Veni Vidi Vici - Purandar Fort Conquered

After we made our unplanned and unfinished trip to Purandar Fort, it seriously deserved another visit. So we backpacked and started towards Saswad through a now familiar road on a Sunday morning during the Ganesh Festival.

The road description can be found at my earlier post. The same ever-so-new greenery and natual beauty once again enthralled us and we were into the lap of nature.

The road towards the fort after the diversion was full of lush green and a cool wind was breezing to soothen the visitors. We reached the Purandar village, paid a small donation to the local Ganesh Puja and proceeded towards the parking of the fort. The narrow road was winding up with hair pin bends through the thick flora. The smell of the wet trees and unspoiled earth gave birth of a typical rustic charm which is surely not to be found in the concrete wilderness.

Once we reached the parking, we headed straight towards the trek route, towards the right from the Shambhaji tomb building. The path was narrow, zigzagging through the forest. After a short and not-so-difficult climb, a cluster of stairs led its way towards the main entrance of the fort.

We halted for 5 minutes here before we proceeded towards the fort. The entire valley through which we travelled was visible - even the tar road appeared at a distance with its serpentile motion. The fortification and bastions were now visible from these point below, under a layer of the monsoon greenery.

After a series of steep stairs we came across the second entrance. Entering through the second entrance on your right will lead you towards the Purandareshwar Temple while walking towards the left you will reach the end of the 'machi' of the fort. From this point Vajragad was also visible with its pride on the adjoining hills.

We proceeded towards the right seeing that majority of the crowd were heading towards this direction. Having passed through the second entrance, we came across a plainland. it was evident that time has taken its toll on the fort. All the fort has buried under the earth and only the fortification and bastions were still standing tall. The valley was covered with small thorny bushes, with wild floweres nodding their heads in the wind, as if they were inviting the crowd to explore the faded glory.

There was a small pond on our way which were used as a drinking water source during the days when the fort was habitated. The trek to the topmost point of the fort, the temple, was a long and arduous one.

The valleys on both the sides were absolutely breathtaking. One can simply sit here and stare down the valley and a do a soul searching as long as possible.

The most of the fort, as I said earlier, is ruined and buried under the earth, so there were not much to see at the top, apart from the boundary walls.

We came back to the second entrance and decided against going towards the end of the machi at the other side, since it was evident that there was abolsolute nothing to see as well. But the machi itself looked gorgeous and splendid from a distance - it was like a scorpion's tail, fully covered beneath a green carpet.

We started descending, again through the same narrow path. We were hungry by the time we came down at the parking place. There was a small tea stall at this place where we had some life saving vada pav and bhel and a much needed bottle of water was consumed.

It was a good 4 hours of relaxing break from our monotonous routine lives. We stopped once again outside the main boundary, to see the fort getting hidden behind the aggressive and fast engulfing fog. From this point the valley down looked marvellous and very alluring for a trek. The roads were running through the heart of the hills, like a gigantic reptile.

Again with a heavy heart, contemplating the schedule about to start from the next day, we bade adieu to Purandar Fort and within an hour we found ourselves confined by the concrete walls.