A biking trip to Bhandardara

Yet another weekend and got nothing to do. So thought of another biking trip, and may be this time something more than that. My usual accomplice was Pratul who suggeested we go to this place called Bhandardara, 180 kms North East of Mumbai in Ahmednagar district. Apparently this place had Maharashtra's highest peak called Mt. Kalsubai (5400 ft) amongst other attractions as Wilson dam, Ratangarh Fort, Randha Falls, Kokankhara etc. Bittu was available for the weekend making the count to 3. Pratul had managed to get a Unicorn from somewhere and I needed a pillion rider. I gave a call to Lolo and he was in. We gathered at Pratul's house in Powai 11 PM on Saturday, played Poker for sometime and decided our trip plan as we usually do. We managed to catch some sleep for 2 hours before starting the proceedings at 4:00 AM on Sunday.

The Journey begins.

After a bit of packing up, we went to the call centre nearby our place for morning chai where I caught up some of my IITK seniors. After a brief chat with them, we were off on our way at 5:00 AM as I glanced at my watch. Pratul asked me to lead as he did not know the way to NH-3. My Pulsar had Lolo on my back and Pratul had Bittu on his Unicorn. The initial ride was piece of cake with almost no traffic in the morning, we managed to cross Thane from Powai in just 20 minutes (Imagine doing that in rush hours here). I was a bit concerned for Pratul initially as I was not sure if he'd manage properly on the highway with the ravishing truck traffic. Earlier, he had given me a hand on the bike in the Mahabaleshwar biking trip, but not in busy traffic and ghats. But gradually I saw that he managed it quite well, so we had 3 experienced drivers for the 2 bikes including me, Lolo and Pratul. The only concern was to stay on the way which only I knew, so I was keeping it slow. Also the glare from the trucks coming from the opposite direction usually challenged me, with my bike's headlights being misaligned added to the trouble.

It did not last for long as the day broke at around 5:45 AM, that made me take liberty on revving up my Pulsar. I had thought of a nice place, a restaurent where we'd have our first break, to watch the morning sunrise between two electricity towers. It was a great sight to watch when I had seen that for the first time and thought of showing that to these guys. Turned out that we crossed that place quite early in morning while it was still some time to sunrise. We stopped in hope of petrol for the Unicorn, it was yet some time for the sunrise and it seemed cloudy. I decided to not to wait for the sunrise and carry on ahead : this time with greater speed, 90-100kmph.

As we were approaching near Kasara, a small temple caught my eye by the roadside and I decided to shoot it closely, making that as our first official stop. I was a very simple place with no glory or fame attached to it, with the railway track to Mumbai close by. I clicked the temple and ourselves as usual. I saw a train to Mumbai passing by near Mumbai, and decided to click it. Unfortunately my camera settings ditched me and by the time I could re-adjust the shutter speed, the train was gone :(. Soon we encountered the Kasara ghat, which is a beautiful place to drive for bikers with the scenic landscape around. Unfortunately, I could not click any pics there as it was a high traffic zone with almost no parking space on the ghat and we were in a hurry to reach our destination.

We carried on ahead and the day was quiet cloudy, which gave me high hopes of rain and the clouds descending quite low near the peaks which would be a awesome site to capture. We crossed Igatpuri and reached Ghoti village at around 8:00 AM for the breakfast. It was from here that we started venturing into the interior. Pratul went to fill up as we did not know if we'd have any more petrol pumps ahead. I asked Lolo to replace Pratul on the Unicorn and give him some rest. Lolo, the usual harami he is, asked for my Pulsar to drive, and I complied as usual and took up the Unicorn with Bittu on my back. It was my first stint at Unicorn and I found the baby to be just fine, with driver comfort and maneuverability better than Pulsar for sure.

Shendi village & its approach

The hills welcomed us just after 15 minutes and there was this great first view of the hills that I managed to capture. The first looks are always an indication of what are you into and I was damn excited that this trip is surely going to be worth the pain taken. As the curves started coming along, my excitement overcame the fatigue that I was beginning the encounter. Although, there was one thing that was bothering me, the place was not as green as I had thought it would be. It immediately occured to me that may be we were a bit early as monsoon had not hit this area. (So if someone finds a hint of editing in my photos here, you are right). I was constantly looking for the highest peak which we had decided to scale today and there were two of them. It was the one to my right which was the Mt. Kalsubai, which we did not know yet and its base village was on our approach to Bhandardara.

