Ratangad


This interesting fort is one of the most common treks in the southern Igatpuri region. The standard route to climb this fort is from Ratanwadi which is the base village. This beautiful village unfortunately is reached by a very long travel from Mumbai. The standard method is to reach Igatpuri or Ghoti from Mumbai and take a bus to Bhandardhara. There is a bus in the morning from Kasara which goes all the way to Bhandardhara. On the bus one gets a good views of the mountains all round and most noticeable one is the Kalsubai (1640 mtrs) which is the highest mountain in Sahyadris. The Patta fort and the Avandh pinnacle are also visible. The bus infact climbs up to this place called ???? which is the base for climbing Kalsubai and descend down to Bhandardhara. Get off from the bus at a place called Shendi. From here it is about one hour of walk to Muthkel which is a place from where you could get a ferry on the Bhandardhara lake to Ratanwadi village. The timings of the ferry is little dicey especially if you are taking this route for return. On the ferry one gets great views of most peaks in this region and also a lots of interesting birds.From the lake it is about 15-20 minutes of walking before one reaches the Ratanwadi village. This is one of the most beautiful villages in these region. There is also an awesome temple. From here the there is a reasonably well defined route which climbs up to one end of Ratangad. From the base one see the hole at the top of the mountain, the pinnacle called kutha on the right and the caves on the left end of the mountain which can be seen only with the help of binoculars.

The route actually after crossing a nala, and traversing towards left, heads straight towards the caves. At three places very near the caves there are iron ladders put to make the climb easier. There is Jungle cover for most parts of the trek so this trek can be undertaken on any time of the year. There are a few caves at the top and one big one which has a door, this protects you from wild animals, basically monkeys who often come to these parts for food, or an occasional Leopard. In fact some of the villagers often warn you to spend nights in the wild as there is a sizable population of leopards in this area. The return journey can either be made the same way or one could go for some interesting options. One important tip is that if at Ratanwadi one does not find any ferry, and one has some energy, then one can actually walk from Ratanwadi to the famous Ghatghar and descend via Chhonda-Ghatghar pass. You will actually save some time on this journey.

There are other interesting ways of climbing Ratangad which we now describe. You first reach Ghatghar by the Chhonda-Ghatghar pass and walk to a village called Samrad. This one hour walk on the plateau is a little painful especially in the summer season. Also the route is like a highway and there are some short cuts which could be taken to save time. On this walk one gets a fine views of the mountains in the northern Igatpuri region. It takes a while before one starts to get views of Ratangad and Kutha because there is a nameless peak which blocks the view. One gets to see all the sides of this nameless peak on this trek. The definition of Samrad village just like many of the standard villages near the mountains in Sahyadris is vague. This one is composed of atleast three small villages at some distance from each other. There is also a Karoli ghat from where one can climb up to Samrad directly from Konkan. For this one has to start from Sakurdi and not Chhonda.

From the Samrad village one takes a general trail heading towards the Kutha pinnacle. One hits the forest in about half an hours time. Normally there are arrow markings to guide you all the way. This forest is very thick. The trail after initial climb starts turns right and climbs in to a small grassy plateau from where one gets so beautiful view of Ajoba. The trail traverses all of the kutha pinnacle and when it reaches just below the col between the kutha and Ratangad one turns left climbing the nala coming down from the col. If one is very used to following the markers one has to be very careful because the markers some times disappears on this trek. One such stage is below the col. And if one has missed the col, you could in principle traverse all of Ratangad and climb Kathra or descend to a village called Kumshet at the base of Ajoba which is an interesting option. the climb on the nala is very steep and markers reappear after some time. The last portions very close to the col can be a little tricky in the monsoon. From the col we first get the views of the Bhandardhara lake. There is also a trail going down from here one the other side which would be a new route to go to Ratanwadi. From the col one has to traverse the mountain one the right for some time before reaching the staircase. These steps are very steep and tiring. There are small caves once you are almost at the top. These caves are not as good as the caves (which were described before) which are on the other end of the mountain. It takes about 30-45 minutes to get to the main cave. En route one can get to the actual top of the mountain which is basically two small humps, and the hole is below one of them. The views are very good from here.