Tikona Fort Trek - by Krish Iyer

 

Grade: Easy                             Height: 3579 ft

Base Village: Tikona Peth        District: Pune

Tikona is a fort in the Lonavala region of Pune district. Its twin fort is Tung. You can do Tikona and Tung together in only one day. Tikona is surrounded by Lohagad, Visapur, Tung, and two lakes on each of it’s sides. One is Pawana lake, and the other is Mulshi. The word ‘Tikona’ means triangle or pyramid. Tikona is also known as Vitandgad.

History

It is not known who built this fort. In 1485, Malik Ahmad Nizam Shah I captured this fort. Later Shivaji Maharaj took control of the fort in 1657. To know more about the history of Tikona visit this link

My Journey

I have actually been to Tikona twice. The first on a Saturday, and the second one, just two days later! My friend’s mom was so amazed by the photos, she really WANTED to do the trek. My sister agreed, because on the first one she couldn’t come. My mom and I did not mind as we loved it the first time. I am mainly going to talk about the first trip.

We started from Pune at 6 am. I became excited as we approached the pyramid like structure. 

Tikona at sunrise

After parking the car, we had to walk for about two minutes till we reached a sign in Marathi that said, ‘gadavar janyacha rasta’ (path to go to the fort).

There is a mud trail that gradually ascends. After sometime, we could see the beautiful Pawana lake. The trail became a little steeper and then we reached a diversion. We took the one that goes to the right as the other one goes to a hill called Mandvi Dongar.  As we started climbing we reached a small plateau. It started becoming verrrry windy from there.

Beautiful view of Pawana Lake

After some more time we reached a wooden door. This door is kept closed at night and is opened at 7 AM. After the door the trail goes through a small cave which opens up to a plateau. From here we could see the top of Tikona. A little further ahead there was a large orange statue of lord Hanuman carved on a rock. This Hanuman statute is known as Chapatdan Maruti. There are narrow stairs that take you behind the statue. 

Find me in this photo - at Chapatdan Maruti

Further ahead there is a forest-like trail.  In this trail we first encountered a cave temple of goddess Tuljadevi with a pond in front of it. Walking a little further we saw a chunyacha ghana (a circular stone grinder used to grind limestone). In olden times the bulls used to pull the grinder rock in a circular track to make a mixture of limestone, sand, water etc. This mixture was used in the construction of the fort.

Tuljadevi Cave Temple

Limestone mixing girder

After that we had to climb a set of well-made steps to reach a small entrance. We sat on the topmost step to see the beautiful landscape below. 

After the entrance there is another set of narrow, steep and uneven steps. We had to be careful while climbing these steps.  At the end of these steps we saw a narrow bastion on the left and caves on the right. We spent some time sitting at the bastion and enjoying the wind blowing on our face. 

Sitting at the bastion. The cave is partially seen to the left of the photo

From here we entered the main fort area through the Vetal Darwaja. There is not much space here. But there is a bastion with gaps made that give views of the trails below. From here, there is another set of steps that take you to the topmost point of the fort. 

Here there is a water tank and a temple of lord Trymbakeshwar. Further ahead is the flag point. Like all our treks we took many photos with the flag. I could see beautiful views of both the lakes from here. 

One more fort conquered

We had started at 7:15 AM and by 8:15 AM we reached the top. We had breakfast here enjoying the blue sky. It was so windy that one of my parathas even fell down!  We spent 15-20 minutes at the top simply enjoying the wind and taking pictures as unlike forts like Torna and Rajgad there is nothing much to do.

I prayed at the Trymbakeshwar temple and then we started our descent. 

Trymbakeshwar Temple

As we descended we remembered all the landmarks we had seen while our ascent. It was one of my best treks. On the way home we saw a beautiful view of Tung fort.

View of Tung fort

Now, I will tell an interesting episode in trek two. The door that opens at 7:00 was locked even though it was past 7:00!  But Tikona was not closed that day!

Thankfully, my mom saw a path to the right. Actually, you can't call it a PATH, as it was covered with a lot of grass. It is very slippery. My friend’s mom was so annoyed and scared because the path was so slippery! But thankfully we made it to the other side of the door and continued with our trek. Please don’t try this because if you slip, you will fall directly down.

Things To Know

Water facility- Although it is a short trek, there are 1-2 shacks that sell water and lemonade on the way.

Food- There is a shop that sells snacks at the parking. You can carry food from home also.

Time to trek- It takes 1 hour to reach the top and 45 minutes to descend. You can complete the whole trek in 3 hours.

Road to the base- It takes 1.5 hours to reach the base from Pune. The road is of good quality.

Best time to visit- The best time to visit Tikona fort is post-monsoon.