Before I begin, I must put in a few disclaimers and warnings. First things first, I'm not a very good writer. Furthermore, much of what we experienced on this trip cannot be recreated through words as weak as mine; neither will our photographs do justice to those memories. Coming to the pics, we had a simple camera, besides our modest cellphones. It is therefore likely that you will find my effort very amateur.
So after the drive to Saputara & Goa from Mumbai, it was time to plan another trip albeit a short one within the state of Maharashtra... It was wifey dearest’s birthday and i decided to drive her down to the beautiful & misty Mahableshwar. Before i delve further, here are some facts/stats:
Start Date:- Sept 6th, 2013 Return:- Sept 9th, 2013
Distance in Kms (Mum-Mahableshwar):- approx 250Kms Total Kms Driven:- 760Kms
Route taken:- NH4 Start Time:- About 6am
Time to reach:- About 5hrs 30mins Vehicle:- Grande Punto 1.2
Day 1:-
We planned to leave early morning around 6am on Friday, 6th Dec to beat the morning traffic in Mumbai. On the D-day we were all but 22mins late when i cranked up the car engine.
There were 2 ways to reach Mahableshwar from Mumbai suburbs... the shorter distance (but longer travel time due to narrow road) is via the Mumbai-Goa highway and the quicker (but longer distance) NH4 which is what we took as we had explored the Mumbai-Goa highway for our trip to Goa earlier this year...
As usual i loaded up my pen drive with the latest bollywood chartbusters prior to the trip but started off the trip with my latest fav english number - Diamonds, by Rihanna....
...and if you are on the E-way, tunnels are never too far... as a matter of fact there are quite a few tunnels on the NH4 even post the express way...
... well the weather was good, so was the light and wifey thought she might as well click a snap of your truly...
On the way we took a couple of breaks.. one post the Khalapur toll plaza for a quick chai with wada pav and later after crossing Pune.. In all there were 3 toll plazas on the way - Vashi, Eway & one post Pune... To our dismay there also is a tax one needs to pay to enter Mahableshwar [valid for 7 days] for he vehicle as well as tourists and whats more annoying is that altough you cross Panchgini on your way up, if you are coming down from Mahableshwar back to Panchgini, there is yet another silly tax that needs to be paid....
Well brushing aside the disappointment, we drove towards our Hotel which was near Wilson Point and gave a magnificiant view from the Hotel premises (as seen below)...
... we checked in and got fresh and decided to explore a bit... We drove back down towards a few points we were told could be covered quickly.. On the way we first took a halt at the serene Venna Lake which also has a boating ride for few bucks but the only downside is that they are oared by the staff and you do not get to oar on away on your own...
... here you will also find a small market of sorts with some food stalls and horsewallahs trying to woo you to take a ride on their magnificent beasts...
Driving a bit further we suddenly noticed a beautiful rainbow in the sky etched post a mild drizzle. Being September it was nearing end of Monsoon and there were no heavy showers but just light drizzles and heavy mist in the evening and even in he afternoon at times...
... next halt was Parsi Point which gave another enthralling view of the valley...
Going down a bit further we came to Syndey Point.. Nothing so great about it but yet a nice view with the famous Table Land in the backdrop as seen in the snap below... we went to table land next but did not click any snaps.. it is the second largest table land they say and good enough to land aircrafts..
.... next we went to a place which has 2 points adjacent to each other - Lodwick point & Elephant Head Point... You will see lots of waterfalls thru out this hill station and once such was visible from the base of these points... from the base its 1km walk to the 2 points... Snaps of these posted below (you will know why Elephant Head if you look carefully)
.. in the evening we decided to explore the Mahableshwar main market (unfortunately no snaps). The market has loads and loads of shops and is fairly crowded. Shops range from eateries to icecream parlours (yes no matter how cold it is, people are enjoying icecreams all the time as this place is known for awesome srawberries and hence stawberry icecreams), mementos and quite a lot of gambling shops which mainly host slot machines and a couple of dice/ball games. The gambler in me got enticed and we ensured we splurged a few hundred bucks before my wife had to drag me out of the place...
