An amazing Experience of my Life: Tracking to Tornagarh Fort

“Climbing is the lazy man’s way to enlightenment. It forces you to pay attention, because if you don’t, you won’t succeed, which is minor — or you may get hurt, which is major. Instead of years of meditation, you have this activity that forces you to relax and monitor your breathing and tread that line between living and dying. When you climb, you always are confronted with the edge. Hey, if it was just like climbing a ladder, we all would have quit a long time ago.” — Duncan Ferguson

Well…., Mountain Climbing is not my hobby nor I have done it before. But I had always a dream to go for a mountain tracking. These tracking are easy to heard or read somewhere, but in reality it requires lots of preparation and dedication. This trip to Tornagarh Fort came from a sudden planning from one of my friend.  Well, the idea looked pretty awesome and exciting to us. So we did a thumps up to achieve a never before experience in our life.

Now came the preparation part. As all of my friends were about to trill a new experience in their life, we all want to make sure that our preparation also didn’t lags behind our excitement. Couple of my friends bought all necessary staffs including food, first aid, torch and other handy items. As we decided to stay a night over there, so the preparation got couple of more additions like tent and other sleeping materials.

The preparation got over. We finally packed our bags with all the staffs we collected. Once the packing got over, we tried a demo to lift the bags. OMG…. We realized that everyone will have to carry at least 12-15 kgs to the top of the mountain. One said –‘It is a onetime activity guys…let’s do it.Common. ‘Climbing mountains with such weights will be tougher. Everyone realized that and made their minds accordingly.

It was also necessary to capture some information prior to the trip, and it is always beneficial to know the place in detail before you actually reach there. Here comes our search partner Google.

It is historically significant as the first most forts to be acquired by Raja Shivaji in 1643, forming the Nucleus of the Maratha Empire (Swarajya Toran). The total height of the Fort is 1403 meters from the sea level. –Source Wikipedia.

I also went through few blogs and sites about the tracking to the fort. Well, I find very exciting information. According to few, this track is very tough and only expert trackers should go for it. Few wrote that accommodation is not good, the climbing is stiff and the fort location is not safe for night stay. Hey…if you are planning for this track…just relax. Don’t confuse as we did. When you complete this article, your confusion will be over.

“Discoveries are often made by not following instructions, by going off the main road, by trying the untried.” — Frank Tyger

As we planned to stay at the fort at night, so we got bit tensed. Also it adds more thrills to our journey. We planned to leave from Pune at 1 pm at the evening the next day, to keep our bikes in the village (Velhe) and start our tracking.

The Journey Day:

All friends gathered at my place in the morning. 7 people, 4 bikes. We bought 2 tents from a dealer who gives tents for rents Rs 400 a day. Our luggage got even heavier with those tents. Finally we start our journey from Pune at 1 pm. The route was

Magarpatta – Katraj – Dalvi Vasti (at Pune Bangalore Highway) – Velhe

We reached the Velhe village by 3.30 pm. The biking experience along the countryside was indeed enjoyable. We found that there was a police chowki nearly at the end of the village from where actually the tracking path to the Fort starts. We kept our bikes beside the police chowki and start our tracking by 4 pm.

Now the real adventure was in front of us and we needed to finish the tracking and reached the top before the sunset. After half an hour of tracking, the tiredness slowly came to everyone’s face. The climate was hot and the first phase of the tracking was bit stiff. We took a rest of 10-15 minutes, had some water and start again. In the way, we met a farmer and eagerly we asked – ‘How much time from here it will take to reach the fort?’ The farmer with a very relaxed face replied ‘2 hours more.’ It seemed he does this activity daily and it’s not at all a big deal for him. We also met couple of trackers who actually climbed up the fort in the night and those guys were really moral boosters for us.

“Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.” — Theodore Roethk

A small farmhourse on the way

We climbed on and on. After some time, we reached some point in the mountain, from where the paths looked simple and easy to go. As we move on climbing, the climate becomes cooler and we feel easier and comfortable. By 7 pm we finally reached the fort after nearly 3 hours of journey. It was awesome to see the sunset on our way.

When we reached the top, it was almost dark by that time. We found few villagers and a small temple over there. We asked the villages about the place. They said we can stay there in the temple at night. However we bought the tents so, we decided to stay at our own arrangements.

The climate was pretty cool and wind was blowing at very high-speed at the top. Then we divided into two groups. The one group started to put the tents while I with the other group went for searching woods for a campfire. The wind was blowing so high that we found very difficult to set up our tents and even difficult to put the campfire. However we finally managed to do the both. One of my friend started making omelets and we had a good dinner with those omelets and the food we carried.

