My Wanderlust Experiences...: Maharashtra trip

Come Dusshera, it’s time for holidays and a very long drive as it was pending for 6 months. This time we planned to visit few places in Maharashatra, (around Pune & Nashik in particular).
Our plan was to meet our friend Sanjay & family at Satara for lunch & proceed to our first destination.
As my wife & I was fully vaccinated, RT-PCR test was done for our daughter 2 days prior to our journey and the report was Negative as expected.

Last moment addition: Alpesh, one of our friend’s son wanted to join us to celebrate Dusshera with his parents in Nashik. Alpesh arrived at our home the previous night.
As I told Alpesh that our plan is to start at 4 am and reach Satara for lunch by 2pm, I could read the question on his face as “How is it possible, 750 Kms in 10 Hours?”
We started early by 4 am and we were out of the city in 30 mins. The NH48 was empty than usual & that increased our average speed hour after hour. We covered 85 Kms in the first hour, 95 Kms in the second, 125 Kms in the third & 110 Kms in the fourth hour to reach Kamat, Hubli for breakfast around 8 am. All my co-passengers couldn’t believe that we have covered 415 Kms in 4 hours, neither did I. Thanks to the good roads, less traffic & my BEAST’s performance.

After a 30 min break, we resumed our journey towards Satara. The next 335 kms took 4.5 hours due to various factors that slowed us down. I guess 750 Kms in 9 hours was still not a bad drive.
Finally, we dropped Alpesh around 1:15 pm at his Grandparents’ house which indeed was a surprise for them. We left their place after obliging for a cup of tea instead of lunch as our friends were waiting.
We met Sanjay & Vrushali in the next 20 mins on the highway.

After initial greetings, we immediately headed for some traditional Maharashtrian lunch near Wai by 2 pm as planned. The starters being completed, the main course of our trip started with the journey towards Mahabaleshwar. Sanjay took the wheels as he thought I must be tired. I too didn’t mind as he has been there before & know the places/roads.
We drove through the lush green hills with waterfalls all along the roads as it had rained for the past few days.

By 4:00 pm we reached a scenic spot named as Harrisons Folly. The place was picturesque with a valley & hills all around us. We couldn’t see the mountains clearly as it was foggy/hazy due to the cloudy weather.

We then headed to Mahabaleshwar town & roamed around in the market for some time before retiring back to our hotel at Panchgani.

Waking up fresh the next morning, we came to know that it was Bharat Bandh. We checked out of the hotel & hunted for some breakfast options. Most of the places were yet to open. Finally, Sanjay took us to one Iranian bakery where we had some tasty sandwiches, bread omelette & a nice cup of tea.
The first place to visit was the Table Land. As the name implies, it is a huge flat land on top of the mountain- so huge that there was a football field in the centre. You can get a nice view of the surrounding hills & valleys, when the weather is clear. One can take a horse ride available there to roam around the place & go to some viewpoints. There was a small pond where the horses were taken for a bath which reminded us of elephants in Dubare & Sakrebyle.

We then headed to the Mahabaleshwar Temple, that was 20 kms away. We reached the temple by 10:45 am and we finished our darshan in no time as it was not crowded. We then had time for some Rabdi Chai/Tea that was available nearby & headed to our next spot.

Our next spot was a collection of points, one famous point known as Arthur Seat. We traveled another 7 Kms from the temple passing the Marjorie Point to reach the spot to find some public there.

One needs to walk a bit to cover these points. The weather was good with fog around the mountains & valleys. After walking around the series of points, we headed to Mapro Garden for our lunch.

Mapro Garden is a garden park close to Mahabaleshwar that is famous for strawberry products. After having some delicious pizza, sandwiches from a LIVE open kitchen, we finished with some strawberry shakes & ice cream. We even purchased some of the products from the store.

The next place to visit was the Pratapgarh Fort that was around 30 Kms from there. The drive was awesome with curvy roads. We drove through the path that resembled a tunnel made up of trees. Road work was also going on at the landslide places that happened due to the recent rains. We reached the fort parking and started our walk to the top. The weather was changing as we walked and fog started to surround us.

We reached the top in 20 mins where there is a Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Statue.
As it was getting foggier, we walked back to the parking after some snacks/tea in one of the various stalls on the way. We reached the parking just in time before it started to rain.

It was not even 5 pm and it was getting dark & foggy and in addition it was raining. The drive was challenging in that condition as we could not see anything beyond 5 metres. As we drove further, the weather seemed to get normal with rain coming at times. In another one hour we crossed & stopped at Mahabaleshwar for some shopping.

From there on Sanjay took the wheels to drive to his home in Pune that was 120 Kms from there.
With a break for dinner on the way, we reached Pune around 10 pm.

In Pune, we had a good time, some good food and after celebrating Vrushali’s Birthday, we left Sanjay’s home the next evening for our next transit destination in Pune.