&+Frodo(l).jpg)
http://picasaweb.google.com/cjagtap/TheTwoTowersRatangad This is the link to the Ratangad photo album.
Ratangad was to be done on 3rd 4th 5th Dec. But as luck would have it, got postponed & finally the dates were 29th 30th 31st Dec. Initially a lot of people showed interest, but as the day of the trek drew nearer, people started dropping out. On Friday 29th Dec, unfortunately Orkut was down the entire day & hence I couldn’t get in touch with the handful of people who were still interested. At last it was just me & Mandar who remained. It was 10.30pm & yet another member dropped out. I called up Mandar & informed him of the scenario. He was okay even if it was just the 2 of us. I had done Gorakhgad last year on 30, 31st but then I had Sudershan for company, my pal in most of the treks. Here the situation was completely different. None the less I decided to go ahead with the trek. I reached CST at 11.45 pm. We checked our food & cash stock & boarded the 12.15 am Kasara local on 30th Dec (Rs.23). Due to some technical problem between Dombivali & Thakurli Station, the train got delayed a good 45 mins. We reached Kasara at 4am. The station has no proper place to spend the night. The only toilet stinks. We learned from the railway staff that the first bus for Igatpuri was at 6.45 am coinciding with the arrival of the first Kasara local in the morning. The ST waits on the eastern side of the station, a 5 min walk. We got the bus which goes to Akola, which dropped us at Shendi at 9am (RS.38 per head). Then we had to go hunting for the launch which takes you to the base village called Ratanwadi. To my dismay there was news that some “Scientist” had come visiting the place for the past couple of days & had booked the 10am launch all for himself, nobody else was allowed to board that launch. Hiring a launch by ourselves would cost us around RS.600 or even more. The locals told us that they would request the launchwala to accommodate us. The “Scientist” arrived with his troupe at 9.50 am. By 10.05 am they were all inside. By the favor of GOD we were allowed to travel along. Our ride started at 10.10am. The launch travel was good. We reached Ratanwadi at 10.40 am. Here they demanded RS.50 each from us, when the actual fare was RS.30. Thinking that we were lucky just to be there, we shelled out the money. As it was just the 2 of us we decided to hire a guide. His name was Nathu Zade(Smeagol aka Gollum). He demanded RS.200 for a two way trip. We conceded. We had our brunch consisting of sandwiches at his place. We started our trek for the Amruteshwar temple at 11.40 am. We reached the temple at 12pm. The temple has 2 sculptures similar to the ones at Khajuraho in MP. I doubt how many people notice them. After having a look around the temple, we had to wait for MR. Gollum, as he had some other priorities. Finally we started our trek at 1.20pm. Now this guy was hurrying us along. Mandar did a great job of keeping up with him. I had to tell him a couple of times that we had to wait for a breather. We reached the bifurcation for Ratangad (r) & Harishchandragad (l) at 2.35pm. If we walk along the route to Harishchandra for 5 mins we come across a water tank, where we refilled our water. We came upon the ladders at 3.15pm. At 3.30pm we were atop the mountain. There are a couple of spots en route were we could have easily lost our way. So it was good that we hired a guide. We made ourselves comfortable in the cave. There is a temple of Goddess Ratana Devi just next to the cave. The cave can accommodate about 15people. The entire fort has a capacity of about 30 people. The cave has an Iron Gate which we locked (with the lock I had brought along) before moving out to explore the fort. The monkeys can enter the cave in spite of this. Our guide advised us to follow the route that encircles the fort, without deviating from it. He was to go home now & return next morning at the diversion for harishchandra to pick us up. This route will take you by a total of 3 places where water tanks are located (1 hidden). It will ultimately pass through an orifice in the mountain, which marks the completion of half the perimeter of the fort. From here on we start our journey back to the caves. We had started our exploration of the mountain at 4.20pm & were back to the caves at 5.50pm. Then there was the rush to light the fire. At around 6.30pm we realized that we had company, Mice!! I thought what the hell. They were around 3-4 of them. They can ruin