Jumbo Trek – Rajgad To Raigad

Rajgad – Torna - Raigad via Borotyachi Naal with WTA Pune.
25-27 December, 2015.
Awesome trek arranged by WTA for the hard core trekker who wants to really test his / her endurance, time management and patience. Five of us joined Prasad and two of my friends Ramesh and Rajesh with WTA team at Pune. All of us were excited for this wonderful trek starting from Gunjawane (Base village of Rajgad) and concluding at Durga-Durgeshwar Raigad.
Day 1 : Gunjawne to Pal Khind (Bapuji Bua Khind)
From pune all of us reached Gunjawne at 9:30 and after having breakfast we start ascend to Rajgad and in 2 hrs we reached Rajgad via Chor Darwaja. Prasanna, Puja and Yogita stayed back with bus for arranging lunch and dinner, putting tents for us at next stop while Dipak and Tango accompanied us as co-leaders.. We kept our sacks at Padmavati Devi temple and all of us visited a beautiful Suvela Machi and ‘Nedhe’. Since many of us visited Rajgad earlier Prasad gave us option to visit Balekilla. Half the team choose to visit Balekilla and we choose to explore the beauty of Rajgad and we descend down to Gunjawane Darwaja. Recently rallying is been put at some part on the way to this route but trekker hardly use this route. We capture many beautiful flowers and scenery in our cams and join the team at Padmawati temple for lunch. After having lunch we started towards our first night stay at Pal Khind (Bapuji Bua Khind) on the way to Torna from Alu Darwaza of Sanjivani Machi. Alu darwaza is situated on the left side while heading towards Sanjivani machi. Here we need to take little descend from Alu darwaza to come out of fortification of Sanjivani machi. Then one has to take a traverse from Sanjivani machi from left side and come towards the end of Sanjivani machi and take right. Here, descend from Rajgad begins. While descend down one of our colleague Dr. Vijay remember that he forgot his i-phone near Alu Darwaja, immediately Prasad rush back and luckily there was no other group so he found the phone…..thanks dear. We reached Pal Khind (it is one shanty immediately after you cross tar road on Rajgad Torna route), Prasanna and his team has already set tents for us, immediately we reach the spot they serve us hot soup (What else you want….) and we relaxed that evening enjoying chilled whether, campfire and songs by Bramha. Moon rise from behind Rajgad was just amazing and there are no words to explain the feeling. Dinner was amazing.
Day 2 : Pal Khind (Bapuji Bua Khind) to Mohari village via Torna (Walanjai Devi Darwaja)
Second day of the range is from Pal Khind – Torna – Bhatti – Gelgan wadi Phata – Gelgan Wadi – Harpud - Mohari village near Rayling plateau. Ravi (Tango) gave us wakeup call at 5:00 am and we all get ready by 7:00 am to head towards our next destination Mohari. As Prasad already explained to us that day by day the required endurance is high for this long trek, so we begin our second day early in the morning after having hot noodles and tea at Dhebe mama’s house. We reached Torna (It also called Prachandgad) around 10:00 via Budhla Machi. It was a straight route passes through small hills. After visiting Mengai temple, Hanuman Buruj, Zunjarmal Machi we had plenty of butter milk and headed towards Walanjai Devi Darwaja for descending towards Bhatti village. This route is extremely steep and slippery, there are strong karbi stems on the both sides of the route for support It takes us around 2 hrs to reach Bhatti village. Yogita, Puja and Prasanna kept a very nice lunch ready for all of us. Thanks you Yogita and Puja for giving us this awesome and testy treat. We relax a little and headed towards Mohari Villlage. We took bus till Gelgan wadi Phata and started our journey towards Mohari village. This is the point if you descend from Torna via Chitta Darwaja which is not in use and chances of missing your route are more. Our plan was to reach Mohari village and camping at Rayling Plateau and to experience sun set behind Lingana, but somehow we could not do so. Till we reach Mohari it was 7:00 pm. Tents was already set by support team, we had dinner and after camp fire we all went to sleep.
Day 3 :Mohari to Raigad
As usual Tango gave us wakeup call and we get ready for the long day trek from Mohari to Raigad. Since Rajesh had some urgent work, he decided to stay back for going to Pune, so early morning I took him up along with Ramesh to Rayling plateau and show them Lingana which I did it with WTA last year. It gives superb view of fort Lingana and fort Raigad towards right. Lingana fort is next to Rayling plateau, considered to be one of the toughest forts in Sahyadri due to its steep and risky exposure. The way to boratyachi naal descend is at the entry of Rayling plateau. Rajesh went back to Mohari village and after 15 minutes entire team join us at Rayling plateau and after group photo we start descend Boratyachi Naal which is very steep and with loose rocks. One has to be very careful while descending. At one point you will find bolt on right side where you have to take traverse towards right for Lingana base.  Rope was already fixed by Prasad for crossing this traverse. After the narrow patch, there is a small route that goes straight along the wall of Rayling plateau on its right and, valley on the left.  Once you reach to the point where Lingana ascend starts, we have to descend slippery path towards Lingan machi. After descending the rock patch from Lingana base, you will get narrow route on left. This can be tricky to identify, and hence one needs to be accompanied by a person who is familiar with these routes. From this joint you will reach Lingan machi within an hour. First you will reach old Lingana machi which is rehabilitated a kilometer away by government due to falling rocks from Lingana.
We took some rest at Lingana machi and headed towards Pane village. Entre route is from fields and you need to cross Kaal river. On back side we get huge view of Lingana and on left side was Raigad. After reaching Pane we had some snacks and headed towards Chhatri Nizampur. This route really tests our patience as it was sunny afternoon and the route was raw road and was boring. On reaching Chhatri Nizampur, we took bus to reach Raigad wadi which is a base of Raigad via Chitta Darwaja. We visited Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Samadhi and Jagadishwar Temple. Trek was concluded with beautiful ‘Alavani’ by Bramha followed by an awesome Shivgarjana by Ravi (Tango).
After having dinner at the base we started towards our destinations with countless memories…….. Tango made our return journey memorable with his dance and acting…..it was refreshment to all of us…. Cheers to all WTA trekkers…and thanks to Prasad for arranging such an beautiful trek backed by his co-team Prasanna, Puja, Yogita, Dipak and Tango…because of you guys we all can complete this huge, Challenging and endurance testing trek without any hassle……cheers to all….waiting for such treks with tea WTA…..