Ratangad

The fort is about 2000 years old. Ratangad Fort was captured by Maharaj Chhatrapati Shivaji. The fort is set in the realms of the nature. The fort has grounds for trekkers. The view from the fort is beautiful and breathtaking.
The main attraction at Ratanwadi, one can take in the beauty of the Amruteshwar temple dating back to the Hemadpant Era Roughly from the 8th Century.

Location: Ratanwadi, Maharashtra, India, overlooking Bhandardara dam

Our Experience: We boarded the Kasara local at 5:02 AM from Thane and reached Kasara at around 7:00 AM. Alternate way is to catch the last local to Kasara and take the first bus at 5 AM. ST Buses ply from Kasara to Akola which go via Shendi. We missed the 7 AM bus, and hence had to depend on private transport (omni van, jeep etc) to reach Bhandardara (Shendi). After some negotiation with the driver we managed to finalize the deal for Rs. 700/- which on weekends or season goes on incrementing as the sun starts to climb up the sky. Had we been an hour late, we would have been required to shell somewhere close to 900-1000 bucks for the same journey. The road to Bhandardara is mostly smooth with some bad patches near villages and it took us almost 1.5 hr including a tea and a refuelling break by the taxiwala. We had planned to travel from Bhandardara to Ratanwadi via a local boat which ferries locals during the market time for some measly amount. Unfortunately we could not find one and the one available privately asked for ransom 800 bucks. We finally decided to drop our boat travel plan as time was passing by and hired another cab for 400 bucks till the Ratanwadi village and reached there in an hour's time by around 10:30 AM. Since all of us had to get up pretty early to catch the 5:02 AM train, all were hungry by now and after finding a nice place to sit, had our breakfast which included bread jam, khakhras, and a nice cup of tea which the villagers provide at a decent cost. With our bellies full and with a new zeal of energy to reach our destination, fort Ratangad, we started trekking at 11.45 AM.

The road to the fort is pretty easy once you find the right path, since there are good number of cattle tracks which can mislead you. The road that goes parallel to the stream has arrow marks at designated points which help a lot to find the right way. Alternatively one can even take a local villager along to guide the path who takes around 200-300 rupees to show the road to the top of the fort. After getting a bit mislead initially, we hired a villager for 100 bucks to show us the road halfway and then we could find the arrow marks at regular intervals where the road otherwise could have mislead. The road till midway of the fort is a decent inclination but the upper half tends to get more steeper and leaves you gasping for breath. The last stage in this climb goes through a ladder, but with constant usage, the supporting railings have given their way and become loose on which one cannot rely for support. So one has to make the way up the ladder with utmost safety. These ladders make you enter the fort via an entrance called 'Devi Darwaja'. Even after a number of small rest breaks, we reached the top of the fort at around 2:45 PM - in 3 hrs. Since there are 2/3 caves on the top where one can stay, we decided to stay in one cave which had a Lord Ganesha Temple in it. The cave was decent with almost flat floor and a small window to help the light make its way inside. The view outside the cave is breath taking with your eyes reaching the horizon gazing at the Sahyadri range with some forts like Alang, Malang, Kulang and the highest peak in Maharashtra - Kalsubai visible from here. We had our packed lunch and set off to see the fort. There are a good number of monkeys which have been habited by people by feeing leftover food, because of which they have begun to run away with the food belongings of visiting people and it is must that you keep your food items nicely packed or carry them along with you when you leave to see the fort. We saw the complete fort which comprises of 3 entraces to the fort from 3 different sides, a number of water tanks with potable water, a natural formation of a hole (nedhe) atop the fort, saw the Sun set behind the huge Sahyadri mountains and came back to the cave at around 7 PM.

A special mention here would be the amazing view of the mountains behind the fort which make you realize that you are just a small creature in this universe. The height of the mountain and subsequently the depth of the valley is breath taking. We cooked our food outside the cave on a chullah. The food we prepared was fortunately so nice that we could not stop ourselves from licking our fingers and wanting for more. It was a full moon night and the Moon was looking as beautiful as a scoop of vanilla Ice-cream. A cold breeze blowing across the fort which made us make our way to bed early as all of us were tired because of the day's hectic schedule and insufficient sleep the previous night. We stayed in cave overnight and started to climb down at 8:00 AM the next day, reached Ratanwadi at 10.00 AM, had our breakfast and tea and started our way back home and reached Thane at around 5:30 PM.

Distance & Fare (as on Feb 2010):

Thane to Kasara : 100 KM : 19 Rs per person (Local train)

Kasara to Bhandardara (Shendi) : Approx. 40-50 Kms : 700-800 Rs (Private Cab). This charge goes on increasing as already said, with each arriving train, during the season time.

Bhandardara (Shendi) to Ratanwadi - via road : 25 KM : 400-500 Rs (Private Cab)

Bhandardara (Shendi) to Ratanwadi - via boat : 1 hr : 800 Rs (Private boat)