It was 4 a.m. on the 25th of June 2016, when the alarm rang, and an excited me jumped out of the bed, got ready and headed out in the dark to meet the rest of the excited souls to venture in the western ghats!
It was raining, and the rains only got heavy giving hope to the tired sun-burnt soul. On meeting at the arrival point at 5.50 a.m., we all decided that given the rains, it would be beautiful to venture out on the old Mumbai-Pune highway and enter the trek zone of Rajmachi through Lonavala.
An hour into the drive and just at the beginning of the old Mumbai-Pune highway, we stopped to fill our grumbling stomachs with pipping hot vada pav, poha and some tea.. (my mouth waters as I relive that moment through words in this blog!).
Stomachs full (ticked), water bottles (ticked), snacks (ticked), high spirit (ticked), adventurism mode on (ticked).. brillitant! off we go!
Our next stop was base Rajmachi!
What was fascinating to me was the outright change in the landscape of Rajmachi from the last time I trekked this point back in 2008. The minute we got off Lonavala into the woods, I was unable to recognize the landscape given the emergence of fancy adventure resorts and the onsite construction going on irrespective of the heavy rains. While it was fascinating to see such developments because it only can show the growing recognition and demand of the same, it also makes me sad that nature is at its best destruction. What is sold as a nature resort might actually have no nature around it in the possibly foreseeable future..
As we crawled in our jeep, finally a small bridge brought back memories of the tired feet of 2008. I was delighted yes once again! The weather was not too bad. It wasn’t raining, and it wasn’t sunny either. It was just the perfect gloomy, cloudy, windy, misty weather which you experience when you are on the western ghats in the monsoons.
Our first stop was overlooking humanity. Surely it is a sight, don’t you think?
As our jeeps and the Forester crawled through the mountains..
the mountains only made it more of a reason to crawl further… got mistier with every crawl the vehicles made… 
and in the midst of this mist, look who we found…
bidding a good bye to our beloved domesticated fellow, we decided to stop
to capture this jaw dropping beauty..
and mark our presence at this very moment.. from left to right, it is YT, PP, SS, Me, and Patrolman…
with spirits touching the sky, we decided to crawl further.. 
and further through the mud ..changing the vehicle from a two wheel drive to a four wheel drive…
only to stop and absorb the very and every moment of that moment.. the gushing wind, the walking clouds, the drizzling rains, and all that could be absorbed in that very moment..
if this is what half cake tastes like, we wondered how yummy the full cake would be.. hence we started our journey yet once with Forester leading the pack to destination Rajmachi..
while the rains tried to dampen our spirits..
we continued with our heads hell high..
only to start our climb..
and look back at the breath taking horizon..
and the steep steps that will have our rain drained footprints marked for generations to come..
and the welcoming temple between the two forts, Srivardhan fort and Manaranjan fort that constitute Rajmachi…
we continued our journey towards Srivardhan fort.. letting SS be the guiding light..
only to be surprised by a chai-wala (tea seller) selling hot hot tea in this drenching windy and now getting cold weather..
while the girls sipped it a little too quickly..
the boys didn’t take too long either.. FYI I am not that retarded as seen in this photo..
after finishing our chit chat in the middle of the fort over a cup of chai, we started to climb on viewing our destination in sight..
and a stone throwaway from the top..
and we finally made it to our destination.. Srivardhan fort of Rajmachi CONQUERED!!!
A great start to an amazing season!
WorldTravelsWithNats 