Ratangad Trek near Nasik, Visit 2000 Years old fort & 1000 Years old Temple

Basic information on Ratangad trek (near Nasik)

Read details on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratangad
Read details on Amruteshwar temple

Difficulty level 

Medium ( GPS track shows 10.5 kms total round trip)
height is 4255feet, time to reach is around 2 hours to the to, around same to descend down from the other route

What to see at Fort Ratangad !

• Huge cave at top
• Ganesh temple near the cave
• Ban sulka
• Needle hole point (do not forget to climb over to get scneic view, but be careful, it is slippery there)
• Amruteshwar temple in the village (Hemadpanthi style)
• Back water views of Bhandardara dam
• Views of Sandhan valley
• View the Kalsubai peak (~5000 feet)

Place to stay/take food & water

Water – cistern at fort top, had drinkable water

Food and stay – You have to carry food on your own and can get space to stay at the fort in the big caveyou can pre-order your food to Hotel Amruteshwar at Ratanwadi Mr. Ramdas Zade 9158651357 / 9325325463 (one of the number is of his son), we had Poha and tea for complete group here and it was tasty [of course our dear friend Anil who is best cook took over the charge looking at situation]

Location

Google coordinates 19.509396, 73.699629

How to reach for Ratangad trek

Pune to Ratanwadi by private vehicle, (roads are in pretty good condition)
walk of 2 hours to the top of fort.

You may begin at night from Pune, reach early morning to Ratanwadi (travel time around 5 hours), complete trek (climbing 2 hours and descending 2 hours) and back to Pune by second day evening.

Precautions

• Use proper trekking gears for this trek
• Monkeys on the fort top are aggressive, so be careful for your bags, they snatch the bags to get food

Amruteshwar temple has beautiful carving pillars, well in condition

Near the temple there is a cistern, village people are using water from here as drinking water, it also has carvings at all corners .. well in condition so far…

remains near the temple, not sure if they were part of original temple or there was one more temple which is not in existence !

Ladder to facilitate way up the fort, they are in very good condition, but make sure not all people climb at the same time, keep them intact for the other people

while i was waiting for ladders to be free for me .. a dog was also watching down the fort … may be he was following our group to get some food .. he may be habituated for that ..

Near the ladder .having panaromic views .. but wait .. u will get best views when u r at the top of needle hole point …

once you climb the ladder, you are almost there at the top .. there is a huge cave which can accommodate 40~50 people easily .. u can have night stay at this place …

remains of the structure .. it is said that this fort is 2000 years old .. looks like this was a watch tower point .. but who knows it may be part of palace !

when u reach the top .. most interesting point is the needle hole point .. do not forget to climb on the top of needle hole point (be careful since it is very narrow there at the top and slippery .. but no risk no gain !)

before descending down from Trymbak darwaja .. we could get nice group photo on the steps ..

We started our descend from Tryambak Darwaza – but this was the main entrance to Ratangad fort (and we used it to exit !)

way down the Trymbak darwaja .. have steps which are still in good condition .. fabricated protective structure work was in progress ..

Be aware of these notorious monkeys .. they dare easily to snatch your bags .. do not under estimate them ..since it can lead to an accident .. they are very much aggressive

Places to see nearby… 

• Ratangad

• Amruteshwar temple

• Prati Konkan Kada

• Sandhan Valley

• Kalsubai (Highest peak of Maharashtra)

Recommended reference reading –
One day trek in Sahaydri mountain ranges – Do’s and Don’t, Things to carry list