The night passed by with gossip and fun with the friends. When we wake up early in the morning, then the real beauty of the fort and the surrounding mountain range catch our eyes. The morning atmosphere was so breathtaking that no one expect us feel that. It was unbelievable, when we discovered that we were actually standing way above the clouds.

A Wild Beauty discovered in the morning

 

The Clouds viewd from the Fort

We had a small breakfast and then started our backward journey by 7 am in the morning. At that time the climate was nice and cool, and so we find it easy to come down. Again it took 2 and half hours in reach the village. A dog also gave us a nice company.

We came back to Pune through the other road by khanapur and singhgad and reached Pune by 12.30 pm. This road was shorter but not as good and comfortable as the earlier road via Pune – Bangalore Highway. This is how we completed one of our extreme adventures of our life.

“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.” — Edmund Hillary

Few Tips:

• Plan your trip with all information and arrangements well in advance.
• It takes nearly 3 hours to climb up to the Fort and 2 and half hours to climb down (including 5-6 breaks of 5 mins each). So plan your timing accordingly.
• Don’t forget to carry water bottles with you and its bit tricky too. Carrying more than enough water will add weight to your luggage and carrying little water may put you in situations of the shortage of water in the journey. So think twice in this aspect.
• If you are planning to stay at night, carry sufficient food, torch and other sleeping arrangements.
• Carry a first aid box because you never know what will happen in the journey. So safety first.
• Signals of mobile towers are week but present. We managed to make some calls and send messages.
• Put shoes and jackets and carry some ropes (at some points of the journey, it will come very handy).
• If you are travelling in rainy seasons, be careful. The path will be very slippery.
• You can divide the journey into 3 parts of 1 hour each. The starting 1^st hour will be to climb the first hill. It is tough and steep. The second phase is easy. Here you can enjoy the real beauties and click as many photographs as you can. The 3^rd phase is the toughest and you need to be very careful here. There are some points in this phase, where you need to climb 80-85 degree up. Here your complete concentration and dedication is required.
• And finally don’t forget your camera to capture the beautiful moments of your journey.

 

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” — Frank A. Clark

If you are planning for a trip to this fort, go ahead and enjoy. Also don’t forget to share your part of the story.

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Please DO NOT distribute, copy, publish or use the images or any part of the images in any way without express permission of the copyright holder.

Happy New Year & 2011 in blogging!

Wish you all a very happy new year……

Here is what WordPress says about this Blog. Just thought of sharing with you all.

A Visit to Aga Khan Palace, Pune

Couple of days back, I visited the Aga Khan Palace, which is located at the very heart of the pune city. It is a national monument of India’s freedom movement. Following the launch of Quit India movement in 1942, Gandhiji, his wife Kasturba, his secretary Mahadevbhai Desai were interned at the palace from August 9, 1942 to May 6, 1944. Mahadevbhai and Kasturba passed away while in captivity at the Agakhan palace and their samadhis are located in the campus. Situated near the River Mula, the palace is a simple memorial to Gandhi and his life.

Here are some nice pictures of the palace, which is so well maintained and covered by beautiful green trees all around.

Diwali Celebration – The festival of Light!

A Random Collection!

The Sunset through my Lens!

We all love to see the sunset. It is the moment when the trailing edge of the Sun’s disk disappears below the horizon in the west. As a ray of white sunlight travels through the atmosphere to an observer, some of the colors are scattered out of the beam, making it a wonderful phenomenon of nature to see. Here is a small collection by me taken at various places. 

Thanks…

Assam: Gateway to North East India

Hello…Here I am putting few clicks that I have taken during my visit to my hometown in assam. It a beautiful and diverse state with an incredible range of cultures and landscapes located in the northeast of India. Assam has many fascinating things to see and experience. Travel to Assam and you will find everything, from spectacular scenery and rare wildlife to vibrant cultures and soul-stirring places of pilgrimage.

Spread over hundred acres of land, the extensive tea gardens in Assam are known to produce some of the finest and most expensive teas in the world. Situated along the Brahmaputra river these Tea Gardens never fails to mesmerize the visitors with its unending beauty. There are about 846 Tea Gardens in Assam. They are known to produce 400 million kgs of tea per year. Robert Bruce, an official of the British empire, who is credited with discovery of tea in 1823, gave publicity of the existence of the plant, the leaves of which were boiled to prepare the tea.

Assam is also famous for Oil and can boast of having the oldest oil refinery in the country.

