Even after so many treks done in past this trek to Tringalwadi fort brought in much more excitement… as much as the 1st time I had been for a trek.The reason for this excitement was well known by everyone near and dear to me, it was my camera olympus sp560uz which I had bought just a few days back and was eager to have my hands on it. Well not going away from the purpose of this blog…. here is some info about Tringalwadi fort.

Type: Hill Fort
Height: 3238 Feet above MSL
Grade: Easy
District: Nashik
Region: Igatpuri
Base Village: Tringalwadi

It all started with charging of spare set of battaries and some bagpacking with bread packs and sauce sachhets as instructed by Hemant.Tanu Hemant and I coordinated such that we get in the same train but for our surprise Rohit aka Tatya met Hemant at Thane station after getting down at Indrayani Exp. and decided to acompany us till Dadar. It was somewhere around 9.15 pm when I boarded the local goin to CST… Now we were 4 of us Tatya,Hemant,Tanu and I… After reviewing my camera we had nothing to do…. and as said “Empty mind is devils workshop…” Our devils were at work and started playing pranks with SK and Sameer. Shirish messaged Hemant about his absence for the trek while Tatya got down at Matunga.After reaching CST all fellow trekkers started accumulating slowly… and within no time we had to move towards platform no.17. Just while my crappy mind started its very own numerology and concluded tht something is gonna go wrong out here…Tatya called me up and told that there is a loooooooooong line to get in the general compartment of this train. We rushed and witnessed a huge line which we ignored hoping that it is not the line for Mahanagri Express. After some inquiry sessions here and thr… we saw a big line secured by hawaldar’s so that no1 gets in… as the 1st part of line ended.. we rushed, appended to it and acted as if we were waiting in the queue from last 4-5 hrs… To out pitty.. the line we were in was for an overcrowded general compartment at the beginning of the train… After walking the whole platform we were redirected back to where we were earlier. All through this walk Anupa and I insisted SK to stay in front for all his fighting capabilities we are aware of… and we were sure that we needed it for next few hours.

The whole group and other ppl offcorase ran towards the end of the train… and got into a compartment which was already full. After getting in the whole group was separated into 2 parts of the boogie. We had a nice argument which warmed us up for fights if needed… within next couple of minutes all the girls had place to sit while we guys had to stand covering the entry for the whole journey. The highlighted moments of the journey were; Preeti’s fight for place, Some RED/GREEN light fun by Sameer, Confused Ketki and not to forget the once when every station arrived and the fight to push in the ppl who were pushing us. Atlast we got down at Igatpuri station in 1 piece while escaping ourselves from the ppl hungry for place.

After spending arnd an hour at the station while sipping some tea, haafta vasooli, introduction round, distribution of lunch and not to forget.. TEETH BRUSHING session for few , we started our walk of 7kms. enroute PAGODA followed by KHIND. After nearing the village it was decided to wait for sometime on a bridge. The journey till here had some brain scratching fun with Lakshika. We were reading a diversion board while choti Aditi started asking Riddles… The 1st one was “Je laal asta aani ting ting karta te kay asta?? ” Initally the session was only between Yogesh and her…. but slowly all of us jumped in to answer the questions. We all tried and started guessing the answers and then decided to ask her a few questions… after playing around with some riddles we happened to ask her the answer of her 1st riddle… she answered “CAKE” ??!?!?!? Confused?? So were we…. and asked her… “CAKE kasa kaay???” She replied confidently…. ” Majha KODA aahe… “. We all were amazed by the sharpness of this child… We all had a great time exchanging some riddles and jokes and reached the foot of the hills and rested here for some time since it was still dark out there.

Group Pic with TringalWadi Fort in Backgroud

At this spot u see a huge mountain to your right and some small hills at left and TRINGALWADI to extreme left.. after some time while you are traversing these hills Tringalwadi cannot be seen unless u reach the plateau… from where u see the Tringalwadi fort. We started doing some photography here and then rushed the other part to witness the sunrise.Soon we saw a plane flying atop…. then all started clicking the plane… 10x,100x,18x,75x,4x… were the only words which could be heard now… with some experiments with the various modes of the camera, the sun was set to rise and all started clicking.

Pinak leaded the ascend and we followed.A scenic view of the TRINGALEWADI DAM and the rising sun which threw reflections of the cold still waters… was all that had caught everyones eyes…. Pinak and tanu had gone faar ahead, while Hemant and Sameer decided to take a group pic.. with the fort in background.Now we had two options either to go via CHOR DARWAJA or the normal route.Others went via Chor darwaja while Hemant, Rohan and I decided to take the normal route that Pinak and Tanu also took so that we could descend via Chor Darwaja.

We witnessed eroded steps, ruined remains and tanks filled with mud which no more served their actual purpose. We five then started moving forward and reached the Cave which is the only shelter on this fort but it is full with wet soil all over the floor and at one corner thr is small platform which can be used to rest.

After dumping our bags… Hemant and Pinak started hunting for the Water tank….There are many water tanks atop this fort but most of them are filled with mud till top while one more had some water but wasnt potable… only 1 tank has water for 12 months and has extremely cool and nice water. After having a breakfast of sandwiches every1 marched towards the water tank… After some tp and fooling around; we left the cave, refilled our bottles and walked towards the Ganesh temple… After some photography and masti there, we started to climb the highest part of the fort… This top gives a scenic view of mountain ranges and the area surrounding the fort.

