(History)
Sarasgad fort is at a height of 1400 feet. Caves were used for storing food and water. Except for a few steep rocky patches (which can be dangerous during rainy season), the climb is relatively easy. To the southeast of the peak is the wall of Taila-Baila, a series of small peaks, which are often used for mountaineering training and camps. Not much of historic information is available about this fort. A very huge wall of Sarasgad is at the north south border of Pali. This fort was mainly used to keep a check on the surrounding regions. From fort, ‘Pali’ and all surrounding areas can be seen. Shivaji Maharaj brought this fort under Swarajya and spent 2000 Hon (the prevailing currency of that time) for its reconstruction. Till independence this fort was under Bhor Sansthan.
(Reach the Base)
The base village for Sarasgad is “Pali” which is the holy city of one of the “Ashtavinayak Ganapati” namely “Ballaleshwar”. It’s in Sudhagad Taluka of Raigad District in Maharashtra. Pali is about 35-40 KM from Khopoli and 120-130 KM from both Mumbai and Pune. If you are going from Pune then route would be Pune-Lonavala-Khopoli-Pali and from Mumbai it would be Mumbai-Khopoli-Pali. You can do this trek either by public transport or by your own vehicle too. I would suggest you to go by own one (Car or Bike) so that you can also catch the nature and amazing Lonavala-Khandala Valley during the travel. I had completed this trek on bike, so let me describe the way to reach Pali by bike. While going from Pune, when you reach Khopoli, take the first left as soon as you enter Khopoli and move forward till more 6-7 KM and then again take left for Pali. You can see a big sign board showing the way to Pali here as it’s famous place in Maharashtra. From here, you will have to drive along the road without any major turn for about 35 KM more and you will reach Pali. This is the base village for Sarasgad. You can park your bikes to any house nearby Main Temple after asking the owner if they can provide the meal and breakfast to you. Many of the houses near temple provide this service for very reasonable rates. Park your vehicles, order the meal/breakfast/tea according to your needs, put your language and take the blessings from Lord Ganesh (Shri Ballaleshwar and Dhondu Vinayak). You will find a drinking water tank near these temples; its water is very chill and sweet too. You can fill your bottles with this water so that you can use this during trek. Better get your food packed from here and eat that on fort, so that none of you will get any problem (I assume, you know the problem…).
(Ascend)
There are actually two ways to reach the top of this fort. One way is from Temple side and another from MSEB office side. I would suggest you to ascend from Temple side as it’s from within city and take you through better/tough route also. Once you all are ready to ascend the fort, take the road behind the temple which goes from within temple premises and walk along the road for few minutes then you will see a cement road to left hand side. Take this road and start ascending fort. After few minutes again, leave this cement road and take the normal road (Paaywaat), you will be then guided by yourself along this route. After some time you will be able to see the rock patch and steps thereafter. Climb the rock patch safely and see the Cave before starting to move towards steps. You may need torch to see the inside view of this cave, as it’s about 18-20 feet deep. 15-20 people can rest here at a time. After this you can see the rock cut steps, start ascending them safely again and after some 90+ steps you will reach the Main Door (Dindi Darwaja) of fort. You can not resist but take some rest here as the cool air flowing throw narrow Khind leaves no option for you.
(About Fort and Sight Seeing)
Once you pass the Dindi Darwaja, you can see the place to live for soldiers called “Chowkidaranchya Devdya”. Walk few steps ahead and you on the fort; here you can see the remains of fort such as “Sadar”, a water tank and ruins of palace. Again walk up few steps and see the bigger water tank called “Moti Haud” and few more caves where food was stored. You can also notice the watch points/towers here which were used keep watch on the nearby area. Come back to left side from here and you can see the way to reach the top most point of the fort called Bale Killa (in Marathi) meaning Citadel (in English). On the Citadel you can see Kedareshwar temple and a lake nearby. Two bastions are there to keep watch on surrounding areas. The place to hold the flag is also here on citadel, in front of Kedareshwar Temple, called Dhal Kathi (in Marathi). We proudly installed our flag (Bhagava) here and roared Shiv-Garjana. From citadel we can see the mountain of ‘Tin Kavdi’. We can locate Sudhagad, Taila-Baila, Dhangad and Korigad. You can of course see the Pali, River Amba along with hot water reservoirs of ‘Unhere’, Konkan and Jambhulpada. On Vaishakh Poornima (full moon day), the villagers celebrate the festival of Shahapeer. Many people go to Kedareshwar temple on ‘Maha Shivratri’.
(Descend)
Once you are all done with sightseeing, eating (keep in mind not to leave your waste material behind) and feeling the old era, you can then start descending fort. I would again suggest to descend via same way as that goes from behind the temple in Pali. It’s very easy while descending just be safe while crossing those rock patches and you can reach the Pali village in an hour. Reach the home where you parked your vehicles, take the blessings once again from Lord Ganesh if you wish and have time, take some refreshment and start heading towards you respective places with sweet memories of Pali and Sarasgad. I am posting some of pictures taken by me when I visited Sarasgad on 7th march 2009.
Sarasgad fort is at a height of 1400 feet. Caves were used for storing food and water. Except for a few steep rocky patches (which can be dangerous during rainy season), the climb is relatively easy. To the southeast of the peak is the wall of Taila-Baila, a series of small peaks, which are often used for mountaineering training and camps. Not much of historic information is available about this fort. A very huge wall of Sarasgad is at the north south border of Pali. This fort was mainly used to keep a check on the surrounding regions. From fort, ‘Pali’ and all surrounding areas can be seen. Shivaji Maharaj brought this fort under Swarajya and spent 2000 Hon (the prevailing currency of that time) for its reconstruction. Till independence this fort was under Bhor Sansthan.
