TringalWadi Trek
Monsoon treks are always a delight. Sahyadris are at their beautiful best in the monsoons. This year though the monsoons have been late in coming. I decided to go for the Tringalwadi trek almost at the Last moment. I called up Vinay, the trek lead to check whether I could be accommodated. To my surprise, I could join the trek.
We were a group of 28 people. After catching the Tapovan Express at 6:48am we landed at Igatpuri at about 9:30 am in the morning. After having our Breakfast in the local udipi hotel we started the trek towards the Tringalwadi village after taking directions from the hotelwala.
After passing through the Wagh Khind the route we took traversed several village farmlands. We kept on asking the passerby’s for directions. Outskirts of the village we saw a small snake probably a hatchling.
From the Tringalwadi village we were guided by a localite to the top. We started out by moving towards the PandavLeni. We met a group of trekkers there who assured us that the fort top was awesome. Kiran was walking along side our guide mama all the time. “Pandav Leni” is a cave present at the foothill of the fort. The carvings of the cave are somewhat intact. But out of the four pillars only one pillar is standing as of now. Most of the place is in ruins. In innermost part of the cave also known as “garbhagraha” there is statue. The Nasik District Gazetteer states “Tringalvadi has several caves of which only one is in a fairly good (condition and a ruined temple of Brahmadeva with a Sanskrit inscrip¬tion dated Shako 1266 (A. D. 1334).” But a lot of books state that the statue is of Gautam Buddha in deep meditation state.
After checking out the Pandav Leni we started our climb towards the fort. The plan was to go in through the door that was cut through a single rock cliff. The road up was climbing steadily and slowly our pace slackened. As a trek lead Vinay coaxed all the slow movers to keep moving ahead and also stopped when some one needed a break. There were a lot of first timers in the group, as the trek was marked as an easy one. When we started the climb there was not much of rain in sight. The climate was pleasant and cool. After we were ¾ way up we stopped there to catch our breaths. The site was breath taking. It was a matter of minutes that the clouds began to gather and it stated raining.
There was fog on the route while going up and the entire fort was covered in it. The visibility around us was for only a few meters. 
Rest all was covered in a veil of the clouds.
We finally came to a narrow route that took us up to the fort. After crossing the narrow path we came to a flight of steps that needed little struggle on our part to get to the steps. Vinay,Sameer and Kiran were present there to lend us a helping hand as well as to guide us to get on to the steps. These steps and the door they lead to are cut out from a single sheet of rock. The steps and the door are still intact. If we stand facing the door to our Left hand side is a huge figure of Lord Hanuman carved out of the stone wall. It was still raining when we reached the top of the fort. At the entrance of the door are Present some caverns like a loft that could have been used as a resting place,by the soldiers guarding the fort. It was about 2pm when we reached the top. It was still beautiful & all surrounded by clouds. Our guide mama guided us to a cave where we could all have lunch. All wet & shivering sat down on papers and opened our lunchboxes. My camera till then was working fine. But after that started acting funny. I guess the moisture got to it.
After lunch we had a tour of the fort. But before we started the tour all the girls and ladies of the group had a small photo session, as the guys had gone ahead to give us a bit of time to ourselves. The fort is a small one and has temple of Shiva atop it. Also there is a water cistern atop which has drinkable water. The water cistern also has columns which have carvings on them. Some remains of the fort walls & the remains of what could have been a “wada” can be seen Then started our descend down the fort. Shilpa and 2 more girls expressed concern about getting down the fort from the way we came up. It was a bit tough no doubt and getting down would prove really difficult for everyone given the conditions. The route which we were using now was a easy one with just steps. But the steps are broken here and there and one has to be careful while getting down them. So it was like; we had taken a round of the fort: entering from one side & descending from the other side.
As we came down the rain kinda stopped falling. But there was cold breeze still and the fort was still covered in the veil of clouds.
We stopped briefly in the Tringalwadi village for a jeep or any other transportation to take us back to the Igatpuri Stn.We had Tea there and all 28 of us had to travel in a jeep together. We were sure that we would be the talk of the town as there were a lot of people staring at us. One of the picnickers also rushed to get a pic of us in the jeep. Meanwhile I had taken one too at the start of our journey.
We finally caught the Tapovan Express which was jam packed and was 20 mins late.
We had to return home standing amidst crowds and there were rounds of antakshari going on as well as many of them were playing cards.
Finally I reached home at about 10pm.
About Tringalwadi fort:-
Tringalwadi Fort stands 2,893 feet (881.78m) above the sea level and lies six miles north-west of Igatpuri & four miles north of the Thal Pass. Nothing is known about the History of the fort except the fact that Tringalwadi was among the forts that were ceded by Shahji Raje to the Mughals after the battle of Mahuli. It is one of the sixteen fortified places which surrendered to the British on the fall of Trimbak in April 1818.
