Gorakhgad-Full Moon Night

It does look like it’s been too long since anything is posted on this page!

I keep on rechecking whether our lives are adventurous enough when I read other’s posts saying “world’s most dangerous fortress-Kalavantin” (explains my non activity in blogging) , while there are people who are getting used to hearing leopard calls here and there during their treks. (writer discretely points at himself)

That being said, let’s get to this post about Gorakhgad trek!

Few basics about the fort- It is a small hill fort, medium difficulty level, at the height of around 2100 ft above sea level. Most probably this was used as a watch tower, looking over naneghat trade route. It also comes under Bhimashankar sanctuary, so it has really good forest cover.

We went for this trek on a full moon night and boy! That was a happening day!

We reached the base village Dehri via Murbad at 12:30 at night (or morning) and started climbing the fort by 2:30 a m.(definitely morning!)

(Photos are taken during daytime, don’t nitpick)

The pinnacle on the left is Macchindragad and on the right is Gorakhgad.

At the beginning of the route, there is a temple (it got developed recently). The route goes from behind the temple.

The route approaches the fort from its backside. Initially, there is a little bit of climbing, then a trail walk for 15 minutes through jungle, giving a good view of the two pinnacles. Then, out of nowhere, route descends little bit and the steep climb begins!

The steep climb is hardly for half an hour or so, but it comes out of nowhere so little bit tiring and frustrating.

(First photo has the temple at the beginning as a white dot and second one has a proper route through the forest…should give you the idea)

After the climb, again, there is a small trail of 15 minutes and then you reach a Mahadev Temple.

This trail part gives a really good view of adjacent Ahupe Ghat and Siddhagad Fort.

Since this was a full moon night trek, we had an unofficial ‘no torch’ rule throughout the trek. The feeling was real heavenly and Thank God I didn’t have a high class camera to capture it!

(Makes you dive immensely in the feeling rather than discussing about ‘exposures’ and bragging about ‘lenses and gear.’)

The temple calls for 10 minutes break at any cost because the real adventure begins now!

After the temple, route actually climbs the main pinnacle so you bump into almost 90 degrees elevated steps. These didn’t look dangerous to me at least, but these will be hell during monsoon and heavy winds!

^carved entrance of the fort.

(Didnt click much photos while climbing the steps for obvious reasons)

The steps are little tricky on 2-3 patches. But there are proper sideways grips given throughout the climb.

A 2 hours time from the base-climb-trail-steep climb-temple-steps and you are in the cave of the fort.

The caves would have been really great spot to whole “I hate humans, leave me alone” feeling only if there weren’t any monkeys, but well, life is unjust!

Long story short, beware of monkeys.

There are few water cisterns and few small caves/carved temples throughout this area.

After the caves, there’s a tricky rock patch and few more steps to climb to reach the top. There is a small temple and the top is way smaller than what’s there at Kalsubai!

However, since we were there by the morning time, we were really delighted to have serene morning views!

Adventurous part was during the climb, the whole forest down the valley became a happening place when out of nowhere,monkeys, spotted deer and barking deer gave alert calls!

So lalala!!! There are wild animals including Leopards as well in the region!

Climbing down the steps is little tricky, but you get used to it totally. The trail part and steep climb while ascending makes it sure that you fall at least once while descending!

It shouldn’t take more than 2 hours to reach base village.

The real …The Real….The Real Adventure…was travelling on the roof of an overloaded jeep in the morning. Never thought that a regular jeep will take 20 people with it and still manage to keep everyone alive.

Happy Trekking!