Sinhgadh Fort

Visit to Sinhagadh crystallized on the night of 26th June 2009, at Kalyani Nagar, Pune. With Sandwiches in breakfast we started for Sinhgadh Fort.

The route

The route out from Kalyani Nagar, took us through swargate via khadakvasala, the place known for NDA (National Defence Academy). We navigated out of busy traffic of pune towards the foothills of Sinhgadh.

As we progressed up, the road was getting narrower. The drive is an experience interwoven with sharp turns and steep climb, had all the reciepe for the thrill and excitement. Around mid of the hill we faced a truck coming form opposite direction, we had to reverse a bit to make room for the truck to passby.

We rolled down the windows to enjoy the clouds and breeze as we were driving up the hill. We encountered loads of youngsters zooming past us on their bikes and strenghtening their riding skills.



Entire drive up the hill gave us breath taking view of the Sahyadris (the mountain range dotting the western ghats of India). We took the liberty of stopping the car and taking a walk amongst the cloud.

History of Sinhgadh Fort
The present day Sinhgadh Fort was known as Kondhana Fort, when it was first constructed in 14th century. While the fort had been of strategic importance since it was built, it is now best know in Indian History as well as folk lore, for the "Battle of Sinhgadh".

Chhatrapati Shivaji was the founder of great Maratha empire. The greatest guerrilla fighter of his days, Shivaji formed an empire bu winning territory from his enemies, who always outnumbered his forces by atleast 5:1.

Shivaji's trusted lieutenant, Tanaji led the attack on Sinhgadh to take the control. Heroic rock climbing, surprise element of the attack led to the victory of forces of Chhatrapati Shivaji. However he lost Tanaji in the battle.

On the receipt of information about fort falling to his forces and the loss of one of his greatest lieutenant, Shivaji lamented " Gadh aala pan sinh gela" , meaning The fort is captured but lion is gone. Since that day the fort came to be known as Sinhgadh (The lions fort)

Trekking info

Elevation: 800 meters above sea level
Distance from pune: 25 kms

One can trek from Donaje to top of the fort.

How to Reach

Sinhgadh can be accessed from Pune Bus Station

Nearest Railhead: Pune Junction Railway Station.

Cultural capital "Pune"

Start Point : CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai
26th June 2009 a very pleasant morning, i could see a cosy forthcoming weekend and also a trip to the cultural capital of Maharashtra. Yes your guess is right i am talking about Pune. By the time we organized ourself it was already noon time, hence decided to have the lunch and take a stroll on Mumbai Pune EXPRESSWAY. A wonder which has reduced the distance between Mumbai and Pune.


Checked the windscreen water level, engine oil level and tyre pressure. And we were on the highway at 13:15hrs. It as cloudy and pleasant as i peep out of window, on my left see a big board of Mcdonald which was 10kms from our start point.

As we enter expressway, the feel of road through the tyres of my car is ecstatic. I go down the memory lane few years back when this expressway had attracted lots of attention of environmentalists. It is true any human intervention in the natures creation has issues to be addressed. Development and Destruction seem to go hand in hand. I jerk out of my thoughts with the first sight of clouds kissing the sahyadri hills around 20 kms from CBD Belapur on my left side of the highway.

The first tunnel named BHATAN Tunnel came after 24.5 kms of drive, the tunnel is 1.1 kms long. Beautifully lit, still gives a feeling of blankness, as you enter, however before my feelings settle we emerge out of the tunnel in bright cloudy day on the highway. The speed limit is 80 kms/hr but vehicles zoom past us as if challenging us for a race. We did'nt get tempted and contuinued our journey when we encounter 2nd tunnel MADAP tunnel at 36.3 kms from CBD Belapur.

The is no free ride in this life, we realized this when we encountered 1st Toll at 44 kms from CBD Belapur. We took the receipt for Rs 140/- to Pune. This was the place from where lonavala was 19kms. This is a picturque getaway for most mumbaiites.

We did'nt take the exit to lonavala and zoomed on the serpentine road towards pune, the old mumbai pune highway keeps reminding us of its existence many times on the way. We saw the old highway crossing us at 90 degrees overhead at around 45kms from CBD Belapur.

While crossing Khandala Hills saw some of the monkeys enjoying the sight of expressway. They live here and we come there for some moments. The sight of highway was beautiful. Nicely maintained highway.



We checked up at 1st food mall to refill our coffee quota and tit bits. There is HP fuel pump for the vehicles needing to do the update on fuel.

Started our journey to pune crossing two more tunnels on the way and finally exited the expressway around 100kms from CBD. Then merged seamlessly into the crowd of Pune.

Our night happened at a friends place in Kalayani Nagar, near Koregaon Park, Pune.


Total Distance Travelled. 180 kms from CBD to Kalyani Nagar Pune.

Travel in the first rain

The opportunity to move from one location to another is the thrill attached with my job of consulting. This journey was from Navi Mumbai, C.B.D Belapur to Vapi. C.B.D Belapur has been established as a 21st century Satellite town of Navi Mumbai. Surrounded by sahyadri hills, during monsoon the beauty of these hills soothes the nerves fried by preceding summer. This day was special one. We started at 6 a.m for the destination Vapi. The serpentine Thane Belapur road was surprisinglysmooth and helped us exiting to Mumbai Ahmedabad highway. We slipped out of town amongst the greetings of rain drops brielfy drizzling on the way as if welcoming and motivating us to go further.

The journey till our breakfast joint at Kamaths near Manor on the Ahmedabad highway was bit snoozy, but could'nt miss the striking white clouds smiling on us hanging very close to earth suspended effortlessly. I was amazed at the might and softness of these clouds who move from one corner of this earth to another only with one agenda, cooling down the temperature and returining the water received during the summer.

It took us four hours to reach the destination, with a little traffic jam near the border of Maharashtra & Gujarat.

The highways were in good shape and running four lane all through as if inviting us to embark on the journey to next learning.

One of the captions written on the fuel tank of the Truck still reminds us of saving the fuel for our next generations. The caption read as

" IRAQ ka Pani,
Kam piyo meri rani"

Which meams
The trucker is requesting the truck to consume less of the fuel from IRAQ symbolizing petrofuel from gulf nations.

Was back to my home at CBD Belapur by 21:00hrs.
Total distance traveled = 460 Kms.
(CBD Belapur Navi Mumbai to Vapi and Back)