Tourist Attractions and Places near Pune and Mumbai

This is a great place to go for a one day trip from either Mumbai or Pune due to the following reasons

• The Location: A plateau with unhindered views on all sides with a view of many other forts and dams
• Drive to the location: Cross all of Lonavala’s famous view points and get to the fort through some wonderful roads OR do some adventurous driving and go through remote backroads from Mulshi
• The Trek: An easy trek of around an hour. It took us a little more with two 3 yr old kids, drink breaks and lot of photo breaks. The trek has it all – open path, an optional shortcut through a dense jungle and a flight of stairs at the end
• The Fort: Though nothing much remains of the fort, the walls of the fort are intact and you can walk on the wall for the entire circumference of around 2 km (we didn’t, though)

How to go to Korigad fort (also known as Koraigad fort) from Pune: Korigad fort is right next to the Aamby valley city and very close to Tung Fort. You have to cross Lonavala and then keep driving towards Aamby valley. The base village for this fort is Peth-Shahpur. If you start early, you can stopover at the various Lonavala points like Bushi Dam, Lions Point and the shivling peak. Lonavala traffic is very bad , at least on the one main road. So, better to go into Lonavala pretty early in the day. See at the bottom of this post for an alternative route/round trip

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Once you drive down the ghat section after the lions point and keep going for another 15-20 minutes, the hill of korigad fort should appear on your left. There is nothing else this tall in this area, so you shouldn’t miss it. There is an open area just below the hill for parking. It is just another open area, but there are touts there who demand money (and give receipts too!) saying that it is the official parking for Korigad fort. They charge Rs.20 for a bike and Rs.50 for a car. I probably could park on the middle of M.G.Road for a cheaper amount!/p>

If you want to save few hundred metres off the trek, then drive on the road to the left (just before the hill) and park near a temple (not sure abt the parking place). A path from this temple directly joins the trail. Along the normal route, you start from the parking lot, go towards the tower and then continue on. The initial path can become very slippery in case of rain and it is the path through the water flows and is very muddy. But, not something to worry about.

The path goes around the back of the hill and then your start climbing. So, the trail is not visible from the road or the parking lot. Once you cross the initial stretch, the path turns a sharp right and you start to go towards the back of the hill parallel to the bottom. After some distance, you start to see small lamp posts. These have been erected by the Sahara group to aid trekkers , as Korigad is a popular night trekking destination. When you see the first such lamp post to your right. you have two options. You can continue straight on which will take you amidst few bungalows and then take a u-turn to go up or you can just start climbing the hill right at the base of the lamp posts. It looks steep, but is not. This short-cut is an enjoyabale 10 min climb through some dense lush growth – almost resembling a rain forest.

Then come the stairs. Initially, they start off pretty ok, but the last stretch is a bit steep. But the last stretch is not too long. Also, there is a viewpoint with a big resting area. Once you cross the stairs and pass through the main darawaza, you are on top of the hill. Once you are on the stairs, you get a good view of the development in Aaamby valley city.

The main darwaza covered in moss (during monsoons) is a great sight.There were also lot of monkeys around this point.

Once on top of the plateau, if you have the interest, you can spend hours enjoying the view on all sides. The fort walls are intact and you can walk all along the wall. The top also has two fresh water ponds (another blogger said that they are good for swimming, though we didn’t try) and couple of temples. There are also many intact cannons on top.

The way down (same as the way going up) was fast and easy and took less than an hour. It also rained when we were coming down and it was fun trying to fit all of us and two kids into the 2 kids umbrellas we carried with us! All of us enjoyed the trek including the kids, as can be seen in this photo (from a photo session) taken after the trek.

There is another route to reach Korigad from Pune. You can either go through this route or make it a round trip by returning on this. But this route is remote and not advisable late into the evening. If you have been to Mulshi or Tamhini Ghat , you would have come to a fork before Mulshi and you would have taken the left. The road on the right goes to Ghusalkhamb, which is actually the base village for Tung fort. If you go to Korigad from Lonavala, you will pass this village before you reach Peth-Shahpur. But, i have read on many forums that the road condition is 50-50, whatever that means! A third route exists, that from beyond Mulshi. After crossing Mulshi and towards Tamhini, there is a road sign to the right marked as Lonavala. This goes through lot of interior roads and reaches Korigad fort and then onto lonavala. I have seen this road being mentioned only on biker forums and the reviews says this unspoilt road is amazing during the monsoons. Drop in a comment if you have been on any of these routes.

written by Rajaram S

Tikona fort, also known as Vitandgad, is one of the easier forts to climb and would be a good introductory, yet interesting trek. The fort is close to Pavana Dam. The fort is on top of a ~3500 foot hill and offers unhindered views of the entire region including the forts of Tung, Lohagad and Visapur.

