It’s best to do the Nashik region treks in winter for their beauty and for the Sahyadri’s exclusive views from the pinnacles. Eager to do a medium difficult trek, as a send off trek for one of my friends who was to experience his last trek in India before leaving the country, we chose the jewel of the Sahyadris, Ratangad!
Ratangad is hill fort in the Sahyadris, near Bhandardara dam. The fort, initially ruled by the Mughals, was conquered by Shivaji Maharaj who loved it like a jewel! It is known to be more than 20 centuries old and is the origin of the enormous river Pravara, also known as Amrutvahini. It boasts of clear views of the Kalasubai peak and the Kokan-Kada (where the Sahyadris descend steeply into Konkan), thus becoming a trekker’s and photographer’s delight.
We began our journey to reach the base village from Kalyan at 11:30 pm. Boarding the sleeper compartment of Kushinagar express and sitting at the door, it took us 2 hours of unceasing chit-chat to reach Igatpuri station. Here, we registered at the station master’s office and waited in the waiting room. As all of us were chatterbugs and were meeting after a long time so no one chose to sleep and we ended up talking overnight. At 4:30 am, we saw some activity at the tea-stall and had garama-garam potato-pakodas with tea. 10 minutes walking distance from the other side of the station was the ST bus stand. The bus to village Shendi, Bhandardara arrived at 5:00 am.
Reaching Shendi at around 7 am, we looked for a vehicle to take us towards Ratanwadi. After lengthy bargaining a van agreed to take us to and fro for Rs. 1200. This ride to Ratanwadi is a 19-20 km scenic and beautiful drive. You get to see the Bhandardara dam, Randha waterfalls and fresh greenery as far as your eyes can see and reach Ratanwadi and see the Amruteshwar temple, within 45 minutes.
A friend of ours had been to Ratangad a year ago in winter, so we opted out of hiring a guide ( You can get one for Rs. 200). We began our trek from the base village in the direction pointed out by the locals. The trouble is, trekking in the monsoons is very different from a winter trek in this region. First of all, there was fog everywhere above the height of 100 ft, so there was no question of spotting Ratangad from the Nedhe (hole). Again, the path was criss-crossed by the river and we had to find the trail on the other side, which proved to be confusing even though there were arrow marks to guide us.
A cairn marked trail led us to some random hill (can be seen in photos) and we realized we had to trace back the path again. We thought the climb towards Ratangad was around 30 minutes away. We had to walk at the same level, reach inside the valley covered by small hills on all 3 sides, by following the well-formed trail that crosses River Pravara multiple times. By keeping Pravara to the left, we could have also reached the base without crossing the river (as current is high in monsoons) if we could manage going through the roughly formed jungle. All the time, remember, keep to your right.
Finally reaching the base of the fort after about 30-40 minutes, we could clearly see the trail that led upwards, in a step-like steep climbing path. The changing colours of nature was remarkable. Until here, the levelled road was full of twists and turns through bushes and grass with Pravara’s roaring water to accompany us. Now, we entered a comparatively silent zone through the woods and muddy zig-zag uphill road, the symphony of rain drenching the leaves and stones slipping as we stepped on them added to the rhythm.
The climb ended in a diversion, leading to our first plateau. Here they have a board-mark on a pole which directed us that the trail towards left would take us to Harishchandragad and the one to the right is for Ratangad. Many trekkers also choose to stay on one of these two forts at night (as both of them have caves and water tanks) and go for the other trek the next day taking this diversion. We took a short break to eat something here and then proceeded towards the right to continue climbing on the steep zig-zag route. We reached the second plateau faster than the first as we were feeling recharged.
The view from this second plateau is breathtaking! On one side you can see Bhandardara lake covered with the silver-lined clouds surrounded by green mountains and on the other, you see a huge milky waterfall sprinkling droplets on the clouds! I think our timing was a little wrong for the rain didn’t allow me to dare take my SLR out, so we could save those images only with our eyes. Words just don’t do any justice here.
Next we had another round of snacks and water and climbed the last steep path of our journey, in the least time possible. It can be observed on treks that the zeal to reach the top is inversely proportional to the distance remaining. We reached the third flat portion where the ladders start, in very little time. One good thing about doing this trek in the monsoon was that we were protected from the ill-famous Monkeys of Ratangad! Every blog I had read to prepare for this had suggested hiring a guide to deal with the monkeys here that attack in gangs! Climbing the ladder was a piece of cake now that they have 3 re-built overlapping convenient ladders to reach Tryambak darwaja, the main entrance of the fort. Taking right from the Tryambak darwaja, you reach the caves within 5-10 minutes. But before entering the caves, do take a look around and be stunned. Unfortunately we could see absolutely nothing ahead due to clouds covering entire view.
There was a shopkeeper and his son Shivling who gave us taadpatri to sit in the caves as we were all drippind water, head to foot, thanks to the habit of not wearing windcheaters. He served us steaming hot maggi and tea (maggi Rs. 40 per plate! And tea Rs. 10) and we clicked a few pictures inside the cave. After the pet-puja we moved ahead for fort sight-seeing at 12 pm. We actually began exploring from left hand side and completed a parikrama of the fort to return back to the caves in an hour’s time.
From the left, we first reached a smaller cave, with a Ganesh mandir inside it. Next came the broken fortified structures of Rani Mahal on our way towards the Nedhe. Doubtlessly, Nedhe is the main attraction of Ratangad, a naturally formed orifice in the mountain. The path from Rani Mahal towards Nedhe had 10 small water tanks (we spotted a dead mouse in one). Ahead of the water tanks, there’s also a secret hidden room below a wide crevice towards the right. From here to reach the Nedhe, the path is at a height where rain water was returning upwards due to the heavy wind.
This might be one of the wrong climbing routes we took to reach the orifice,right at the centre, as there was the possibility of being literally carried away by the wind passing from the hole, crossing one edge of the mountain into another! 6 to 8 people can easily sit in this Nedhe to enjoy the wind. We crossed it to turn left and explore the steps that take us on the Samrad side descent, but due to the rains all those steps were risky to walk down as that side of the fort is highly exposed inside the valley and one may fall.
ecurity being one of the important aspects of trekking, we took the road more travelled by to the right and reached the caves to begin descending onto the previous path. This took even less time than climbing up, as half the path we crossed running! As we lost height and tiffins got empty, walking down the hill needed zero effort for regular trekkers and we reached the bottom within 1.5 to 2 hours, taking occasional breaks for photos, fruits and water-fun.
We reached Ratanwadi village at 3:00 pm, and went to see the famous Amruteshwar temple, a Hemadpanthi structure known for its architecture and Shivling which is immersed inside the water in the temple. Taking a few photos there and ordering pohe-tea we met with our van-driver and began our journey back at 4:30 after changing into warmer-drier clothes. We got the 5:30 pm bus to Kasara (after this, there is next bus directly at 8:30 pm, but according to the locals the bus timings here are pretty uncertain so better plan to get the 5:30 one). There is alternate option of hiring vans from Shendi to Ghoti and Ghoti to Kasara, but ST is the cheapest bargain. We got the train back from Kasara in time (at around 8:20 pm) to reach our respective homes before we were over the spell of the magnificent fort, Ratangad. A remarkable must-do jewel of the Sahyadris!
(Originally published as an article for Indiahikes: http://indiahikes.in/ratangad-trek/)
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