Sinhgad to Rajgad Range Trek

Trek Completed: Feb 19 and 20, 2016

Trek Route: Pune-Sinhgad Base (Atkarwadi)-Sinhgad-Zunjar Buruj-Vinzar-Sakhar-Chirmodi- Gunjavane-Rajgad-Nasarapur Phata- Pune

Difficulty Grade- Simple/Medium

Trek Mates: Santosh Kulkarni and Sandip Jadhav

Actual walk duration: 1 hour on Feb 19 and 12 hours on Feb 20.

Sinhgad Fort is one of my favorite for trekking. I have done umpteen climbs till now. There are multiple ways to enter and exists fort; like Katraj to Sinhgad range trek, Pabe khind to Sinhgad range trek, Motorable road from Donaje and Kondhanpur. I had done all these except Sinhgad to Rajgad trek. This particular trek was in mind for long time but couldn't complete it because of other trek plans. After completing K2S for the fifth time last weekend (Feb 14, 2016), I decided to do this trek on this Saturday. Santosh confirmed his participation (as usual) and Sandip shown interest too. 

Trek Map- source Google map

Sinhgad and Rajgad forts have seen many ups and downs of Maratha Empire. Rajgad was the first capital of Maratha kingdom during Shivaji's time. This where Shivaji spent 25 years of his prime time. Sinhgad has seen many battles between Maratha and Mughal. How can one forget sacrifice of great Tanaji Malusare? It was pride to cover both the forts together.


We started from Pune at 9 pm from Abhiruchi Mall (Sinhgad Road) on Feb 19. Reached Atkarwadi by 10 pm and started climbing Sinhgad Fort. Within 1 hour we reached the top and stayed overnight in Amruteshwar Temple which is near Dev Take. Temple was empty and we had enough space to spread our Sleeping Bags. Quickly had dinner and went to explore Fort at Kalyan Darwaja Side. Wanted to show the route which we would take in the morning. While entering into the temple saw a snake at the entrance door. laborers gathered around and were adamant to kill the snake even though we requested them to spare it. It was sad to see people eventually killing the snake. We went into the sleeping bag and slept thinking about the incident.


Next day morning we woke up at 5.30 am (Plan was to get up by 4 am). Had tea and biscuits from near by tapri and started descending Sinhgad fort from Zunjar Buruj Side at 6.30 am. Weather was perfect-cool morning breeze, chirping of birds, color of sky changed as sun was rising.

Sinhgad Tower at dawn

It all set the trekking tempo and we were full of energy to walk. One has to take the ridge which goes to the straight initially and slightly towards left at later stage. 

Follow the straight route over the ridge from Zunjar Buruj.

Do not take any traverse in between or else you will end up going to Kalyan Village. (This route was known to us as Santosh and I had done P2S (Pabe Khind to Sinhgad) trek earlier in September last year). Path was very much visible as grass was dried and burnt. 

Sandip, Santosh and Me. Selfie time.

After 2-3 small up/downs we reached one tall hill. We took traverse going towards right side and reached the point where Rajgad and Torna forts were visible in front and village at the base.  At this point the route from Pabe khind joins hence it can be called as T-Junction. It was 8 am. Took the path which goes downward. Here too ridge needs to followed. The slope is a bit steep. Dont take any traverse again and follow the path to reach the Vinzar village. In between one can see two small Wadi's.

View from the T-junction. One has to follow the ridge which goes downward

After 1 and half hours we reached Vinzar Village. Clock showed 9.45 am. The plan was to have breakfast at Vinzar however the only hotel was closed and there was no option to have food.

We crossed the village which is on state highway which connects Nasarapur and Velhe. Went into the farms and walked for 10/15 mins to reach the Kanandi river. On our way we had sugar cane and Harbara from the farms.

Enjoying Sugarcane

Couldn't resist and decided to have a bath. Water level was very low. 

Me and Santosh while crossing the river. Monsoon season it overflows.

Bath removed all fatigue and we were again charged up. We had snacks as a lunch under a tree and started walking again towards Sakhar. It was 11.45 am. Soon we reached the Chirmodi village. We checked whether we can get any transportation till Gunjavane but we were not lucky. Time was 12.30 pm. It was a typical hot day in February which was sultry and scorching. We were drenched in sweat and perspiration. Wanted a transportation badly. The sun was bright and burning. It was most tiring and boring phase of the trek as its completely tar road walk. We pushed ourselves and reached Gunjavane by 1 pm. Now Santosh and Sandip were completely tired and in no mood to climb Rajgad in afternoon time. We had almost 45 mins break drank Limbu paani and relaxed for a while. Sandip was ready to climb and wanted to see Rajgad as it was his first time. We convinced Santosh somehow and he was ready. We kept our bags at Purohit's hotel and took only water bottles and essentials. I agreed to carry that bag. We started ascending by 2 pm and reached top by 4 pm. We took multiple breaks in between and climbed slowly. There was little respite from the sun as cloud gathered and temperature came down a little. 

View of Suvela Machi while ascending

Sandip and I explored Padmavati Machi and decided to come again to see entire fort. We were happy to see some repairing work happening including wall fortification, steps construction etc. 

Steps work going on at Chor Darwaja. workers told that this step work will go up till Balekilla.

Started descending and reached fort base by 6.30 pm. This time we were lucky to get cab and driver agreed to drop till Chirmodi and again got one more vehicle till Abhiruchi Mall where we had parked our vehicles.


Whole day we didnt have proper food and we decided to have dinner together. Had dinner and parted our ways to reach our homes by 10 pm.


Over all very satisfying day where we trekked for almost 12 hours and walked around 30 kms through the mountains, fields and tar roads.

Tip: 1. This trek can be completed in one day if one starts from Sinhgad early morning (4/5 am)

2. Take public transportation from Vinzar to Gunjavane as this particular patch is of tar road and its tiring walk specially during afternoon time.