your food & sacks. As we lit the fire they hid in the rocks. We had our food by 7.30pm. As were readying ourselves for a well deserved sleep, they made a come back. We again had to light the fire, keep it burning to keep them at bay. It was around 8.30pm when we heard human voices outside the cave. It was a group of 8 (5 guys, 3 girls) from Poona. They had started the trek late. We thought that at last we had company (in suffering ;)) but they decided to spend the night in the Ratna Devi temple. Our battle continued till 10pm. The stock of wood was dwindling. At last at 10.30 pm the mice were nowhere to be seen. Heaving a sigh of relief we went to bed. At 11.00pm I got up startled. These Ass#$ had been having a merry time on our bodies. Thankfully, they had not done any damage to life & property. Again the ritual of keeping the fire burning continued for 25 mins. At 11.30pm we went off to sleep. At around12.30 it started getting really cold. I was shivering in spite of the sweater & windcheater. It was time to get up at 5.30am. We had our sand witches. We were ready to get out of the cave at 6.50am, when there was more company awaiting us outside the cave. Yes monkeys!! I had to take out the steel chain, I had brought along for this very situation. We were successful at intimidating them. We resumed our exploration. After refilling the water stock and washing the utensils we started our trek down at 8.15am. Mandar had a tough time negotiating the initial patch till the first ladder. After that it was a smooth ride. We met our guide at the place mentioned before. He accompanied us for about half an hour, again going ahead saying that there was no chance of getting lost now, although we did lose the path on a couple of occasions after that. We reached the Amruteshwar temple, changed into fresh clothing & reached his place at 12pm for our lunch (RS.30 per person for Bhakri & Zunka). We were ready for the launch at 1pm, again there was a problem as it was already booked for a group of people& couldn’t carry more than that. We would have to wait for 2 hours before they would come back again to pick us up. This time we had company in the form of the Poona people. We decided we would try our luck at hiring a jeep to Shendi. On the way to the Amruteshwar temple we came across a group of people who had hired a Rowing boat from Shendi to Ratanwadi & back. Swati (Poona group) put her HR skills at work & convinced them to take us along (RS.30 per head). We reached Shendi at 3.05pm. Now we went to the chowk in Shendi to get a taxi (RS.20 per head) to Ghoti (the next ST bus was at 5.30pm).We all were crammed in it. We had 3 nomad ladies & a boy of about 10 years for company. Although I didn’t completely understand their language, I could make out the theme of their conversation. They were a happy lot. What did they have to be so cheerful & merry, that I didn’t?? It’s all in the attitude as they say. Happiness doesn’t come out of having certain things in life; true happiness isn’t dependent on any other thing. That’s what they were exemplifying. You can learn from anybody & anything. We reached Ghoti at 4.15 pm. The next bus to Kasara was at 5.30pm. We boarded a bus to Igatpuri at 5.45 pm. (RS.4 per head). We learnt at Igatpuri the next bus to Kasara was at 6.45 pm. We had some food at the ST stand. It was 7pm & still no sign of the bus. The stand was almost deserted. We could see trains bound for Mumbai pull into Igatpuri railway station. After enquiring with the pay & use toilet attendant, we were told that there were many trains at this time to Mumbai. We hired a rickshaw to Igatpuri (RS.10). Two express trains were lined in the station. We bought our tickets (RS.55 per head) & boarded the Lucknow-Mumbai-Lucknow express at 7.15 pm. The train moved out of the station at 7.20 pm. The train was really an express train, it halted only at Kalyan. At 10.30 pm we were at Dadar. It was time for Frodo to move away from Sam. The fellowship had failed, but friends from the shire stood for each other. I reached home at 11pm. Thus was the story of The Two Towers. Wait till I write The Return of the KING!!
The trek expenses:
Ticket to Kasara: RS.23 per head.
Kasara to Shendi: RS.38 per head.
Shendi to Ratanwadi: RS50 per head.
Guide Charges: Rs.200
Lunch: RS.30 per head.
Ratanwadi to Shendi: RS.30 per head.
Shendi to Ghoti: RS.20 per head.
Ghoti to Igatpuri: RS.4 per head.
Igatpuri to Mumbai: RS.55 per head.
Miscellaneous expenses: RS.100 per head.
