Sinhagad

Sinhagad is located around 30 km from Pune on a hill which is roughly 800 meters high.  This is one of the favorite day treks for the adventure lovers from Pune. For the more relaxed ones, a road leads right upto the foot of the fort. The trek from the car park upto the fort's center is light and refreshing.

The road always has a bunch of potholes with the heavy rain it receives but is still a good ride both in a four or two wheelers.

Strategically located along a line of forts Rajgad-Trona Sinhagad (formally called Kondhana) was one of the most important forts during Shivaji's reign.

Sinhagad is know for the famous battle in 1670 when Tanaji Malusare recaptured the fort from the Mughals. The Mughals had heavily fortified the fort on all sides except one very steep cliff believed to be impossible to scale. Tanaji scaled this cliff with the help of a rope tied to a ghorpad. (A Big Lizard like Reptile)  His message to his men before initiating the climb was "Dor sutala teri tondatun awaaz nai" meaning 'Not a sound even if you fall to your death'.  It takes courage to ask this of your men and a blinding faith of the men in their general to follow a command like this. And it was this courage and this faith that helped a handful of Marathas to fight against the hordes of Mughals guarding the fort and claim it for their own.  Sadly, the great warrior Tanaji was lost in this battle. Shivaji on hearing this said "Gad aala pan sinha gela" "We won the fort but lost the lion". Kondhana was renamed 'Sinhagad' as a tribute to Tanaji. 

Karnala

It was that time of the year to take a small break from work and head for a vacation. I had big plans for Ramoji City Hyd, but Telangana row scared me off. Couple of other plans did not materialize and I decide on a short 3 day trip to Karnala, near Panvel.

Karnala is around 130km from Pune and around 60km from Mumbai. Located around 15 Km from Panvel on the mumbai-goa highway (NH-17) , it has great accessibility. Auto-rickshaws are available from Panvel station and bus stand, or one can drive down from Mumbai or Pune.

Places to visit in Karnala are the bird sanctuary and the Karnala Fort. The sanctuary is small around 4.8 sq meters however it boasts of close to 150 varied species of birds. The Karnala fort is accessible through the bird sanctuary after a trek of about 3 kms. I unfortunately could not try a hand at bird watching or making the trek to the Fort with Mrunmay in tow. However here are some shots of the Karnala Fort that I shot from the resort.

We spent about a couple of hours in the sanctuary and Mrunmay was over whelmed when he saw the monkeys, his first sighting and still mimics them :).  This one was his favorite since he played a game of peek-a-boo.

 

And he wanted to go shake hand with this one and share his chips, but chickened out when the monkey growled !

Butterflies and incy-wincy …spider were his next favorites and I could capture some of them !

 

 

 

The sanctuary also had some bird cages and we found a peacock in all its glory !! Unfortunately the cage was lined with grids and I couldnt get a complete shot.

Karnala has around  4 resorts namely Shalom, Panoramic, Khanshbhar Vishranti, K Woods . And I chose Panoramic Resorts (Same guys who own Pan Card club). A great place with a lot of action for kids, all kinds of slides, see-saws and swings. Add to that water sports! Here are some images of the resort. The cricket being one of the favorites games that visitors at Panoramic spend their time on.

This is the view of the majestic Karnala from our room.

Mrumay had a bunch of fun chasing some of the tamed ducks around and went gaga over the ostriches that the resort has tamed.

 

All in all, a great place for all kind of visitors, a bird sanctuary for the birds and nature lovers.  A trek for the adventurers, a water park for those who want to just chill out, pleasant lawns games for the family with kids who just want to relax.