Chavand - A Picturesque Wonder

"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit and is as vital to our lives as water and good bread."  - Edward Abbey

As I am becoming a habitual hiker, I can resonate with this quote. In fact, more than a hobby, slowly hiking is turning out to be an irresistible compulsion. Venturing into the woods, scaling the mountains, walking miles and miles aimlessly soaking in splendor of nature and breathing the fresh air invigorating mind and soul give me the feeling of being really alive.

After my splendid hike to Chandan-Vandan twin forts in Satara region, I finalized the hike to Chavand fort in Junnar region on 30th Nov. It was a while (almost 5 months) since I visited Shivneri in Junnar region and it was time to revisit this part of the country again. Great thing about staying in Pune that you can do a lot of day hikes in many nearby different regions.

This time I invited seasoned hikers to hike with me as I wanted to cover two forts “Chavand-Narayangad” in a day. "Chinmay Kirtane" who earlier had accompanied me during hikes to forts Sankshi and Chandan-Vandan  readily agreed for this hike without a second thought. "Kailas Kawade" whom I had met at Vasota trek with "Wild Trek Adventure Group" joined by taking leave on Saturday. This shows how passionate he is about hiking. "Paresh Amrutkar" who is my nephew and son of seasoned hiker (Sanjay Amrutkar – a great photographer, hiker and author of the book “101 Trekking destinations – Nasik Expanse”) agreed to join. He happened to be the youngest of all. Rajesh Khare, my friend and society-mate re-prioritized his other tasks to join this hike on Saturday. Finally, we formed a nice group of five, I being the only common thread as rest of four were meeting for the first time.

We started around 6 in the morning in my car from Sus Road, Pashan and picked up other trek-mates from Pune University and Shivajinagar. You get really hungry around 7 in the morning if you get up too early and there is a discussion of the breakfast even if you hardly have covered any distance. So as we had hardly covered half the distance, we halted at a nice restaurant named “Sanskruti” on the way and after having sumptuous breakfast followed by Tea, proceeded towards Junnar. After checking the directions from GPS on Rajesh's smartphone, we proceeded towards the direction of Apatale.

“Can anybody get me hummer”? I was talking, driving and praying at the same time as I was driving my fragile and delicate WagonR on the one of the worst roads I have ever driven. Though I am not into the mindset of owning the luxury car and consider car just an utility to reach from one destination to other, I desperately wanted the robust SUV to ply on the terrible road to Chavand fort from Junnar. Finally, the dreadful drive of 20 kms was coming to an end as we saw first glimpse of the fort which was looking absolutely stunning.

Chavand fort, at an height of 1066 metres (3400 ft), is situated near Junnar region. Under the rule of Shivaji Maharaj, this fort was known as Prasannagad. This fort is part of Famous 5 forts in Junnar region - Chavand, Hadsar, Shivneri, Jivdhan and Naneghat. 

We soon reached to a hamlet named “Kele” from where Chavand was looking imposing. Though villagers told us that we had the option to drive further and park the car directly to Chavandwadi - base village of the Chavand fort, we had enough of the bumpy road and decided to park the vehicle in the same village and proceeded our walk towards the base village of the fort.

As we started our stroll from Keli village to Chavandwadi village, we were greeted with fantastic landscapes with the backdrop of Sahyadri mountain range. Weather was great; close to be called as pleasant though little on the hotter side and we were really enjoying the walk buoyed by fresh air and splendor around.

Soon, we reached to the point from where a trail seemed to go towards the fort. Though as per the information, there is a route from the village school, we decided to try this shorter route. Luckily, we saw couple of women from the nearby hamlet washing the clothes near the hand-pump and they confirmed that we could take the said trail.

Soon, our trail joined the well-laid concrete steps. Concrete steps at the start of your hike to an ancient fort look odd though this was done as part of restoration.

These well laid steps are only for a short distance and then you are on your own to negotiate the climb. It is a short and steep climb.

Soon, after a short climb, you come across steep steps with hardly anything left of these steps to put your foot onto. These steps were almost destroyed by the attack by British on this fort in 18^th century. For the safety of the climbers, somebody has put the railings.

