A trip to Shiveneri

There were a lot of discussions regarding a trek to RajMachi on Saturday 5th August, well it ended up being a hike to Shiveneri! Its just so usual is'nt it :) . Shiveneri basically has 2 routes , one goes up by road and the second goes up the side of the fort. We were destined to walk on a tar road.

Well post normal idiocys we (Ajay/Anjali/Mahen/Prashant and myself) got the 7:15am ST bound to "Lenyadri". Paresh and Anagha teamed in at Nasik Phata. So we enjoyed the whole way, talking yapping, sleeping geting the new-ones introduced, all this before geting off at "Junnar". It was roughly 10am.

Here no one was impressed by Shiveneri, just that it was so short and did not seem to pose any challenges. Well now that we were there, we had to do it. Post some routines, we had snacks at a local shop across the road. Puri bhajji, misal paav wada sambaar and tea is how the table looked. Also bought some snacks at a local shop before the hike.

The villagers nowhere along the way or at the shop were willing to reveal to us the footpath that goes up, they all asked us to take the tar road. Well so we hiked under the consistant drizzle till the square that had a Shivaji riding his horse statue and took a left towards Shivneri.

Talking singing and dialog bajji is how this leg of the hike can be defined, as we went along the side of the fort and followed the elevated road taking turns as we reached the top base of the fort entrance, before the start of a fleet of steps. This fort is really well preserved, it has this newly constructed "Tathbandhi"- fortwalls- all along its sides, and the steps too are glorious!

From here we carried on through the main fort door, over the fleet of steps. This place is really very well preserved. Moving on we took enough snaps as the steps went curling up , there were the options of newly constructed vs. the old steps. We took the new ones, it was a simple hike- so lets keep it simple :).

Once atop we decided to visit the "Shivai" mandir, before climbing upto the main plateau which had all of the fort ruins and constructions and most of all the birth place of Shivaji maharaj. Enroute we spotted some tree, which is suppositedly a rare species according to Anagha -it looked like a normal tree to everyone :). This temple was located at the edge of the hill and had a huge painting of Shivaji and his troops on some war. Well most of us did not go in, since we did not wanna get rid of our shoes. Post this visit we moved off and on the way back went up a fleet of steps to the upper plateau.

Here where the steps end, was a lime juice "walla". Moving on to the left we spotted our first ruin, the "AmabarKhanna"- storage for grains and food,we mistook it for "HamamKhana" -the bathroom. Explored this place thouroughlly from the roof and from within, here we also spotted these holes on th roof - possibly some sort of an ancient manual shower bath system :P or so I thought.

Moving on we took a left and walked along a very marshy and muddy path towards the Shivaji "Janmasthan". The path was so bad, that I resorted to walking on the railings at times, and Ajay went on slow as Anjali had a tough time moving through th emarsh. Enroute we went past Ganga Jamuna "taki" and variuos other water cisterns. At the end of the path we entered a structure -"Shivkunj". This essentially was a building with the stutes of "Jijamata" and "Bal-Shivaji". Post some photographic moments and thrilled with the new muddy designs on our feet we took some time out under the shade of a huge tree behind a "masjid" - "Kamani Masjid".

From here we went on and took a good time out in the quadrangle of "Kamani Masjid". Behind us were a couple of mossy green water cisterns. What followed was a lecture of social sciences and the History of Shivaji etc etc. Well we got tired and decided to move on to the rectangular structure - "Shiv-Janmasthan".

This place is really very well built, has a little water cistern in its quadrangle and a wonderfull quadrangle. Ahead of it, towards the edge is a huge water cistern -"Badami Talav". Except Ajay all of us went inside the building. First we saw this barred room which had a statue of Shivaji. then a fleet of steps took us to an upper room with a huge window and a couple of side windows. Took some time out here and many photos.

From here we moved on along the right edge of "Badami Talav" to the nothern-most edge of the fort -"Kade Lot". This is a point from which imposters and convicts were thrown off. This edge has a little door and opens to a viewpoint area. Irony of the fact is, we -Prashant and myself- could spot a path coming from the road to the this point, then a simple rockclimb to the place we were! Here we spent some time before deciding to move back up a hill which was covered in clouds and had a couple of structures.

We backtracked all the way to the "ShivKunj" and a little ahead a path went up to the left. This was a steep ascent and in about 5 minutes we were atop and arrived at a wonderful structure -"Koli Chowthara". By now the rains were lashing in with a consistant wind and there was this thick fog everywhere! This was essentally an open structure with a curved roof on 4 pillars. Spent a lot of time here, practicing to whistle! Mahen was the only one sucessful at the end of it.

From here we moved on to the neighbouring structure -"Idgah". This was a typicall religious "masjid" type flat structure. Not wanting to wait we pushed on and started descending to the other side and came off near the "AmbarKhana". Moving on we had a some lime juice, and backtracked all the way down the steps to the start of the road.

Here we had some amazing tea and relished on bread and other snacks. Also played with a little with a cat that was sittling cosy under the table, where the tea was being prepared. From here we simply backtracked all the way along the road, munching on nuts and snacks and singing songs and yapping and cracking all sorts of jokes before we decided to break our walk at a hotel.

Here we had some amazing food -Thalli, shev bhaji, rotis puri, shrikhand and icecream is how the menu appeared at this place. Relaxed a lot and at roughly 4:45pm we left for the bus-stop.

The bus-stop was full of college kids and everyone had their eyes peered on us aliens clad in t-shirts and shorts! Well post some waiting we got out 5:45 super fast St. bus bound for Pune. Everyone caught on good old sleep and relaxed a lot before bidding our farewells to Paresh and Anagha as they alighted at Nashik Phata.

The rest of us got off at Shivajinagar. Ajay and myslef went hunting for a mechanic to fix his bike's broken cluch wire. Soon everything was ok, we got a mechanic down and rectified the whole event. It was roughly 8:45pm when Mahen and Prashant dropped me off at my gate, before bidding our farewells.

At the end of it, we were trying to stuff a two day trek to Rajmachi into one, and we ended up doing a one day trip to Shivneri which should have lasted much much less than that! :)

It was one good trip to Shiveneri!
Enjoy some of the snaps!