Morgiri was pending on the list for a long time. This weekend when all were busy in their own lives we left for lesser known Morgiri fort which is located in Lonavala. Elevation of this fort is about 3020 feet above sea level and is of easy to medium grade. Base village to this fort is Jambhulne which is approximately 20 kms from Lonavala city. When you are on this route on the right you will encounter a small board of Morgiri Fort. Near this board there a small ground where you can park your vehicle and start the trek from here. But be cautious if you are parking here. We had a bad experience of one drunk man from the nearby house came and was demanding for money. He claimed that he owns the ground and we are liable to pay him parking. And the parking amount was 500 Rs. Understanding that it is a small village and if we can help we were trying to convince him to lessen the amount but the man was not in the state to understand anything. Later after a long heated argument we gave him 20 Rs and left. We could have given him more if his tone of asking was polite and provided he was not drunk. If the money what he was collecting was going for benefit of his family we were keen to help instead this person would have put in alcohol and then create scenes. Doing charity is fine but that charity should not degrade humanity.
Let's get back to the trek; The route to the trek begins from Jambhulne village. So if you are facing the village start from village and post that go towards right and start following the sign board. There are markings made throughout the trek which are subsided now but still quiet valuable to be on trail. A small trail of about 10 mins will take you to Col and from Col again a 10 mins ascend will take you to the plateau. Keep walking straight and you will get the firstglimpse of Morgiri. Keeping going towards the fort on plateau. When approaching Morgiri start going on the right side of the fort to find way to get on the fort else you will be lost on the plateau. You will notice a sign board navigating the way to fort from forest. Except plateau there are sign boards placed through out the trek route.
Once you enter the forest the ascend starts getting steeper then karvi starts and small rock patches with rock cut steps. A decent ascend then leads to rock patch where you can locate 2 water cisterns and temple. The water in cistern on left facing towards rock is consumable. Towards right is the ladder which takes you to rock cut steps and then a small rock patch which is heads to the summit.
Fort top is not huge and does not have any fortification, but has 2 water cistern on top out of which one is dried and other has water which cannot be consumed. You can view Tung, Korigad and the dam from the summit. It took almost 1 & 1/2 hour to reach the summit.