  Prior to these railings, there was a rope tied to the cannon which was buried in the ground vertically so that people could climb using the rope.

Soon after negotiating these narrow steps, you come across another steps.

After crossing these steps, you are welcomed by the lone gate to enter the fort.

Lord Ganesh carving on the gate

After crossing the gate, you come on top of the fort. There is a small hill on the fort where there is a temple of goddess Chamunda. 

If you follow the left trail, you will soon come across remains of an old structure with small pond beside it. This is called as "Pushkarni".

Remains of the structure which must have been beautiful in its prime.

There was a tall grass everywhere and we were not able to spot Saptamatrika - seven water cisterns which has given uniqueness to this fort. As per our available information, we needed to go straight from the Pushkarni. We went straight for about 10 minutes on the south-east side and walked almost to the other end of the fort but could not locate these seven cisterns. We were confused where these cisterns would be. We again returned back to Pushkarni and saw remnants of the structure on the north side. We decided to go in that direction and climbed few steps to go on top of this structure and to our elation, saw the seven cisterns located just behind this structure. Tall grass and the structure had properly camouflaged these cisterns.

Saptamatrika (Seven Cisterns) naming  Brahmi, Maheshwari, Kaumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Indrayani & Chamunda

There is a small door with the Lord Ganesha carving on it to enter one of the cisterns:

Now, it was time to visit the temple of goddess Chamunda situated on the only hill on the fort. After a climb of 10 minutes, we reached to the temple.Origin of this goddess is said to be from Bengal, Bihar and Mysore and the temple was built by the traders from these regions trading from the Naneghat route.

We rested for a while and enjoyed in the cool breeze. It was really a serene place. There is something truly remarkable about the temples on the fort; however exhausted you are, once you spend few moments in the vicinity of the temple, you experience so much of calmness, solitude and bliss that your weariness, exhaustion and fatigue just go away.

Goddess Chamunda

You get magnificent panoramic views of the surrounding mountains in the Sahydari range. You just can't take your eyes off from these picturesque settings.


View of Varhadi Peaks (peaks on the leftmost corner) Hadsar Fort(on the rightmost corner), Manikdoh dam and Chavand village:

View of Jivdhan fort (center fort in the below picture):

View of fort "Durg" (mountain at the back)

It was soon time to return back as it was approaching one in the afternoon and we had to return to Junnar for lunch.

Some macro photography along the way:

We took the route of stairs to come down to the base to complete our exploration.

Soon, we reached to the base and walked back to the Keli village where we had parked our car. Small kids were playing and had put some of their toys on the backside of my car. I called them out, chatted and joked with them for couple of minutes and gave back them their toys.

Though we had the option of proceeding further to Kukadi village to witness the beautiful Kukadeshwar Temple, considering the disastrous condition of the road, we decided against it and we took the bumpy ride to return back to Junnar. 

We had a light lunch at Junnar and instead of going to Narayangad as per the earlier plan, proceeded to Shivneri as three of my trek-mates hadn't been to Shivneri before. After spending few hours at Shivneri and witnessing spectacular sunset, we returned back to Pune.

There are few places in the world which chime the deep, deep internal temple bell inside us and this was certainly such a place. I have absolutely fallen in love with this part of the country and would like to make umpteen visits to witness the glory of forts in this region.

For all the adventure lovers, perched amidst the picturesque settings, Chavand is ready to welcome you with the open arms. 

Tips for the hikers:

• This is a simple hike for seasoned hikers and medium for beginners as proper railings are put on the difficult patch.
• There is no need for a guide if you take out some time to understand different routes beforehand.
• You can stay at the Chavandvadi village school or Kukadeshwar temple which is few kms away from the fort.
• Carry your own water. Water in the cisterns on the fort is not potable.
• You can combine this hike with Shivneri, Jivdhan, Hadsar, Narayangad depending on the time at your disposal. If you don’t want to cover another fort, you can visit Kukadeshwar temple.
• Don’t miss visit to Chamunda temple and seven cisterns. In fact, these are the main highlights of the fort.
• Don’t miss the views of Jivdhan, Hadsar, Shivneri, Durg from top.

