Traveling in the hired sumo, we planned to reach Ratanwadi, the base village in 3 hours time. Little did we know that destiny had something else in store for us! ; For, we were stuck in a horrendous traffic jam on the highway. Being the vivacious people that we are, we still managed to have a wonderful journey. Thankfully, once we were off the highway, our journey was more pleasant. Enjoying the amazing lake surrounded by the hills, we reached Ratanwadi soon enough.

Ratanwadi is a quaint little village with not more than 300 villagers. A shop, a tea stall, the fields and a temple add on to its charm. After a quick meal, we were all set to conquer Ratangad. We set out on the climb along with our guide a local villager – Appasaheb Zade. En-route to the summit, we walked through some dense growth of trees, strolled through few plains, scaled a number of rocks and climbed a couple of ladders.

After about 3 hours of climbing interspersed with a lot of breaks, we reached the summit. And what a wonderful view it was! The mountains looked magnificent and the lake gorgeous! The formation of rocks was incredible! No wonder Ratangad is called the “Jewel Fort”!

We then quickly got to the task of setting up the tents which proved to be quite a challenge with the wind blowing around. After dinner and a round of hopeless jokes and fake laughter, we were fast asleep. Alas! The snoring could not be heard as it was drowned by the howling wind.

Sunday dawned and the early morning view was better than the one in the evening. With the light breeze blowing, the sun just rising, the view was one to behold! We were up and away on our descent now. We came across some breath taking sceneries on our way down. We climbed down a series of steps, inclined steeply, looking down into the valley, carved out of rock. That view is something that will remain with us for a lifetime! We just had to wonder as to how much man power and time it would have taken to carve the steps from the solid rock!

Unfortunately on our way down, one person in the group fell and hurt his ankle. After much discussion, it was decided, that we leave him behind with 2 others as his guards, and continue our journey. We were to reach the village and send back help. So the 5 of us continued and reached the village. Help was sent up, and 4 villagers with a make shift palanquin, brought the patient down.

After having an authentic (not so delicious) meal of Zunkha-Bhakar in the village, it was time for us to head back home. All in all, the trip was fantafabulous! It provided a much needed break from the daily mundane activities. All of us were carrying back memories that we would cherish for a long time to come. In fact, we had such a wonderful time that we were already planning for the next adventure on our way back home…..

WA Trek Team