This is one of the longest treks in Maharashtra and also one of the toughest. There are 2 ways to reach Rajmachi, one is from the Lonavala route and that is the easiest way as it takes you directly up to the base village. But the way from the Karjat side that takes you from the Kondhane caves is the toughest ,it takes you from the plateaus to the forests up to the base village, it spans around 20 kms of trek. Reaching the base is not that hard ,we had a four wheeler and google maps takes you up to the Kondhane caves parking so park your car and the trek starts.
Starting trek from the Kondhane route you will encounter a right turn, please take this turn we ourselves missed this and had to go in circles in the forest before reaching the correct path. If possible download offline maps as the route consist of many fast flowing streams and the route overflows during the monsoons. In the 1st half hour you will reach the Kondhane caves, now the actual trek starts and the Rajmachi forts are now round 18 kms from here so prepare yourself.
You will reach a plateau region in 5 minutes from the Kondhane caves and then the hardest part that is the forest trekking starts. You will have to climb continuously for hours and that too on the slippery routes to reach another plateau where you can have some rest and refreshments. Carry your own lunch as this route does not have many stalls in the way. You will find many such places where you will see the wonderful hills of the Sahyadris, this route takes you from Karjat to Lonavala and completing it is an achievement in itself.
So finally after trekking for around 15kms you will reach the base village that is the Udhewadi village. There are many houses here and you will find many shops to eat or drink something, after completing the trek till here have a nice break of half hour and then start the trek to the forts that make Rajamchi, one is the Shrivardhan fort and another is the Manaranjan fort.
Start the trek to the Shrivardhan Fort, you will encounter a board that gives you information about the Rajmachi forts and the most soothing part of the trek starts now as you will climb the starting stairs of the Rajmachi forts.
You will encounter some caves and a temple from here, on the right there is the Shrivardhan fort and on the left is the Manaranjan fort. Start your trek towards the Shrivardhan fort as it is more difficult compared to the other. You will require another 2 hours to reach the top of the Shrivardhan fort but the view from the top is very good. We could not see much due to the fog and also the monkeys did not allowed us to stay at the top for much time.
Here is the video from where the Fort section starts and you will find a plateau region to relax during the climb of the Shrivardhan fort.
Here are some videos from the top of Shrivardhan Fort.
Start your descend and reach the temple, start your trek for the Manaranjan Fort. This fort's climb is not that hard and one complete this fort in 1 hour. There are not many monkeys on the top here and you can peacefully have your lunch here.
Once we started our final descend we encountered heavy rains and our plan to reach Kondhane caves and have some rest there failed. We got lost in our return route due to many flowing streams in the path. Now we had no choice but to use our offline maps in this heavy rain, it saved us and took us up to the parking area but I lost my phones display due to it.
So be careful and have enough stamina to complete this trek.
Here is the .gpx file of this whole trek ,use it by downloading it from the below link and open it from the OSMAND app.
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