When you miss the World cup soccer Final for a Monsoon trek , the expectation of the trek rises exponentially. The destination for the trek was Visapur fort and at the end of the day it was worth it.
Visapur fort was built by Balaji Vishwanath , the first peshwa of Maratha in 1720 and is located around 9 km from Malavli railway station near Lonavala. It is a twin fort to Lohgad fort and held strategic importance in the capture of Lohgad fort by the British. We started our trek from Mumbai at 6 in the morning with the Mumbai Rangers group in a small minibus and reached our base camp near Abuja caves at around 9 for a small breakfast.
The road to Visapur passes through many beautiful waterfalls sprouting through the mountains . With heavy rains since our departure , the sweet aroma of mud had long vanished into voluptuous volume of water on the road , sky and waterfalls. The roads were smooth until we took a detour at the Visapur Lohgad Crossroad. The road turned yellow and muddy as we moved ahead witnessing the majestic sight of the fort hanging as a cliff. The climb uphill looked easy till we came across a waterfall route. Now this was the fascinating part which made the trek so delightful, we had to make a detour through and side of the waterfall to reach to the top of the trek. The intensity of the rains increased and so did the flow of waterfall, making it more challenging. I was a little worried for my son who is short of 10 and was on his first trek, however with the help of our trek guide he did better than the most.
After the rigorous walk through the waterfall, reaching the top is an achievement and the reward is the breathtaking view. We had a quick dip in a small waterfall followed with photographs, lunch and some sizzling hot tea . The weather turned much colder with rains , fog and heavy winds . The fog enveloped the fort and the winds forced the water to move in the opposite direction but that did not deter us from taking a round across the fort. We lost the way to a temple on the fort but came across sights of a mini dam, walk across streams , canons , ponds till we could find the right path back.
The descent looked much easier than the climb. We were still reliving the memories of the trek as we took the tedious walk back to the base camp....
