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.