TheFreeBird
Rajmachi trek is the most sought after trek in Lonavla. Why? Rajmachi fort is near to Lonavla & Khandala which are one of India’s most famous hill station. Rajmachi is perfect day trip with beautiful monsoon waterfalls enroute & the mighty Kataldhar waterfall visible from the fort. Add to that the historical significance & since it is perfect for beginners makes it a must do activity in Lonavla. This Rajmachi trek blog covers my experience from summer & monsoon visit which will give you the perfect idea about the fort. You might ask Niraj is monsoon the better time to visit. Well read this Rajmachi Trek Blog and find for yourself. This blog will act as your Rajmachi trek guide to plan this trek yourself. Similar adventures like this one at the end of the post.
How difficult is the Rajmachi Trek?
Rajmachi Trek itself is very easy with half the trek from Udhewadi paved with stones. The trek is easy during all the seasons and I recommend it for families as well. The real difficulty is in reaching the Rajmachi base village of Udhwadi. Udhewadi is about 15 kms from Lonavla with bad to worse offroads. If you walk all of this 15 kms its tiring & if you take your vehicle its a bad offroad exercide for your vehicle.
How long is the Rajmachi Trek?
Niraj how much time does it take for the Rajmachi trek ? As i said earlier Rajmachi trek gets completed in an hour but the major time taken is to reach Udhwadi village which can require 2 hrs from Lonavla by walking or an hour of back breaking drive
Khane me Kya hia ?
The base village Udhwadi has sprout many hotels serving home made food. Pithala Bhakri – a local delicacy is a must try. Bro- Tip: When you reach Udhewadi select a particular hotel , order your food and take their mobile number and ask them to start preparing when you start to descend . Since its home made food it takes time. There are rock cut water cisterns / tanks but are no more in regular use. Hence carry your own drinking water . Avoid plastic consumption
Can we stay at Rajmachi ?
You can stay at Udhewadi. These are normal village homes so you can request locals for the stay. You can expect basic comforts of a village stay. If you want something luxurious one can stay at Lonavla ( During my Lonavala stay I had at the luxury resorts of Dukes Retreat & Upper Deck). You can can always carry your tents and set up in udhewadi. Last i heard camping on Rajmachi was not allowed.
How to reach Rajmachi Fort from Pune & Mumbai ?
Where is Rajmachi fort located? Rajmachi is the most famous trek in Lonavala. It is 18 kms from Lonavala, 85 kms from Pune & 95 kms from Mumbai. Rajmachi can be reached from Lonavla side & Karjat side. The routes from Karjat are bit obscure & I will just give you an overview
Rajmachi Trek from Lonavla:
From Lonavla side is where Rajmachi is often visited because of the ease & ofcourse the views. Lonavla Railway station is the nearest one. From here are again two routes which will take you to Udhewadi – the base village of Rajmachi fort.
Route 1: ( 15km walk from Lonavla Railway station to Udhewadi)From Lonavla Railway Station ask/search route to Rajmachi route and start walking. Use google maps to search Upper Deck Resort which is at 5kms . Just ahead of this resort is Waterfall1 where you meet the road from Route 2. This route is famously known as the Upper Deck resort Route. From here onwards just walk straight to Udhewadi. There is only one road fork called Valvand fork take left from there to Udhewadi
Route 2: (14.3km road from Mumbai-Pune Expressway) Route from Kune Village: This would be nearer for people from Mumbai side or for those who want to take their vehicle. Just start walking from under the Mumbai- Pune expressway towards the Della Adventure & continue ahead to Rajmachi. After Della the road is nothing but rocks, good for offroading but bad for your vehicle. ( I guess Della has paid the officials to get the road concretised till their entrance ) This is route taken by all vehicles to reach Udhewadi
TAXI: there are sumo Taxi’s available from Lonavla Railway station which would charge for 1000 bucks till Fanasrai , from where you can walk for another 1hr to reach Udhewadi. They will take you all the way to Rajmachi (Base village- Udhewadi) for 1500 Rs. If you are lucky you might get a shared Sumo Taxi for 100 Rs per seat but chances of that happening are less
Lonavla Route is described in this blog
Rajmachi Trek Route Map from Lonavla
Rajmachi Trek from Karjat:
Route 1: There is single trail which starts from near Kondana Cave & it will take about 2-3 hours from there to reach Udhewadi village. You wll need to follow the orange ribbons tied throughout the way to stay on track
Route2: There is tough, long & confusing route know as “Ghodichi Vaat to Rajmachi” which starts from Mundewadi near Kondana . This will require a guide and will discuss that route in another blog.
