Day 2 of the satara trip.
left the hotel early morning and headed straight towards sajjangadh. knew the way towards the bogada, same one enroute kaas, so didnt had any issues reaching it. had breakfast in another obscure place. the drive to sajjangadh was another awesome one, with green hills all around, no waterfalls though, but green all around nevertheless. stopped at few places to take some snaps, which came out real good.
reached sajjangadh after few sharp twists n turns. real narrow road to reach the top, but in the morning with not much traffic, the drive was pleasant (but what did i knew :). parked the vehicle at level parking, with another two cars, the stairs start right from the parking place and are in decent shape n size. so climbing was no trouble at all. just the commercialization of the place really bothered me. there was no natural feel at all to the place. too much trash strewn all over, tanks all green in color with ladies washing clothes in it. was real eyesore. lots of local people, lots of shops, lots of houses, makes this place a village rather than a fort.
this place has samadhi of ramdas swami, the spiritual guru of shivaji maharaj. a math on his name. ram temple. went through this place at our own pace as not much rush was there. went to the backside of sajjangadh to get some real awesome views around, a dam, a serpentine road towards thoseghar, and a awesome view of sajjangadh itself. spent some more time here, just clicking photos. by this time it was 12 and time for lunch.
this place arranges lunch for people, issues free coupons, with few conditions. all "men" have to bare their upper torsos and sit. chant the shlokas behind the ones from temple, and should not discuss anything among themselves. the lunch was good enough, rice, daal, sabjee and some sweet. we ate our heart out. after that we have pickup our thalis and drop it at specified location.
we started climbing back to the parking after the lunch. and to our surprise , now there were about 30 cars and few buses parked in that small parking, with my car at the back of it all, cant move the buses :) had to wait for sometime till some hundred kids from some school gathered around this bus , littering all over the place with coke cans, the bus started moving soon after, it took nearly 30 minutes just to move out of the parking, going back n forth in that narrow place.
the route from here till thosegarh was real treat, no traffic, no people around and just green nature around. had snaps stopping at every place that we felt we should. reached thoseghar. the windmills were to be seen all around , but on the next hill. at thoseghar , asked for directions to reach the steps that takes you to the viewing gallery, therez nothing to ask really, its a small place. still. after you descend down to the gallery, the view is breathtaking. couple of falls around, must be a treat to watch in mid-monsoon, now only water was there, no mist around to add to the drama. anywayz. it was worth the effort and distance that we covered.
as we started to leave, it started to rain heavily, got drenched (again) to the core, but this time we were ready with multiple spare clothes in the car. so no issues. had chai at the tapari, and moved back, as it was raining heavily, and didnt know how far the chalkewadi farms are there, the windmills were visible from here, but you cant really gauge the distance. the route back was more awesome with more hills in the front and sajjangadh in full view. we again stopped at multiple places to click photos.
reached satara by 4.30 sumthng, bought kandi-pedha from the shops around bus-stand, and started the return journey to pune. the route feels a bit a shorter than while coming, maybe cause of the ghat , which you dont have to cross while going back, a tunnel cuts the route short. remember while climbing it was one way. as while returning you come via different route. which merges to the main road somewhere further. had masala-dosa n tea at kamat. and was in city by 8 sumthng. it was a aaram se covered trip with no regrets.
parting shot , for you guys to get inspired :)
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