How to go to Tikona Fort from Pune (Magarpatta): Go towards Swargate, then tilak Road, karve Road and then Paud Road which will take you to Chandni Chowk. Then go in the direction of Mulshi/Tamhini. You will first cross Pirangut (Ghat) and then reach Paud Village. You have to take a right towards Pawna dam in this village. There are signs marked as Tikona/Pavana for this turn. After this, it is one long straight road until you start seeing Pavana dam on your left. Here you will see signboards for Tikona. You have to take a right towards Tikona Peth, the base village. the distance is approx 70 kms and should take you approx 2 hrs to reach there. Other alternate route is through NH4-Kamshet-Pavana-Tikona.

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There are 2 paths to trek up. One starts right behind the houses in Tikona Peth. This is the slightly tougher, but shorter, one and can be avoided if you have newbies in the crowd. To reach the other path, you have to go ahead of the village on the dusty road for around 0.5 km and you will reach a clearly marked parking spot. From this place, a path goes in the direction opposite to the one where you see the fort. It is because this path is a gradual switchback which goes up and turns 180 and then stedily climbs towards the fort.

This is an easy trek because of many factors. One is the presence of a clearly marked trail. The other is the presence of many shelters/small caves after you are halfway up on the trail. Once you go up the initial slope and turn towards the fort, you are on a ledge with valleys on either side. You keep walking on this ledge for quite a while before you reach the base of the hill on which the actual fort resides.

At one point, you will enter a darwaza(gate). There is an overhanging tree next to it. This makes for an excellent photo stop.

Around the halfway point, you will see a shall shrine and also a cave. If you had taken the other path, you would have reached this place. After this, the paths converge. There is also the remnant of a stone grinder, the kind pulled around by animals. From this point, the final (and a little steep) ascent to the top begins.

The final stretch called “Shivaji Trail” has recently been restored and hand railings have been added on the steep sections. The steps are split into 2 sections. There is a viewpoint at the end of the first stretch. If you wander to the sides, you can see small caves which are again good photo spots with Tung Fort in the background.

The stairs are steep, no denying that. Each step is much bigger than a regular step and it is broken at many places. But, the good part is that the entire stretch is in shade and is not more than 15-20 steps. This part would easily be the talking point when you get back home. There are steel ropes attached at the sides to help you climb. Do not hold on to them! if you do, you will get your knuckles scraped against the rough stone walls. Instead, just put your palms on the stone walls for support. Again, a photographically beautiful place. We spent a lot of time in crossing this as everyone wanted photos in all sorts of poses. Check out the video to get a better idea of the difficulty/ease of the stairs.

There is not much of the fort remaining except a few walls and gates here and there. Once you reach the top of the plateau, the view is amazing. It should be pretty cold in the winter months as there is nothing around the plateau and the wind is pretty strong. From here, you get an excellent view of Tung Fort with Pavana dam in the foreground. One can also see Lohagad and Visapur forts from the top.

The way down was much faster and of course, we stopped for more photos on the steps An enjoyable trek with colleagues!

written by Rajaram S

The original plan was for a trek to Purandar fort with everyone from the management team. At the end, that too after last minute threats, we were a group of three guys and a 5 yr old kid. But this didn’t stop us from having fun. The 5 yr old was on his first trek and he enjoyed it.

If you want the route to Purandar from Pune and more details on the trek, go to my original post on the trek i did during the monsoon. Though it was well past the monsoon, the weather was very pleasant for the short climb. We started at 6 from Pune and at around 7, when we started the climb, the top of the hill was covered in mist.

The little one kept us entertained. the highlight was this comment that he made. His dad (Copy t-shirt) kept on saying “See, that is very easy” before every slope or gap that needed to be crossed. After a while, the kid got frustrated and commented, “Stop saying so. it may be easy from your point of view, but not from mine!”. of course, he was constantly asking whether there would be tigers inside the bushes!

Once on top of the plateau, we took a small break before intending to embark on the further 30 min walk to the fort. What started as a break turned out to be the end of the trek. After 2 attempts, i am yet to visit the actual fort. On both the occasions, my last stop has been the chai shop! So, this was the issue. We start off with a chai and then go on to a Bhel and then to a Kandha Bhaji plate and then close it with a chai. By that time, we start discussing that we have had enough and it was time for us to return. It happened on both the occasions. Maybe next time, i should skip this shop. The video below shows how the kid managed the trek easily and also how Nikhil almost caused a landslide.

written by Rajaram S