Rajmachi Trek Route Map from Karjat
The most common question that i get asked is I want to travel a lot but I dont have leaves. Should I quit my job ? I have always suggested to not quit your job unless you have another source of income. In search of this source of income I tried freelancing , trek leading, vlogging and I realised nothing works in the long term. After trying many different thinkgs finally I came across trading
Trading for getting freedom & income is perfect for a person with traveller mindset. You can trade from anywhere around the world be it some off the grid village in Himachal or Meghalaya, be it some island in Andaman. All you need is an internet connection and a trading account. You can earn by trading for 1-2 hrs a day and would have freedom to do anything in the free time.Or you might have just earned enough in a day to take the month off travelling around the world. If you are able to learn this then it has potential to make all your dreams come true. I would suggest you take it up as a side project for 6 months to see if you have patience & intellect to master it.
Rajmachi Fort Trek Blog: TheFreeBird’s Story
I have done this trek in monsoon as well as summer from Lonavla as well as Karjat hence i have so many different perspectives. For starters i had taken my bike all the way to Udhewadi via the Della Route. You think below road is bad wait for the monsoon version
The route after Della Adventure is bad would be a huge understatement. But then if you want to save some time on walking offroading is the only option. The first point where i stopped was waterfall 1 this is the place where the upper deck resort trail meets the Della road trail.
I remember spending a lot of time in monsoon and really got me excited as I took so many pics. During my summer trip i barely stopped here for 2 minutes. On the same route falls the Kataldhar trek start point . It was difficult to spot this entry when i first visited here. But now a days it has not remained offbeat and attracts a lot of crowd. As such the entrance is also well marked these days.
Going ahead a bit more is the waterfall 2 . During monsoon the walk till the waterfall 2 itself can classify as a proper monsoon trek with such picture perfect waterfalls. Here is another before & after photos.
In monsoon you will find many people enjoying the easily accessible waterfalls. There is a small make shift hotel in monsoon which served some maize & vada pav. After getting drenched in the waterfall chai tasted the best ever.
From here onwards one has to walk to truly beautiful landscape of sahyadris on the left side & occasional waterfalls on the right. I was enjoying the off-roading on my xpulse.
Once i reached Udhewadi, the Rajmachi trek appeared like a real small one. The real exercise is in reaching Udhewadi itself. There are two parts of Rajmachi fort – Manranjan & Shrivardhan ballekilla. The Shrivardhan is the one which is mostly visited for the great view of Kataldhar warterfall it offers . I planned to do both but could only visit the Shrivardhan due to lack of time.
The fort is well maintained & the trek route from Udhewadi is properly laid stone track.
I crossed some 150 -200 stairs to enter the fort in about half an 20minutes . This is a straightforward trek hence I highly recommend it to beginners& families (if they can reach Udhewadi by vehicle)
View from Rajmachi top
Another 15-20 minutes and i was at the top of the Shrivardhan ballekilla . The view from here provides a vista of entire range of Karjat forts. I spotted Manikgad, Karnala, Songiri, NathBaba Caves, Matheran, Sondai, Irshalgad on one side. Towards the right one can spot Bhimashankar , Padargad , Kothaligad etc. On the left side is ofcourse the beloved Kataldhar waterfall. Get ready for a beautiful before & after photos.
This baston / buruj is has the best view. Rajmachi was surrounded by clouds with rain drops just floating in the air i.e. clouds making it impossible to take out my camera. I remember sitting here for hours in rain waiting for the clouds to clear up just to get a proper look at Kataldhar. Finally the clouds cleared up and i was able to see the vast green expanse till Lonavla.
I remember taking so many pics & videos with a completely drenched mobile. I knew my mobile may stop working and i may loose all my data but such was the beauty that I couldnt stop myself from risking the rain. Here is a reel I shot.
Within few moments the clouds were back again in action covering the entire area,. With that i called it a day and rushed as fast as i could to my Hot Pithala Bhakri wating for me at the Udhwadi hotel. Quick lunch & I was off to my return journey.
Bye !
That’s it for the Rajmachi trek blog .
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I've written blogs covering numerous Sahyadri treks, all accessible in the section below. Additionally, I create ambient Sahyadri videos on YouTube, featuring solely natural sounds such as birdsong, wind rustling through the trees, and the soothing patter of rain—the elements of nature that I hold dear.
SAHYADRI TREKS NEAR
