Rajmachi Trek - An incredibly accessible trek in Lonavala

Rajmachi fort is an awesome trek with a trailhead at the core of Lonavala. I had first stumbled on the trek on a Staycation at Fariyas resort, Lonavala, where the hotel did a guided tour for us to Tungarli dam. Rajmachi fort trek has two trailheads - one at Tungarli dam, and the other near to Della Adventure resort. The route starting from Tungarli dam is more beautiful, and goes through much more dense greenery, before converging with the jeep track that comes up from Della Resort.

I did two solo hikes in quick succession in October ‘23.

I comfortably parked my car at the free parking near to Della Resort. I started my hike, on two different Sundays in the sultry Maharashtra heat.

The itinerary for Rajmachi Fort trek

A two hour drive to Lonavala, trailhead starts near Della Resort. A comfortable 11km walk to Udhewadi village - very easy walk on a jeep track. About a 1-1.5 km uphill walk to the top of the fort, where you get a 360 degree view of the Sahyadris that connect the hill towns of Lonavala and Karjat.

Difficulty

The trek is longish - there are 10kms of walking along an undulating trail.

The final climb to the top of the fort is along a narrowish route, and on rock steps - you just need to be careful - else it is not tricky - the footings are solid.

image A nice sight of buffaloes bathing in water

image A nice view of the route that I had taken - essentially you cross a pass that connects the two ridges

image A view of the top, at midway

image The very noisy Shirota forest

Going over the day again

I started for Lonavala at 1:30pm from home in Palava City, Dombivli

Reached Lonavala at 3:30pm, parked my car, and started the trek

The heat was more in terms of the sunshine - which was very bright, accompanied by the humidity.

I was carrying two trekking poles on the day. Even amidst the strong sun, I tried to keep a good pace by combining running and walking.

That worked for a while however - till mostly 10kms into the walk + run. I mostly tried to run on the downhills - my initial target was to reach the top of the fort at 5:30, and to be able to return to the car at 7:30, so that I’ll be home latest by 9:30. As it turned out I reach home at 11:07 (which wasn’t all that bad actually).

Udhewadi village to Rajmachi climb

On reaching Udhewadi village - I decided I will just continue to walk wherever I see a trail.

I reached Udhewadi village - at base of Rajmachi Fort trek - at 6pm.

On reaching the village, I took the trail towards Karjat - that was a stupid move, that came from a sense of being in a hurry, and just to keep walking - what I ended up doing was I walked a good 1-km in the direction of Karjat - towards Kondivne village.

I tracked back, and came on the fork for Rajmachi fort - it is a concrete paved path - more of stairs. I started the ascent, and pretty quickly reached the temple at the base of the Twin forts. The onward journey from the temple towards the forest was steep - and I had to stop frequently to gasp for breath.

But with each step uphill the overall valley looked that much more gorgeous.

image The beautiful temple at the base of Rajmachi fort

Eventually I decided to turn around at about 6:30 - it was a mixture of the fact that it was getting dark - and that trekking solo - i was concerned about mixture of the trail being narrow and steep, and also the fact that I had a long walk back. I decided to skip the last 50 vertical metres or so of uphill climb, and decided to return back.

image Cave, near to Rajmachi top

As expected, descending was a little nervy, but I got back before it got dark.

image Sunset at Rajmachi fort

image Sunset at Lonavala

The long walk back

The long walk back was pure endurance - it got dark by about 7, and it was just me, my trekking pole and my lights, and a dog that accompanied me throughout the hike.

It was really lovely, the walk back - knowing that I had effectively no option other than to continue walking.

image With the dog that accompanied me all the way…till another group came and he decided to follow them instead

image Me with a lamp amid pitch dark

Back at the car

Once back at the car, I knew I had a longish 2 hour drive pending me towards Palava. I ate beetroot and cucumber that I had packed for myself - it felt so good, and I took a good strong gulp of water.

The One in which I finally reached Rajmachi top - Part Two - photos coming soon!

The next time was a slightly more planned trip - I started from Palava at 12 noon, reaching comfortably at 2pm. While it was indeed quite sunny, my biggest concern this time was the wildlife - the high heat brings out scorpions - I saw 2!, and snakes (I didn’t see any!).

The Shirota forest was full of life during my walk towards the fort - it was really loud, and kind of scary if I am to be honest.

This was all in all a much more comfortable walk - I reached the base of the village at about 4:15, at 4:45pm I was comfortably at the top of Rajmachi, and at 5:15pm I was back at the base village. I estimated that I would be able to get back to the base camp of Rajmachi at 7:30pm, which indeed I was quite comfortably able to do.