Thank you for reading the blog!

Do visit my home page to easily navigate to my other blogs.

Happy hiking!

Appeal: No litter; no plastic; no wrappers; keep the mother nature clean!

Chandan-Vandan -- A Tale of Twin Forts : Part II

Continuing from Part I

It was past two in the afternoon when we reached back to the col between Chandan and Vandan. It was becoming unbelievable hot and it was impossible to linger further in the murderous sun. One of our trek-mates Amol Chandurkar was feeling utterly exhausted and desperately wanted to rest. We somehow urged him to come with us for some distance further till we find some suitable place for him; he reluctantly agreed and we immediately started our hike towards Vandan.

You need to follow the dirt trail that goes from the right of the col. This trail leads you to midway to the top and from there, you need to follow the left trail. Keep the Vandan to your right as you follow this trail.

After a walk of about 10 minutes, you come across a bastion which is partly hidden under the branches of the tree and plenty of dry grass.

Going further up, you come across first gate of the fort which is in dire need of maintenance.

There is an idol of Lord Ganesha on the left side of the bastion.

After few steps, you come across second gate which is covered by so many bushes that you need to make really some efforts to enter it. Your heart wrenches once you see apathy of our government towards the forts which are the backbones of our pride. 

Persian inscription can be seen on the arch of this gate.

After passing through the second gate, you soon come on top of the fort.

As we were reaching to top of the fort, two monkeys came to greet us. They were not looking at all friendly and were interested in attacking us to grab some food. Little sticks picked up at the base by Amol and Avinash were keeping the monkeys at bay. Few of my trek-mates were not comfortable in confronting these monkeys and were ready return back without visiting the fort. But I was not willing to return back and persuaded them to ignore these wild creatures and keep walking. Soon, we passed the area of the monkeys and heaved a sigh of relief by seeing monkeys not following us beyond their area. Amol who wanted to rest did not have courage to rest in isolation and continued walking with us without any complaints. 

There is a dense forest on the plateau inhabiting wild boars and rabbits. Well, we were not aware of the wild boars in the forest when we were wandering on the fort but still, some things just did not seem right of the area and this fort had some kind of haunted appearance to it. To make the matters worse, there was hardly a soul in sight and we were only five on the whole fort. I was just hoping not to come face-to-face with any ravenous, prowling carnivore.

We came across many water ponds on the fort which are frequented by wild animals to quench their thirst. Well, we were informed about the same by few villagers when we returned to the base.

Our aim was to reach the mosque which we reached after walking for 10 minutes.

There is another pond adjacent to this mosque where there is a some sort of gate.

There is some kind of structure near the mosque with the footsteps carved on it.

Remnants of the structure on the fort

There is a hill on top of the fort. I was keen to go on top of the hill but considering most of my trek mates were too tired to have further climb, I did not push further and we decided to return to the base. 

Another mosque on the fort

As we reached to the point from where we had to descend from the fort, we came across a group of 7-8 people who after seeing us, approached us and began enquiring about us. We were just hoping that we were not dealing with the thugs as their way of asking questions seemed to be too rude. Instead of panicking and revealing too much information about us, we dealt with them confidently and once they realized our confidence, their tone of speaking to us mellowed down and we started our descend.

