, we took the middle one. At this time we also met up two other guys who are going to Loahagad and like us were also lost. We introduced ourselves and paused to breathe and eat a little. Half an hour later, we reached the point where the trail bifurcated to Lohagad and Visapur. To our right was Lohagad, barely a 15 min walk away. We mistook it and took the left for Visapur assuming we were going to Lohagad. We walked for almost two hours without gaining altitude and this had us really worried..more so because the trail was now very narrow, slushy and in the thick cover of the forest. Our persistence was rewarded when we reached a point from where we could see a ridge of the fort. The way..the marked out way, however stopped dead. The only way up was to climb up a small stream. Though the water was in most places ankle deep..it was the danger of slipping on the rocks that was worrying. We climbed cautiously and it helped that some good old advice on the trekking websites came in handy..always check the footholds and handholds before you put your weight on them coz I found support on a big rock but felt it shaking loosely. A little careless and it would have tumbled down and Gads ...might just have been rolled flat. We reached the top finally by 12....contented. The visibililty was barely 10m so didnt look around much. The wind was howling and I regretted not getting a wind cheater. We ate our lunch , started back and reached down by 3.