Sparks: October 2016

Monument atop Ratangad Fort

I have been striving to write about Ratangad, not because there is nothing to write about it, but Ratangad was so satisfying an experience of an ideal trek that I feel no amount of words can do justice to it. Yet, it would be so unfair to let it pass by without a mention. Hope my essay would even remotely be close to the heaven it is.

Ratangad, or the Jewel Fort, is situated in the village of Ratanwadi in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Within its vicinity, is a myriad of locations to explore like the Bhandardara lake, dam, and falls, The Umbrella Falls at Wilson Dam, Randhaa Falls, Arthur Lake, Konkankada (known for its breathtaking view of the plains); and for trek lovers, there is Mount Kalsubai (the highest peak of Sahyadri), Sandhan Valley, Harishchandragad, and many more attractions.

Ratangad is said to be Shivaji Maharaj’s favourite fort. Its base village Ratanwadi is home to the Amruteshwar Temple, an old monument dating back many centuries with beautiful carvings. The rivers Pravara and Amrutvahini originate from this fort, and thus you will find many eateries and local shops with this name. The Bhandardara dam is situated in these rivers. You can gain entrance to the fort via four gates, Ganesh dwaar, Hanuman dwaar, Konkan dwaar, and Trimbak dwaar. There are many wells situated on the top and water cisterns and caves that can house people for an overnight trek.

Ahmednagar is accessible by road; and via train, one needs to get down at Igatpuri and take a state transport or a cab to Ratanwadi. Even boat rides are available via Bhandardara to reach Ratanwadi.

Some pointers when undertaking such tricky treks are to take medium paced baby steps; speed is important to keep your energy level at the same mark. Don’t walk fast, neither be slow. Keep a medium pace, enjoy the beauty. When you are climbing a steep ascent, stoop your back and stay close to the ground; and when you are descending, place your feet at a slight angle rather than walking straight. If you feel tired, stop to catch breath, but never sit. Sitting drains your energy and makes you fatigued. Have sips of water. Do not drink more or gulp water as you might get stitches. Stitches are sharp stomach pains like cramps that you get while exercising.

So, one fine day, after the Kolad river rafting, my thirst was resurfacing and I wanted to go for a trek. Amit had been nurturing the idea of Ratangad and Sumedh has a never say die attitude. The rest had other commitments. So we decided to just go for it, without much thinking. Thankfully, Amit brought little sister Pranita along.

Since Ratangad is a trek of medium difficulty and it was just the four of us, we thought to approach professionals and thus we contacted TrekMates India, and they welcomed us with their usual pleasant demeanor.

Ahmednagar takes about 4 to 5 hours of travel, so it was an overnight journey along with 25 odd trekkers. The group consisted of people with various stages of trekking experience—from novice beginners to hardcore trekkers, we had them all.

Their bus starts from Dadar with Thane as a pickup point; we chose the latter due to its proximity to us. Though we planned to catch some sleep to prepare us for the tedious activity the next morning, sleep eluded us for the most part of the journey; yet we did manage to catch some naps here and there.

It was past 5 am when I opened my eyes and shifted the curtain to check out the scene outside. Nothing prepared me for what met my eyes. My friends were still sleeping and I was dying between waking them up and sharing the landscape or letting them sleep. Call it telepathy or what, Amit opened his eyes and so did Sumedh sensing the excitement.

Spread for miles and miles were this green blanket of fields with the Bhandardara waters. Ahmednagar felt heaven that day. The water had a bluish green color. Call it a scene right out of a movie. It was beautiful, it was mesmerizing, it was spell binding; use all the words that come to your mind and they would still fall short to describe its beauty. The pocket of fields were like tiny quilts of all shapes and sizes with different tints and tones of green, with the lake water interspersed among them, and entire area was nestled between mountains and valleys. I feel inadequate describing the landscape, so let’s move on, as did our bus carrying slumbering trekkers.

