It was a cold weekend in February 2005. I was getting bored
as most of my friends were not in Pune. So, I planned for Tikona trek with Ganesh and Anil. Ganesh, who is from Andhra Pradesh,
was very eager for the trek because he was never been on fort previously. Tikona is a small fort on the backwaters of Pavna
dam, near Kamshet. This fort is also called Vitandgad. It's height is around 3500 ft. and it got Tikona name because it is
somewhat triangular in shape.
We left Kothrud at 7 am on bikes and chose the road going via
Pirangut - Paud. By this road, Tikona is 40 km from Pune. From Paud, one road goes towards Lonavla. Tikona is just 20 km from
Paud. Anil was alone on his Splendor, so he gave lift to a person from Paud. His name was Kapil.
We reached a small village called Javan at around 9 am. Kapil
had to get down in this village. As Tikona is just 3 km from this village, we decided to have breakfast in a small hotel in
this village. Kapil also joined us for breakfast. We had Vada paav and tea there. From conversation with Kapil, we came to
know that, he was an environmentalist from one of the institutes in Aundh. He was going to a nearby village, Aajivali. There
is a Devrai (sacred forest) in Aajivali and Kapil was going there to guide M.Sc. students of Garware College for their Botany
thesis. Interesting, isn't it?
After breakfast, Kapil left for Aajivli and we moved towards
Tikona base. A small village with name Tikona Peth is base village of Tikona. We parked our bikes there and took a small path
going on the fort. Its fairly simple path, and within 30 min. we reached on the fort. As this was Ganesh's first trek, he
found this simple trek tiresome. But, Anil was in full enthu as usual. There are few caves here. It is said that these caves
are from Saatvahan era. A water tank is also there. Its water is not potable. From here to reach on Bale-Killa, there are
around 60 steps and those are very steep. These steps takes you to the top of the fort. We reached the top at 10.30.
On top, there is a small Trimbakeshwar Mahadev temple. An under
ground water tank on top has potable water. The view from top is amazing. At the East, you can see Tung fort. Tung looks very
much challenging from this spot. At North, you can see Lohgad-Visapur forts. Pavna dam, its backwater and Paud-Lonavla road
passing by it makes the view more memorable.
After spending about an hour, we started descending the
fort. On the way back, somebody has lit up the Karvi bushes.
So, by making our way through flames, we reached the base.
Had some tea at the same hotel where we took breakfast and returned to
Pune at 1 pm. So, it was an OK type half day trek to Tikona.
