A strenuous trek to Kokandiva

I was in the busy city traffic. On my bike. Watching my bike zooming ahead of a multi axle truck and a Volvo bus.  In fact watching my bike zooming ahead of the two biggies, between the narrow gap of 2 ft offered by the two vehicles.

One can't be so close to excitement (read accident, if you consider yourself sane !) every day.

If you like that kind of excitement, get introduced to Alok, the man who was driving my bike.

The day had been exceptional. We were coming from an adventurous trek to Kokan Diva. And that was Alok's way of saying good bye to that trek. For a split millisecond I thought that was probably not the best way to say good bye to the world ;-)

Coming back. Kokan Diva.

Kokan Diva

8 ft by 20 ft is not a really big terrace, going by today's standards. But what if it was at 700 meter height from three sides and 200 meters from remaining one side,  And what if you had to climb 100 meters on a 70 degree slope to reach there ?

Yes, that's Kokan Diva fort, a watch tower fort (if you know what that means!), very close to Raigad. In fact the closest (fort Lingana is another one).

All watch tower forts are interesting climbs (Tung, Telbail, Karnala, Lingana to name a few). And Kokan Diva is no exception.

Remote location, steep climb, dense forest, no crowd, what else do you need for a great trek ?

A busy week, new bike, free Saturday morning, and natures calling. That was the state of affairs on Friday evening. I called up Alok and proposed a trek to this relatively unknown fort. He agreed. We decided to start late, at 5:30 AM. That's late by my standards ;-). Check the other blogs to know what I mean.

Kokan Diva is a small fort located on the west side of Pune. Around 70 KM from the main city. I mean the old city. We took the Sinhgad Road. Khadakwasala, Sinhgad phata, took right towards Panshet, reached Panshet dam at 6:35. We were making good progress. The weather was good. There are 5 different (& interesting) roads from Panshet. First one goes to Velhe (thorugh Kadave pass). Another goes to Panshet back waters from the left bank. Third goes to Panshet back water from the right bank. The fourth goes to Lavasa via Varasgao back waters (right bank). And the fifth goes to Neelkantheshwar.We took the third one, the road that goes to Dapsare & Ghol village.

The road was in excellent condition, especially for biking. It was going up and down and offered many curves. We reached Dapsare village at 7:15. The road from Dapsare was a small ghat section.

On the way

The view from top was amazing. The landscape was refreshing & entirely different than whatever I have seen, ever. We had many small hills and deep valleys in front of us. The quick downhill route took us to the entrance of the Ghol village.

We took a left turn just before the Ghol village, and that took us to Garjai Wadi. This last section was a Kachha Road and was fun to ride ... for Alok. I had handed over the bike to Alok at the Ghol village.

Towards Garjai Wadi

Garjai Wadi is a small village. Electricity reached this village couple of years back. The villagers were happy that they could recharge their mobile at home. Not kidding. It is one of the many remote villages in India where mobiles have reached BEFORE electricity. India is a wonderful country !

Coming back to the trek.

We reached Garjai Wadi and parked my bike at the end of the road. The road ENDS at Garjai Wadi.

Garjai Wadi

Advice: When you reach such remote place, it is better to reach out to the local folks and inform them about your plan and seek their advice / help.

As we went near to the small houses, one old lady & few gentlemen appeared. I told them that we want to park the vehicle in the village and want to go to the fort. The lady offered to help. She asked two of her nephews to take us to the fort.

Our journey started with a lot of excitement. We walked through a dense forest. It was a mild uphill climb for 15 minutes.

We reached a pass. KokanDiva was visible from the pass. To reach the base of the fort we had to descend for 15 minutes through dense forest, and cross a DEVRAI.

Devrai

Devrai is a forest dedicated to GOD. The universal rule in the Devrai is that the trees and bushes should not be cut EVER. Additionally, in this Devrai no one was allowed to wear footwear while crossing the Devrai (Not sure whether this rule applies to ALL Devrai's. I am not an expert on this subject, so I may be wrong). We removed our shoes and walked barefoot for next 10 minutes through the Devrai. The Devrai was a thick forest. On a lighter note, for a moment I thought Sun rays are not allowed inside Devrai :-)  Some things cant be explained in words. Its sufficient to say that one should experience a Devrai once. It was an humbling experience.

