Mrugagad is one of the nearest treks from Mumbai and also it's not that well known, so people visiting this fort is less in number and that gives us the advantage to visit this historic fort even during the weekends. But still try to avoid weekends for a peace of mind here, the route up to the base of the fort is very easy but the roads are not well built. Simply type Mrugagad fort on your google maps and you can reach the base of this fort in a few hours. For instance look at this road in the video avoid these roads by choosing the car mode in your google maps.
But the start and end roads of this trekking route from your bikes up to the base is so good....
Once you reach the base you can park your vehicles , there is enough parking space available in the base village. When we left the base for our trek we had already told one of the villagers to prepare our lunch for that afternoon .The cost of non veg lunch is around 150 Rs. only and it's also a type of income for the villagers so try to help them. The start of the trek is from the white railings and the climb is not that difficult , all the boards directing you towards the fort are visible.
The 1st patch is only walking through the woods for half an hour and then you start gaining some elevation .Eventually you will reach a deep cut between the rocks where a rope is there for our help , use the rope and climb this cut very carefully. Since this is not a long trek once you cross this cut you would have completed half of this trek already. The view of the hills in front of you is so wonderful.
After an hour of trekking you will reach the final part where you will find the stairs which take you to the top of the fort. When we visited this fort ,there were volunteers trying to keep this fort clean and well maintained , the top part is actually vast and you have to move forward until you reach the flag and the water tanks . This is where our trek ends, a group had accompanied us in this trek and they were taking drone shots from the top.
If the sky is clear enough you can view a number of water falls from this fort.
While descending the route is same, if the rain does not hit your return path then you can take a riskier path which leads you to the caves of this fort . But the route is actually very risky and be very careful when you attempt this path to the caves. Still the view from the caves is worth the risk.
Take a look at the videos and decide yourself if you can go to the caves or not.
We returned to the base had our lunch in the villager uncles house and then left for a historic place called Umberkhind which was is in our return route for home. The history of this place is worth reading and if you like to read about wars and Maratha history , it's one of the places you should visit.
You can have a nice small swim here but the stream is fast flowing so be careful not to go too deep.
Thanks for reading, also I am sharing the .gpx file for this trek open it with the OSMAND app and you will have the offline route for this trek.
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