Hadsar-Shivneri Night Trek 19th-20th April 2008

Located near Junnar, Hadsar (4680 ft) was an important fort to protect the trade routes passing through Junnar and the nearby area. These forts were never conquered by Shivaji Maharaj since they had good relations with the officer incharge of the Junnar area. Hadsar is located strategically with many forts nearby like Chavand, Nimgiri, Hanumant, etc.
There are two ways to reach the forts both of which begin from the base village Hadsar, the first route is slightly difficult with a small rock-patch where iron staples are driven in the patch to facilitate climbing. The second route is the easiest which leads us to the steps in about 1 hr. There are not many structures on the fort except for a temple of Lord Shiva and some caves. 
We left from Ferguson College main gate at about 9:30 pm by bus and reached Junnar at about 1 am. We then went to the base village Hadsar in about 45 minutes and started climbing by 2 am. Since it was a night trek we went by the easier route. Due to the full moon there was absolutely no need of torches since we could see quite comfortably. The route was a little slippery due to the loose gravel on the path. On reaching the top of a small hill adjacent to the fort we walked for about 5 minutes and reached the steps of the fort.
There were about 150 steps leading to the gate of the fort. After climbing the stairs, on the top there was a water cistern where we got our drinking and cooking water the next day. Walking another 5-10 minutes we reached the Shiva temple and laid our sleeping bags outside the temple and slept till 6:30 am. After waking up we went to the water cistern to collect water to make some tea and maggi.   We brought the water and some of us decided to go to the topmost point of the fort which was near the temple. On reaching the top we were stunned by the view around the fort and took some photos. In a few minutes we were called for tea and went down for tea and maggi. After breakfast we took a round circuit of the fort and came back to the temple took our bags and started to descend the fort at about 11 am. After descending the stairs there was a cave where there was water with which we filled our bottles and started descending again.
We reached the base village at about 12:30 pm and left for Junnar where we had lunch and left for Shivneri at about 2:30 pm which is just 2kms from Junnar. We were given 3 hrs to see the fort and were expected to reach back to the bus at 5 pm. We saw the whole fort, took some photos and reached back to the bus at 4:45 pm and left for Pune. We reached Pune at about 8 pm which was quite early considering the traffic.