Trek to Torna

Torna, Its not just a fort, but a it is the place where Maratha empire founded by Shivaji maharaj started to take shape. This was the first fort Maharaj won at the early age of 17 and that too without a war. It has been rightly said by James Douglas "It was Shivaji's first conquest, the nucleus around which all the others clustered, making it virtually the cradle of the Marathi Empire, which shocked the throne of the great Moguls. It has been the scene of many bloody battles. If Sinhagad is Lion's does then Torna is Eagle's nest." How true indeed, you can feel the greatness of the fort just by looking at it. It's the tallest among all in Pune district.

We reached Velhe a base village around 29 km. from the Nasrapur phata on NH4. On this trek, we were seven people, Me, DP (Durgaprasad Pawar), Anand, Santosh, Rajashree, Sonal and Ashish (Anand's roomate). I picked up Rajashree early from her house at 5:50 AM. DP picked up Sonal from kothurd, Anand, Santosh and Ashish were at kataraj. We hit NH4 at around 6:10 AM and reached Velhe by around 7:30 AM. After having breakfast in one of the local tapri hotel and ordering our lunch, which one of the local from the velhe was going to bring on top of fort by noon, we started our trek.

Path to Torna was long and steep. For first half we climbed around three mid-size hills which bit steep to climb. Since it was already march and temperature was already high, I felt this was bit difficult part. We took many small breaks, consumed lots of water and other hydrating liquids. The second half was the Rock patch, were we climbed the actual fort. This as bit easy as there are railings now which makes the climb easy, without it it would be very difficult here.
Finally we reached on Binny darwaza after 3 and half hours trek, much more than we had estimated.

Torna or Prachandagad is truly a huge fort and fortified walls still are in good condition. The view from top is really amazing, especially the view of Rajgad from the top is breathtaking. There is a temple on top of fort and some ruins of monuments. As summer has already started, water is sparsely available on top and many of the tanks are dry or the water is contaminated. Everyone in group had brought at least 3 liters of water, that actually saved us.

While climbing down its not that difficult except for few places in the rock patch, but since the slopes are steep, it puts lots of pressure on the ankle and calf muscles. Everybody of us was fine, except Rajashree as she was visibly tired and so had to take few extra breaks for her to gain the strength. But everything was alright at the end.

This was one of the best forts I have visited so far, we had lots and lots of fun while climbing it. I wonder how beautiful it would be in rainy seasons or in winter. That would be best time to climb this fort. Santosh was usual best cracking jokes and making everyone laugh.

Some things to note which may help if anyone wants to trek this fort in this period ie. in summer.
1. To reach velhe there are State transport buses available from swargate, from 6 AM in morning, so reach velhe as early as possible.
2. There is very little water available on top of the fort, hence takes lots of water along with you.
3. Food is not available on top, so would need to be carried or you can ask some hotel guy to bring it on top(they charge extra 200 bucks for this).
4.Climb slowly, take breaks whenever needed and drink lots of water.
5. Citrus fruits would be helpful.