Rajmachi – A Hiker’s Heaven

Friday, May 08, 2020

Do treks excite you? Do adventures and walks into the wild are you thing? Then you’re probably you’re at the right place!

“Get lost in nature and you will find yourself” – they said and that’s exactly what we did on this trek. I along with my family were on this hiking experience to explore a completely new place us. Rajmachi is a place that subtly targets the inner hiker within you. The walk up to the fort is mesmerizing but the view from the top is unforgettably pleasing.

My fam-jam was continuously on as we trudged across the wilderness. The trek with a family is worth all that sweat, trust me, one of the best feelings in the world is when we successfully get to where we wanted to be and with our loved ones right beside us, witnessing the stunning beauty. What more to ask for?

Difficulty level: Moderately Difficult

If you are a beginner trekker or hiker then halt right there, as this might be a bit tougher for you. But as you know “where there’s a will there’s a way” you can go for it. But it would an advice to not start your trekking with Rajmachi as you will be overloading your system unnecessarily.

How to get there?

It’s quite far away for all those daunting Mumbaikars!

Mumbai: 94 KM

Kalyan: 94 KM

Navi Mumbai: 73 KM

Pune: 83 KM

Private Car / Bike: This is the preferred route by many trekkers. They arrive a day before their trek day and then start trekking the next day as it is a tiresome trek.

So you should arrive here a day before your decided day for the trek so that you are not tired of driving for about 2 hours or so. Plus, you can do the entire trek in a day but it will be extremely stressful for a day if you’re only the driver.

When you complete the long 6 -8-hour trek and when you descend and then you sit to drive, it becomes extremely difficult for you to drive it’s better to drive the next day of your trek.

There are two ways to trek towards the fort. For better understanding, we will name each of them. There’s a long way which we will call the ‘Extreme Route’ and the other relatively shorter one, we will call it the ‘Amateur Route’.

Now you might think we must’ve taken the shorter route, but since we went there without any prior information about the place and so we took the long route that tired us AF!

So getting to the brief of it, the ‘Extreme Route’ is one that comes to the fort from Lonavala, the major issue with this route is that its roads are perfectly fine in summers but when it rains, it’s undoubtedly the best road to experience monster trucking right in your car, don’t worry if you have an SUV or a light utility car, the road does all the job for you. I can’t guarantee you the time that you will need to reach the starting point of your trek but one thing I can guarantee, and that is the ultimate fun and jumps that your car will take when it goes into a crater!

Extreme Route

Once you reach the starting point of the trek which is nothing but an empty ground where the majority of the cars are parked. So then you have to walk almost 16 KM straight up to Rajmachi Village.

The ‘Amateur Route’ is for all the cheat-sheet lovers out there. It’s more like the road that can save you from immense off-roading experience and also your bumpers from constant banging into boulders. It begins as soon as you reach Karjat. From Karjat you have to reach Kondhane Village, where you can stay for a night and proceed for your trek the next day or else you can continue on your trek the same day. As you wish, we have provided for all the details in the further segments.

Amateur Route

As soon as you reach, Kondhane Village you can now, proceed towards the trek signboard showing you about the directions, just go past that. After walking for like 30 minutes or so, you will see Kondhane Buddhist Caves, these are believed to be ancient caves and hold some great sculptures and wall carvings depicting the life of the Buddhist.

Then moving further ahead, about almost 5- 8 KM you will reach the Rajmachi Village (Udhewadi) or what Google Maps likes to call it the ‘Rajmachi Jungle Camp’.

It doesn’t matter if you have taken the comparatively easier ‘Amateur Route’ or the tiring and thrilling ‘Extreme Route’, you are eventually going to end up reaching the Udhewadi village or Rajamchi Village. This is when you know that almost 1/3rd of your journey is done. There is a temple which is a significant landmark, now there here’s comes a choice to make.

Rajmachi Fort in turn in itself is divided into two more forts – Manranjan Fort & Shrivardhan Fort. In this blog, we have majorly focused on Shrivardhan Fort as it is simply gorgeous.

Now if you turn left you will go to Manranjan Fort which will take you about 30-40 minutes and taking a right turn from the temple takes you to Shrivardhan Fort which almost 20-30 minutes further ahead.

Then there are steps taking you up to the fort, which quite easier to climb. The steps lead you to a plateau that you may prey to the breath-taking beauty of the region down below. Crossing the plateau, you will notice a narrow path in between the steep slopes which are running obliquely from the walls of the fort.

The walk up that narrow path the scariest part of the entire trek. You feel like having your ‘Life on the Edge’. It’s extremely risky to climb so be careful and watch your every step.

After the dreadful walk up the path, you reach the gate of the fort. that’s when you think that you have the reached but No! There’s a little still left to go.

Just a 5-10 minutes into the fort you’ll finally reach a flag post and that’s when you can finally spread your arms in the air and call out to the world! You can then finally rest your extremely stressed out legs.

Trekking down the fort is not much of a heavy-duty task. It’s quite simple and less tiring in fact. The slopes and steeper paths help you descend quickly.

Walk into the Wilderness

The trek is sensational. Whether you are here with your family or your friends you are gonna enjoy to the core. The best part about the trek is the ascend. It’s the steep slopes, the narrow paths that you cross, the shallow streams that you encounter in your way and many more landscape beauties. The real fun of the trek lies in realizing that the hard work you put in getting to the top was all worth it.

The Backpack

The most important thing your backpack should hold is Food items, mostly those which can provide a decent amount of energy in smaller bits. Biscuits, fruits etc. are the things you can binge on while walking. There are restaurants in the Rajmachi Village that provide amazing food at a much cheaper rate so do have your full there, in case you don’t want to load yourself with the packed stuffs.

Moreover, good footwear and rain gear, especially in monsoons, is a must. Nothing can go wrong if you take the smallest of all precautions. During monsoon you are bound to get wet, due to downpour, so do carry changeable clothes.

What you should know?

The fort closes by 5 so try reaching there much earlier so you get ample amount of rest and also spend some quality time amidst the foggy hills.

Moreover, it’s highly recommended that you don’t channel your inner daredevil and take ‘Extreme Route’ during the monsoons as it can adverse consequences on your vehicle.

If you’re planning to stay then it’s better to stay the night before the trek as you can begin trekking early morning. The stay can cost you about somewhere from 500-1000/- or can be even more. The food is decent and is enough to fill you up for one meal.