Thus the total cost of the trek was RS.450 per head.
Ratangad was to be done on 3rd 4th 5th Dec. But as luck would have it, got postponed & finally the dates were 29th 30th 31st Dec. Initially a lot of people showed interest, but as the day of the trek drew nearer, people started dropping out. On Friday 29th Dec, unfortunately Orkut was down the entire day & hence I couldn’t get in touch with the handful of people who were still interested. At last it was just me & Mandar who remained. It was 10.30pm & yet another member dropped out. I called up Mandar & informed him of the scenario. He was okay even if it was just the 2 of us. I had done Gorakhgad last year on 30, 31st but then I had Sudershan for company, my pal in most of the treks. Here the situation was completely different. None the less I decided to go ahead with the trek. I reached CST at 11.45 pm. We checked our food & cash stock & boarded the 12.15 am Kasara local on 30th Dec (Rs.23). Due to some technical problem between Dombivali & Thakurli Station, the train got delayed a good 45 mins. We reached Kasara at 4am. The station has no proper place to spend the night. The only toilet stinks. We learned from the railway staff that the first bus for Igatpuri was at 6.45 am coinciding with the arrival of the first Kasara local in the morning. The ST waits on the eastern side of the station, a 5 min walk. We got the bus which goes to Akola, which dropped us at Shendi at 9am (RS.38 per head). Then we had to go hunting for the launch which takes you to the base village called Ratanwadi. To my dismay there was news that some “Scientist” had come visiting the place for the past couple of days & had booked the 10am launch all for himself, nobody else was allowed to board that launch. Hiring a launch by ourselves would cost us around RS.600 or even more. The locals told us that they would request the launchwala to accommodate us. The “Scientist” arrived with his troupe at 9.50 am. By 10.05 am they were all inside. By the favor of GOD we were allowed to travel along. Our ride started at 10.10am. The launch travel was good. We reached Ratanwadi at 10.40 am. Here they demanded RS.50 each from us, when the actual fare was RS.30. Thinking that we were lucky just to be there, we shelled out the money. As it was just the 2 of us we decided to hire a guide. His name was Nathu Zade(Smeagol aka Gollum). He demanded RS.200 for a two way trip. We conceded. We had our brunch consisting of sandwiches at his place. We started our trek for the Amruteshwar temple at 11.40 am. We reached the temple at 12pm. The temple has 2 sculptures similar to the ones at Khajuraho in MP. I doubt how many people notice them. After having a look around the temple, we had to wait for MR. Gollum, as he had some other priorities. Finally we started our trek at 1.20pm. Now this guy was hurrying us along. Mandar did a great job of keeping up with him. I had to tell him a couple of times that we had to wait for a breather. We reached the bifurcation for Ratangad (r) & Harishchandragad (l) at 2.35pm. If we walk along the route to Harishchandra for 5 mins we come across a water tank, where we refilled our water. We came upon the ladders at 3.15pm. At 3.30pm we were atop the mountain. There are a couple of spots en route were we could have easily lost our way. So it was good that we hired a guide. We made ourselves comfortable in the cave. There is a temple of Goddess Ratana Devi just next to the cave. The cave can accommodate about 15people. The entire fort has a capacity of about 30 people. The cave has an Iron Gate which we locked (with the lock I had brought along) before moving out to explore the fort. The monkeys can enter the cave in spite of this. Our guide advised us to follow the route that encircles the fort, without deviating from it. He was to go home now & return next morning at the diversion for harishchandra to pick us up. This route will take you by a total of 3 places where water tanks are located (1 hidden). It will ultimately pass through an orifice in the mountain, which marks the completion of half the perimeter of the fort. From here on we start our journey back to the caves. We had started our exploration of the mountain at 4.20pm & were back to the caves at 5.50pm. Then there was the rush to light the fire. At around 6.30pm we realized that we had company, Mice!! I thought what the hell. They were around 3-4 of them. They can ruin your food & sacks. As we lit the fire they hid in the rocks. We had our food by 