About Group:
Nisarga Bhraman is pretty well organized group, with technically talented and enthusiastic group leaders; their jolly and friendly attitude had always impressed me I had enjoyed several treks with them before, so I had no hesitation to join them.
About Tringalwadi Fort:
Tringalwadi is relatively small fort with height of 3238ft (987Mtr) on Kalsubai Range in Nashik region. As per the information available this fort exists from 10th century, This fort was among the seven forts which where given to moghals along with the royal property by Maratha Chief Sahaji when he was forced to capitulate at Mahuli fort in October 1636. Information about the period of Maratha rule on this fort is not available.How to Reach:
Tringalwadi is near to Igatpuri so we have to reach Igatpuri station which has good railway connectivity between Mumbai and Nashik. After getting down at Igatpuri we have to walk towards the ST Stand, there is a junction called Ambedkar chowk, from there we have to walk towards vagholi col and from their towards Tringalwadi village. From Igatpuri Station Tringalwadi is approximately an hour walking distance. We can also take local transport (Jeep) from Igatpuri to Tringalwadi but Frequency of these jeeps is unknown. As we reach the Tringalwadi village we can go through the dam and Tringalwadi fort will be just in front of us.
Overview of Fort Sights:
Tringalwadi fort is small to climb the whole fort can be seen in a days span
Entrances of the fort:
There are two entrances of the fort one is from the front side and another is from backside, when we are facing the fort the right side path leads us to the front entrance and the left leads us to the back entrance, which is also called as ‘Chor darwaja ‘.
The front side entrance of the fort with some of the broken steps leads us to 
the top of the fort. A beautiful view of the dam can be seen while entering the fort and sunrise view will be making this site more fascinating.
For the back entrance we have to traverse through the right side of the fort and at the end we can see the back entrance, which is really wonde
rful and well preserved, as it was buried under for several years, which was uncovered by some trekking group few years back. The carved steps are still intact except few in the beginning of the door, which gives us the feel of entering the ancient warriors’ world. The steps are broad and huge; we can sense the strategic location of those 
steps totally covered and rolling upwards towards the fort making it more awesome, as soon you climb the steps we can see the idol of lord Hanuman in front of the door this idol is a big and carved in the rock. The door is in good condition and we can see some carving on the door. Entering the door and moving further we will be on the top of the fort.Remnants of the Fort:
As usual this fort is also not in good condition as far as the monuments are
concern, as we land on the fort we can take a overview of the place we will find the remnants of the fort. The view of the remnants can be taken from the top most point of the fort. We can see four to five water tanks on the fort. One is consist of drinking water other are drained out 
just waking further we can see a small temple along with worshiped idols. It is small sole temple on the fort. Before the temple there is a small cave which has a capacity to accommodate 15 to 20 people but the flooring of the cave is not good enough to have night stay. Water availability on the Fort:
There are few dried water tanks on the fort and one small tank is filled with drinking water, as per the local people the water in that tanks is available for all the seasons.
Tringalwadi Cave (Pandavleni):
At the base of the fort we can see the ancient cave which is carved in the rock. This cave has wonderful carving on the roof, pillars and walls. 
This cave is not preserved or maintained by anyone. Such kinds of monuments are self preserved and this will be the common site in Maharashtra. I consider myself lucky that I had got the chance to view this wonderful monuments and their carving, which I don’t feel will exist for long if they are not 
maintained properly. As we enter the cave we can see the broken pillars. Rather those are broken but its can be easily 
visualized that there was four carved pillars. We can see only one pillar which is still intact with its beautiful carving as we move further and enter the next chamber we can see an big idol with broken face, its really hard to say that whether this idol is of lord Mahavir or Gautam Buddha.While returning I was wondering how many battles would this forts must have seen, how many strategies the warriors would have made to capture them, how many rulers must have tagged their name on them, but why are they still alone? The closest companion to them must be the time which once passed can never be retrieved and it had laid them shrilled.
After this small and refreshing trek ultimately with lot of fun we started our journey way back home.
Picture Sources: Album of Sujay, Hemant Naik & Sameer Patel
