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Both these are pretty simple to do considering there are restored steps to climb them. I had already done both of them once, but Koraigad earlier was in winter.
Vashi >> Lonavala >> Peth-Shahpur(near Amby Valley) >> Koraigad >> Lohagad base village >> Lohagad >> Sinhagad Institute >> Vashi
06.00: Vashi
07.30: Lion Point
08.00: Peth-Shahpur village
09.30: Koraigad Fort
10.30: Start descent
11.15: Proceed to Lohagad
12.45: Lohagad base village
13.45: Lohagad Fort
14.30: Start descent
15.00: Lohagad base village
17.00: Vashi
Lion's Point
Reaching here at about 7.00, this place is continuous under cloud cover as this is the start of Sahyadris range with Konkan region below. Clouds coming from Arabian sea constantly ensure a foggy atmosphere.
Road visibility is next to nothing so not easy to drive this stretch as seen from the snaps below. Parking lights are a must:
Straight into the valley: This is near the shivling point, no visibility to see the valley around.
Koraigad Trek
Once reaching the base village of Peth-Shahpur, there's a small parking area on the main road. You can start the trek from here itself. Initial part is somewhat slippery due to sticky red soil, so better have good grip footwear.
A tall telecom tower marks the start of trek; this is a helpful landmark.
Start of Trek:
Note that there are dogs here who might follow you, best to ignore them and absolutely not feed them. Not all are friendly so you might consider driving them away.
Continuing on muddy part you will cross few stream on the way.
Once the muddy part is over, you will get a gravel part with forest around it. You can go about on the path by avoiding the forest but later you do have to come inside the forest.
We were not able to find the way due to thick vegetation and hence alternate on paths from within the forest and outside it.
Path outside the forest:
Path inside the forest: You will have to take some forest part ultimately. The vegetation is thick but the distance to be covered isn't that much, so you can proceed comfortably.
Main entry point towards the stairs:
Straight from your horror movie:
Haunted forest:
Some beautiful scenes now:
Flowers:
Our target fort covered by clouds:
Start of stairs:
To really find the stairs in the thick of vegetation, search for a light tower having halogens on all sides, that's the only thing that can get you to the intended place.
It's said there are 500+ stairs. However, the stairs here are pretty much easy as they have been newly renovated by the surrounding Amby Valley construction. Also the height of stairs is human-like unlike all other forts where the heights are much greater.
We found several caves on the way. Out of that probably this one near a temple is still in use as incense sticks were burning.
Other caves:
Finally, the entrance is in sight:
Around 3 cannons were spotted. I remember there were more earlier, probably covered by vegetation:
Views of the fort.
Not a single structure left inside the fort. Only things are 3 temples which might be renovated. However, most of the fortification walls are intact. I highly recommend walking around the entire periphery of the fortification to get good views. Since we had to visit Lohagad too, we didn't do it. Anyways, I had done it earlier.
The lone ruined structure present in the fort:
Views of rolling hills from the fort:
Views inside the fort:
Bed of flowers and grass (although the grass is pretty wet and soil puddled):
Path lined up with flowers on both sides:
Views of surrounding areas:
Amby valley's private airport with some expansion going on.
After seeing just half the fort area we proceeded for descent. The descent took roughly 1/2 hour.
We didn't have much time as we had to visit Lohagad too.
Some last views of the fort trek:
Once reaching the parking area, we immediately started for the next trekking destination of Lohagad.
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