after a long long prodding (by u know who...) finally planned to visit kaas. didnt had many expectations, cause of the crowd ofcourse. did the smart thing by planning to visit the place on weekday. friday it was. planned to stay one nite and visit the nearby places at my own pace rather than hurrying up unnecessarily and end up home at unearthly hours.
so woke up to a bright sunny friday morning at about 7 am, and was on road by 8ish. was kinda sore with day's outing at lonavla with office group. but was feeling okay with dont know what to expect. had breakfast on bangalore highway post crossing the tunnel. some dumb place, dont remember the name or exact location. the crowd on highway was as usual idiotic pune crowd, with people on foot running across the highway careless about the blazing horns and cussing drivers.
ghat on the way was the worst that i had came across(not that ive seen a lot), with one way traffic and speed of vehicles in reversely proportional to its size, with huge trucks not moving at all, cars in first gear only and two-wheelers raring to get the top spot. it was fun nevertheless. u have to feel the heat once to become a seasoned driver :)
satara comes in a whizz, maybe 2 hours from pune, dont need to ask anybody any directions. entered the city and searched for a hotel to stay for the nite, got one , and came out freshened up. turn from the eiffel tower wala chock is kinda tricky, made famous last week by our very own mr.amir khan. took a wrong turn there, went ahead, asked directions, turned and was on way correctly this time to kaas pathar.
post satara the route is as beautiful as it can get, all the way to kaas and beyond. had heard that we had to park the vehicles much before the actual place and from there some bus will get us there, but thanks to my own good thinking (on a friday remember :), we were able to take our car till wherever we wanted, park it wherever we wanted, and take snaps the way we wanted :) very few people around, could just imagine what the situation will be on a sat/sun. as i had thought, the place was a let down. yeah the place had flowers all around, wild ones, white, purples, blues, and dont know what. not sure if we were a bit late in visiting the place or was it just really boring and hyped. 
anyways, clicked few more snaps like these and went straight to bamnoli, the so called mini-kasmir of this side. the ride to this place is the one to go for. screw kaas, and just head to bamnoli in rainy season. its really worth the pain and the distance. the lake is surrounded by green colored hills all around. had a boat ride till the sangam of 3 rivers(forgot the names), now, a word of caution for all boat ride lovers, get into it only if u can survive the ears shattering and mind numbing dhad dhad of the boat engine. i cudnt bear it any longer and wanted to jump out of the boat in middle of the sangam :)
headed back towards kaas, and had another round of snaps at the plateau. a bit longer session than what we had in the afternoon. by the time we started back to satara, the darkness was falling in the valley. midway, it started drizzling and in few minutes, torrential downpour started. and i started driving ram-bharose. pitch dark, ghat road, the downpour, and just pure instinct about being on the correct route back :) thats what i call ram-bharose driving.by the time we entered satara city, the rain was left behind in the valley sumwhere and the city was dry as hell. came back to the hotel, freshened up, went out for dinner. came back and slept. so much fun for a day.
parting thought, i mean shot.
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