We decided to carry on to the village Shendi and then decide our course of plan. We reached Shendi by 9:00 AM and while we decided the plan ahead as we sipped some more tea. The village was a quite humble place and I could figure out the usual stuff that goes on with day break in the village. I managed to get two captures of the life at this place. One was two chaps with wassup, and another was a cute kid voraciously trying to repair a bicycle. Till now we had decided our plan and scheduled our places to visit. Our first sight was Wilson dam which unleashed the Prawara river and had a garden at its base which was just an amazing treat to the eye. Pratul and Bittu desparately wanted to bathe in the river and we decided to do that later on. We all had an idea that the trek might take long time and we had to return back to Mumbai by the same night.

Wilson Dam, Bhandardara Garden

Bhandardara Garden was popularly just known as Garden amongst the localites and was just at the base of the dam where the gates were usually opened up for Prawara river. We wanted to see those gates from close quarters, however we were not allowed beyond a certain point due to safety reasons. From here we set off to our next destination, Randha Falls which was 12 km from this place.

Randha Falls, Prawara River

After a brief ride and mix-up in finding our way to the Randha falls, we managed to reach there and it was here that I finally realized my suspicion to be true. We were a month early to visit this place, a localite told me that the falls usually has larger amount of water. Yet the Prawara river was kind to us, so that we could atleast see a fall. It was a small fall where the river fell some 50 odd meters down the hill. I wasn't particularly excited to see this, as we had Kokankhara falls in our agenda as well, which is supposedly India's 3rd largest waterfall as the literature says. A place nearby had some significance in terms of hydro-electric power generation which we didn't visit. Yet I ventured to cross the railing and capture the falls from close, but again was stopped by the security guys over there.

Ratangad Fort, Ratanwaadi, Amruteshwar Temple

We set off for Ratangad fort, which was 25 kms from Randha Falls and further interior in the hills. Apparently as per literature, Ratangad was one of the favourites of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He used to visit this place quite often to "chill out" when he was free. As we progressed on our way, the terrain became tougher. I started thinking how Shivaji Maharaj's forts were all placed so strategically. If you visit his main fort at Sinhgad, you'll come to know immediately what a smart ass he really was to build up that fort up there. Never could anyone attack on these forts with ease.

On our way I captured couple of serene views that came across. Life surely is peaceful here with scarce population people having small farms and their huts right here. It was here on the way that my pulsar slipped while negotiating a turn, luckily I controlled the bike. I was hoping our bikes sustain this terrain, a puncture was the last thing I wanted in this region.

After some 45 odd minutes of careful driving, we managed to reach Ratanwadi village from where we could go up to the fort. I checked with localites who told me that we were supposed to keep the bikes in the village and trek up to the fort which was a total of 4-hour expedition. A localite offered to accompany us up there which they usually used to do. We kept looking up, but could not see a hint of fort up the hills. After a brief discussion we decided to drop the idea of going up the fort as Mt. Kalsubai was a higher peak and we did not want to miss it. So we just visited Amruteshwar temple in Ratanwadi and had a brief break of 15-20 mins and set back for Shendi. It was lunch time already and all of us were hungry, plus we wanted to start the trek soon so that we could get back to Mumbai by night. Plus, the time it would have taken us to climb Ratangad was enough to give us the idea that Mt. Kalsubai would take even more time. On my way back, a farly large snake crossed my bike. I managed to brake quite early as I'm scared from snakes. Phew ! that was a close one ! Here's my deal with snakes: No matter which snake you see, you always think its a poisonous one, when actually quite a few of the poor species are so. We continued back to Shendi and the ladies of the village were screaming badly when they saw Lolo on my back seat. The rascal must have had something to do with them as its his usual deal with the fairer sex. On my enquiry, he denied all the allegations as his usual custom.

Just 7 kms off Shendi, we saw Prawara river's approach to the Wilson dam. The place was about 200m off the main road and we decided to stop and have a walk to look. The water level was quiet low as rains had not hit yet. Any other day in the monsoon, we would have been submerged in water where we were standing and capturing the place. Yet it was a treat to the eye, with natural breeze flowing around.

We all were getting hungrier, and hence could not stay longer there. We reached Shendi for lunch, a bit disappointed on not making it to the fort, we thought we wasted 2 hours. Meanwhile I kept on enquiring with different people about the trek for Mt. Kalsubai. All of them had different versions to say:" You start at 6 AM and you'll be back by 7 PM", "It takes 3.5 hours to climb", "To and fro will take you 4 hours" and so on. Despite all the uncertainity that prevailed, and after a rather heavy lunch and a chai we set off for the village which was the base for the trek at around 1:30 PM.

