Kaladgad

The base village of this fort is Pethewadi which is 07 kms from Pachnai. The accessible route to the fort is about 05 kms from Pachnai. This can be easily identified due to a cement structure built by the forest department. One can reach till here by foot or by one’s private vehicle. The ridge of the fort hill runs North-South direction and from here one has to start the ascend. A 10 minute walk gets us to an open space where couple of stones can be seen painted with vermillion. Rock cut steps from here take us to the rock cut holds in about 30 minutes. This ascend is bit tiresome. These rock cut holds are very narrow and cut diagonally enough to accommodate only one foot. Extreme caution has to be excercised while ascending this rock patch. After this climb we come across Bhairoba’s cave which is carved in rock and sits below ground level. In this cave there is an idol of Bhairoba painted in vermilion. There are 2 sculptures of snakes outside.

After visiting this one has to proceed towards south on the narrow path by keeping the valley to the left and the fort hill to the right. A 5 minute walk leads to two water tanks carved in rock which are now filled with fallen rocks. Proceeding further there two large rocks round in shape and a small temple named as “Vetal cha Challa”. From here, head back to water tanks and another route from here leads to the fort summit in about 5 minutes. The fort summit is narrowing to the south and broad to the north. Harishchandragad can be seen to the east.

It takes about one hour to visit the entire fort.