Next morning...that was the second day of the trip ,we had planned to get up and start at 9.But as usual there were further seen and unseen circumstances to handle...
Seen....that both me and Rathore feature in the creme de la creme when it comes to sleeping late. And Unforseen....that our attendant wanted to make a little dough out of feeding us a couple of precious plates of POHA(imagine a plate for 15 bucks)
Finally surpassing these...and after a cup of 'mast chai'...I warmed up The Star...for a long drive ahead. We had decieded to take a roundtrip to mumbai this time...as in...we reached Mahabaleshwar via the Mumbai-Goa NH-17...and were returning back to Mumbai on a different route which was via Pune, Lonavala...So the high level plan was simple ,to leave Panchgani by 12..and finally reach Mumbai(Vashi at Rathore's place) before Sundown.
We started off a little off time...but not too late....passed the scenic Vienna lake yet again on route to Panchgani.The road was a visual treat...with not so high mountains on one side and not so deep valleys on the other...we made a couple of stops ..one to click some snaps..and the other one to pick up some stuff like jams, gulkand..and certain others...but we skipped the supposed speciality of Mahabaleshwar/Panchgani..the strawberries.
Our target in Panchgani was the famed table top mountain..and as the namely rightly suggests its the top of a mountain but its flat.There were a lot of horse rides available....but we were on a horse of our own....so just took a slow drive through the dusty plateau...posed for a couple of stone Background snaps and headed back. I guess my dear frnd Rathore has some heart break story attached to some caves...so yet again he almost jumped from the Star on seeing the left turn to Rajapuri Caves. I obliged my frnd by turning left...but the obligation soon turned out to be headache....because the Caves were no where to be seen even after a good 5-6 kms of ride.And the road also wasn't all that good.Finally after crossing a couple of villages and a few wrong turns...we finally reached the end of the road in the village of Rajapuri...and the caves were a small trek from there.The caves turned out to be the holy abode of 'Bhagwaan Kartikeyan' the first son of Lord Shiv..and not some ancestor of our F1 man Narain K.
The ride back till Panchgani was all uphill...and the Star showed its raw power as we eased our way up.At the end of this offroad(almost) adventure...we three were under a blanket of dust....and our stomachs too were craving for some good food.So decieded to take care of both the things in one stop.After a small difference in opinion I exercised my rite as I was driving and dived into a good looking place called the Ravine.Rathore later agreed on my decision after seeing the place.freshened up and had a nice lunch there of Dal Tadka , Veg Pulav..and Omlette.
Finally left Panchgani at 2.Pune was some 100 odd kms from here.Decieded that we won't be making any further stops till Pune...and the road turned out to be a dream....first it was downhill from Panchgani...and then on it was a wide 4 lane road with sparse traffic....almost till Pune.I just let the Star rip...and touched the magical 100kph...many more times. We averaged close to 80 on that stretch...and within a little over an hour and a half...we were reckoning at the gates of Pune. But the fast drive did take its toll on our already mellowed rears.And we were visibly uncomfartable by the time we entered Pune.Had a life giving apple Milk shake on MG road ,Pune and headed straight for Lonavala...where my friend Shash was waiting for us.Had amazing cold coffee there...rathore opting to have a hot flavour of the same. Started from Lonavala at arnd 5..and entered vashi at 7 after a minor traffic jam.Headed straight for the foto developers shop and from there to McD's.By the time we reached rathore's place...we had done 550Kms of magical driving over the last couple of days.
The ride will be etched in our memories for the amazing roads that it offered us...throughout, the adventurous detours that we took, the spell bounding ghats that we overtook and offcourse the great time that the 3 of us had together.
With plans of our next trip already doing rounds in our hearts and mind..we closed this journey.
Cheers...
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13 comments:
That was a brilliant write up anurag..
Keep it up..and yes..plan for the next..I guees 26th & 27th March is not a bad choice!!
What say??
@rathore
Thank you sir...
and March 26th & 27th definitely looks good.
Anurag..that overall looked like a fun trip and was indeed written very nicely. I remember Panchgani's table top...but why didnt u have the yummy strawberry milkshake?
Well..looking fwd to ur next trip and its travelogue :-)
Saalon mast eish maar li hai. Siunded pretty cool trip!
Now that was a good travelogue!!! I can't imagine you roadies didn't have any strawberries, or corn patties for that matter. They are absolutely yummmm...... especially at the vienna lake.
Interestingly, did you know where Kates point (or Gaurav's Cat's point) gets its name from?
@colors...
Thanks a lot for the appreciation on my limited literary skills.
Abt the Strawberry shake...I can safely spill it on Gaurav...as he was always making faces when I mentioned it.
@abby...
dost tum bhi ek bike le ke aa jao...tabahi macha denge...
;-))
@anks..
well good that you liked the travelogue...
and please enlighten me on the history behind the Kates(cat's)point..
Cheers..
Oh sure - it goes this way.
"Kate was the name of the youngest daughter of a Viceroy general of India. She used to sit at that spot and make paintings of the valley. Thats why the spot came to be known as Kate's point!!!!"
And this is the story as I heard it - straight from the mouth of Mr Veera, our guide!
:-)
@anks..
well that is some story there...that a plus point with having guides with you...you get to hear a lot of interesting stories.
It certainly was fun reading your blog.Brought back memories of last year when I went there. Too bad you didn't taste the strawberry cream. It is simply awesome.
Well, everytime I read abt 'Vienna' Lake in your and gaurav's blog, the only thing that comes to my mind is 'I told you so' :)
Hoping that you go for many more trips like this and we get to read interesting blogs like this :)
@first step..
well the credit for the vienna lake defintely goes to you..
BTW...thanks a ton for commenting....finally!!!
cheers...
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