Mt. Kalsubai (5400 ft) Trek

We reached the base village shortly which was just 8kms off Shendi. I had earlier thought that we should have probably done the trek in the morning while it was colder and we were at best of our strengths. Also, I realized that ideally this place deserves 2 days to visit. There was no way that we could have visited the Ratangad fort and Kalsubai all in one day. I and Lolo were almost sure that we wont be able to see Kokankhara Falls anymore. "This trek better be worth it," I thought. We reached the village and met a guy who offered to keep our bikes and bags while we went up. I agreed to the bike, but insisted we keep bags with us as I did not trust him. A small kid offered to take us up there and said the climb up would take 2.5 hrs if we went faster.

We set off finally at 2:00 PM to scale the summit, after having another chai from the guy who kept our bikes. The small kid and his pet bitch accompanied us to this venture. There were some farms at the base and it was a great sight to watch. I glanced the peak from its base and man it was mighty. I wondered if really the kid take us up there in 2.5 hrs as it seemed impossible to me.

The initial trek was moderate before a bit steeper terrain came across. Bittu was the first to take a break, after a bit of pumping he was up on his feet again and we reached a temple called Kalsubai temple at moderate height. We took a stop for like 10 minutes after visiting the temple and some guy there asked if we'd like to have Nimbupaani (Bad decision as it turned out later on).

We set off from here and the terrain now started becoming a bit challenging. Pratul had taken his shirt off by now and we all had a share of the nimbupaani that the guy gave us.

It was Lolo and Bittu who stopped twice this time. We had to stop in between for the guys to get their breathing back to normal. My heartbeat was fast too, but I was sure I could manage some more distance. I really was not able to figure out why Lolo felt so tired. Finally we reached a hut, where this lady was selling Nimbupaani again. We took a stop here for some and by now we realised that this Nimbupaani shit was doing that damage. It made the throat to dry up and we just had a heavy lunch. While we rested here, the people who were coming back told us that the real trek was to start from here and it would take 4 more hours to climb. I was surprised to hear that still I there's a different version. The kid said we'd be on the top in another 1.5 hrs ! After some 15 minutes, we decided to go ahead but Lolo and Bittu did not want to go further. We egged both of them, but to no avail. Finally I and Pratul offloaded the bags with them and just carried up some water and my camera up. It was from here that the terrain started testing us. My usual motivation in keeping up with this is to think about the guys back in the Kargil war who laid their lives on a much steeper terrain. It helped to some extent, yet I kept on taking breaks. My back was aching badly as climb up needed us to stay bent forward for a long time. Breathe was not the issue with me atleast. Pratul pumped me up here to carry on. I was suprised to see how the kid was leading us with so ease. Never did he himself ask for a break. He just went on and on. Shortly, Pratul took a small break and said he wanted to vomit. Certainly it was the heavy lunch that we had had and the nimbupaani fucking around with him. He said he felt much better, and said lets go on.

Now here's the funny part, I had a good enough break when he vomited and was ready to go ahead. I had barely climbed 5 steps up and I suddenly stopped, It was now my turn to vomit !!! The funny part is, I had not expected this. Within a minute all my Paneer came out, and I went way more than Pratul to empty totally my stomach. There was our lesson : "For a trek, DO NOT EAT HEAVILY ! And for sure dont drink that Nimbupaani shit."

It sure felt better after that, though I don't know what happened just later, I started losing my breathe. Every step here on seemed like an ardous task and I simply kept on panting badly. It took a break or a two, but no help. It was here that I started contemplating going back but Pratul insisted. Had it not been for Pratul here, I would never have made it further. Finally we reached a flat area where we met a couple of guys returning. Upon enquiry, they told us to hurry up if wanted to get back before nightfall.

Upto here, there were concrete and stone stairs made up, but now the gradient was almost 70-80 degrees in most of the portion. So there were these steel stairs starting up now. We started negotiating the terrain, but it just became tougher and tougher and tested ours wills. Every step seemed like a real herculian task. Before the start up the stairs, we took a stop. I asked the kid in detail about the layout above. He said there were 3 points up. The 1st was close, 100 steps he said. We started climbing the increasingly harden terrain. Pratul was using a stick for support, while I sometimes used my hands on the railing to pull me up.