We were a group of 28 people. After catching the Tapovan Express at 6:48am we landed at Igatpuri at about 9:30 am in the morning. After having our Breakfast in the local udipi hotel we started the trek towards the Tringalwadi village after taking directions from the hotelwala.
After passing through the Wagh Khind the route we took traversed several village farmlands. We kept on asking the passerby’s for directions. Outskirts of the village we saw a small snake probably a hatchling.From the Tringalwadi village we were guided by a localite to the top. We started out by moving towards the PandavLeni. We met a group of trekkers there who assured us that the fort top was awesome. Kiran was walking along side our guide mama all the time. “Pandav Leni” is a cave present at the foothill of the fort. The carvings of the cave are somewhat intact. But out of the four pillars only one pillar is standing as of now. Most of the place is in ruins. In innermost part of the cave also known as “garbhagraha” there is statue. The Nasik District Gazetteer states “Tringalvadi has several caves of which only one is in a fairly good (condition and a ruined temple of Brahmadeva with a Sanskrit inscrip¬tion dated Shako 1266 (A. D. 1334).” But a lot of books state that the statue is of Gautam Buddha in deep meditation state.
After checking out the Pandav Leni we started our climb towards the fort. The plan was to go in through the door that was cut through a single rock cliff. The road up was climbing steadily and slowly our pace slackened. As a trek lead Vinay coaxed all the slow movers to keep moving ahead and also stopped when some one needed a break. There were a lot of first timers in the group, as the trek was marked as an easy one. When we started the climb there was not much of rain in sight. The climate was pleasant and cool. After we were ¾ way up we stopped there to catch our breaths. The site was breath taking. It was a matter of minutes that the clouds began to gather and it stated raining.
There was fog on the route while going up and the entire fort was covered in it. The visibility around us was for only a few meters. 
Rest all was covered in a veil of the clouds.We finally came to a narrow route that took us up to the fort. After crossing the narrow path we came to a flight of steps that needed little struggle on our part to get to the steps. Vinay,Sameer and Kiran were present there to lend us a helping hand as well as to guide us to get on to the steps. These steps and the door they lead to are cut out from a single sheet of rock. The steps and the door are still intact. If we stand facing the door to our Left hand side is a huge figure of Lord Hanuman carved out of the stone wall. It was still raining when we reached the top of the fort. At the entrance of the door are Present some caverns like a loft that could have been used as a resting place,by the soldiers guarding the fort. It was about 2pm when we reached the top. It was still beautiful & all surrounded by clouds. Our guide mama guided us to a cave where we could all have lunch. All wet & shivering sat down on papers and opened our lunchboxes. My camera till then was working fine. But after that started acting funny. I guess the moisture got to it.
After lunch we had a tour of the fort. But before we started the tour all the girls and ladies of the group had a small photo session, as the guys had gone ahead to give us a bit of time to ourselves. The fort is a small one and has temple of Shiva atop it. Also there is a water cistern atop which has drinkable water. The water cistern also has columns which have carvings on them. Some remains of the fort walls & the remains of what could have been a “wada” can be seen Then started our descend down the fort. Shilpa and 2 more girls expressed concern about getting down the fort from the way we came up. It was a bit tough no doubt and getting down would prove really difficult for everyone given the conditions. The route which we were using now was a easy one with just steps. But the steps are broken here and there and one has to be careful while getting down them. So it was like; we had taken a round of the fort: entering from one side & descending from the other side.
As we came down the rain kinda stopped falling. But there was cold breeze still and the fort was still covered in the veil of clouds.
We stopped briefly in the Tringalwadi village for a jeep or any other transportation to take us back to the Igatpuri Stn.We had Tea there and all 28 of us had to travel in a jeep together. We were sure that we would be the talk of the town as there were a lot of people staring at us. One of the picnickers also rushed to get a pic of us in the jeep. Meanwhile I had taken one too at the start of our journey.
We finally caught the Tapovan Express which was jam packed and was 20 mins late.
We had to return home standing amidst crowds and there were rounds of antakshari going on as well as many of them were playing cards.
Finally I reached home at about 10pm.
About Tringalwadi fort:-
Tringalwadi Fort stands 2,893 feet (881.78m) above the sea level and lies six miles north-west of Igatpuri & four miles north of the Thal Pass. Nothing is known about the History of the fort except the fact that Tringalwadi was among the forts that were ceded by Shahji Raje to the Mughals after the battle of Mahuli. It is one of the sixteen fortified places which surrendered to the British on the fall of Trimbak in April 1818.
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