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Trek to Sandhan Valley and Ratangad

Myself and my friend Shrinivas Gokhale planned for a trek to Sandhan(सांधण) Valley and Ratangad. It is near Igatpuri/Bhandardara. You need to take the route either from Bhandardara or Igatputi(Ghoti). The route to the Sandhan Valley is exotic if you go in rains but it is too risky to get there so prefer to go in Winter. Since, the location is border of Thane, Nashik and Ahmednagar districts the Sahyadri ranges are very high and we feel the  strategic importance of Thane district to the Maratha Empire.


The road to Sandhan Valley is really superb. On your right hand you see the highest peak of Sahyadri i.e. Kalsubai and on left-hand side you see the backwaters of Ghatghar Dam. Also, the AMK or the Alang, Madan and Kulang the three forts are visible from here.

To reach the Sandhan Valley you need to go to the village called Samrad(साम्रद). From here you need to take a walk for about 2 kms. to reach the valley. The valley is the patch between two hills and you need to go jump through the rocks. Even there are two water patches one is knee-deep and other is neck-deep. The water at neck-deep patch is really very cold. I was really afraid to get into it, but my friend Shrinivas helped me out; while on our back journey I almost slipped and fell-down into the water.



At noon we came back to Samrad again and at around 4 pm started ascending towards Ratangad. Actually, we both were in fix to go to Ratangad or to Kalsubai. But we decided to go to Ratangad. We reached Ratangad at around 6 pm and stayed there in the temple of Ratnaidevi. The night was starry and the moon was almost full, so there was plenty of moonlight and it was feeling like we are in heaven. It was just silent. After some-time Shrinivas played the ghazal of Rahul Deshpande "Woh Jo Hum Mein Tum Mein Karar Tha..." and then we listened to Anoushka Shankar......It was like.....can't express...And the ghazal made me feel that long away someone's heart is broken and he is singing that song and I felt heart-felt. It was amazing..........We slept after that. We had a tiring day but still the ghazal was in my heart and I was awake for another hour until the next group came......

Next day morning, we first saw the Ratangad, on the left-side of the fort there is Harishchandragad's famous Konkankada and Katrabai's Khind. It is actually a 12 hrs walk from Ratangad to Harishchandragad. On the other hand their is Thane district and deep valley. The famous Ajobagad is also visible from Ratangad. We have 3 water-tanks, Kalyan Darwaja and Narayan Darwaja on the back-side of Ratnaidevi's temple. Since. our camera's battery drained out we can't capture the shots at Ratangad.... :( . We started descending Ratangad at around 9 am and started journey back towards our home. 

The 2-day trek was superb and full of energy.....While descending Shrinivas wanted to go and swim into Ghatghar Dam's backwater, but since we had took bike we need to reach home safely and hence we descended......

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