Wednesday 27 July 2016

Tung Fort

Tung Fort as seen from Tikona Fort.
Tung is a small fort located in the Maval region of the Pune district. This fort can be accessed from Lonavala, as well as from Pune. The Google map links for both routes are given in the footnotes. The route from Lonavala is via INS Shivaji and Amby Valley, while the route from Pune is via Paud.
You can take the Pune-Lonavala-Tung route, but that’s up to you. In this post, the times and distances will be as per the Pune-Paud-Tung route.

On the way to Tung.
Photo Credit +Nikhil Bhosale 
To reach Tung, you have to take the road which goes to Hadashi or Kolvan from Paud. This is the road which goes to the right from the main square in Paud. Keep following this route till you reach a village known as Javan (जवण) from the main road you have to take a right turn. The Tung & Tikona forts are quite well known here, so if you’re confused don’t hesitate to ask for directions. From this point onwards, keep on this road for around 20 odd kms. Be careful not to take any turns which deviate from this road! At one point, if you’ve followed the road correctly, you’ll end up at a T-junction. The left route goes to Lonavala, while the right road take you to Tung (~3 kms). Follow this route till you come to a right turn which has a sign which says Tung fort. The road is still a work in progress, that is, on the turn there's some rubble.

At the end of that road, you’ll find a small temple, with some flat area which has now been converted into some kind of parking lot. You can park your vehicle here. If you go there during peak season (monsoon) there might be someone there who'll ask for a parking fee.

With the temple entrance at your back, you'll see a sign which points out the path going up to the fort. This route is not smooth, and there are one or two small patches where you'll have to do a spot of rock climbing, but it's quite easy. Since the route is part of a stream's flow, it's very rocky. As such it's recommended that you wear comfortable trekking shoes or barring that sports shoes with good grip.

First doorway.
The first doorway from the bastion.
Photo credit +Nikhil Bhosale 
Bastion protecting the
2nd doorway
There are three parts to the fort, to get to the first doorway, it'll take about 30-45 minutes to an hour. Immediately after entering through the doorway, you'll see a flight of stairs on your right leading up to the second doorway. Guarding these stairs is a large bastion.

After crossing the second doorway, you reach the second part of the fort. After crossing the second doorway, you'll have to almost take a U-turn along the path till you can see a small Ganesh temple alongside a water reservoir.

The path forward is right next to the reservoir. Follow this path till you come to a crossroad, the right path goes to a small water tank which has potable water (if you're going at the beginning of monsoon it's better to avoid any such tank on any fort), the left path will take you further up to the third part of the fort.

The third and final part of the fort has the temple of Tungai Devi. This is located on the topmost part of the fort and the path to this top, is quite exposed. There may also be decently heavy winds here, so I wouldn't recommend any heroics here. If you don't think you can handle the wind turn back!
The topmost part with the temple is quite small and contains nothing but the temple and a flag post.

If you're lucky enough to come here during winter and get a clear weather, you'll be able to see a number of other forts from here such as Tikona, Lohgad and Visapur.

The whole climb should not take you longer than two hours or so.

Links and References:
Lonavala to Tung route: https://goo.gl/3zWNK0
Pune to Tung route: https://goo.gl/K5oNV6

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