Umbrella Falls, Bhandardara

Date : 18th March, 2011

This one was the most random trip I had ever attempted in my life … I was discussing with Yogesh and Santosh about places to visit in the monsoon. Bhandardara was definitely one of them since the Umbrella falls had always eluded me on the 4 trips gone by. A wild thought occurred to us to maybe give a call to MTDC and try to find out when the Dam gates would be opened in the monsoon. As luck would have it, the guy at MTDC said the gates were already open for the past 2 days and would be open for another 10 days.

Yogesh was already scheduled for a Nasik trip on Friday evening, and next weekend would have been too far. It took us a few minutes to decide that Friday had to be the day. Understandably, Santosh dropped out as he was in Pune. There was no point on asking others, as no one was so crazy about these waterfalls (I’m sure they’ll regret missing this chance) We somehow scampered through bookings for the Tapovan Express till Igatpuri. The MTDC confirmation was still a risk, so we decided to hedge it by calling up 2 other resorts to get the confirmation.

On Friday, we met at Kalyan at 06:45. The Howrah Express caused a short delay, but soon we were enroute Igatpuri as the Tapovan Express chugged out of Kalyan at 07:30. Almost a couple of hours later and after catching up on some missed sleep, we set foot on Igatpuri station at 09:00. The plan was to check out the S.T bus stand for any buses to Shendi/Rajur and if not available take a Rickshaw/Taxi. The slight delay by Tapovan and to add to it the 10 min walk to the bus station made us miss the 08:45 bus to Shendi. The next one was at 10:00 but would only take us 4 km within reach of Bhandardara. The only direct bus for Shendi was at 11:00. Deeming it pointless to wait for 2 hrs in a sleepy village, we preferred to hire a rickshaw instead at a bargained price of Rs 550 to Bhandardara and back.

The journey to Shendi begin at 09:30 after multiple stops for a broken clutchwire, petrol (no CNG in Igatpuri yet) and oil. On the way we passed the village of Ghoti where a huge exhibition of cattle was on display (you would have seen a similar one in movie – Khakee – just after the Dil Dooba song). Easily there were around 1000 cows and bulls. Sad I didn’t click a pic of this as it was surely a sight to behold.

Thereafter it was a non-stop ride to the Bhandardara Dam (Wilson Dam) – albeit a short stop for tea which was just an excuse to re-confirm the availability of Umbrella Falls 🙂 . The first sight of the Umbrella Falls from the winding road leading to it gave me goosebumps … Here was a waterfall I had so missed on 4 prior occasions.

As we went through the main gate leading to the garden below the Dam, the anxiety started to build up, as we had just seen the fall from a far off distance, but there was a sure feeling it would be HUGE .. and as we actually saw it .. there is just one word I can use to descibe it … E N O R M O U S !!!. You will know when you see the size of this waterfall in comparison to the humans below. The pics may not do justice to its enormity – probably the video will help.

Man, this was awesome and I realised how much I had missed this. Bad Luck we couldn’t visit it in a time when they would allow tourists to stand on the bridge right below (not directly) the waterfall or take a front row seat to admire it’s enormity. Those would definitely have been the 80s when people were still civilised. Tourists nowadays include a lot of hooligans out to spoil nature. That takes away the beauty from decent travellers who are only interested in admiring natural beauty. There have been some movies shot at this location – as the erstwhile guide tells u – Raju Chacha , Lal Dupatta Malmal Ka – though forgettable 🙂 .

The planned water channels unite the flowing water into a common channel that further leads to the villages and is used for irrigation, drinking water etc. Any spot on the shores of these channels is a good picnic spot among the dense foliage.

The steps leading to the top are, however, a saving grace, as it still gives you a chance to see the waterfalls from up-close. You can actually get as close to it to even slip off the cliff into the unknown depths of insanity. This was a scary location to be at, but was equally beautiful, as, officially this was the closest you could get to the waterfall. The spray from the waters gushing down hit your face – your camera – and in seconds – leave you dripping wet.

There is another undesignated viewpoint on top where the gates are opened. This seems to be a restricted area since it is too risky to view the waterfall from here. However, there was no security at this place and people were having a ball crossing the barrier over the gates and going onto the other side. We restricted ourselves to a quick pic over the gate pipes and retreated within minutes. Trust me .. the point right above the gates gives a feeling of an earthquake and sends shivers down the spine.

We then moved on towards the MTDC resort and spent some time lazying around – staring at the huge reservoir – on the benches at the lakeside cottages. Ratangad is easily visible from here. Planning to scale it one-day to have a bird’s eye view of this huge lake from top.

Soon it was 4 pm and time to head back to Igatpuri. The auto-ride was devoid of any excitement – apart from a tyre burst 11 kms away from our destination. Luckily the driver had a spare (which looked worse than the burst tyre) and we reached Igatpuri with ample time left for our respective trains to Mumbai and Nasik. A couple of hours later I was back home – tired – but with a sense of achievement of having finally managed to see the Umbrella Falls.

I hope, someday, this place is well planned and developed into a good tourist destination. It certainly has the potential to be so. Although, it would take away the natural flavour off it, but would help localites and tourists alike.