They say, the forts around Pune, look amazing during the rains. Heard this so many times, and have been enticed by so many photos, that finally, we gave in. We loaded us on a couple of bikes, and went on our day trip to the Tikona Fort, morning, 7 o’ clock on a Saturday. This is the account of our trip. There may not be photos of the fort in here, rather, there are ones of what you can see from the fort.
Keeping true to Murphy’s Laws and the weather reports, we lost our ways a couple of times, splashed into huge puddles of water and finally made it to the hill and found it engulfed in fog.
We caught our breath for a minute and took in the amazing view, though limited view from the base of the fort.
Post maneuvering through some muddy and rocky paths, we reached a spot, from where the path ahead was this…
For the sake of railings, there was a co-axial cable cut and bolted into the hill face, and we had to climb on the rocks, which were at least a foot high and slippery. The gradient felt close to 60 degrees. Well, it was just the beginning though. Some time into the climb, things became more slippery, and agreeably, scary too.
It was the views that kept us going and pushing to reach the top.
We got the view of the greenery that had been so much referred to, and also realized that after all, monsoon may not be the best time to come to this place. Not because of the rain, but because the clouds obstruct the visibility.
This is a nice place to be for a day outing. As we climbed down, we saw tiny kids and even toddlers climbing up the trail, so it is not very technical climb or a difficult one as such. One must always exercise a certain amount of caution though.
The location ought to be an amazing one for night time photography and star gazing. The peak of the climb experiences quite strong winds so the ones venturing up should take the necessary precautions.
While climbing down, some caution had to be maintained as the place had become very slippery and narrow approaches forced us to move in a single file.
On the whole, the trip was a nice way to unwind and to get some of the much needed fresh air.
Cheers!!
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