INTRODUCTION
Kavnai fort is like 2500 ft(762M) above sea level and is like 33 km from kasara station. It is one of the less explored hill fort and one of the easy trek which can be done even in heavy monsoon. Fort is said to be constructed by Mughals. According to locals 'Shivaji maharaj' during his reign used to visit this fort secretly, low key used to spend his time. However like every other fort in the region during the fall of trimbak from maratha to british hand, captain Briggs visited the fort and found two houses at the foothill, make no mistake Harihar fort is still his favourite among-st all the ascent he did in the region.
INSIGHT
Population out here mostly consist of Oswal vanis, Kolis and thakur. There is a Ram and Hanuman Temple at the base. There is a saint who leaves on top of the hill fort in Hut from last 11 years, he can provide place to sleep if you want to spend night at the top.
JOURNEY
It was 26th August 2017, Ganpati vacation going on. As decided on whats-app Group, everybody gathered at Azad nagar Metro station on Saturday early morning. It was Me, Mandar, Anirudh, Dhiraj and Atul, we boarded metro to ghatkopar which costed us 70 Rs Return ticket per person, from there Local train to Karjat which costed us 40 Rs per person return ticket.
I don't know whether it was ironic or not, we all belonged to same school.So on train we started discussing about our school days, Just imagine we were the only batch who all never got the farewell due to many mischievous students in our batch, i think all those gangster and love movies during that era had a huge impact on them the way students were reacting.Since then i never attended no Farewell or Fresher party let it be Coaching Classes,College or PG. Most of the time innocent students took the beating in the school for the wrong doing they never did, they were so nicely setup.
Finally we reached karjat station, we negotiated with many jeep wala - the price quoted by them ranged between 1500 - 2000 Rs return journey, finally after good negotiation one the Jeepman got ready for 1000 Rs return journey i.e 200 Rs per person.During the time of negotiation what i noticed was Anirudh is quite good at it while mandar is bad who easily say 'yes' to any price quoted.
Journey was refreshing, in the middle we took the break to do breakfast in one of the hotel. Me and Atul Eat Idli and Medu vada while others eat Bhaji along with Tea, also Hot Vada pav which anirudh liked it very much so he ordered and eat it like 3 times back to back.It costed us around 50 Rs per person. Weather was little cloudy, anyway we continued with our journey.
Finally we were near kavnai village, on the way some of the women asked for a lift by lifting hand but seat was occupied by us, still driver went out for couple second and came back, while driving he told us ''one of the women among-st them had a thing going on with him before she got married, they were in love like crazy but at that time he had no source of income''. After couple minutes we reached the base village and continued our journey on foot. There was some kind of women festival going on in the village near temple named Kapildhara Tirth, no men's were allowed there, however saint who lived on top of the hill fort and also a well known figure out here passed beside us straight near the temple. Couple more minute of walk, now we were at the starting point of kavnai fort. Scenery was quite refreshing, the feeling you get after consuming kratom. It was 11:30 am on the clock.
We started with our trek. Like always atul and mandar were ahead, trail is simple and no worries of getting lost as the surrounding is not tropical and filled with vegetation. In between we took break, vaki lake is easily visible from here. Out here me and dhiraj did a little of 'Mayweather vs Mcgregor' Boxing press conference face-off cameo, as we were very much excited about that fight which was going to happen tomorrow on 27th August 2017.
In that mean time atul was on top of one of the rocks chilling, and out there just beneath the rock mandar encountered Honey bee hive, damn it looked scary. Atul was unaware of that hive, little bit of movement would have caused 'Group of honeybee' to go ham on all of us. On a side note avoid applying Gel, perfume or powder on yourself while you are on the trek, fragrance attracts them. It happened with us at gaumukh plateau, when we were chased by 5-6 honeybee.
Further you will encounter staircase to climb , which i already did in some of my trek like - Kalsubai, Peb fort and asherigad. Those staircase will lead you to Fort entrance. It is little bit of slippery during monsoon so watch out.
We reached the peak. For such an easy trek, the view you get from the top is too good, i call it a 'natural eye massage'. I was excited to see a pond on top of the hill.
Mystic Pond
Pond on top of the lake is said to be sacred, it's not a drinking water though.It is filled with fishes, it would be safe to say there will be more than 500 fishes easily that too of different breed like gold fish, Shark fish, Cat fish and many. What surprised me was that there is ample of water in the pond through out the season and according to locals those fish are here since ages, nobody got them here.
There is also a Shiv linga and utensil pot with holy water filled in it which is supported on wooden stick.It was drizzling every now and then, so we went near temple, which is on the edge of the pond for shelter. There we eat Orange, Banana and biscuits. We threw pieces of biscuits inside pond to feed the fishes. You will see fishes jumping and eating those pieces like they belong to piranha breed. Click on the video above to see those fishes while we were feeding.
Parvati Temple was locked, as said above saint went to kapildhara temple on the base for some village ceremony.It will take you around 30-40 minute to explore the whole peak. It was 2:20 Pm on the clock when we decided to descent. It started to rain heavily, like every other trek we descended at a fast pace. By the time we reached at the base driver was already standing, so we hopped in to the jeep. On the way he told us '' There is a mystic valley resort out here in Igatpuri, where sex scandal was exposed recently, even politician hop out there on weekend to have fun''. I mean that driver had many insider info about what goes around out here. After reaching kasara station, we boarded local train to ghatkopar. On train we played Ludo where Atul lost,then he made a crying face after we started laughing at him.
