Rajgad trek

My friends and I had been planning for a trek since October, and couldn't wait till our exams were done. So,the dawn of 15th December brought the excitement that we longed for, since our previous semester started. Hence,my friends (in alphabetical order), Aakash, Abhishek, Aditya, Anupam ,and me, Nithin embarked on a trekking expedition to Rajgad.

You can board a Wajeghad or a Gunjawane bus from swargate, to get to the base of the fort. Both Gunjavne and Wajeghad are base villages. We were supposed to start from Swargate and catch a 10.45am bus to Gunjavane but, as it turns out, there was a Wajeghad bus at that time, and no Gunjavne bus. 

From Wajhegad, Gunjavne village was about 8km.We took the decision to board that bus and waited. 10.45 passed, 11 came, and 11.30 passed, but there was no sign of the bus.Finally the bus came at 11.50.We the boarded the bus and the ticket to wajhegadh was Rs 48/-. The bus was comfortable and empty for the majority of the journey, but got pretty crowded when it passed through the Nasrapur village.A passenger from the bus told us that the base of the fort would be nearer if we were to get down at a village called Sakhar and we did the same.We reached there at about 2pm.It was a 2 hour bus ride.Little further down, we sat down to eat in a hotel called Hotel Ekveera garden. They only served Misal and Poha. The Misal Pav was spicy and top notch! We had our lunch there and started for Gunjavne at 2.45 .We reached the trekking point at 3.45pm. We were climbing the fort from the chor Darwaza. There are other paths as well, like from Wajeghad, Pali and Bhutunde.
We reached the resting point of the fort within 2 hours, which was the Padmavati machi. The trek was moderately difficult, and we huffed and puffed to that point by 5.45 pm. The view was ecstatic! We were greeted by the Padmavati lake, which looked dark, coupled with the ripples from gentle breezes.
The accommodation was to be in the Padmavati Temple. We started to collect wood for a bonfire, and by 7 pm, went into the temple as it was getting very cold. There were many other groups residing in the temple as well. 
We were helped by a boy, who I presume is a caretaker of the temple , called Ram, for the stay and some tea. The night was fun, we played cards and listened to some music. The temperature was pretty cold, but inside temple, it was warm enough. Even during night time, there were many trekking groups who were entering the temple.

A word of advice- while you are sleeping, make sure that you close the temple door. The dogs frequently come inside and snuggle up with the people who are sleeping. That being said, you should also be able to open the door whenever some other group wants to sleep in the temple.
The water that is available there is good for cleaning yourself, but probably not good for drinking, because it was filled with Tadpoles.
The next day we got up, and started to climb up to the main summit of the fort through the Balekilla Darwaja, at 7.30am. The climb was a little steep, with some parts being almost vertical, but we reached the top, the Maha darwaja, before 8am. 

1.4km or 1400 meters above sea level...the view was pretty awesome.We could see many forts like Torna, Sinhagad, Raighad, and many other forts that I don't even know about. One can also see the path from Rajgad to Torna fort, which is about a 5 hours trek.
We started our descent to the padmavati temple and reached there within 15 minutes.
After having our breakfast, started our descent from the Pali darwaja, which leads to the Wajeghad village, at 9.45am. We could see lots of Monkeys running on the roof of the temple.There were stairs which mapped to about half the descent. Then we finally reached the base before 11am. The village was Pali Gaon, and we reached the bus stop which was a 30 minute walk from the base. We caught a Swargate bus at 11.45am and reached there at 2pm, at the cost of Rs 53/-.

Make sure that you are loaded with food suppies and some bedsheets, for none are available at the top or at any point during the trek.