I’ve been wanting to return to Bhandardara and trek to Ratangad ever since I had been there earlier this year. Bhandardara is about 180 km by road from Mumbai. The easiest way to reach there is by taking a train to Igatpuri and then catching some alternative transportation from there. However, like the last time round, I decided that we would go there using only the local trains. We left at about 6:30 in the morning to catch the 7:30 (or was that 7:40) fast to Kasara from Ghatkopar. The train took about 2 odd hours to reach the station. From Kasara you can either catch an ST bus directly to Bhandardara (whose frequency is very low) or take the many taxis that ply towards Nashik and get off along the way at Igatpuri or Ghoti.As there was a good one and a half hour for the next bus, we decided to take a taxi to Igatpuri and try our luck there. Unfortunately, we learnt at Igatpuri that the next bus would be the same one from Kasara. So we took another bus to Ghoti and caught a jeep from there. The jeep drivers here are a very enterprising lot. They usually charge about Rs.20 per seat. However the system that works is that the jeep owner gets a certain fixed number of seats per trip, while any payment for seats above that number goes to  driver. So the driver has every incentive to fill as many people in the jeep as possible. At one point of time our jeep, that was probably designed to seat no more than 10 people, actually had about 24 people (including some on the roof). We finally reached Bhandardara after a cramped hour in the jeep.

After checking in and having lunch, we had a stroll around the lake side. The lake was calm, blue and serene reflecting the clouds in the sky. In the evening we went down to the dam to see if the “umbrella” falls were there, however they had not opened the dam. Apparently they let water out once a week or so. On the way back, we arranged for a vehicle to take us to Ratangad early next morning. Just then it started raining heavily. I spent the night till dinner listening to thunder in the sky and wondering if the same bad weather would force me to cancel the trip once again.