Trekking in Rajmachi, Maharastra
During our tea breaks in office at PurpleTalk, my friend Tejaswinee told me that she’s going to trek to Rajmachi, a twin fort in Maharastra, along with 22 of our office friends. That was in August and I had a plan already for Yercaud. When they returned from the trek, I saw the pics and it was a spectacular scenic place. So when I got to know she’s planning another trek to Rajmachi in September, I immediately jumped in and joined the group with some of my friends.
Rajmachi Fort is one of the many historical forts in the rugged hills of Sahyadri mountains (Western Ghats). Rajmachi Fort (Killa) consists of two twin fortresses Shriwardhan Ballekilla and Manaranjan Balekilla, with a wide Machi (plateau) surrounding the two Balekillas. Udhewadi is a small village of about 22 houses situated on the Machi (plateau), at the southern foot of Manaranjan Balekilla of Rajmachi Fort. Historically, Rajmachi fort was a strategic fort to control Borghat (the Ghat between Khopoli and Khandala on Mumbai-Pune route) which was a historical trade route. It was in the possession of Angre family, the head of Maratha navy in the 18th century.
We started from Hyderabad en-route to Karjat, the nearest railway station to Rajmachi on 22nd September. After 14 hours of journey we reached Karjat at 11 in the morning. There are 2 trains connecting to Karjat from Hyderabad. The cost of the trek is less than Rs. 2500 including travel, stay, food and everything.
My friend who travelled from Mumbai joined us at Karjat, we packed food for lunch outside the station and booked autos for the 13 of us to drive to the Rajmachi trekking start point. It’s a rough road with dozens of speed breakers, not much well maintained. It took us nearly 30-45 minutes to reach the base point and after a brief safety precaution tip delievery from our trek organizers we started the trek.
The best part of the trek was most were first time trekkers. This trek, is of 13 Km up and down the hill in distance. It’s a beginners trek so if you’ve never trekked before and planning to trek for first time then this is the perfect one to get started. This place shines the most during end of rainy season with lush green mountains, lots of streams and Ulhas river. What’s more amazing is you won’t find leeches anywhere in the mountain which is quite surprising. The leech experience was complete opposite to what I experienced in Kerala. So this mountain is one of the most clean mountains I felt for trekking.
While trekking the noise of streams somewhere beyond the trees, thundering down from the hill was simply music to our ears. And the chirps of birds added the rhythm to the music in many places along the journey.
We stopped at this stream, had lot of fun in the water, some camera clicks, giggles and, filled our tummys with the food we packed. After lunch we headed further and saw Kondana caves.
This used to be a place for religious practice for Buddhist monks. After some time at Kondana cave, we continued our trek for nearly 4 hours to Udhewadi village. Towards the end our trek for the day the weather turned to be really awesome but unfortunately it didn’t rain.
We reached Udhewadi village around 6:30 pm. It’s a very small village with nearly 20 houses, 22 according to wikipedia. A clean rock path starts the entrance of the village and continues upto Bhairava temple. What’s more amazing is the whole village runs on solar power and there is no electricity connection from outside.
Instead of resting after the trek we strolled around the whole village and nearby area. Went to a temple of Shiva, saw few 🦀 and sat and listened to the chirps of the insects. At one moment the whole village was inside the clouds. Really amazing.
Our host provided us a hearty dinner for the night with meal, lentils, bhakari (Roti from rice flour), papad, pickle, and tastiest aalloo-gobi (potato-cauliflower) curry. It was one of the best homely food I have had after a long time.
After couple good round playing Uno cards, we called it a day and went to sleep.
On day two we woke up and got ready at morning 4:30 and started for Shriwardhan fort trekking at morning 5 am. It was completely dark and took us 30 minutes to climb on the edges of the mountain. And once we reached the top the view after sometime was breath taking.
And finally the sun came out from hiding after 30 more minutes of waiting.
With sun shining in the sky the beauty of the surrounding just went beyond what it was earlier. Flowers everywhere. A waterfall from a distance whose music only we were able to hear came in to sight. A drone would be the perfect thing to capture the beauty of this place.
We started to climb down at 7:30.
After reaching our hosts place, we were served with some poha and tea. Then packed our bags and started our return from Udhewadi at 9. Few more clicks and memories on our way back.
That’s how our journey came to an end. Along the trip I made some new friends and got many memories. The best ones are I tagged Karthik to this trip, who was crying since long to go for a trip 😅. A friend with severe back pain but never backing down when it comes to a trek. The first time trekkers, was awesome to tag along with you guys. Took my friend Lucky, for a trip and that too for a trek, who never travels generally.
But by far the most memorable thing happened to me was losing my wallet, with all my cards. I was so lucky and our host was a really honest and nice person who responded positively when we called later to ask about my lost wallet. Thanks to Nagarjunas friend who brought back my wallet after a week and our host who kept and returned the wallet to him. I was really surprised that I lost my wallet and then again got it back. Thank you all for making this trip a memorable one. I hope to join with you guys in your future treks. A special thanks goes to Tajaswinee and Nagarjuna for planning and organizing this trip. It feels nice to go for a trip planned by others than me 😅. Here’s a final pic.
