Purandar fort

There was a gap after Raigad ... I didnt venture out across to other forts in the region as the winter has set in in these parts of the country and the land changed its hue from various shades of green to lighter shades of brown. It looks as though the land has lost its lustre! But I couldn't sit tight for long. One of my friends wanted to visit Uttarakshetra (Narayangaon Balaji temple) and I found that Purandar and Vajragad were nearby and coaxed him into coompanying me to those forts after the darshan of Balaji. Armed with the information collected from the internet I assumed that there was a well laid road to the top that would allow us to take our bikes to the base of the fort. About 20 kms from the temple towards Saswad we reach a place called Narayanpur which houses the famous Datta temple and a little later up on the same road you get a fork on the road that is adorned by color hoarding that indicates that you have to take a diversion towards Purandar (6 kms to the inside). Following that we were to the base of the hill in no time only to find that the road leading to the top was not a well laid road as was written but rather a path of stones. Yet we dared our bikes on that stone laden path all the way upto the base. The ride to the top was one of my most anxious rides as I was very tense through out the 3 km ride as there was nothing that would stop me from falling to my doom into the abyss below had my bike given away! When it was just nearing the top, the road seemed to be blown away in a land slide during the monsoon. Confronted with the option of either parking the bikes there or walking them across the land slide we decided to walk them. About 500 metres after that we were at the base standing opposite the statue of "Quilledaar" Veer Baji Muraar Deshpande. Parking our bikes at the military canteen and then refuelling ourselves with tea we started off towards the top of the fort. It was an easy climb to the top and the journey also had one of the most common questions that people ask on treks: "Why did Shivaji build these forts so high up?". First up Shivaji didnt build many of the forts - they were there since Satavahana period - He just refortified them and then used them effectively against the Mughals. He did build a lot new ones too. Second thing is that at such height you can have a view of about hundreds of miles around which lets you see any enemy force approaching. The fortification was intact and it was a good walk around the fort. There are steps leading to the fort but we took the wrong detour at the canteen only to find ourselves exerting harder to climb it up. While coming down we were able to locate the correct path. The steps start from south-east of the Purandareshwar temple which faces east. After coming down the hill and our way back to Pune we had a darshan at the Datta temple and the adjoining Narayaneshwar temple. I have the snaps ready but yet to digitize them.