We crossed the Devrai and reached the base of Kokan Diva. The climb from this point onwards was steep. We were out of breath in no time. It was real tiring climb. In 20 minutes we reached the first level of the fort, after crossing a small rock patch. There were two caves

and a water tank. The top of the fort was very close from here but was again a steep climb. The first step in that uphill journey was another (easy) vertical rock patch. In another 10 minutes we were at the top, breathless, and tired.

The view from the top was panoramic, beautiful & refreshing. Raigad was in front of us. The entire Rairi-Guiri hill range, Lingana fort, Kaal river, Kavlya-Bavlya khind (pass), Sandoshi village were seen from the top.

Breathless

This reminded me of the history of this fort. After the death of Sambhaji, Rajaram was crowned at Raigad on March 12, 1689. As the Mughals started laying siege to the region around Raigad on March 25, 1689, the widow of Sambhaji, Maharani Yesubai and her minister Ramchandra Pant
Amatya sent young Rajaram to the stronghold of Pratapgad through Kavlya ghat. The Maratha army fought with the Mughals and led the new Maratha king, Rajaram to escape through Kavlya ghat to the fort of Jinji in present day state of Tamil Nadu via Pratapgad and Vishalgad forts, where he reached on November 1, 1689. This is known history.

What is not so known is as follows. Mughal knight (sardar) Shahabuddin (there are multiple versions of the name, so consider it as place holder name) was sent by Aurangzeb to help Zulfikar Khan capture Raigad in the month of March, 1689. Zulfikar Khan had already closed most of the escape routes from Raigad by that time. The east side of the fort was not well covered and Shahabuddin was supposed to close the gap. In that journey he had to cross the Kavle Bavale pass at the base of Kokan Diva. A fierce battle was fought between Shahbuddin and Sarkale Naik (the Maratha knight responsible for Kokan Diva and the surrounding area). The Mughal army was bigger in size by order of magnitude (according to some claims it was 10 to 1 ratio).

The battle was won by Maratha's at the cost of many lives including that of Sarkale Naik. In some sense that victory ensured that east side of Raigad was still open for escape and Rajaram was able to escape. Rest is all history. Rajaram escaped & survived for 11 more years. Aurangzeb had to stay in Deccan plateau. After spending 27 long years in Deccan, Aurangzeb finally died without fulfilling his dream (that of capturing Deccan plateau).

The entire history of Aurangzeb's "Mission Deccan" & its failure has a lot of inspiring stories. The fort and the surrounding area were silent observers of one such story. A small monument was constructed in the honour of Sarkale Naik, and is still there at the base of the fort. Local people offer divabatti (lighting ceremony).

I love history and geography.

Kokan Diva was a great open book for me. But time was running out .. I had to make a choice. Going back to history (I mean the further trek through the Kavale Bawale pass) vs going back to Pune.

Pune was the choice :-)

A quick photo session and video session, and

we were all set to start the return journey. We stopped in one of the caves during the return journey and had a breakfast that included Apples and Chikki. With Alok around, return journeys are always exciting ;-) We missed the route

back to Garjai Wadi. That just added 30 minutes more to the walk and lots of karavande (local black berries) to the tummy on the way back. Missing the route is (sometimes more) exciting (than the actual journey). By the time we reached Garjai Wadi, the Sun was on our heads. The return journey on Bike was uneventful, except for the Dhoom style biking :-)

Elevation	1020 meters
Difficulty Level	Medium
Endurance Level	Medium
Adventure Level	High
Fun Level	Great
Ideal for	All trekkers except first timers. Monsoon is the best season to visit this place.
Notes	1. Get local help to understand the terrain and the way towards the fort 2. Avoid items / activities that may disturb the ecosystem 3. Follow all instructions given by the locals