Indrai RajdeherBy the time we were on the way to Rajdeherwadi it was evening. We stopped at one place where Erin was getting pictures. One villager came and chit-chat with him ended in staying at his place. His house in the mid of farm was small but with full of hospitality. They were so kind that they shared the same food which they cooked for themselves and ready to sleep outside as we might feel cold outside.
It was different experience for Erin and Avi was explaining her all the details. In the night it was amazing to sleep in the open watching all stars. Next we got up early and moved to Rajdeherwadi. We took three hours to reach from the base to top of the fort. Rajdeher is supposed to be difficult to climb but due to one 'Sadhu', now there is one ladder. So you just climb the ladder and you enter the fort. Entrance of Rajdeher fort itself gave me positive vibes.
The 'Sadhu' stays at the cave which you see just when you enter the fort. From that cave you go to the left side up and you will see lake one the way and caves with water. We had food and slept for a moment, it was so windy that we dropped the idea of staying in open. We went back to Sadhu so he asked us to go next construction. It was impossible to argue with him as he is having 'Mounvrat'[no-talk] for five years of which four years are completed. Other than opposition to stying with him, he helped with giving bucket, offering tea and snacks and again came to check whether we got settled or not and requires anything.
In the evening we went to the other end of the fort to see sunset. It was awesome to see entire range starting from Koldeher to Kanchana, Dhodap, Vikhara, Jawala, Rawala & Markanda. While coming back we collected dry cactus for chulha and again our we started preparing for Masala khichadi. This time Avi was teaching Erin how to cook and how to roast Papad on chulha.
Like Indrai even at Rajedeher it was damn cold so we immediately went to sleep after dinner. When I got up in the early morning, it was lovely to see rising sun from bed. Me, Alekh and Erin went out to click the snaps. It was beautiful morning and we four were relaxed watching rising sun. After getting fresh up we decided to move down so went give bucket to 'Sadhu' again. While leaving he gave us one paper on which he had written that he want to develop 'tiger-project' at the fort and he asked us to promote this activity. First of all Rajdeher is not so densed where wild animal can leave. Still since again we couldnt agrue[due to his mount-vrat] we jsut took that paper and came back. We took one and half hour to descend down. On the way we also enjoyed small waterfall.
At village, Erin wanted to visit school children so we went to visit the school. All school kids were very enthu to see foreigner so as Teacher and later on some Centre Head authority. Finally we left Rajdeher and proceed to Mumbai. It was a good hike as it was away from crazy crowd nowadays we get even at forts. I heard later on that Alang-Madan-Kulang got groups with 30 people and all. So on this background our trek was as if we were the King of the forts because only four of us were there on both the forts!
check the snaps at
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/576578334bBXTMT
