Weekend Trip to Pavagadh

It was after a long time that we three friends Sachin, Indresh and me went on a trip together. Unlike always where either of us would get caught up with work and would end up missing the trip. We booked tatkal tickets to Baroda, Gujarat from Mumbai.

On Friday night we boarded train to Vadodara and it takes approximately Six hours to reach the destination. We were happy to see that our train had LHB coaches. The sleep was comfortable and we were up ready to alight at Vadodara in the morning. We brushed our teeth and used lavatory inside the train so that we don't have the pain to go elsewhere to freshen up.

The next destination was Vadodra Central Bus station, which was just at a stone throe distance from the railway station. On our way we had masala chai and masala poha for the breakfast. At the bus stand, we boarded a bus for Pavagadh. Early morning the bus was empty and we secured the first seat behind the Driver. This is personally my favourite seat as it gives the best view from the wind shield. Soon within two hours we reached the base village of Pavagadh. Luckily, the bus from base village to the hill base was already there. We hoped in and within 15 minutes we started ascending the Pavagadh Hill.

 There was a conflict of interest over hiking to the summit or taking a ropeway between us. After much discussion we ended up on hiking to the summit. The first destination was Makai Kothar, ruins of a storage house used to store Maize (Makai) corn harvest during olden times. We saw a thin trail going through forest and no one going there. We checked on Google maps and discovered that the trail leads to an ancient temple of Bhadra Kali. Excited, we walked towards the Bhadrakali Temple. The route was isolated and went through a ridge, gifting us some scenic views from the cliff.

Ruins of the fort

After visiting the Bhadrakali temple, we started our hike back to the summit. The summer sun drained every bit of energy from us. To recharge ourselves we purchased water from local villagers at a very cheap price of 2 rupees per glass. We reached the old Digambar Temples on the left hand side of the main trail. These temples were ancient and had very beautiful carvings. Again, there we saw a small trail going towards the forest, away from the main trail leading to the summit. With the help of Google Maps, we discovered that this route takes us to some old ruins. We walked for few minutes and now the distant ruins were visible. We were also surrounded by wild trees and bushes of Conker Berries and Monkeypods. We were hungry and feasted on the berries and Monkeypods. Sachin and Indresh were too exhausted to visit the ruins, they rested under the shade of Monkeypod tree and I continued to the ruins of Navlakha Kohar and Anubhuti Rock. The ruins were beautiful and the cliff from Anubhuti rock was thrilling. I experienced heavy winds and a beautiful view down the cliff. We collected few more berries and resumed our way back to the summit.

Finally, we reached the summit. The main temle of Kaali Maa was located at the peak of the Pavagadh Hill. We prayed and sat there for few minutes speaking nothing, just enjoying the winds of the peak and the silence of the temple. We were hungry and started looking out for a place to eat. Just down the temple steps we saw a sign board of free food being provided by the temple. We jumped with joy and relished the free food to our heart’s content.

Free food by temple authorities

We descended down via ropeways as we were much exhausted. On our way down, we walked our way from the foot hills of Pavagadh to the base village, where the bus stand was located. On our way we saw more ruins of Saat Kaman, seven structures made up of sand stones.

Almost being lost in the middle of the forest

To avoid the long meandering road, we walked through the forest but we almost lost our way. Luckily, with the help of Google maps we made our way down to the base village ending our adventurous trip.