Koraigad

Hmmm, back again with new one but with Koraigad this time n not Kalsubai as promised ... slight change in plans neways.

Americans are really gud yaar, Friday was a holiday so was frsh and sound for Saturday's trek. Earlier got a call that there are as many as 25 people for trek .... hmmm quite nice!

5th July Saturday:

Srikanth called me at 6:00a.m to wake me though I got up at 6:30. Got ready soon as we had to leave by 7:00 and then called Apeksha and to my surprise mam was still sleeping ...... Now what - as usual late! Started at 7:15 n somehow managed to reach by 7:50 for the train which was at 7:55 a.m. U know .. I always make it up :-).

The plan was to go to Lonavla by Local train and then take some transport till Shivpur village which forms the base for Koraigad. We reached Lonavla by around 9:30 a.m. We were soon greeted by light showers, had a heavy brkfast n marched for aranging some means for transport.Abhijeet,Rahul and Vaibhav with couple others tried deliberaltely with the drivers and managed to get 2 way journey for 25 people at 1.5K. Myself with Nikunj and Vaibhav enjoyed the elite ride of Sumo with the 7 girls as their caretakers :-D while the others hurled themselves in truck. Dont worry everybody got a chance for it later.

Stairway to Heaven
The base point is around 30 kms fom Lonavla- we reached there in less than hour. The way towards was just like Stairway To Heaven. The road is very nice but with n no. of U and S turns and full of clouds. You cant even see after a mere 4-5 feet distance. On the way we come across Bushi Dam, Tiger Point and Lions point. We have to take the way towards Amby Valley to reach the village. The site of the Koraigad seems to be difficult. I mean the mountain seems to be full rocky. But as we started the path was too simple. Even a primary kid can be able to do it. We reached the top in less than half hour and we were at approx. 3000 ft above MSL.

As soon as you reach the peak you will be awe struck to find a land fully stretched for about 1.5Km with 2-3 frsh water ponds which are not even minutely spoilt. The breeze over there was too strong which took away my cap right in one of the ponds. This was my first reason to enter in the water (cant go if u dont know the statistics). Soon Abhijeet n Shrikanth followed me with no reason and tried hard to dip me in but to no success. We then had a nice round along the borders of fort. The view which u get is just awesome. The rain droplets seems to come up (instead of down :-O), the clouds walk alongwith you. The walk continued till we saw a very tempting fresh water pond (tempting - in a sense to get in it). Abhijeet and Srikant went in it first this time. Rest of us soon joined - we did N number of tricks right from racing, forming pyramids,diving from each others head and so on....This was the best part of the trek. Swimming in ice-cold water with heavy rains from above was just the best.

When you go around the lines of fort - after reaching the opposite end you see a top-view of the Sahara Amby valley. the township is really nice to see - neatly planned small hut shaped houses with a lush green landscapes around, a flight runway nearby with a helipad etc. The whole area (about the peak) makes it a visit worthwhile.

WayBack:

At the base we had a quick tea session.Ya n this time I had the previlage to travel by truck. :-) This time again Abhijeet and Srikant took their standing seat :-O . We did halt at tiger point whr I exchanged the place with Srikant.We did halt at
Bushi Dam for some snacks. Most of us gave up the idea to visit the dam seeing the jammed pack crowd. We waited too long for others to come back I think coz by then our sumo had left us with no other option other than to climb the truck.As I said this time everybody got the honours to have the pleasant ride.

We just made in time for the 5:15 p.m train to Pune.But 8 of us(not me) had to remain down due to their sillyness. Some intelligent ones tore down their tickets thinking that it was one-way (it was a return journey tick). We had a nice time in train hearing some very old and some new one pj's by Bhavna,Nikunj and Vishal.

One incident I would like to narrate - NOM for Rahul. At a particular PJ Rahul went laughing so hard that he nearly fell down on a old lady's lap. She was very old and couldnt handle Rahul and abused him. But some of us due to language problem didnt understood the situation and continued to make fun of Rahul. The lady felt very humiliated. A couple of us who understood Marathi tried to sort it out. But felt really bad .. neways it happens.

All in all a short, simple and sweet trek? - OK picnic to enjoy natures beauty.

Details:
Team : 25
Route: Pune - Lonavala - Shivpur village - Koraigad
Distance: Approx 30kms from lonavala town
Time : Uphill: 30mins Downhill: 15minutes.
Transport: Preferably hire a cab
Expenses: Rs 150 - Rs 200
Best time to visit: Monsoon!
Endurance: low Difficulty : low