Sonori A.K.A Malhargad Pictures

Kondhwa - From Baapdeo Ghat

Sardar Panse Palace at Sonori

Walls of Panse wada - Sonori

Sonori - Malhargad - Fort

Shiva temple on the fort

Fortification - Malhargad

One of the multiple wells for water

Fortification on the west side of the fort

The water tank on fort

East end of the fort

Sonori A.K.A Malhargad

Not sure if I would be able to carry on like I did in the previous years. Though,the bug wouldn't let me sit idle so without much planning and hype a team of four set out to Sonori, A.K.A. Malhargad. Going by records this fort is the last one to be constructed by the Marathas. It was built by Sardar Panse, the Admiral of Maratha army to watch over Dive Ghat. The village Sonori is at the base of this fort.

To reach this place from Pune:
1] Take Saswad-Kondhwa road and travel till Saswad, take the right turn towards village Sonori on a not so nice road. Sonori about 5 odd kms or more from here.
2] Take Saswad Road from Hadapsar via Fursungi, Dive Ghat and reach Saswad. Take the left to Sonori on the same road described in #1.

There is not much to see on this fort. The fort is named after Lord Malhari i.e. Khandoba. There is a temple of Khandoba here and a temple of Lord Shiva. There are ruins of the partly still intact fortification. There are couple of dry wells and a dryer water tanks that might have served as source of water in ancient times. The fort apparently was built in late 18th century. The construction isn't made of Dark Basalt stones unlike the prominent Maratha forts. There are ruins of Sardar Panse's palace in the village Sonori which needs some mention and needs a visit.

Scaling the fort isn't a tough deal as well and takes hardly half an hour to 40 odd minutes from the right side of the fort. I had hoped that the rainfall this season till now might have pumped some life in the dead grass around here. Although, to my disappointment there was no rainfall reported here so the landscape was quite arid and dry. I had visited Purandar back in 2003 and I had a similar observation by then. This area doesn't get much rainfall, despite the proximity to Pune.

From the top one can apparently spot Dive Ghat, duo of Purandar-Vajragad, Jejuri and Sinhagad [?]. There was no signs of rains and the weather was not as clear so I could spot none. But you sure can try your luck. One more to the kitty for the fort collector !

Rajgad Pictures

A Wild Stunner !!

"Nedh-a" ..In Clouds !!

On our way up !!

Gunjavane [ The village at Base] !!

Stairway to Heaven !!

Taken from Chor Darwaja

Find more details here.

Rajgad

Couldn't cook any plan till friday. AB was stuck in Mumbai due to heavy rains. Got a call late Friday night from PN. He said we were six, and we better decide someplace on Satara side. We thought about a trek to Vairatgad. We started late in the morning so a change of plans had us aiming for Rajgad.

We reached Gunjavane at about 11. If you want to take the Chor darwaja, you have to go to Gunjavane or else you can go to Vajeghar and climb by the Pali darwaja.
The water stream near Gunjavane had swollen and there was water flowing over the bridge. We manage to ride across on bikes. We started our climb with the company of two dogs. We trusted the dogs for the route and let them lead us. That turned out to be a mistake. After a walk of an hour or so we met the local Vijay Mallya who was transporting his brew to the base [ The Hatbhatti if you know this magic potion i.e. ]. He told us we were on the wrong road. So we headed back and Mr Mallya guided us to the correct road.

We made it to the top in another hour or so. It was raining heavily, we hadn't made food arrangements. To add to the problem we met an old chap who had lost
his cow on the fort and was searching for past two days. He needed something to eat. So whatever we had we gave 1/3rd of it to him. We went conservative.
We started getting down at about 4.30 from Chor darwaja. We had some Pohe and tea at the small joint at base and started our journey back. There was more water flowing now on the small bridge. Luckily we got some help from another group we met on the way back to get our bikes across.

But there was another surprise on the way back, another bridge on the way back was submerged. Wasnt worth risking lives in that roaring water barrier of about 150 mtr. To our luck we found an alternate road. Heavy rains meant not much of photography. Overall a nice cool one dayer. Came back to discover Ferrari was on pole.