Karnala Hike on 30th March 2011

my Album	Amit's Album
Karan's Snaps	Rathnakar's pics

I love my state, Maharashtra. Recently had been to this lovely little trek (only 2 hours for climbing) of Ratangad, BUT ... BUT a very long way to the base village, Ratanwadi.

The path to Ratangad was showered with the lovely hills, mountains en-route through one of the loveliest lakes in India, The Bhandardara lake (Wilson Dam). The road winds through the Igatpuri range, first roaming around some of the virgin hills and then through the emperors, starting with Kalsubai. The pinnacle with a small hump at the very top, a very distinguishable feature, keeps overlooking your ride/drive right till you climb Ratangad.

The base of the mountain, Ratanwadi is a small village of not more than 200 dwellers. It has an ancient temple, Amruteshwar along the banks of the Bhandardara lake. The village itself is on the opposite end of the Dam, hence about 1/2 hrs boat ride from the dam or 20km of ride from the Dam. The lake at the village provides with perennial water supply and free natural swimming pool unmatched in its beauty, surrounded with peaks of Kalsubai, Ratangad.

From the top of Ratangad, one can view the adjacent magnificence of the Sahyadri Range, next to Kalsubai are Alang, Madan, Kulang mountains (one of the difficult climbing routes - for guys like us). On the otherside is the intimidating "Ajoba"

Ratangad Pics

More Ratangad Pictures

Travelling Directions

1. Get to Igatpuri Station (Central Railway)
2. An early morning bus to Bhandardara (around 5.00am)
3. Boat ride to Ratanwadi

Lonavala Bike Ride Jan 10

Manas' Album

With no treks in monsoon, one was due, Rajoba planned for this relatively simple trek to Kothaligad for 11 September 2010. We were to meet @ Dadar's ticket-window spot around 4.40am and board a train for Karjat around 4.58am.

For the first time all made it on time, I was happy. But Vj was still worried, Hanjoo, the President of my ex-company was yet to make it. Rest all of us, Vj, his wife, Deepak Airy, Vijay Gupta, Anshul Pandey, Digvijay Singh, Amol Rajoba were present. Manas couldn't make it as he was late to get up. Me and Vj ran to get Hanjoo @ the cab junction, while others moved for the platform. When we reached back @ the platform, the train had already left, and the next one was at 5.37am. So we called Manas and checked if he could still make it. He did without a "cleanup" !
At Karjat station, we grabbed a ST bus for the Ambivali village. This was the base, from where our trek was to start. 1.5hrs ride to Ambivali village with everybody managing to catch hold of some sleep. We started our journey from there to the base of the pinnacle, the Peth village. This was about another 1 hrs walk, climb through a very rocky road.

The climb/walk was more of fun, as everybody with their respective stamina, and passion for photography, or should I say for Orkut-ology or newly Facebook-ology were trailing behind. Hanjoo the eldest of us, was quick. We navigated through most of the shortcuts, cutting straight through winding roads and take you up earlier, but not without extra-climbing. We split in 2 groups (naturally) with quicker and the slower. The quicker moved around the green meadows waiting for their compatriots, while the compatriots reached the Peth village!

Here is another blogpost about my Harishchandragad trek via nali chi vaat. I've kept a different idea of writing this blog post, its more of the thoughts zooming out as I jot down the trek. This writeup moves in and out of present and past tense.

This post is somewhere between the normal blog and far away 140 chars tweet.

Fri, January 8, 2010

* Karjat train for kalyan, sandwiches Mallik brought
* reached Kalyan about 9.00pm
* bus for Nagar , dropped us at Khubi phata instead of Savarne as both the conductor and the aspirants dozed off!
* took 2 trucks back to savarne, my truck driver advised to stay near the police chowki and be aware of the villagers at savarne
* almost 12.30 when we reached @ savarne, Mallik, Rajo and Vj followed after 10 mins
* decide to sleep near the police chowki, in our sleeping bags, till the alarm rang at 4.45

Ruturaj's Album

Monsoons had just arrived and we couldn't resist the first one of the wet season, Siddhagad. Located near Murbad, between Gorakhgad and Bhimashankar, it was a good outing for us, Vj, Mallik, R.A. Jo B.A, Sneha, Swati and Kudrat. We could've hiked the final Balekilla, but as we were on a tight one-day schedule, we had to reach up to the cave atop the Siddhagad machi and return back.

Travelling Directions

• Get a train for Kalyan Railway Station (Central Railway)
• A ST bus to Murbad
• Another ST bus to Narivali
• A walk starts which converts to a trek soon - towards Siddhagad

Approximate time of Trek: 6-7 hrs (including the return to the base village)

Almost 7 months later, I've finally managed to write about my Dodital trek and the trip to the Uttaranchal. What you will find is more of an aggregation of the daily jottings about the journey. Its arranged as book with every day as a chapter, Here you go
Dodital Trek

Kalavantin Durg, the small steep hill adjoining to Prabalgad was our motto of the day, Dec 6, 2008.

With Mallik, his cousin, Raksha, Vj, Rajo, Janki and Neeraj adventured the steep, kindof scary trek.

View the Gallery

Travelling Directions

• Get to Panvel, Bus or Train (Central Harbour)
• From Panvel ST Bus Depot, take a bus for Thakurwadi, and get @ the last stop, the base village

Approximate time of Trek: 4-5 hrs (including the return to the base village)
Difficulty: easy to medium, if you are not scared of heights.

Satara is a place of plains showered with small hills all around. At times these hills are in a queue, gives an impression of being placed manually.

Vairatgad

Vairatgad Fort (Wai T; 17° 50' N, 73° 50' E; RS. Wathar, 21 m;) in Wai 3,939 feet above sea level, lies nine miles north-east of Medha and six miles south-east of Wai. The base village is Vyajvadi.

Day 7, 14 Jun 08

Bebra Ghat

My stomach is grumbling, I feel bad, need to go to the loo, I wake up, Its dark, everybody is sleeping. Probably its still night. I need to go. The loo I remember is not in the room, I need to get down walk and there is something built over there. I don't have time to find a torch, I wake up Vj and aks for a torch. I get down the stairs, and walk towards the toilet scared of leeches jumping on my foot. Its liquid ! I return back and get into the bag, its around 2.00am. I've added myself to upset stomach list with Mallik and Vj.