Well, another danger was lurking us ahead. We were again confronted with the same set of monkeys who had troubled us while we were ascending. This time these monkeys were looking more determined and more ominous than before. They were hell bent on grabbing few things from us. I was the one carrying two bottles on the side pockets of my backpack and a monkey jumped on my sack from behind to have a go at the bottles. Well, this was totally unexpected and I immediately threw my backpack on the ground and tussle for the backpack began. Monkey was pulling it from one end and I was pulling it at the other end. Soon after hearing our shouts, a group that we had met a while back, came on the other side to see what was going on. It must have been funny sight for these on-lookers but not at all funny for me. Soon after a lot of howling and shouting, I was able to pull off my backpack successfully. I immediately slid the bottles inside the sack and again hoisted it on my back and again came back on the top to catch my breath and in the company of the large group. Somehow, the monkey knew my face now and knew that I had definitely something in my sack kept looking at me from the distance. Everyone in the other group told us to ignore the monkeys and distract them so that we could quietly slip away. As they were distracting the monkeys, I started to descend in a hurry. Avinash was just behind me and now, it was his turn to face the wrath of the monkeys. Well, it seemed pride of monkeys was at stake and they were keen not to return empty handed. Avinash shouted loudly and in order to distract monkeys, threw his sack almost 30 ft down where my other trek mates were standing and watching us. Avinash further urged my trek mates to pick up his sack as he had his valet inside it. My other trek mates were already frightened and were not coming forward to pick up Avinash’s sack. It was a stalemate for a while as monkeys were also confused what to do next. Finally, my trek mates gathered the courage and picked up the sack. Soon, things were coming to normalcy and we again started to descend not sure whether monkeys would keep on following us. Fortunately, nothing dramatic happened further. It seemed monkeys lost further interest in us and decided against following us any further. Our heart was beating loudly till we reached to the col again.

After coming  back to col, we immediately started our descend. I had spotted another trail which was different from the trail we had taken earlier.I asked my trek-mates whether we should take the new trail but nobody wanted to do any experimentation and we all decided to stick with already tried route.

There is something amazing with the trails. The same trail looks different while ascending and descending. We seemed to have lost the trail by which we had come up and the trail on which we were treading was leading us further away from the temple at the base. Only comforting factor was that we were heading down to the plains from where we could have taken the long walk back to the village. Fortunately, some of the shepherds spotted us from the base and guided us to the correct trail leading us back to the temple. Interesting thing that most of the time, we were only hearing their shouts and we were just following their instructions. Finally we again seemed to be back on track and just waved in the below direction from where the shouts were coming still unsure to spot the exact location of these heavenly souls.

Soon, we were back to the temple and threw our backpacks to rest for a while. As we were resting a bit, we saw the same group coming down following the correct trail which was shorter and simpler.

It was past 5 in the evening and being the winter season, sun was hastily making its way to the western horizon. Chandan-Vandan were both looking golden in the slanting rays of the sun. Cattle grazing with the backdrops of the golden looking mountain was a sight to behold and I was glued to this picturesque and near-perfect setting for a long time.

Soon, it was time to return back to our car. Along the way, there were many huts and I captured this photo depicting the pure love between two sisters. I showed this photo to both of them and elder one seemed very happy and gave me a smile which was my reward for a day of hard toil.

We were still not done and still needed to visit an ancient temple along the way in Kekali village. Though we were tired to the hilt, knowing that we would not be visiting this place in the near future, persuaded each other to come out of the car and visit the temple.

Soon, it was time to transport us back to the real world - world of comfort and choice. We halted for a much needed tea break along the way and reached back to Pune around eight at night. It was still Saturday night and whole Sunday was in front of us to rest and spend quality time with our beloved ones.

Overall, this hike provided some unforgettable moments. I won't forget encounter with monkeys for a long, long time. In a way, it has added to the kitty of my hiking experiences and taught me a thing or two to face such adversities with calm and poise in future. Experiencing rugged terrain of Sahyadri from such close quarters has further catapulted the presence of great Sahyadri in my psyche.

Tips for the hikers

• Hire a guide if none of you have trekked here before.
• Though these forts can be covered in a day, stay can be made at the mosque on Chandan. Don’t stay on Vandan as it has a thick forest with wild animals.
• Carry at least 2 lit of water each for the day hike to these twin forts.
• Finding the entrance gates of both these forts is tricky. So please make sure you understand the route beforehand.
• Don’t miss the Pachavad, Mahadev temple, stone structures and view of Vandan from Chandan.
• Don’t miss the mosque, ponds and panoramic views from Vandan.

Thank you for reading the blog!

Do visit my home page to easily navigate to my other blogs.

Happy hiking!

Appeal: No litter; no plastic; no wrappers; keep the mother nature clean!