While clmbing up, I saw the adjoining cliff and captured it. I was just beautiful, by now we had reached at top of any other peak but Mt. Kalsubai. And we kept on going, only to find that there was more and more ! It was heartening to see now that my breathe was back and I slowly was getting more and more confident that I WILL make it to the top. We reached the top of the first point and I asked the kid about the second point, he said it was another 200 steps and the third one was 1500 more steps from there. By now I had come to realize that this kid did not know much about the peak. Amidst the confusion and fatigue, I decided to set a time limit. We decided to keep on climbing till it was 4:00 PM and then no matter what, we'd return. Off we went without wasting any time. By now, Pratul had been panting and he took a couple of breaks in short span of time. It was my turn to egg him up now. Suprisingly, the last part of this trek which happened to be the most challenging did not bother me much. I dont know what it was, I almost ran my last steps up and soon I was at the top and Pratul followed shortly. At this time, I found that we were right in setting the time limit to 4:00 PM. We reached the 2nd top at 3:55 or so and to my surprise, the 3rd top was way too far. The kid said it will take another 1.5 hours to reach up there, we were already climbing for almost 2 hrs now. No way we could have gone up and come back before nightfall. Our bottomline was to reach Mumbai the same night, so it seemed fair to decide against going ahead.

The view atop was simply mesmerizing ! All the hardship that we took to see this great view seemed well worth it. The trek had damn near wasted me, but all that had withered away in a flash of a second. It felt like victory up there, with the breeze blowing past us and all the landscape below. None of us had words for it. We captured ourselves with the bitch that accompanied us all the way up and screamed below for Bittu and Lolo (later we found out that they heard us!) I almost lost my DSLR camera here when I was clicking both of us and the camera stumbled from the railing. Pratul screamed and in a flash I grabbed the strap of the falling camera. A close shave it was ! Luckily, nothing happened to the camera. We wanted to stay longer, but time was something that we did not have. I thought we should have spared another day for this place so that we could have scaled the 3rd top as well and it would have been great if we carried tenting material and camped up here on the summit. That would just have been awesome ! We decided to return in a hurry and soon reached back to the place where we had left Bittu and Lolo. Lolo was sleeping :). We soon returned in a hurry to the base village at 5:30 PM. We washed up our faces and had some chai which the guy made for us. We paid the guy and the kid and bought a pack of Parle-G for the bitch :).

As we left the village, I gazed back at the cliff. It seemed just great to see that we had scaled it just an hour ago. And we sure were lucky now, as I saw dense clouds surrounding the cliff. It could have been dangerous if we stayed up there for longer time, yet it was beautuiful from down here. This was a great shot to capture.

We headed back to Shendi for the bath in Prawara river for which Bittu was very keen. It was only here that I took a break from driving and asked Lolo to take over the Pulsar. At the river, the water was damn cold and all except me went in while I just dip my feet and sat out relaxing. All their fatigue seemed to have gone after the bath, may be they enjoyed a threesome in there, who knows :P.

F to B: Pratul, Bittu and Lolo

Before taking off for the long drive back to Mumbai, we had a chai again, just to combat sleep. I took the Pulsar and Pratul took the Unicorn. It was exactly 7:00 PM when we started and there was still some light. We managed to reach Ghoti and hit the highway just at nightfall at around 7:30 PM.

The journey back was tougher than I thought, with the usual glare from vehicles almost blinding me, all of my body was breaking apart and I kept on fighting the sleep. I desparately needed a stop, which came as a dinner break for us right after the Kasara ghat. Another chai after the dinner and we were on our way. But shortly, the fatigue was killing me and I was struggling hard. Somehow in between, the confidence of the trek getting done kept me going. The glare of the vehicles forced me to open up my hemet flap and soon my eyes grew red. I thought of taking another break and was looking for a suitable spot to wash off my face and kill the sleep. I thought of stopping some 30kms from Thane, which I thought would be close. Damn it was still 42kms, which means another 12kms to drive !!! Every km was seeming like too long to cover, even though we were atleast at 60kmph. Finally we stopped at a place, I thoroughly washed my face, had a stretch and set back on wheels. The outskirts of city approaching eased our struggle and we finally touched home at about 11:45 PM. We dont know when we crashed in the beds.

I wish we could see more of the places there and that too at right time. But given the time we had, I think we made the best out of it :-).

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Sandeep.