The pictures of Majuli. Majuli or majoli which lies in the Brahmaputra River is one of the world’s largest freshwater river islands.Majuli lies about 200km east of Guwahati, Assam’s largest city, and can be reached by ferry from the town of Jorhat. The majority of majuli’s inhabitants are tribal’s, mainly Mishings, who migrated here from Arunachal Pradesh hundreds of years ago. There are 144 villages with about 1.5 million people. The island measures about 880 square kilometers in area. The wetland is a hotspot for flora and fauna, harboring many rare and endangered avifauna species including migratory birds that arrive in the winter season.

The lush green paddy-fields of assam……….

And the roads….

100000 visits and counting!

Today, I saw the 100000^th visitor reached the blog. It feels great to achieve such huge number of hits in just a year. The number may be look small in front of big blogs and other sites, but for a little independent blog like this, it looks huge.

I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read my blog.  I especially appreciate those who have left their views and who have liked the posts. I hope that I can continue to bring more articles in various topics related to apps in the upcoming days.

Creating the blog has not only increased my knowledge, but also providing me a great platform to interact with some awesome people like you around the world.

Again, thanks for visiting…

The city of Pune from a HillTop

Everyone in Pune are enjoying this monsoon season and so do we. Few weekends back I, with few of friends went to a hilltop nearby to enjoy the fresh air and rain in the evening. The place was so cool and the view was so panoramic. Here are some pics for you all.

 

Facebook vs Google+:My thoughts

This is the era of social networking and we are the people who live by it. It all started when I was in my engineering. First Orkut made a strong foundation in India amongst the youth. I still remember those days when we were so addicted to Orkut for making new friends, getting number of scraps, changing  profile name and pictures the most unusual and interesting way and also changing the themes as well. Orkut was a huge success in India at that time. As time passed, we heard about twitter ,facebook, myspace and some other similar social forums. To be honest, I loved orkut so much that I never bothered about these other social forums at that time. One fine day, one of my friend asked-‘Hey do you know twitter? I simply replied ‘Ya I have heard about it, but have not explored yet…what’s interesting about it? ’…He said-‘You can follow anyone there and get updates of their life’…’Is it?’…..’Yes…even you can follow Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan’…He said. I got some interest at that time and explored the 140 character world. But the interest just finished in few months. ’Why do I need the updates of other people’s life?’….I mean if they did something worth knowing then we can get that piece of information easily in newspaper and other mediums. Then came the facebook era. Initially I found hard to understand the facebook. But slowly I analyzed that it comes up with so many few features that eventually drag me from orkut. The same might happen to many of my friends. Unlike the other social networks facebook’s growth was solid and it keeps the platform changing frequently so as to give the people something new and keeping them busy with them so that they will not feel bored and think of going outside facebook. Today facebook has set many new standards to social networking and now facebook’s standards have become as the current definitions of social networking.

Now Google has again entered into the social networking game with new strategies. Google’s new social networking platform Google plus has been released as an “Invite only” release and this is a popular marketing technique nowadays to intensify the users’ urge to join while doing the beta testing with a limited number of users. Now I am using G+ and I think it can give a very good competition to facebook, but will need serious innovations to virtually be a facebook killer.

Now what’s in Google Plus?

Circles:  — The groups of your life

Google Circles are groups of friends you organize by topic: Friends, Family, College Buddies, Roommates, etc. From your Circles page you drag and drop your contacts into each of these groups, which make it easier to share what you want with them.

 

Sparks – Your interest tracker

Sparks is like Google Reader, except it brings content to you automatically based on your interests. Each topic (ex tech, photography, whatever) will get its own “Spark” page and provide links to related articles, videos, photos, etc

 

Hangouts — Lets you video chat with all your buddies

Hangouts are virtual rooms where you can video chat with people in your circles. For example, if you’re not busy, you can start a talk with your pals. So, basically, it’s just video chat.

 

Huddles — A new group messaging app

Huddles are group messaging for people within your Circles. There’s a mobile app available for Android now that lets you send messages from your phone. Select your group and everyone can chat with each other.

 

Instant Upload shares your mobile photos

 

This one’s simple. When you snap a photo on your Android phone, it’s automatically uploaded to Google+.

 

Here is another beautiful comparison between the two taken from net.

Now whatever the competition is, at the end we are only the people who will be benefited. Social networking is a market that closely works on peoples’ psychology giving them a virtual world with an environment that they want. Now who knows facebook comes out with new innovations the next day, or some other will come out of a blue to change everything. Till then live in present and enjoy with whatever you like.

Vote here to see who likes what……….