Vihigaon Falls

This year’s monsoon had a false start in June when we had gone to Ark Wellness Retreat – when the initial few days of rains fizzled out and the sky remained cloudy but never burst open. There was a long wait for rains to arrive and the downpour finally started only in the second week of July in Mumbai. And this time the rains haven't stopped yet, bringing smiles to our faces when we are safely ensconced in our homes or offices. From my window seat in office, I always stare at the torrential rains outside, longing to be in my car instead, driving.

So I was definitely hoping for a fully wet Sunday when we made plans to visit Vihigaon Falls. And I got my wish fulfilled as the rains were torrential when we left Bombay. The downpour stopped when we were at our destination and then again started in an almighty fashion on our way back. Driving in heavy rain, sitting cozily inside the car, music playing, is one of the most indescribably pleasurable things I have recently discovered

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Ark Wellness Retreat

Monsoon is here AGAIN !
Like most Bombayites, we were also waiting anxiously for monsoons rains to start – as this has been a long and hot summer. While Bombay takes a turn for the worse once the downpour starts - as roads gets taken over by potholes, traffic slows to a crawl, trains run late and autorickshaws play truant - but the silver lining are the weekend trips. The Sahyadri hills around Bombay, which were dry and brown and quite an eyesore in the summer months - will turn green, sprout waterfalls and have the most pleasant weather possible

Although rains this year were delayed by a week, Gods smiled on us and we had rains for the day before and on our trip. Our destination was Ark Wellness Retreat (www.arkretreat.in), a new weekend getaway property in the hills around Lonavala. This is somewhere between Pavana dam and Mulshi dam, somewhere in Mulshi district. It is exactly a 3 hour drive via the Expressway from Mumbai, so it can be done without a break – but whats a weekend trip without a McDonald’s breakfast ?

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Kaas Plateau : Valley of Flowers

Most of us have heard stories of the famed Valley of Flowers in the Himalayas in Uttarakhand – where the entire valley is engulfed in wild flowers of all colours, for a couple of months in a year. My father had the good fortune of seeing it for himself back in his younger days and he cannot help gushing about how beautiful it was, every time the topic comes up. However, that phenomenon is not limited to Himalayan peaks alone. Here in Maharashtra, in the district of Satara, there is a plateau of Kaas (locally called Kaas Pathar) which too gets covered by wild flowers, when the monsoon rains recede.

These wildflowers blossom for a very short while – just a couple of weeks – but they cover the full plateau with it. The Western Ghats in the monsoons are already at their most magical, with all the hills surrounding Kaas in a verdant green. Lakes are full and waterfalls in full flow. Amidst all this, imagine a plateau kissed by clouds & fog, covered with pink, blue, yellow and white flowers all over. And if you are lucky, you will have a clear day without the mist – with blue skies above and flower carpet on the ground (as this photo below. Photo credit www.bcmtouring.com)

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Satara

After the superfun monsoon-trips to Koynanagar and Vikramgadh this year, the independence day weekend beckoned us to another trip out of Bombay. The incessant rains for the last month meant that the whole state had received a good dose of rainfall, and so we didn’t have to worry about things not being green enough. And when the turn came to pick a destination, without much deliberation, Satara emerged as the automatic choice.

Situated at about 110 km from Pune and about 262 km from Mumbai, Satara has been on our radars for sometime. Satara is famous for a lot of things – like the Kaas plateau. Sometimes referred to as poor man’s Valley of Flowers, Kaas plateau becomes covered with wild flowers of different hues and colours at the end of the rainy season. While this wasn’t the end of the rainy season yet, we figured we’d see at least some flowers, if not the entire plateau-full of them (didn’t quite see any flower actually).

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Koyna Dam

The miserable months of summer were spent waiting for the first showers of rain to appear, so that we could get out into the greenery again. And since the first raindrops started falling in the first week of June, discussions began about possible weekend destinations. We have just two criteria - natural beauty and the minimum of creature comforts (clean bathrooms). Thankfully, hitherto unknown locations have started popping up on the tourist map, with newer resorts enticing travelers like us looking for the next new location

Koyna Dam was the destination of this weekend’s journey. A little over 300 km from Mumbai, the dam on Koyna river forms a 65 km long Shivsagar lake which is magnificent in its own right. The lake stretches all the way from the small town of Koynanagar, 50km away from Chiplun, to almost Mahabaleshwar apparently. Our drive till there was really good – the NH17 is in wonderful condition. We were fortunate to get underway by 0615 hrs and it took us 6 hours to reach Koynanagar. It included almost an hour long breakfast at Kamat’s and a couple of butt-breaks

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Dabhosa

When the monsoons come to Bombay, it brings with it nonstop rain, waterlogged roads and general chaos all around. But it also gives us the reason to look towards our weekends afresh – because it is at this time that the surrounding Sahyadri range gets splashed in a brilliant bright green colour – a shade more vibrant than what you have seen before (if you aren’t from Bombay). Hence it is a common sight to see Mumbaikars get into overloaded Innovas & Taveras and driving out to Lonavala or Mahabaleshwar on weekends.

With our penchant for going to lesser crowded (and hence lesser known places), we found ourselves in Dabhosa this year. Dabhosa is a small village in Thane district in the northern part of Maharashtra, 160 km away from Bombay. The nearest town from Dabhosa is Jawhar, about 20km away. Jawhar lies in a forested hilly area at the edge of Sahyadris with comparatively sparse habitation. With the rains, the entire countryside is awash in green, which makes sights like these common along the road

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Malshej Ghat

From relative obscurity till about 10 years ago, Malshej Ghat has now become one of the more popular monsoon destination for Mumbaikars - a destination of choice for people who are bored of the traditional trio of Lonavala, Matheran & Mahabaleswar. We had been thinking about Malshej Ghat for a while, till one beautiful sunday morning in the monsoon of 2009, 9 of us piled into two cars and headed out to Malshej Ghat to see if it was all that was promised

The way to Malshej Ghat is to take NH222 going towards Ahmadnagar. After travelling for a while on relatively flat land, suddenly a line of hills covered in clouds seem to loom up in front of you. The knowledgeable among us pointed out - Malshej Ghat stands at the top of this hill range. The place gets it name from a mountain pass - a natural pass cutting through the formidable Sahyadris mountains - on which a road was built through. Historically, this was one of the natural trade routes used by people from the Deccan plateau to reach the coastal regions. Now Kasara Ghat and Malshej Ghat are sites of national highways - the NH 3 to Nashik and NH222 to Ahmadnagar respectively

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