From ghatkopar we took metro till azad nagar stop, atul was still upset. Dhiraj was like ''That loss resemble your life, which is quite similar''. After reaching azad Nagar, we all headed to our home. I was home till late evening.
Kavnai fort is like 2500 ft(762M) above sea level and is like 33 km from kasara station. It is one of the less explored hill fort and one of the easy trek which can be done even in heavy monsoon. Fort is said to be constructed by Mughals. According to locals 'Shivaji maharaj' during his reign used to visit this fort secretly, low key used to spend his time. However like every other fort in the region during the fall of trimbak from maratha to british hand, captain Briggs visited the fort and found two houses at the foothill, make no mistake Harihar fort is still his favourite among-st all the ascent he did in the region.
INSIGHT
Population out here mostly consist of Oswal vanis, Kolis and thakur. There is a Ram and Hanuman Temple at the base. There is a saint who leaves on top of the hill fort in Hut from last 11 years, he can provide place to sleep if you want to spend night at the top.
JOURNEY
It was 26th August 2017, Ganpati vacation going on. As decided on whats-app Group, everybody gathered at Azad nagar Metro station on Saturday early morning. It was Me, Mandar, Anirudh, Dhiraj and Atul, we boarded metro to ghatkopar which costed us 70 Rs Return ticket per person, from there Local train to Karjat which costed us 40 Rs per person return ticket.
I don't know whether it was ironic or not, we all belonged to same school.So on train we started discussing about our school days, Just imagine we were the only batch who all never got the farewell due to many mischievous students in our batch, i think all those gangster and love movies during that era had a huge impact on them the way students were reacting.Since then i never attended no Farewell or Fresher party let it be Coaching Classes,College or PG. Most of the time innocent students took the beating in the school for the wrong doing they never did, they were so nicely setup.
Finally we reached karjat station, we negotiated with many jeep wala - the price quoted by them ranged between 1500 - 2000 Rs return journey, finally after good negotiation one the Jeepman got ready for 1000 Rs return journey i.e 200 Rs per person.During the time of negotiation what i noticed was Anirudh is quite good at it while mandar is bad who easily say 'yes' to any price quoted.
Journey was refreshing, in the middle we took the break to do breakfast in one of the hotel. Me and Atul Eat Idli and Medu vada while others eat Bhaji along with Tea, also Hot Vada pav which anirudh liked it very much so he ordered and eat it like 3 times back to back.It costed us around 50 Rs per person. Weather was little cloudy, anyway we continued with our journey.
Finally we were near kavnai village, on the way some of the women asked for a lift by lifting hand but seat was occupied by us, still driver went out for couple second and came back, while driving he told us ''one of the women among-st them had a thing going on with him before she got married, they were in love like crazy but at that time he had no source of income''. After couple minutes we reached the base village and continued our journey on foot. There was some kind of women festival going on in the village near temple named Kapildhara Tirth, no men's were allowed there, however saint who lived on top of the hill fort and also a well known figure out here passed beside us straight near the temple. Couple more minute of walk, now we were at the starting point of kavnai fort. Scenery was quite refreshing, the feeling you get after consuming kratom. It was 11:30 am on the clock.
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| Anirudh, Dhiraj, Atul, Me and Mandar |
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| View from Base Village |
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| Atul and dhiraj hiking towards kavanai fort |
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| Mayweather vs Mcgregor Cameo |
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| Vaki Lake |
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| Honey Bee Hive Beneath the Rocks |
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| Staircase to Kavnai Fort |
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| Mandar opening the Entrance Gate |
We reached the peak. For such an easy trek, the view you get from the top is too good, i call it a 'natural eye massage'. I was excited to see a pond on top of the hill.
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| View from Kavnai Fort Peak |
Mystic Pond
Pond on top of the lake is said to be sacred, it's not a drinking water though.It is filled with fishes, it would be safe to say there will be more than 500 fishes easily that too of different breed like gold fish, Shark fish, Cat fish and many. What surprised me was that there is ample of water in the pond through out the season and according to locals those fish are here since ages, nobody got them here.
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| Sacred Lake |
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| Shiv Linga and Holy water |
There is also a Shiv linga and utensil pot with holy water filled in it which is supported on wooden stick.It was drizzling every now and then, so we went near temple, which is on the edge of the pond for shelter. There we eat Orange, Banana and biscuits. We threw pieces of biscuits inside pond to feed the fishes. You will see fishes jumping and eating those pieces like they belong to piranha breed. Click on the video above to see those fishes while we were feeding.
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| Parvati Temple Closed |
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| Dhiraj, Mandar, Atul and Anirudh |
Parvati Temple was locked, as said above saint went to kapildhara temple on the base for some village ceremony.It will take you around 30-40 minute to explore the whole peak. It was 2:20 Pm on the clock when we decided to descent. It started to rain heavily, like every other trek we descended at a fast pace. By the time we reached at the base driver was already standing, so we hopped in to the jeep. On the way he told us '' There is a mystic valley resort out here in Igatpuri, where sex scandal was exposed recently, even politician hop out there on weekend to have fun''. I mean that driver had many insider info about what goes around out here. After reaching kasara station, we boarded local train to ghatkopar. On train we played Ludo where Atul lost,then he made a crying face after we started laughing at him.
From ghatkopar we took metro till azad nagar stop, atul was still upset. Dhiraj was like ''That loss resemble your life, which is quite similar''. After reaching azad Nagar, we all headed to our home. I was home till late evening.
- Total Per person cost - 360 Rs approximately.
