Vihigaon Falls

This was supposed to be the big one ! I had already been to Bhandardara thrice (Sep2003, Aug2004 and Jun2010), but was still keen on seeing the Umbrella Falls which I missed on every visit. Sad to say … missed it this time as well … but discovered something even better … Vihigaon Falls.

We had planned this to be an overnight affair … but there was no acco available at Bhandardara MTDC on the weekend, which left us with online options available in Igatpuri. We shortlisted Ganaka motel which was somewhere close to Manas Resort in Igatpuri. The plan was to reach Bhandardara directly on Saturday and if no acco was available, call up and reserve two rooms in Ganaka to return in the evening. That would have left us with half a day in Igatpuri.
This made us hunt for places to see … All we could find out online was Bhatsa valley, Camel valley, Talegaon Dam .. but they still didn’t feel like spending half a day at.

Some search on www.bcmtouring.com led us to identifying one spot near Igatpuri – i,e Vihigaon Falls. The route, however, was not clearly described anywhere, only mention being that it was somewhere on the road to Khodala. I began my research using whatever source I could get on the internet, even checked out Wikimapia. Could find Vihigaon, but not the falls. Also, the left at Jawhar phata was something that would have taken efforts to identify.
Anyways, we decided to skip Vihigaon if not found, and we were lucky not to have done that in reality 🙂

The journey began at 6:30 am from the bridge over Nahur station. Mayur and Yogesh were well on time, considering they had come all the way from Badlapur and Ambernath and once Santosh arrived, we were on our way. Once we hit the NH3, after some bad roads and bit of traffic till Bhiwandi-Kalyan Phata, the roads were awesome.
The 4-lane work on NH3 has definitely improved the traffic, although, there still are some roadblocks where the work is incomplete or in early stages.

We decided not to waste time in a breakfast stop and have some chakhna on the way itself. So out came the biscuits, chips etc and kept our tummies satisfied enough. Soon we reached Kasara and decided to keep our eyes focussed on any left on the way.
Once the road started winding up towards the ghats, we had almost given up on finding the Jawhar phata when we found this diversion for light vehicles – and it immediately clicked.

This was the left we’d been searching all along :). The only fight now was to spot Vihigaon village and the waterfall. The road started winding into the forest.
I must say, although this road is narrow, it is a very scenic drive through the forest. Approx 5-6 km later, we reached a fork in the road, where the right turn led to Igatpuri and straight on moved towards Jawhar, Khodala etc. We stayed on the straight path. A couple of kms later, we crossed a village on the left, but somehow skipped it only to realise it may have been Vihigaon. We were just pondering about returning to ask someone, when we spotted a waterfall on the left in the valley. The sound it made was enough to be heard from that far.

All the research on the internet confirmed that this was indeed the Vihigaon falls. It took us sometime to take a U-turn here and enter the village.
We parked our car near the village school and set out on foot. It was 08:30 am. Mulund to Vihigaon in 2 hours flat 🙂

The climb down to the fall was through a dense mini-forest and once we reached halfway we could spot the mammoth waterfall which looked so huge from up-close.

 

The location down here reminded us of the forest in Arnold’s movie “Predator” 🙂 .. so silent and untouched. there was no one – just the four of us. The only noise audible was the chirping of birds and the roar of the waterfall. It was truly a heavenly sight which needs to be experienced to believe.
This place is so good that one can easily spend a day picnicking here. Far from the maddening crowd at Lonavala. No drunk groups, or plastic-throwing fools.
I have heard there are rappelling expeditions here on Sundays, but I’m sure all have taken enough care to not destroy the sanctity of this place.

After some photo clicks here, we set off for Igatpuri at 10:00 am. We soon touched the NH3 near the Ghatandevi temple and once we crossed the toll naka for Mumbai-Nasik Expressway, took the second right at Ghoti for Bhandardara. This is a new road which also leads to Shirdi, Ahmednagar etc. A right on this road put us enroute Shendi, Bhandardara. We had a lot of maps to help us, but there are enough signposts on the way put up by MTDC resort and Yash resorts which guide us all the way to Bhandardara. The roads are potholed in places, and it took us almost an hour and half to cover the 40 km distance. We were at the foothills of Kalsubai i.e Bari village by 11:30 am and reached Bhandardara @ 12:00.

Yogesh and Mayur kicked out the option of spending the night in a tent, and we booked two rooms with Amit Residency instead, which was just a shelter for Rs 1500 per room, nothing else. If you are looking for comfort try elsewhere or book MTDC 3 months in advance 🙂 . We treated ourselves to some tasty Pav Bhaji brought by Santosh, and some pink-coloured pavs 🙂 which he managed using a pink plastic bag inside the bag of hot pavs 🙂 A sumptuous meal later we decided to move on for some sight-seeing.

It was already 1:30 pm when we set out towards Amruteshwar, passing the Wilson Dam, Spillway and some interesting spots on the way which we decided to keep for later.
The road to Amruteshwar comes under the forest department it seems and they collect a toll (Rs 20 per adult, Rs 50 per car). In no mood to bargain, we paid the Rs 130 upfront for a round trip of 42 kms and moved on. Couple of photo stops later we reached Amruteshwar temple @ 3:00 pm and after admiring the Hemadpanthi carvings set off on the return journey at 4:00 pm.

It had started to drizzle by now and we took just two photo stops on the way back .. one for a waterfall and another for the Lake and then moved on towards Randha Falls.

We reached there by 5:15 pm. Randha falls was a huge disappointment since I expected to be in full force, but it seems there is another dam-like structure on the Pravara which holds back the waters for irrigation.
Only when this overflows, Randha reaches it’s maximum levels. The water levels in the valley were almost 10-20 feet higher than in June. We found another waterfall here which was much better (and probably taller) than Randha
in appearance but ignored by tourists.

We left from here at 5:45 pm and reached the hotel at 7:00 pm. It was a dull night watching India losing to Sri Lanka in the finals.
Saving grace was the dinner at the MTDC restaurant “Yashanjali” which was quite decent and also a treat from Yogesh for getting engaged recently.

Next morning we had our breakfast at MTDC and set off for the spillway at 9:00 am. I had a quick car wash in the Arthur Lake waters 🙂

Later, we had a short stop at the Wilson Dam on our return.
One of the gates here was slightly opened, but I still remember the full force of water when I was here in June. I hope I get to see the Umbrella falls in this lifetime 🙁

Done with Bhandardara by 11:15, we began our journey back to Mumbai. Yogesh was already getting impatient as he had to reach by 4, yet he couldn’t resist another halt at Bari which somehow attracts him.
We touched the NH3 at 12:00 and after a lone halt somewhere near Kasara for a waterfall pic, and some forgettable traffic jams reached Bhagat Tarachand near Bhiwandi @ 3:30. Had a quick lunch and reached Thane by 4:30
where I dropped all three of them and moved onto Andheri to pick my wife and daughter.

Surely a trip to remember … especially for the lovely waterfalls at Vihigaon !

Facts
Mulund – Vihigaon – Igatpuri – Bhandardara – Igatpuri – Mulund >> Round trip 370 kms
Tolls : Mulund – Thane (Rs 30), Bhiwandi bypass (Rs 27), Mumbai – Nasik Expressway (Rs 50) .. all one way rates
NH3 has some roadblocks due to ongoing work for 4-lane project. Additional buffer of hour or two is advised. Leave as early in the morning as possible. Lots of stay (basic level) options in Bhandardara.

Map Location