Bhandardara

Bhandardara

Day 1

Bhandardara (3000 ft) is a hill station and a weekend getaway 180 kms from Mumbai. I went with MASK group which organises treks and activities every weekend. We left on 23rd at night. We reached late night to see a beautiful star gazing sky. Then we had breakfast at the village, the tea tasted great with jaggery and lemon, some new taste which everyone loved. The sunlight on the mountains made the mountains beautiful, a view to look at and followed by a walk around to see the place.

After this we started trekking, there was a rocky road between the valley. This is Sandhan valley also known as valley of shadow because at 12:00pm there are only sunrays which enter between the cliff, rest everything was dark. Then Arpit, one of the organisers, took us on the top of valley and explained some activities which take place once in every year by the isolation zone group. One of the activities was ‘Giant Swing’, the safety ropes and equipments are tied by group of expertise and no machines are used. There were 3-4 backups where the ropes are tied so that if either of the bamboos or branches break due to any reason then the other backup saves the person. You will get the idea of height from the pic below 🙂

Here is a video of Giant Swing 🙂 😀

Another activity was the ‘Burma Bridge’. The view is breathtaking.

Then had a quick introduction of everyone in the group and then we began to descend again to the rocks between the valley, the local people had tied ropes between the cliffs for doing zipline. We all did zipline. And the amazing part was even a 3 & 1/2 yr old also did the zipline on his own, he was scared but he enjoyed it too. Then after this we again went up the cliff and did rapelling from 120ft . After the fun activites we had lunch and rested for a while.

Later we walked around 10 minutes from the village to set up our tents near a small lake. It was fun and easy to set up the tents. The tents were provided by the villagers which were easy to set up and remove.

After setting up tents, we saw the sunset and then sang some songs and in sometime it was pitch dark. The sky was twinkling like diamonds. One can see falling stars often in such clear skies. Our group saw around 3-4 falling stars.

This image clicked by https://www.facebook.com/romil.badami

This image is clicked by https://www.facebook.com/kshitij.nawal.5

It started getting colder so we lit the bonfire and everyone gathered around. Then we received barbeque equipments and raw potatoes which were well marinated from villagers. After trying to keep the fire on by putting grass in it from nearby areas finally the coal burned and barbeque started, all enjoyed the barbeque spicy potatoes and had dinner. After that just enjoyed sitting under the stars and then we were provided with sleeping bags. The sleeping bags were warm and easily foldable. Slept with funfilled memories waiting for the next day 🙂 😀

A small timelapse of stars 🙂

Video by a group member sir Williams 😀

Bhandardara – Day 2

Woke up at 7:30 – 8:00, had tea and breakfast at the campsite (the villagers got it at the campsite). Then did archery, the equipments were provided by the villagers. We then started to disassemble the tents, packed our bags and left the campsite.

After that we went to see Amruteshwar temple which is 1000 years old temple of Lord Shiva. There is intricate carvings done in black stones.

https://www.facebook.com/arpit0805 has clicked these 2 images

Later on we went for a boatride in Bhandardara Lake. Then we stopped on an island just to click some pictures. It was very quiet and peaceful. Below are some pics.