Season starter... the beautiful varandah ghat.
Had seen a hell lot of posts and those many hundreds of photos of this place and was itching to go here at the first thing this season. And we did :)
Mommy away with family duties, kiddy along with daddy and his friends decided to get onto this trip. and what a trip it turned out. with literally no rains so far, chances of meeting rains even in ghats was a little bit doubtful, but rain gods did not disappointed us and made sure it welcomed us in every turn of the road.
enroute some of the best turns of the ghats, lies some of the best of the scenes in the world. the route is not at all scary as being termed as in most of the blogs and forums(hinjewadi is much more scarier in broad daylight), its one of the most scenic ones. see for yourselves, as we go further.
stopped at hell lot of places, clicked hell lot of snaps and kept praising dear god for showing us this. being in pune makes you wonder, why the hell... anywayz. by the time we reached the famed monkey point, we were kind of full with the photos clicked and trying to identifying the various shades of green. rains, sunshine, mist, cooled air, deep valleys, rivers, dams, trees makes you wonder , whatz at the next turn?
scenes like the one above reminds you what you are missing and confirms your decision of waking up from a sweet sunday morning sleep and coming out 100 odd kms away to visit this. once you are at the monkey point, depending on what time of the day you come, you can experience bliss, pure bliss. if its fog all around, you cant imagine "what lies beneath". clear weather is required to view the greatness all around, with kanda bhaji and garam chai. we were fortunate enough to be able to view, experience and click hell lot of snaps around, before fog engulfed the entire stretch of monkey point.
spend as much time as possible around here, as trip to varandah is all about the journey and not about the destination, as there isnt one :) so sit back enjoy nature at its best, and screw office. within minutes, the scene changed and fog engulfed everything around, the mountains, trees, greenery, valley, vehicles and us. we moved ahead towards shivtharghal, there are two ways to reach there once you cross the monkey point, first a steep one, marked specifically for two wheelers , takes about 6kms to reach there, and another a little bit ahead after completing the ghat, and takes about 15 odd kms. would strongly suggest , irrespective of whatever vehicle you take, catch the longer route, as it takes you through the amazing "ride of your life" :)
narrow road, trees all around, huge mountain range on the left, countless waterfalls will make sure that you remember this last 15 kms for the rest of your life. once you reach shivtharghal, therz nothing much to do, except check out the huge waterfall, eat zunka-bhakri ka lunch, and takes some rest before starting the return journey. start early as darkness approaches pretty fast in the region and in rains you dont want to get stuck in nowhere in the ghats. and spend few more minutes at the monkey point, with garam chai. it dense fog all around this place, so was no point spending too much time. we decided to move on with a heavy heart and a impending fear that, how long before lavasa-like-sharks come up with few more ghost-towns of theirs, and ruin everything in the process :(
one last snap for you guys to think about it, and visit the place before you end up showing photos of rivers, mountains, grass, trees only on national geographic to your kids :)
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