(Reach the Base)
The base village for Sarasgad is “Pali” which is the holy city of one of the “Ashtavinayak Ganapati” namely “Ballaleshwar”. It’s in Sudhagad Taluka of Raigad District in Maharashtra. Pali is about 35-40 KM from Khopoli and 120-130 KM from both Mumbai and Pune. If you are going from Pune then route would be Pune-Lonavala-Khopoli-Pali and from Mumbai it would be Mumbai-Khopoli-Pali. You can do this trek either by public transport or by your own vehicle too. I would suggest you to go by own one (Car or Bike) so that you can also catch the nature and amazing Lonavala-Khandala Valley during the travel. I had completed this trek on bike, so let me describe the way to reach Pali by bike. While going from Pune, when you reach Khopoli, take the first left as soon as you enter Khopoli and move forward till more 6-7 KM and then again take left for Pali. You can see a big sign board showing the way to Pali here as it’s famous place in Maharashtra. From here, you will have to drive along the road without any major turn for about 35 KM more and you will reach Pali. This is the base village for Sarasgad. You can park your bikes to any house nearby Main Temple after asking the owner if they can provide the meal and breakfast to you. Many of the houses near temple provide this service for very reasonable rates. Park your vehicles, order the meal/breakfast/tea according to your needs, put your language and take the blessings from Lord Ganesh (Shri Ballaleshwar and Dhondu Vinayak). You will find a drinking water tank near these temples; its water is very chill and sweet too. You can fill your bottles with this water so that you can use this during trek. Better get your food packed from here and eat that on fort, so that none of you will get any problem (I assume, you know the problem…).
(Ascend)
There are actually two ways to reach the top of this fort. One way is from Temple side and another from MSEB office side. I would suggest you to ascend from Temple side as it’s from within city and take you through better/tough route also. Once you all are ready to ascend the fort, take the road behind the temple which goes from within temple premises and walk along the road for few minutes then you will see a cement road to left hand side. Take this road and start ascending fort. After few minutes again, leave this cement road and take the normal road (Paaywaat), you will be then guided by yourself along this route. After some time you will be able to see the rock patch and steps thereafter. Climb the rock patch safely and see the Cave before starting to move towards steps. You may need torch to see the inside view of this cave, as it’s about 18-20 feet deep. 15-20 people can rest here at a time. After this you can see the rock cut steps, start ascending them safely again and after some 90+ steps you will reach the Main Door (Dindi Darwaja) of fort. You can not resist but take some rest here as the cool air flowing throw narrow Khind leaves no option for you.
(About Fort and Sight Seeing)
Once you pass the Dindi Darwaja, you can see the place to live for soldiers called “Chowkidaranchya Devdya”. Walk few steps ahead and you on the fort; here you can see the remains of fort such as “Sadar”, a water tank and ruins of palace. Again walk up few steps and see the bigger water tank called “Moti Haud” and few more caves where food was stored. You can also notice the watch points/towers here which were used keep watch on the nearby area. Come back to left side from here and you can see the way to reach the top most point of the fort called Bale Killa (in Marathi) meaning Citadel (in English). On the Citadel you can see Kedareshwar temple and a lake nearby. Two bastions are there to keep watch on surrounding areas. The place to hold the flag is also here on citadel, in front of Kedareshwar Temple, called Dhal Kathi (in Marathi). We proudly installed our flag (Bhagava) here and roared Shiv-Garjana. From citadel we can see the mountain of ‘Tin Kavdi’. We can locate Sudhagad, Taila-Baila, Dhangad and Korigad. You can of course see the Pali, River Amba along with hot water reservoirs of ‘Unhere’, Konkan and Jambhulpada. On Vaishakh Poornima (full moon day), the villagers celebrate the festival of Shahapeer. Many people go to Kedareshwar temple on ‘Maha Shivratri’.
(Descend)
Once you are all done with sightseeing, eating (keep in mind not to leave your waste material behind) and feeling the old era, you can then start descending fort. I would again suggest to descend via same way as that goes from behind the temple in Pali. It’s very easy while descending just be safe while crossing those rock patches and you can reach the Pali village in an hour. Reach the home where you parked your vehicles, take the blessings once again from Lord Ganesh if you wish and have time, take some refreshment and start heading towards you respective places with sweet memories of Pali and Sarasgad. I am posting some of pictures taken by me when I visited Sarasgad on 7th march 2009.
Sarasgad, while descending
Rock cut steps
Steps to cave
This is awesome view
Ruins of fortification
Look at the Cricket Ground
View from the top
Steps on the way 
A Cave on the way
Sarasgad, first view
5 comments:
sahi re mitra..." Rock cut steps" wala pic sahi ahe
HEY THANKS, u hav given very useful and complete inf abt trek. nice snaps, Dr. Hrishikesh B.
Nice one... thanks for the info bro. really helpful as i am planning this trek on 19th June 2011.
Hi Somesh! Thanks for the info. It will be little easy to understand this trek now since I am heading to this place on coming sunday. Thanks a lot!
Dear Somesh you have given a detailed information on this trek,thanks. Well on sunday 4th september me with my friend went on a bike from mumbai to sarasgad as well as sudhagad for treking. we did both in one day.it was very hectic becauze it was raining very heavily and almost every step was slippery and risky.also we were not able to take a view down because of the fog and rain.although it was fun, we enjoyed.I WOULD STRIKTLY SUGGEST NOT TO GO THERE IN MONSOON because the route from Nagothane or from Khapoli,the roads are in a very horrible state.If you still want to take a risk be ready for a breakdown.Actually all over Maharashtra the roads are horrible.
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