Masoom was coming to Pune and he told me that he was interested in joining me at the Alang Madan Trek I was planning for the Christmas weekend. But later when he learnt that we would have to do some rock climbing and valley crossing, he said he would not be able to do it this time as he had just fractured his finger when he visited Jog Falls last month. So we thought of trekking another fort for this weekend. We quickly decided on Torna Fort.
Torna Fort, also known as Prachandgad, was the first fort conquered by Sivaji at the age of 16. Located at over 1400m above sea level, it is the highest fort in Pune district.
I reached Swargate bus station at 640am. Masoom too reached in sometime. But we just missed one bus to Velhe village(the base village of Torna Fort). We then had to wait for another hour to get the bus. We left Swargate at 8AM. It took the bus 1Hr45Mins to reached Velhe, which was its last stop too.
We got down and had a quick breakfast at a small restaurant there. We began our trek to the fort after that at around 10:10AM. It was quite sunny then, but a nice cool breeze was blowing. So we didn't feel the heat at all. There were not many guys trekking there on the day. On the way we also met a group coming down after camping there for the night. If you start from Velhe you will enter the fort through the Bini Darwaza". We reached the top in around 1Hr 50 Mins. There are a couple of temples on top. We checked the temples and then went around the fort.
There we met a group of 3 elderly men in their 60s. We spoke to them for sometime, they told us somethings about the fort and offered us some tasty chiwdas and laddoos.They were full of energy and their face did not show any sign of fatigue. They were frequent visitors of the fort. They showed us the ladder that had to be used to get to the 'zunjar machi'.
We went down there, found a nice place and sat down for lunch. Masoom's mom had prepared some very tasty pulav for us. We ate that quickly and rested there for 10 minutes; enjoying the pleasant breeze on top of the fort.
We could see the Raighad fort from Torna. Many people trek cover Raighad and Torna in a single trek. We then returned back to base after taking a few pics. It took us a little over an hour to reach the base. After having some refreshments at the base, we got into a shared jeep that dropped us at the highway from where we could catch a bus to Swargate easily.
The best time to visit Torna, or most of the forts around Pune for that matter, is during the monsoon. I hope to do revisit the fort, and if possible clubbed with Raighad trek.
Other posts that you may want to read:
Torna Fort, also known as Prachandgad, was the first fort conquered by Sivaji at the age of 16. Located at over 1400m above sea level, it is the highest fort in Pune district.
I reached Swargate bus station at 640am. Masoom too reached in sometime. But we just missed one bus to Velhe village(the base village of Torna Fort). We then had to wait for another hour to get the bus. We left Swargate at 8AM. It took the bus 1Hr45Mins to reached Velhe, which was its last stop too.
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| On the way uphill |
There we met a group of 3 elderly men in their 60s. We spoke to them for sometime, they told us somethings about the fort and offered us some tasty chiwdas and laddoos.They were full of energy and their face did not show any sign of fatigue. They were frequent visitors of the fort. They showed us the ladder that had to be used to get to the 'zunjar machi'.
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| Zunjar Machi |
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| Raighad in the background |
The best time to visit Torna, or most of the forts around Pune for that matter, is during the monsoon. I hope to do revisit the fort, and if possible clubbed with Raighad trek.
Other posts that you may want to read:
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