Chandan-Vandan -- A Tale of Twin Forts : Part I

Setting foot in new area, observing new landscapes, visiting the picturesque interior villages and living an adventurous life really drives me to come out of my comfort zone and reach beyond my boundaries. In that sense, I was looking for a new destination for a day hike and I finalized the Satara region where I hadn’t hiked before. There are many beautiful forts in the Satara region and I finalized twin forts Chandan-Vandan which lie on the boundary of Satara and Mahabeleshwar region.

As I was going to lead this hike, next task was to gather all the available information regarding the forts. I went through most of the available information on these forts, took printouts of maps, called my friend Sahyadrimitra - Onkar Oak for his further inputs. Thus, plan seemed to be perfectly set for the hike on Saturday, 9^th Nov with two of trek-mates, Sandeepak Phadke and Chinmay Kirtane. I was really looking forward for this hike but suddenly I had to cancel the hike because of some personal emergency for which I had to go outside Pune over the weekend.

After coming back to Pune, I decided the next date for the hike would be the next immediate Saturday, 16^th Nov. Unfortunately, Sandeepak was not available on this date and I hadn’t contacted Chinmay regarding his availability. I was in dilemma whether to continue with the same hike plan or join other group for a different hike. Suddenly, as I was discussing my hike plan during lunch break, my colleagues who had done the earlier hike to Shivneri with me, showed the interest in joining me and we finalized team of 4 during the lunch break itself. I also invited Chinmay Kirtane and he readily agreed to join. So finally we formed a group of five which is a nice number to hike; a group of five can be accommodated in a car and even if a member can’t make it the last moment, four is also a good number to hike.

Avinash More, Amol Chandurkar and Chinmay Kirtane gathered at my place around 6.30 in the morning and we picked up Siddheshwar Kadam from the Sinhagad intersection on the Pune-Satara highway and proceeded further on the highway. Avinash was driving his car and we took our first halt at Amrita food joint on the highway and after breakfasting continued the further travel. We took the left turn from the Bhuinj village and confirmed the directions to Kekali from few villagers.

We spotted a beautiful temple just before reaching to Kekali village. We stopped to click few photos.

We parked our car in Belmachi village which is just next to Kekali village. Though I had the map regarding directions and all the information related to forts with me, I thought it would be better to hire a guide. There were quite a few young boys chatting in the area where we parked the car and I asked them whether any one of them could come as a guide. One of the guys was ready but was asking 1000 Rs which was too much and somehow we did not like the attitude of the boys and did not pursue any further discussion with them and proceeded without the guide.

It was around 10 in the morning when we started our climb. It was very hazy and not a great weather for photography as sun-rays were directly coming on the camera lenses.

 Our first target was to reach to the Mahadev temple which was hardly 10 minutes climb from the base. Soon, we reached to the temple.

Inside the Mahadev temple:

Our next target was to reach to the col (khind) between Chandangad and Vandangad. Col was situated on the left side of the temple and we followed the dirt path which was leading us up and to the left. Unfortunately, at the end of the hike, we came to know that this was the wrong route we followed and simpler route was available if we would have gone straight instead of left.

Sun was starting to beat and climb seemed exhausting. It was almost 45 degrees climb.

It was difficult to follow the trail because of the presence of tall, dry and yellowish grass . We lost trails couple of times. At one point, we had thick vegetation in front of us which we had to cross to reach towards the col. But the vegetation was too thick to enter and we had to search for multiple trails in order to cross the patches of vegetation. Couple of abandoned chappals provided us the comfort that we had not entirely lost and the route was frequented by other people in the past. Finally, we managed somehow and came out of the vegetation and found ourselves joining the trail on left of the col. We heaved a big sigh of relief and overjoyed with the feeling that our ordeal to find the route through the thicket was over!

Soon, we reached to the col which joins these twin forts. It was considerably wide and offered us beautiful views all around. Cool breeze comforted us and provided us good, refreshing break.

From the col, rock patches of Chandan were visible and we rewarded ourselves by clicking few of our photos.

My photo clicked by Avinash

Both the sides of Vandangad were looking breathtaking in the background.

(L to R - Avinah, Siddheshwar, Chinmay and Amol in front of Vandangad)

We were debating whether to visit Chandangad or Vandangad first. Finally, we all decided to visit Chandangad first for the sheer reason that "C" comes before "V".