7.30pm. As were readying ourselves for a well deserved sleep, they made a come back. We again had to light the fire, keep it burning to keep them at bay. It was around 8.30pm when we heard human voices outside the cave. It was a group of 8 (5 guys, 3 girls) from Poona. They had started the trek late. We thought that at last we had company (in suffering ;)) but they decided to spend the night in the Ratna Devi temple. Our battle continued till 10pm. The stock of wood was dwindling. At last at 10.30 pm the mice were nowhere to be seen. Heaving a sigh of relief we went to bed. At 11.00pm I got up startled. These Ass#$ had been having a merry time on our bodies. Thankfully, they had not done any damage to life & property. Again the ritual of keeping the fire burning continued for 25 mins. At 11.30pm we went off to sleep. At around12.30 it started getting really cold. I was shivering in spite of the sweater & windcheater. It was time to get up at 5.30am. We had our sand witches. We were ready to get out of the cave at 6.50am, when there was more company awaiting us outside the cave. Yes monkeys!! I had to take out the steel chain, I had brought along for this very situation. We were successful at intimidating them. We resumed our exploration. After refilling the water stock and washing the utensils we started our trek down at 8.15am. Mandar had a tough time negotiating the initial patch till the first ladder. After that it was a smooth ride. We met our guide at the place mentioned before. He accompanied us for about half an hour, again going ahead saying that there was no chance of getting lost now, although we did lose the path on a couple of occasions after that. We reached the Amruteshwar temple, changed into fresh clothing & reached his place at 12pm for our lunch (RS.30 per person for Bhakri & Zunka). We were ready for the launch at 1pm, again there was a problem as it was already booked for a group of people& couldn’t carry more than that. We would have to wait for 2 hours before they would come back again to pick us up. This time we had company in the form of the Poona people. We decided we would try our luck at hiring a jeep to Shendi. On the way to the Amruteshwar temple we came across a group of people who had hired a Rowing boat from Shendi to Ratanwadi & back. Swati (Poona group) put her HR skills at work & convinced them to take us along (RS.30 per head). We reached Shendi at 3.05pm. Now we went to the chowk in Shendi to get a taxi (RS.20 per head) to Ghoti (the next ST bus was at 5.30pm).We all were crammed in it. We had 3 nomad ladies & a boy of about 10 years for company. Although I didn’t completely understand their language, I could make out the theme of their conversation. They were a happy lot. What did they have to be so cheerful & merry, that I didn’t?? It’s all in the attitude as they say. Happiness doesn’t come out of having certain things in life; true happiness isn’t dependent on any other thing. That’s what they were exemplifying. You can learn from anybody & anything. We reached Ghoti at 4.15 pm. The next bus to Kasara was at 5.30pm. We boarded a bus to Igatpuri at 5.45 pm. (RS.4 per head). We learnt at Igatpuri the next bus to Kasara was at 6.45 pm. We had some food at the ST stand. It was 7pm & still no sign of the bus. The stand was almost deserted. We could see trains bound for Mumbai pull into Igatpuri railway station. After enquiring with the pay & use toilet attendant, we were told that there were many trains at this time to Mumbai. We hired a rickshaw to Igatpuri (RS.10). Two express trains were lined in the station. We bought our tickets (RS.55 per head) & boarded the Lucknow-Mumbai-Lucknow express at 7.15 pm. The train moved out of the station at 7.20 pm. The train was really an express train, it halted only at Kalyan. At 10.30 pm we were at Dadar. It was time for Frodo to move away from Sam. The fellowship had failed, but friends from the shire stood for each other. I reached home at 11pm. Thus was the story of The Two Towers. Wait till I write The Return of the KING!!
The trek expenses:
Ticket to Kasara: RS.23 per head.
Kasara to Shendi: RS.38 per head.
Shendi to Ratanwadi: RS50 per head.
Guide Charges: Rs.200
Lunch: RS.30 per head.
Ratanwadi to Shendi: RS.30 per head.
Shendi to Ghoti: RS.20 per head.
Ghoti to Igatpuri: RS.4 per head.
Igatpuri to Mumbai: RS.55 per head.
Miscellaneous expenses: RS.100 per head.
Thus the total cost of the trek was RS.450 per head.
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