Koraigad Fort - Lonavala. Review on Korigad

We wanted to do an easy trek this monsoon and after a lot of deliberation we decided to choose Koraigad(Pronounced core-eye-gad) Fort which is located near lonavala. After reading some reviews and blogs we found the out the way to reach Koraigad & we set off on a Sunday.

When the planning started we were a group of 10 but eventually only 5 of us turned up. The plan was to take the Indrayani Exp for Pune and get down at lonavala have breakfast and start from there. This is because we read there are no hotels near koraigad. There is a ST Bus which starts from Lonavala ST Stand at 9:00 am & Indrayani will drop you at lonavala by 8:00 am which gives sufficent time for breakfast. Unfortunately, I missed Indrayani but luckily had another chance - the Intercity Express which reaches lonavala by 8:50am. I new I could still catch the bus but without the breakfast.:( One thing I would like to mention here is the I had an un-reserved ticket and the ticket for Intercity is more expensive than Indrayani as the former is an express and had I been caught by the TC, it would have meant trouble.

My friends had already got into the bus and were waitng for me. They also packed some Vada Pav and Mineral Water for me. I rushed to the ST stand from the station. The ST stand is hardly 5 minutes walk from the railway station. Well,  I managed to get the bus. The frequency on the route is very less and missing bus would mean you will get less time on the fort. There were only a few seats filled in the bus and the locals, the bus driver and conductor behaved like family members with each other. The bus driver would give them home drops! & they would respond - "Jatana chai pyayla yaa". Wao dint see this b4. The bus ride was adventourous. It was stunning to see the driver drive well through the fogs on zig zag roads. The visibility was very low and I could see more sideways than ahead of the road. The bus goes thru Bushi Dam, Tiger Point and other small points where you can see loads of private vehicles parked.

We knew we had to get down at Peth Shahapur village and walk from there towards Koraigad. I enquired with the friendly conductor about the frequency of buses and last bus timing I can get to Lonaval from Peth-Shahpur. He said the last bus is at 4:00pm. So we knew we have to get back early. The bus dropped us at Peth Shahpur. Its a small village and you have a general store from where you can get biscuits & a small hotel. We did not try the hotel but it said it serves South Indian dishes:D. You can also get mineral water/pepsi/coke from there.

We started walking thru the village asking for directions to the fort. The fort can be seen from where we got down & looked like a long way up. Going through Kuccha-pakka roads it took us less than 1 n half hr to reach the top. We were walking at leisure clicking pics of anythign n everything that came our way.

There are steps to climb up the fort and you can view Amby Valley down the hill. The fort looked in a good shape and has a huge entrance over which a flag flies. We were quick to climb and click more pics holding the flag post. he he he. The fort is big enough and we started walking across the boudaries of the fort. On one side of the fort you can see entire amby valley. Its like having a chopper ride above amby valley - a place for VVIPS and my friend told me that the entry fee is Rs.8000 per person and average expenditure in Amby valley per person is estimated at 15k. Who needs that when Shivaji Raje has built such wonderful forts where you can visit free.:-P

There are two lakes on the fort with lots of frogs in them. The water in them did not seem fit for drinking. It does not take more than 2 hours to cover the entire fort. We did that and started our way back. It took us lesser time to reach Peth Shahapur Bus stop. But there was no Bus for lonavala for another 1 n half hr. We got to know that there are sumos and smal Vans that ply between these villages and lonavala. We got a sumo for Rs.25 per head to lonavala. On the way back we saw lot of people dancing in the rains with the loud music played in their cars. I was wondering why to drive so far to just dance in the rains. Koraigad was so peaceful . You could see more than 100 vehicles near Bushi Dam and people going crazy in the small water ponds near them.

We got the Deccan Queen back to mumbai.