राजगड परिक्रमा

।। श्री आशापुरी देव्यै नमः ।।

a winter trek in April.. राजगड परिक्रमा

राजगड - गडांचा राजा, महाराजांचा गड 🚩.. the first capital of हिंदवी स्वराज्य, for about 25 years, before रायगड took over.. one of the 12 forts, which were not handed-over to मिर्झाराजे जयसिंग, in the Purandar Treaty 📜 of 1665.. it is also said that the head of अफ़झलखान was brought and buried here after he was obliterated at प्रतापगड..  

after booking the trek and joining the group, there were typical guidelines sent by the organizers regarding DOs and DON'Ts.. and, unlike every other time, there were additional (precautionary) measures asked for - to not wear perfumes and 🆘 red colored clothes.. seeking the clarifications, revealed, these attract honey bees 🐝 (रोज काहीतरी नवीन शिकावं) and this route has quite some.. with this, was time to put the black-red T 👕  back in wardrobe and take out the one with Sachin's print, seasonably realizing that tomorrow is going to be 24th sunrise from the month of April..

born in 1973 on this very day, master blaster, desert storm, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar 🧑‍🦱, today is charged guilty of holding multiple records 🥇 in the world of Cricket.. be it youngest to debut for India, striking most number of 4s, or scoring a century 💯 in first 300+ ODI score for India, he tops many more charts.. in the limited overs International Cricket 🏏, he has scored a record 49 centuries, same as his age today.. youngest to receive the highest civilian honor of India 🇮🇳, he is also the only sportsperson to have served India good enough to be granted भारतरत्न..

One Icon. One Cult. 

One Legend. One Chant. 📣

Sachin. Sachin..

now back to परिक्रमा..

as the time chronicled ⏳, list of participants grew with a few known members, including 1. Brijesh, the pioneer of my सिंहगड streak, 2. Vishal, who had to cancel his own trek due to lack of participants and had joined this one along with 3. Prasad, and needless to mention, 4. (by default) Vaibhav was already in..

24 April 2022

we were to start today in wee hours 🔦 (after midnight, before dawn), what we couldn't do in our earlier outing with this same group to प्रतापगड.. but before that, organizer instructed about trek being in 5 parts, with possible exit 🔚 points, should anybody feel like not continuing any further.. there are no dense trees enroute, so it's planned during the night time 🌌 respectfully contemplating the season and month at exhibition.. and then followed the not-so-good part, 'काही ठिकाणी आपल्याला वाट तोडावी लागणार आहे',  implying, the vegetation will be barging in at few (many) places and we'll have to cut / force them aside in order to pass through.. that's exactly so not the types of matters that I ever fundamentally favored..

१. भुतोंडे खिंड - संजीवनी माची (१.६ कि.मी.)

around 2:30 a.m. 🕝, we started the recording of the trail and marched in unison towards engineering marvel संजीवनी माची via well known route, hiked 4 times before today, once during तोरणा-राजगड and thrice during SRT.. on the way, Prasad was about to grab a stick, realizing just-in-time, it being a baby chameleon 🦎 camouflaged to perfection.. the misty climate was perfect cool, accompanied by intermittent lightening 🌩️ far-off (in the North-East, towards सिंहगड) hinting a possibility of rain anytime soon..

when we reached the base of संजीवनी माची, we did a few things, which I do not approve of, so not mentioning them here.. but, we did recite 📖 the famous शिव स्तोत्र / शिव प्रार्थना / ध्येयमंत्र, which actually is a part of स्मृतिपत्र written to संभाजी महाराज, by none other than समर्थ रामदासस्वामी (known for दासबोध).. and that's worth reciting here again 🔁..

शिवरायांचे आठवावे रूप । शिवरायांचा आठवावा प्रताप । 
शिवरायांचा आठवावा साक्षेप । भूमंडळी ।।१।।
शिवरायांचे कैसें बोलणें । शिवरायांचे कैसें चालणें ।
शिवरायांची सलगी देणे । कैसी असे ।।२।।
सकल सुखांचा केला त्याग । म्हणोनि साधिजें तो योग ।
राज्यसाधनाची लगबग । कैसीं केली ।।३।।
याहुनी करावें विशेष । तरीच म्हणवावें पुरुष ।
या उपरीं आता विशेष । काय लिहावे ।।४।।
शिवरायांसी आठवावें । जीवित तृणवत् मानावें ।
इहलोकी परलोकीं उरावे । कीर्तीरूपें ।।५।।
निश्चयाचा महामेरू । बहुत जनांसी आधारू ।
अखंड स्थितीचा निर्धारु । श्रीमंत योगी ।।६।।

also on YouTube 📽️, https://youtu.be/ZWfRxR1VO5w

२. संजीवनी माची - पद्मावती माची (३.२ कि.मी.)

the next 3 parts were to be executed with precaution, constituting a clockwise circumambulation around the राजगड fort.. they all were mostly about traversing, with fort on the right 👉 and deep valley on the left 👈.. it was 04:00 a.m. 🕓, when we resumed and straight ahead were witnessing bright lightening ⚡, but we hardly had any rain knocking at our doors to spoil the adventure.. scarce raindrops 💧 were all that joined us for the party.. soon we were ascending up 📈 the route from पाली village to पाली दरवाजा, which we were later revealed about doing it wrong 🙅‍♂️.. 

