Prachitgad प्रचीतगड

The thrilling experiances of Prachitgad

Prachitgad was the first thrilling experience in my trekking life. No wonder the fort is hiding in the deep jungles of Chandoli sanctuary which encompasses all the variety plants and animals. The fort itself has a less known historical background... though one doesn't feel the same on seeing the mighty creation of Sahyadri. I went in its quest thrice, out of which two were the successful attempts. All of these experiences were equally thrilling and unique in themselves.

Prachitgad came onto our trekking list during first semister of engineering. On knowing the remote location and lack of knowledge about the fort, in the trekking community, me and my friend Girish became extremely curious about it . Prachitgad went on our "Hit-List".

It was the last paper of our semister exam of the first year of engineering. We left the exam hall at around 1 pm and rushed to search for the maps and tips about the fort and to get some useful grocery for the trek. We completely forgot about the usual partying stuff we used to do after the exams. 9pm bus was the prime target for us to keep everything on schedule. We started from Pune as per our plan. In the meantime, all we could collect was a rough map of around 8 hour walk to the fort and few tips from my uncle who had gone their 22 years back !
In the morning we ended up in a small village at the foothills of Sahyadri... named Kundi. We hired a local man as our guide( we used to call him 'mama') and started walking at around 9 in the morning. After a strenuous climb of 3 hours we were at the top of the mountains. Walk after this was mostly on a plateau with lot of exciting things waiting for us on the way. First we came to know that our guide mama has not seen the fort before and hasn't gone more than halfway to the fort before ! So now we have to search our directions. But, nevertheless mama was their as a moral support as he was much aware about the plants and animals in the sanctuary. This came to revealation when a heard of wildbeasts passed by us and our mama quickly climbed a nearby tree leaving us to experience the wild thrill ! We all... 6 of us... waved happily (!!!) to the herd passing by us... just preventing shitting in our pants :P.
Then came the next thrill waiting for us. We reached a bifurcation of routes, both looking quite promising, but not mentioned on our map. Mama pointed to the left not giving any satisfying reason for it. So we tried the other path (!) and were successful to locate a 'well' after half an hour walk, shown on our map. And we continued in the same direction. This guess didnt get any more support from the map till 5 in the evening... we were walking suspiciously for last 4 hours. Finally physical exertion won over mental strength and our group surrendered. All the group members, except me and Girish, sat at an opening in the forest, decided to spend the nigth there and then move back the following morning. Only hour and half was remaining to sky get dark and then we would had ended up in the mid of the thick forest. So this open space felt much better than the emaginary nightmare.
ME and Girish decided to walk ahead for half hour to see anymore signs. If nothing shows up, then we would have been able to walk back to the open space before it gets dark. So we went ahead. Its my usul habit to start chanting 'Shree Ram jai Ram jai jai Ram' if I want something badly and if i believe that now the God only can help me ! And it showed up. We saw a small writing on a rock, done with a chalk, saying that the fort is one and half hour ahead. We both shouted laudly and hugged each other with a sense of victory in sight !!....
Quickly we returned to the open space, took the other guys and walk hurriedly in the direction shown. An hour passed by. We couldnt had a glimps of the fort. We were crossing thick forest patch and flat planes one after the other endlessly. These planes were interesting. Each was of the size of 4-5 times the football ground and filled completely with equal size round stones. It was a great geographical wonder, but we were out of mood to enjoy it. Suddenly mama pointed out tiger's pugmark in a fresh fine sand..... and no one was walking anymore. Everyone started running through the jungle. Our caps were sticking in the trees, shirts and track pants were tearing apart.. but we ran... like anything... and suddenly the fort was in front of us ! We felt relaxed for being in hands of the mightly fort. Alas.... we were there. The view was fascinating. I just kept looking at it for few moments.

After some seconds i realized that there was a deep narrow valley between the fort and us, which we climbed in the morning for 3 hours. Still there was a narrow connector to reach the fort. WE had to climb down nearly 200fts to reach that connector and the put our first step on the fort... Prachitgad... the dream fort... that was really an amazing situation. We were on a hill in the mid of no where. We were in the deep jungles.... extremely deep. Nearest village was about 8 hours of walk... through the dense forest !! No wonder... everyone was little afraid.

Somehow we found 4-5 ponds on the fort, hidden undergound with a small opening. This arrangement was purposefull done to save the water from dirt and from evaporation. We cooked little rice and maggies and went to sleep quickly. No one was in the campfire mood. I had a little nap. When i woke up, i thought the night should be half way through and the fearful night has gone... but it was only 11 pm.. and the whole night was ahead of us. We spent the whole night worrying about snakes, tigers, bears and beasts !

Finally it was morning. We started making tea and some breakfast at around 5 am. Till 6 O'clock everyone was awake and refreshed. It was a very nice start of the day... with the green forest around with its quietness and the only noise was of birds and leaves !

After the refreshing tea and biscuites, we went to see the fort. The fort is very narrow and tall... like a tower. Hardly 150-200 people can stay on it at a time. There wasn't any enclosure to stay inn. Apart from the strong and tough fortress, everything was shattered. There was no other way to climb up the fort. The land connector from which we came was the only way. Such a mighty creation of nature couldn't escape from the sharp eyes of emperors since 1100 A.D. Shivaji maharaj also conquered this fort and used it as a treasury.

At around 8am we started our trek back to 'Kundi'. We all were experiencing extreme proud in our minds. We had done it ! We reached a place which was not on the list of many trekking titans. Still a mysterious place named 'Kandhar Doh' was poking our minds. We missed it. The name itself was terrifying. We kept it for our future expeditions and walked back whole heartedly back home....

Trekking... an unavoidable part of life

My first trek was quite sudden. I did it when i was 10 yrs old. Just before the Diwali vacation i.e. before winter break, my grandfather gave me a small pamphlet about a jungle trek in Mahabaleshwar, a hill-station in Maharashtra, India. It sounded much more interesting to me as it was something different from the usual stuff i used to do during the breaks. Incidentally few more kids from my neighborhood agreed joining me, and the plan was set.

It was mid November when we started from Pune. The rendezvous was a big ground in the town of Mahabaleshwar called 'Polo ground'. There were nearly five batched with 30-35 trekkers in each batch. I think i was the youngest kid in our batch, or might be in the whole camp. The actual trekking was for 5 days with about 125 kms worth walk. The combination of few expert guided trails regarding astronomy, wildlife and botany with this strenuous journey made it a big enjoyment.

The chapter of trekking got introduced in my life like this. Eventually i went to many treks to nearby mountains, forts, valleys, etc. It became like a part of life. This all was happening during 5 th to 8th grades. In 9th and 10th this fever went low, especially in 10th, when everyone experiences his first exam which exposes him to the surrounding competitive world, and pulls him out the comfort zone. So the year passed by in studies. 11th and 12th also went on quickly, 12th exams ended, and i planned a trek to Rajgad a king of all forts !

Here the second era of trekking started in my life. Seven of us went to the fort with no backup and no guide. It went on very well and we ended up enjoying it to the fullest. And the new fad began. Afterwords, I did many treks during the vacation. I went to Himalayas for the first time.
Ya... so Rajgad was the first trek to renew my trekking interest.

Sometimes i keep on thinking why i like trekking so much? I used to dream of sitting on the fortress of Rajgad, watching the sunset behind the Sanjeevani maachi, after each exam.