Torna (Prachandagad)

This trek was different as the whole responsibilty lied with me. I didnt knew the path, place nothing. Actually the problem started when I had to select a place for the weekend's trek. I had missed Torna last month. So as the decision was mine I selected it. Took some tips from Vaibhav n Shrikanth. By Friday EOD I had 9 names with me for the trek. The interesting part was my brother and his 9 frnds joining for the trek Saturday morning. So total 20 people. But they were supposed to arrive from Mumbai at around 1:00 a.m Saturday. But the logistics went totally wrong.

Saturday 13th Sep :-

I got a call from my brother at 3:30 a.m. He said he has alighted at some place which seemed as Vishal nagar and was asking for the way to my home. I was in very bad shape as my sleep wasnt complete and had some stomach acidity problem. But again they had came first time in Pune though they were 10 together. So instead of leavin them on their way I got ready and picked them up (I mean met them and showed the way). They were pretty sure that they are not coming for trek. Saurabh had already intimated his denial last eve. So at the end (I mean for the trek) we were total 7. Vaijan, Pushkar, Pawan, Aditya ,me with Parin and prashant joining us at base village.

So, out of the 10(my brother's frnds) of them 5 immediately went to sleep with a plan that having a quick nap and then get ready for Dagdusheth Ganpati. Rest of us decided to pass the time playing cards. I too joined them as I also had to leave for the trek. I started following up for people from 5:15 a.m. Everybody was awake by the time and did reached well ahead of time for 7:30 a.m bus to Velhe - base village for Torna.The extra time was well utilised for introduction. Aditya, me n Vaijan were together for Bhimashankar. Pushkar and Pawan were the new comers. The journey till Velhe went very nice narrating previous trek experiences of Pawan and Pushkar.

We reached Velhe at 9:30 a.m. We had just started our brkfast when Parin and Prashant reached. Pawan had really dressed up for a picnic rather than trek. We started our trek at 10:10 a.m. As per the logistics from the previous trek we were targeting the 4:30p.m bus back to Swargate. The path towards the Tornagad is pretty straight. Just you have to take care to reach a water stream which you come across at start properly. Its about 10 mins from the village. Rest you can never get lost; except if you are too enthusiastic to try something new. Usually there are lots of groups going for trek over there on weekends. A small group of 5 people were visible ahead of us when we strtae for it.

The initial climb of 45 mins is very steep and it takes hell out of your body. I was literally praying for rain out of the exhaustion. After half an hour we just looked down to check the height and were awestruck to see a big flock of people marching down the same route towards us. I called for our people to just run ahead as we would have been easily got lost in such a big group if we separated. Some of the leads and the fit ones from that group soon caught us. They informed us that they were from a near by college and full college had came for the trek with around 100 people.

Some intersting twists:-

Later on the race continued between us the whole trek. Sometimes they used to go across us and sometimes we backed them off. But we managed to stay together. And I think GOD did answered my prayers and it started raining. But I am not sure it was a boon or punishment as the rain drops were falling just horizontal to us at that particular height due to strong winds. The wind was so strong it would have surely carried away a lean person with it. The rain was slapping hard on our faces. Really yaar .... I didnt got slapped so much even in my school days ...... Neways we were trying hard to walk straight in such severe conditions.

The record :-

I dont know but just to escape from this conditions or what we were pretty fast during the climb. We soon arrived at the so called railings. They were really helpfull as the rains had made the steps and the path very slippery. We sometimes had to hang on to the railings to get support. Ohh ya I forgot to mention the special travellers with us. Usually during the trek there are atmost couple of dogs following/leading us. But here there were around 6 of them with us. The path at the end is very narrow and slippery. These dogs were really irritating us by getting in our feet in such narrow paths. Neways that made it funny and interesting. Also the college group was also with us to add spice with their own youth comments and jokes - Not that we are old but just that we are now trained to behave decently with responsibilty ;-) while the group was just like a free flowing river without any fear and worries.

As we were reaching the top the force of rain reduced. At the top what remained was just a dense fog where you were not able to see even at a distance of 4 feets. There was a single hut on the top where we ordered for some tea and then did proceed towards the temple. We were surprised to see one of the college guys in the temple. We had passed all of them behind but didnt even noticed when this guy went ahead of us and reached so early. We then noticed that we were also pretty fast and instead of reaching according to the schedule in 3 hours we reached by 12:15p.m in just 2 hours. Now the situation was we had lots of time and nothing to see as everything was covered in fog. So after visiting the temple of Lord Tuljabhavani we came back towards the hut and had tea. Each of us took around 3 cups of tea each.

After warming up with cups of tea we just roamed around the place without any intentions.By the time the college group had also arrived. When we reached back the hut we were greeted with a group of 15 other guys and soon with 50 youngsters of MIT Pune who with them had bought all the equipments of camping. We were just relaxing when we saw that the college group had started leaving. I just thought of the way ahead - very steep and narrow. It did strike me that if we didnt went ahead of them then we will sure get stuck. So we just started running ahead of them. And soon it happened. There was a patch ahead where the girls just couldnt get down comfortably and it created a hellava traffic. It really reminded me of our Hinjewadi traffic. :-). Just to add the delay we came across a small waterfall. But that was enough for us and me and parin entered removing our clothes. A quick bath and by then the college group went ahead of us. Prashant had sprained his leg so was a bit uncomfortable.

Record Again :-

Later on it was pretty steep path down the hill. Vaijan, me, pushkar and Pawan were together moving ahead while Parin adn Prashant were busy cliking snaps with Aditya. But then what happened I didnt know but me and Vaijan just ran away down the hill. Soon we came across the harsh rains once again. Then we realised that we were actually above(maybe in) the clouds so didnt got the rains up on the fort. But we were just running down the hill going past the college group.In that fast run I did fell once and became a reason for laugh of the college girls walking besides. I felt real embarassed. But then they assured that they too had fell down before twice . :-).We reached down the hotel pretty early and noticed that we did broke the record again. We reached in 1.5 hours compared to 2 hours as scheduled. We were down by 3:15 p.m.The hotel person was so surprised that he asked " Didn't you completed the trek? Did you backed off in between?" :-) :-).

By the time me n Vaijan had couple of Wada pAv's. Pawan, Aditya and Pushkar arrived at 3:45p.m. We waited for Parin and Prashant till 4:10 p.m and then started for the lunch. They also arrived soon and joined us. We took a jeep (the press waali). We reached Swargate at 6:30p.m.We did scattered to our places soon with promise to meet on the next trek.

It was indeed a short trek but did consisted of all the adventures and thrills which a trek should have. This is why I think everybody likes to visit Torna again and again.

Details:

Team : 07

Route: Swargate > Old Katraj > Bhor > VelhI village > Torna

Distance: 65kms

Altitude: ~4,600 FT above MSL

Time : Uphill: 2hrs Downhill:2hrs [Monsoon]

Transport: Swargate - VelhI [ ST: 06:30am, 07:30am ] VelhI - Swargate [ ST: 04:30pm, 05:30pm ].

Expenses: Rs 150 Approx.

Stay: One day / Overnight [ Accommodation available in temple - Believe you've got to take the keys from the base village] - For us it was already open.

Best time to visit: Monsoon!

Endurance: Medium Difficulty : Medium

Misc. Details: Torna aka Prachandgad is believed to be the first fort conquered by Shivaji after he vowed for swaraj at Raireshwar. The vastness of the fort led to it being named Pranchandgad.