Raw beauty of nature always gives me contentment and so I closed my eyes for the final nap. Our bus was delayed due to heavy fog and traffic and hence we were an hour behind our scheduled arrival. We alighted at Samrad village; and after a breakfast of poha and tea, there was a brief introductory session by our trek leads, Aniket and Kaustubh. They briefed us that there are multiple points to ascend Ratangad, and our ascent for the day would be from Samrad village and descend would be at Ratanwadi. One can both ascend and descend at Ratanwadi or even ascend via Sandhan Valley.

When we started the trek, it was a straight stretch of plateau for some 2 kilometers and I was like wow! What a trek. Enjoying every step, the beautiful grass, the flower bloom, fields, lake, it felt as if I am walking in a paradise. Little did I know that it won’t be long before I would think multiple times, why did I come here, I can’t take one more step, will this trek even be over, how much more to walk, especially the steep climb to the pinnacle, I didn't have the urge to move on. Steep, steep, steep rocky climb. The mountain seemed never ending.

We were greeted by schools of red crabs and black ones too; the red ones were a combination of red and orange, while the black ones had a black body with purple legs. Then there were bright reddish orange ants, but thankfully no snakes.

Rains gave us company on and off, with increasing and decreasing magnitude, and so were the fog. One moment we were standing and admiring the deep valley with flowery attire, and the very next moment, thick fog reduced visibility to few feet. The rocky climbs scared me, but thankfully there were iron rung ladders at quite some places to make the climb just a little easy. There were stone cut steps, rocks cut into footholds, but it was one big rocky mountain. I was tired, panting, gasping for breath, ready to say quit, yet always finding new reasons to continue walking. We had walked and climbed for almost 8 hours continuously.

But the scene was simply irresistible. With every couple of steps you were greeted by beds of flowering shrubs with colours so vibrant—you never get to see such soft, gentle yet vibrant colours in the city. Bright smiling yellows, endearing pinks, soft feathery angelic whites, cozy cute lavenders, mesmerizing blues, and greens and greens and greens.

With respect to the scenery, I would let the pictures do the talking rather than me struggling with the words.

We were unable to see the Nedhe or the eye of the needle due to heavy fog and rains. The Nedhe is an opening in the rock supposedly created by forceful winds and has an amazing view.

I had vowed that day not to visit Ratangad again as I am not prepared for that climb again, but I can still feel the trekker in me saying, “You liar, of course you will go.” Such breathtaking was the beauty.

After a short rest at the top of the fort where we relished the juicy apples which Amit brought, we explored the fort a little more and started our descent to Ratanwadi. This time we encountered dense forests for the major part as opposed to the blooming flowers. Again, the iron ladders made the descent a little easy, but a lot of time was wasted waiting as there was a really large family ascending the steps while we had to descend; only one or two persons can use the ladder at a time. There were waterfalls, lake, dam, and finally the paddy fields. It was raining continuously and red mud made it a slippery walk. It was a sigh of relief to have reached the end after 8 hours of walking. To say that our legs were tired would be an understatement. We munched cakes midway to satisfy our famished tummy. Munched? It was more like we hogged!!

Upon reaching Ratanwadi, we changed and freshened up. Lunch was arranged by the organizers. We devoured the simple home-cooked food of rice, bhakri, shev bhaaji, soya curry, usal, onion rings, pickle, papad, and a yummy spicy chutney.

Following lunch, we visited the Amruteshwar temple, a simple stony structure with beautiful carving and the Shivling in an underground tank of water. My knowledge about mythology is scarce, so I can’t indulge much into it, but I did appreciate the beauty and sanctity of the temple.

We traced our steps back to the bus and almost everybody slept instantly due to the aching legs. We drank the beauty for one last time, the paddy fields, mountains, and lake bidding us adieu, before calling it a day.

Time for the pictures to talk the tale...

The plateau where we started off, thinking the trek was a cake walk.

The fog covered mountains

The route we took.

After climbing half an hour, we saw this fall named Chipluk something and beyond it somewhere is Sandhan Valley and Harishchandragad.

Feeling on top of the world

Can you see the fog covered pinnacle; thats the summit we had to reach.

Walking into the fog; no man's land.

A crabby trekker

A steep rocky ascent

This dog accompanied us right from Samrad and was walking with us like a guardian angel, not moving until he ensured all of us had safely reached where we were expected to reach.