I was looking for a place nearby from our Pune home for a very short trek. After some research I found that Malhargad Fort is around 35 kms from my place. A short trek from Sonori village near Dive ghat will take me to the fort.
On a Sunday noon after an early lunch the two of us started at around 12 pm by bike for Malhargad. We carried a lot of water as there is no water at the fort. Through GPS I searched Sonori Village and started our journey. After crossing dive ghat, from Pune-Saswad road we took a left turn to reach Sonori village as per GPS. The road was in a very bad condition in the village. We could see the fort from this village at the top of a hill. We were looking for the base where we were expecting to see more vehicles parked being a Sunday noon. We knew fellow travelers like us must have parked their vehicles somewhere at the base so that we can follow them and start trekking from there. After following the directions given by the locals we reached a place which was the base of the fort hill. We saw just another car being parked there. So we were kinda sure that we can park our bike there and start climbing :). We parked our bike beside the lone car. It took us around one and a half hour to reach to the base from Pune home. We could see noone around, also none climbing the fort. The place was very much deserted. We started our climb. We climbed for around 15-20 minutes towards right just to realize that there is no route there leading to the top. We again climbed back and started climbing uphill through another route. There was no defined paths. So we had to climb with our own routes. We finally reached the top in another 20-30 minutes and it was the entrance to the fort. There were some 10-15 people there. There was nothing much in the fort other than some wells and two temples. We enjoyed the magnificent views from the fort, the breeze, the valley. After spending sometime there we started our trek downhill from the back side of the fort. We saw from the top that this side there are more cars and bikes parked at the base and also other people were trekking downhill through this way. We realized that normally people take this route. This route was easier. But then our bike was parked at the other direction. So we gradually started moving to the other direction downhill. We reached the base and started our way back to Pune.
After reaching the Pune-Saswad road from the village, we stopped at a restaurant called Garva Family Garden to have some snacks. There were quite a few dhaba kind of restaurants at this road towards Pune. We reached home by 6 pm.
It was a short weekend trip and we loved it more because it was a place free from commercialization and exploring our own ways to the fort was fun :).
On a Sunday noon after an early lunch the two of us started at around 12 pm by bike for Malhargad. We carried a lot of water as there is no water at the fort. Through GPS I searched Sonori Village and started our journey. After crossing dive ghat, from Pune-Saswad road we took a left turn to reach Sonori village as per GPS. The road was in a very bad condition in the village. We could see the fort from this village at the top of a hill. We were looking for the base where we were expecting to see more vehicles parked being a Sunday noon. We knew fellow travelers like us must have parked their vehicles somewhere at the base so that we can follow them and start trekking from there. After following the directions given by the locals we reached a place which was the base of the fort hill. We saw just another car being parked there. So we were kinda sure that we can park our bike there and start climbing :). We parked our bike beside the lone car. It took us around one and a half hour to reach to the base from Pune home. We could see noone around, also none climbing the fort. The place was very much deserted. We started our climb. We climbed for around 15-20 minutes towards right just to realize that there is no route there leading to the top. We again climbed back and started climbing uphill through another route. There was no defined paths. So we had to climb with our own routes. We finally reached the top in another 20-30 minutes and it was the entrance to the fort. There were some 10-15 people there. There was nothing much in the fort other than some wells and two temples. We enjoyed the magnificent views from the fort, the breeze, the valley. After spending sometime there we started our trek downhill from the back side of the fort. We saw from the top that this side there are more cars and bikes parked at the base and also other people were trekking downhill through this way. We realized that normally people take this route. This route was easier. But then our bike was parked at the other direction. So we gradually started moving to the other direction downhill. We reached the base and started our way back to Pune.
After reaching the Pune-Saswad road from the village, we stopped at a restaurant called Garva Family Garden to have some snacks. There were quite a few dhaba kind of restaurants at this road towards Pune. We reached home by 6 pm.
It was a short weekend trip and we loved it more because it was a place free from commercialization and exploring our own ways to the fort was fun :).