Day 2:-
So we thought of visiting the famos Pratapgad which is roughly 30kms away but on a looooong ad winding road which has a lot of ups and downs. I was warned by many to be careful as the roads are pretty tricky on a few turns... So we started and reached at the base of the fort in about an hour. The information board at the base boasted of over 2 dozen points which the guides there tried selling us but we decided to pass the help... The fort has about 500 footsteps leading to the top. The climb was a bit tiring but what was disappointing is that the fort has not been kept well and completely commercialized with food stalls all over it and somehow it seemed more like a abandoned mill than a fort. Reaching the top we found there was nothing but a statue of Shivaji on his horse and nothing much to look at... Dejected we came down tired losing out the better part of the day.. However the drive to and from the Fort was interesting and we halted a couple of times to soak in the atmosphere at a couple of places..
The evening again was spent roaming in the market and gambling...
Day 3:-
We were told most of the points would be deserted due to monsoons and frankly these points have nothing new to see as most of them are similar... so the next place that sounded interesting was a place called Mini Kashmir [Tapola].. Again this was a good 20 kms away so it was a long drive of sorts given that the roads arent very broad.. On the way to Tapola we saw a road sign to a Babington Point and we thought we might as well check it out, but again to our dismay, there was absolutely nothing that could explain what this place was and what was so special about it...
Eventually we reached Tapola where we see the River Koyna flowing. There was water sports of sorts by way of speedboat rides which took you for a ride and well as for some extra bucks took you to a couple of points via the waterways... we opted to just take a quick ride on the speed boat..
On the way back we spotted some peahens [guess thats what we call the better half of peacocks] but they scampered away before we could pull out our camera... going further down came one of the most astonishing sights of the trip at what is called Shiv Sagar Point.. A steep and huge valley with the Koyna flowing thru it was a breathtaking view perhaps this snap may not do justice to....
On reaching down to the main market area we found the Rajdhani Express somewhat derailed and moving on 4 wheels..
Next we thought we would visit Mapro garden in Pachgini which is famous for its products and its garden. However since this was the season when Stawberries grow there wasnt much to see in the garden. Another thing that Mapro here is famous for is the food... The pizzas and sandwiches here def make you forget the Dominoes and Pizza Huts...
So we had our feast and moved towards the hotel to retire for the day and we spotted a roadsign to Lingmala Falls.. we decided to give it a quick dekko and parked the car at the base. This one too had considerable stairs that were to be climbed up and down to reach the actual point.Somehow we ambled thru those but by the time we reached there it was evening and the mist had set in big time. There was this huge deafening sound of water falling hundreds of meters and splashing on to rocks but we could not see thru the mist... we patiently waited for the mist to clear a bit but we werent in luck and left the place with just the sounds of what might me an enthralling sight [maybe next time...]
We finally called it a day and returned back to our Hotel...
Day 4:-
This was basically the day we returned so we checked out in the morning and since Wilson point (Sun rise point) was practically next to our hotel we decided to have a quick glance at it on the way... Once again a short drive thru a narrow road and we arrived at Wilson point where we were greeted by a nice little... well cant call it little , but a nice big Ostrich! The poor bird seemed to be in a poor state and to our amusement it took an instant liking to our car and stayed next to it pecking at it till the time we left from the place...
and it seems there were a few langoors to give it company....
Further down towards Panchgini we came across a point called Bhillar falls...
Finally further down we came across our last attraction in Panchgini called Harrison's Folly which like its peers looked down on a fantastic view and we finally decided to take a horse ride to ride out the vacation on a high...
Its All In Black & White Here!!..... Contemplated Trading The White Fuel Guzzling Beauty For The Black Eco Friendly Beast! - But The Ghodawala Let The Offer Pass! :|
Towards the highway there was a flurry of sugarcane fields..
Finally we made our way back to be greeted by Lord Ganesha who was being welcomed for the Ganesh Chaturthi commencing on the day...
And Finally Finally.... End Of 4D-3N 760 KMs Trip