following the Google Maps 🌏 for a while, we ran into a no-road-ahead territory.. in the pitch dark surroundings it was impossible to spot any road at a distance, which can be presumably considered as the navigable option ahead.. few of us then put on their explore-mode-on 🔎 वाला head / hat / eyes and started treasure hunt activity.. meanwhile, we were all enjoying the barely visible तोरणा in midst of black clouds, possibly downpouring.. on the other side was the moon 🌘 now showing up, straight above पद्मावती माची.. 

after a while, it was all clearing up and the white floating clouds were demanding our attention by assembling near संजीवनी माची.. far off in discussion with the explore-mode-on people, one of the villagers suggested to march down the ridge where the person with red t-shirt was standing (beside me, he was Prasad) and then traverse to the right side.. perplexed, we dared.. yes, that's a repeat from earlier post, but fits perfectly well here too.. one of the lady 👩 slid down about 15-20 feet, fortunately not ending-up in anything major.. after her rescue, we started towards the end of the second part, close to चोर दरवाजा..

you know it only if you know it, otherwise you don't know it.. that's what I told Brijesh about चोर दरवाजा.. in other words, knowing and learning are just as different as hearing and listening are.. generally, चोर दरवाजा cannot be found very easily on any fort.. so, you can only know about चोर दरवाजा,  if you seek to learn about it..  but the case is slightly different for राजगड.. in recent years, the route from गुंजवणे village via चोर दरवाजा has become so popular that today it's as equally travelled as राजमार्ग, the traditional one..

३. पद्मावती माची - सुवेळा माची (२.६ कि.मी.)

it was 06:30 a.m. 🕡 now.. could have been much better / earlier.. that lady (who slid) and another fellow (for reasons not known) had dropped-out.. the traverse on this side was less riskier, but denser than the earlier side.. we descended 📉 down a bit on the route from गुंजवणे दरवाजा and in no time, were back towards सुवेळा माची..

this and the next one (3rd and 4th) were the parts we were warned about - do not wear perfumes or red.. we had to carefully negotiate, not loud or crowded enough to attract the honeybees 🐝.. having entered their territory, more than half-a-dozen pretty bulky beehives were mocking at us.. in our favor, nothing mis-happened, including also the next part..

beehives

नेढं

नेढं was now clearly visible, having traversed more than half of this side.. with still no Sun ☁️ in the vicinity at 08:30 a.m. 🕣, when we reached the base of सुवेळा माची, we were unexpectedly welcomed by fog as if it was winter.. the clouds were free-flowing not very far above us and the contentment level was at its peak.. #CannotAskForMore

winter, as if

४. सुवेळा माची - संजीवनी माची (४.२ कि.मी.)

this bastion is damaged, which we guessed to have caused due to cannon shots, possibly by British, who are notoriously known to have demolished most of the forts in western ghats..

सुवेळा माची, damaged

after relishing the carried breakfast 🥕 🍉 🍇, we resumed at 09:00 a.m. 🕘 towards संजीवनी माची.. you read above about 'काही ठिकाणी आपल्याला वाट तोडावी लागणार आहे', this was the time 😞.. whatever happened till here was still easy.. next, we were to navigate through the vegetation, and at times, also had deep valley to our left 😨.. one lose step was all that was needed, which we had to care against, at every step..

चिलखती बुरुज, नेढं, सुवेळा माची

enjoying the last time, the view of बालेकिल्ला from here was well accompanied by काळेश्वरी बुरुज, डुबा, नेढं and obviously what we left behind, सुवेळा माची.. but, every next 10 mins, we were repeatedly getting the feeling of navigating through the same place 🥴, what we call in मराठी as 'चकवा'.. it was that monotonous to manage कारवी now.. only place that would have made us happy then was getting to the known territory of walking towards संजीवनी माची from अळू दरवाजा.. having reached there, i.e., having overcome the worst parts of the day, we sighed in relief 😌..

at about 11:30 a.m., we completed the circuit around राजगड fort, as we got back to the base of संजीवनी माची.. only pending part was now to get to the bus..

५. संजीवनी माची - भुतोंडे खिंड (१.६ कि.मी.)

waiting for the remaining members to join us, we ate, shared, group snapped 📷, sang for almost an hour including सलाम-ए-इश्क and मेरी भीगी-भीगी सी to होटों से छूलो तुम and जय जय महाराष्ट्र माझा 🎙️.. with डफलीवाले खेडकर काका joining us, this was an unavoidable affair..

at 12:30 p.m., along with the last person, that just arrived, as fast as we could, we descended down towards भुतोंडे खिंड and reached the starting point of the activity exactly 10:30 hours after we had started, as the time was now ticking 01:00 p.m. 🕐.. here we learnt about Nikhil's injury, that was more than ignorable.. hoping him quicker recovery 🤞..

any weather, different than what we experienced today, would have made us toil beyond exhaustive limits 😥.. we are truly grateful to mother nature for that.. on the other side - elevation gain, pleasant views, being peace with nature, is what fascinates me.. and definitely, I ever signed-up for this "वाट तोडावी लागेल" thing..

so, decide what kind of life you really want.. and then say no to everything that is not that..