Chandangad, at an height of @3800 ft, is said to have been built by King Bhoj II of Shilahar dynasty. It was overpowered by Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in 1673. It was ruled by different dynasties during different periods.

From the col , you need to traverse the whole length of Chandangad to reach to the entrance of the fort. This is confusing especially if you are not aware beforehand the exact location of the entrance gate.

Keep the Chandangad on your left as you walk on the small dirt trail. There is almost 45 degrees slope on the right side of the trail. You may have problems if you have acrophobia.

After traversing the whole length of the fort, walk further to cover the breadth of the fort and reach to the other side where you come across series of steps.

After climbing the steps, you come across a gate like structure.

There is a small tomb in front of this gate-like structure.

After going further, you come across an ancient temple.In the month of ‘Shravan’, the fifth month of Hindu year, pilgrims visit this temple every year.

Inside the temple, there are two "Pindis" that encompass five "lingas".

Right beside the temple, there is a place called as "Paachvad" (group of 5 banyan tress). We all were exhausted because of the sweltering heat. So resting under banyan trees was quite a heavenly experience and we had to push ourselves to come out of the shadows under which we could have slept for hours.

Few steps ahead of the temple lies the two structures of the stones stacked on each other. This is something unique on the fort and you just keep on wondering how on earth these huge stones were put and what was the underlying reason of it.

After entering through the stone structures, you come across a well maintained mosque.

After going further, you come across a big well.

There was a lot of yellow and dry grass on the fort and at some areas, it was of waist high. It was limiting our visibility to a great extent and after plodding through the grass, lot of little thorns were getting attached to our trousers and t-shirts.

Square structure

Remnants of Ammunition Depot:

After visiting ammunition depot, we wanted to check whether we can avoid the whole traverse to reach to the col but after confirming that there were many rock patches along the way, we decided against taking the probable short-cut.

View of Vandangad was mesmerizing. As we were still not sure whether to take the left or right trails to go to top of Vandangad, suddenly I remembered the binoculars that I had had in my backpack. Relieved, I took it out and observed through it to see whether I could trace the route. I tried it for a while; I was able to see two clear trails once on the left and one on the right but very small trail was visible and nothing seemed to go on top of the fort. Avinash and others tried the same but in vain. Well, our confusion was compounding and Vandngad was looking more mystic and intriguing. I was somehow repenting that we did not bring along the guide and annoyed with the information which was provided in the book and some internet blogs.

It was past 1.30 in the afternoon and we were craving for the lunch. We stopped in the shade of the stone like structures and finished our packed lunch, full of variety but still dry.

After a lunch, we rested for a while. We were still not sure of the exact way to reach on top of Vandangad and suddenly serendipity came our way.We saw couple of villagers approaching our way.  We were overjoyed to see these heavenly souls and asked them about the exact route to reach on top of Vandan and they readily provided the required information. We thanked them profusely for their timely help and they proceeded further to the Mosque to offer their prayers.

Soon, we returned to the col by traversing the whole length of the fort. It was getting hotter and hotter though it was not supposed to be so hot in the mid of November. But nature has its own way to challenge us and we just need to accept it and move along.

As soon as reaching the col, we dropped our bags and rested for a while. As all were resting, I went ahead to check rock patch of Chandangad. Well, the rock patch that we were seeing from the col was not at all difficult and I negotiated it in couple of minutes. As I was wondering why nobody had advised to go through the rock patch, I looked ahead and stunned to see the real rock patch slicing the sky. It was a real humbling experience just to stand in front of this rock patch.

I called out to my other trek-mates to come and watch the real rock patch which was not visible from the col but it seemed they were really tired to climb and ignore my callings.

Looking back, whole expanse of the col and Vandangad was visible and I couldn't have asked for a better sight than this one!



Soon, I climbed down to join my friends. Avinash was really enjoying his time with binoculars and was engrossed in observing the landscape.

We proceeded towards Vandangad. Looking back, Chandangad was silently bidding adieu to us and asking us to come back again!

It was now time to unfold the mystery of the majestic Vandangad.

Click Here to read Part II.