A trek to Bhaje Caves and Lohagad

Bhaje Caves
Eighteen Buddhist caves of first century BC located at the foothill of Lohgad fort. The last cave to the south has excellent sculptures including that of the famous `Dancing Couple`.

Lohagad (”the Iron fort“)
Shivaji captured it in 1648 AD, but he was forced to surrender it to the Mughals in 1665 AD by the Treaty of Purandar. Shivaji recaptured the fort in 1670 AD and used it for keeping his treasury.

Treklog
It was sunday. With nothing to do and boredom getting out of control, me and prasad chalked up an impromptu plan to trek to Lohagad. It was decided that we would go by train and i duly gathered all the details. Later, i learnt that Vaibhav and Prasad had come up with a plan to go by road, in his car. “All the better”, i thought.

Wrong. Vaibhav canceled at the 11th hour and we were stranded at Prasad’s house! After some heavy Xboxing, we got online to check for trains or other modes of transport, but we came up with a blank. Arun suggested “We can always go to panvel and come back”. “I would rather stay here and play on the XBOX”, i said. Tired, and disappointed at the turn of events, we drifted off to sleep…

Early sunday morning, we left Prasad’s place at 0300hrs, only to find that there was no transportation to get us to Seawoods railway station. Well… the trek had begun…

Later, we caught a train from Seawoods to Vashi and then, a bus from Vashi to Lonavla. A couple of hours later we were standing at Lonavala railway station. From here we caught a local train to Malavli. The secenery enroute, promised me of green mountains and valleys beyond…

Once we reached Malavli, we hailed an auto to Bhaje village. So far, everything was working out like clockwork. The rickshaw driver informed us that Lonavala had received showers recently and that the waterfalls were in full flow. We were overjoyed! From Bhaje village, we trekked up the mountain to Bhaje caves.

When we arrived, we were in awe of the marvelous architecture of the rock cut Buddhist temple and the quarters built around it. It was calm here. One could hear the noise of the wind and the water trickling off the mountain top. We wondered about the time when buddhist monks lived here, cut off from the rest of the world, in peaceful solitude. We could visualize them going about their routine day by day, observing the strict discipline they are often associated with.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-8517304116233398746]

After spending a few moments(and pictures) here, we walked along the pass to the other mountain and got on the trail to Lohagad.

Soon after we started walking, i looked back at prasad, who had been trailing behind us. He gave me a “oh dam!” kind of look. At this point, a scary thought ran across my mind that we might not make it all the way to the top, but i did not show it on my face. To my relief, after that point, he moved in constant pace, slowly and steadily, not once complaining.

After walking for a couple of hours we had arrived at Lohagaon, the base village at Lohagad. Here, there are several small stalls setup by locals that provide you with steaming hot bhakri, bhurji pav, tea, etc.

From here, the climb to lohagad took around 45 minutes. The climb was breathtakingly beautiful, and the climate made it only better. We were surrounded with dreamy clouds of fog. Every thing around us was covered in greenery, including the walls and stone strairs. Small waterfalls littered the stone cut mountain, all the way to the top, giving the caves cut into the stone a water curtain like appearance.

As soon as we were on the top platue, we were welcomed with heavy rain and gutsy winds. I could have sworn the wind could easily carry away small animals. It was becoming increasingly difficult to see anything. We found a small stone temple and glued our backs to it and waited for the rains to thin out. It was not helping, the rains still lashed at us. Suddenly, out of no where we heard a voice. “Come over to this side, its better here…”. Prasad peeped over the edge and moved over, Arun followed, and finally i moved over to see an elderly person standing with his back to the wall, who like us was also caught up in nature’s fury. He was right, it was indeed, better on this side.

Have you ever seen water flowing upwards?

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-3588439166319424158]

After a while, the rains thinned out and we moved out to explore the other areas of the fort. After spending what seems like eternity on the top, we decided to descend. Now, we had another problem. After the rains thinned out, heavy fog had started rolling in. Nevertheless, we decided to keep moving. After we had covered one third the distance, the rains returned, and this time, we decided to find shelter and stay put for good.

We found shelter in a cave. I peeped down and i could not see the next flight of steps due to the fog. I called Arun and Prasad to come check it out. I had never seen fog like this before in my life. It was an amazing experience.

When finally the rains thinned out, we continued our descend. After 45 mins, we were at the base village, trembling, shivering and chattering due to the cold winds. After having some steaming hot bhakri and tea at the village, we began to walk back to Bhaje village. After two hours, we were standing at lonavala station, cooling our heels, waiting for the train to come take us back to bombay.

We bade our good bye’s to the mountains, as our train zoomed past them. Untill next time…