Now comes the most interesting part, walking down the slope with scree… many took usual way and slipped while others went via odd ways finding stone holds… Each and eavery1s descend was worth a watch… Few showed

Walking down the scree

balancing acts while others slided as if they were on a slide at a park… while few others ran down the slope and asked some1 to stop them…. The main attractions were most of the girls offcoarse and amongst guys it was Yogeshwar who was asking for steel pants “Quite an innovative idea!!!” and Rohan who was sitting after every step… I am not out of the competition… I was practicing some balancing acts with slow steps. We quickly rushed towards the chor darwaja after hanging around there for some time… having some snacks and water…. Sameer gave “Shiv Garjana” followed by a group pic with the huge Lord Hanuman’s carved idol.

This place can be used as shelter in all seasons except mansoon. After all the TP that we did here, we started to walk down stairs.Every1 was in a queue and while Swapnil was helping Preeti at the end of the stairs…. a rolling stone hit his jaw bone near chin. A watch out call indeed saved him from getting hurt on head but failed to help him miss the stone because of its speed. First Aid box was called and the wound was taken care of by Gaurav and Sameer and all others were instructed to be careful and responsible. Every1 marched to traverse the fort and reach the plateau…. But within some time we gotta know that few had gone back to take a “pradakshina” of the fort while we waited near a big stone where 2-3 of us tried to get under the shadow of the stone. While relaxing here, pranks were being played and Lakshika was so hungry that she gulped in her lunch right there. Biscuits, Apples and Oranges were out to refuel everyone and regain the energy and fighting the scotching heat. Finally a call was made to move down near the hut instead of waiting for others who thought of taking a pradakshina. While descending down we noticed that the others were on their way back too.

After relaxing at the hut for few minutes another decision was made to make it to the caves at the base and rest there… preety cool. The village guy was asked for the way whos reply was… ” khali 1 minute war aahe….” the next moment I imagined myself having wings… . BTW we confirmed the way and moved down… Jagdish went downwards and Raj went side ways to confirm the position of the caves. Jagdish confirmed the location and we started to move (run) down… After reaching Pandav Leni the cameras came out and the lens was focused to click…. The highlighting carvings were captured and I laid down to take a nap. We had to have our lunch and there was no water avaibility around so a couple of us ran to a group of houses nearby to enquire if we could get some water and have lunch in their premises. We heard a AO..AO call and got a green signal… Imediately all rushed towards the house, washed hands ( assuming all did it) and then started our lunch which had theplas, chunda and chutney with some tamatoes,cucumber and onions.

Now was relaxing time… I found a place on bullock cart and spread myself on it to get a nap. Soon some1 shouted chala chala nighaychi vel jhali…. Sameer confirmed the presence of Tanaji ” Jep driver” at Tringalwadi village. Now the walk was irritating for sometime… till we actually started walking at the bank of lake where cool breeze gave a very nice feeling. While we were getting on the dam wall…. Raj feels that he has missed out on his mobile which makes him run back… but donno wat made him remember that it is with Sameer.. so now he ran the whole dam wall… to get rid of Sameer and confirm that his mobile is safe.

After getting into the village we found jeep and omni waiting for us. All of us were dumped in and… the return journey starts off with some crappy jokes and Raj’s dailogues. I was sitting on the front seat and was missing all the fun, so when the jeep stoped waiting for the Omni van which was unfortunately punchured, I went back and layed on every1 lap. The jokes and fun continued… donno going where all. raj was in best of his form making every1 feeling uneasy by laughing to death… There was No Mercy for any1 of us… Every1 pulling eachothers legs… and by the time we could finish of with our fun, we reached Kasara station. We had missed our targetted train, as the Omni was taken to garadge for repairs. We gulped in some coldrinks and then rushed towards the ticket counter which was crowded as expected. Tickets were issued and we were at the platfor waiting for the train which was scheduled 1 hr. later. This gave an opportinity for the new stall which sells milk products, to earn more then expected… as atleast 1 of us was always there purchasing something or the other. All the chaas, lassi, flavored milk, shrikhand etc. was gulped and was followed a feedback session. Choti Aditi clicked our snap to keep it as a memory with her and the train arrived. All jumped in the train and found a nice corner for most of us to accomadate. Few others were in the other compartment and found place for themselves to sit. All knew that this was time to have fun… and we noticed that Raj was stratagically placed.. this kicked off all the fun which then led to our standard “Malvan panya made killa…. ” which did not work out well so we switched to antakshari . Raj, Gaurav, Anupa were the lead contributors from the opposition group. Raj got down at Kalyan and was substituted with equally good Jagdish at later stages.This game ended I am not sure when because I got down at Bhandup singing song for my group….

Back Home is a good feeling but then the 24 hours spend just b4 that were equally precious. All the memories and snapshots were saved in camera as well as heart. Yet another memorable trek. I know Ive written a tooooo long blog… U can call it a story… its all your wish… Thanks for going through my blog cum story.