Mahabaleshwar - The Queen of Hills

I was just looking at the list of posts in this blog and I started wondering why I couldn't find a blog title with Mahabaleshwar, i sure did find a few tags with Mahabaleshwar however none of us really bothered to write a blog on Mahabaleshwar..

Maybe the regular destinations never featured high on our list as we were always looking for that destination which people rarely visited and more importantly was less crowded but the fact remains that the popular destinations are popular for a reason! 

Mahabaleshwar also has a tagline like most destinations in Maharashtra but the more interesting part is that many other destinations have Mahabaleshwar in ther taglines.

• Dapoli - Mahabaleshwar of Konkan
• Jawhar - Mahabaleshwar of Thane
• Tapola - Mini Mahabaleshwar

thats the magnitude of the popularity of this destination..

Mahabaleshwar is amongst the most popular honeymoon destination in central India and as far as Maharashtra is concerned certainly ranks as number 1 honeymoon destination in Maharashtra!

As far as the place is concerned there is two parts of Mahabaleshwar - Old Mahabaleshwar and new Mahabaleshwar. Both these places are replete with awesome view points and in fact old and new Mahabaleshwar together have more than three dozen view points!

But if we had to choose between the two we would choose old Mahabaleshwar simply because of the Mahabaleshwar temple and the trekking options available in old Mahabaleshwar. If you are wondering whether we are going to list out the trekking routes, we are not because we ourselves dont know the names! Its better always to figure out a route for yourselves and its seldom a destination but the journey itself that makes your time worthwhile..!! 

If you are short on time and are not the exploring kinds then a few points that you shouldnt miss in Mahabaleshwar are

• Elphinstone Point
• Arthur's Seat
• Kate's Point

There is lots to sea around Mahabaleshwar too. 20 Kms down the hill is another quaint hill station - Panchgani. The table land is an unique place to visit in Panchgani which is a vast plateau, which has been the location for numerous hindi movies especially in the 80s. On the other side of Mahabaleshwar is Tapola which is famous for the Shivsagar boat club. Tapola is also the base for Vasota Jungle trek. An offshoot on the way towards Poladpur from Mahabaleshwar is Pratapgad fort which is also worth a visit if you are on a long holiday to Mahabaleshwar. MTDC runs a 'Pratapgad darshan' bus service from Mahabaleshwar.

The best time to visit this hill station is just after the monsoons when all the hills around will be glistening green. Though monsoons are off seasons i personally love Mahabaleshwar during the rains when the whole place would be foggy and wet. If you are visiting Mahabaleshwar for its view points avoid monsoons.

Whenever Onaiza and I go to Mahabaleshwar she never misses out on scanning the numerous footwear stores here. Not really sure whats it with women and footwear or whether its just her who is obsessed with shoes! According to her you can get some good cheap sandals if you really scan through 'EVERYTHING' that is on display, be ready to bargain though.

As far as travelling to Mahabaleshwar is concerned there are luxury buses that ply between Pune to Mahabaleshwar and Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar

For hotels in Mahabaleshwar you may visit the Mahabaleshwar hotels section of puneritraveller.com and if you want us to recommend one try Shree Enclave which is great if you are looking for a non intrusive alone time in this beautiful hill station in Maharashtra

Vasota - The Jungle Trek

Its been a while since i posted anything here. If you have followed puneritraveller.com our pune travel guide you would know that we have been busy getting our readers more details about hotels and resorts around pune. It has been a busy quarter with us traveling to Panchgani Mahabaleshwar and Tapola more than half a dozen times not to forget the konkan beaches. We had camped in Dapoli on the beautiful Karde beach one of the beautiful secluded beaches amongst the dapoli beaches. For our reader we got details about resorts in ganapatipule also.

Anyway this blog is not about the dapoli beach or ganpatipule so let me come back to to the topic that i want to write about in this blog. Vasota , a lesser known fort inside the Koyna wild life sanctuary. One of the most exciting treks that i have ever under taken may be because of the legends of the place that i had heard before. Most of the stories that i heard was ridiculously unbelievable including man eating tigers, leopards coming out of bushes and even a story of a eight feet tall naked man in the forest! I dismissed the stories as bogus but even the things that we dismiss creates a kind of excitement when we actually do the thing doesn't it? It happens to me anyway, I know that its not true but a strange kind of unexplained excitement which accepts the possibility of the stories being true..anyway

Vasota is Situated on the western edge of the Satara District, covered in dense forest all the way through the trek shows you some very beautiful views of of the shiv saagar lake. Surrounded by the river Koyna, Vasota is definitely a special destination for trekking in Pune. The only to reach the base of the fort is by a boat and make sure you carry everything necessary for the trip along with you as this place is completely cut off from civilization. Prior permissions for the trek needs to be taken from the forest authorities, normally you can get that done the same day as you plan your trek.

There are two forts, juna Vasota and navin Vasota. juna Vasota on top of babukada - the second tallest cliff in Maharashtra is not accesible. There are two entrances to the navin Vasota one of which is in a dilapidated state as of now and the fort can be entered through only the second entrance. On entering the fort there is a Hanuman temple which is devoid of a roof. From here the straight path leads to the remnants of the fort. The left path leads to the Kalkaiche Thane. On the way is the Mahadeo temple and ahead of it is Machi with spectacular views of the surrounding region. You can also see the Babukada reminiscent of Konkankad of Harishchandragad. The mountain ahead of Babukada is the old Vasota.

The river camp in Tapola - Koyna Agro Tourism helped us in organizing everything for us and i would like to thank them that here - I would also recommend the place if you plan to go for this trek they will arrange the required permissions and also arrange for packed lunch from Tapola. There are a few other Tapola hotels like hotel shivneri also that you can try for stay in Tapola

Tapola - Mini Kashmir near Mahabaleshwar

An elusive trip to Tapola - Mini Kashmir near Mahabaleshwar

Long time back when i was still new to Pune i had asked a friend about places near Pune one could visit. He mentioned Tapola and called it the mini kashmir. I wondered why! I decided to go there to see for myself but for one reason or the other the place kept eluding me. Made me wonder whether the place is something like the Vaishno mata where in you could visit only if you have the "mata ka bulawa"!!

Either it was raining mad or i was running short of time or it was thanks to google maps. The google map story actually is interesting. According to google maps Tapola is ahead of Pratapgad fort on the way to Poladpur. I had taken that route to go to Tapola where in a reached a reservoir - Shivsgar dam with some options for water sports only to realize that it was not actually Tapola and to reach Tapola one had to travel about 25Km from Mahabaleshwar in the other direction towards babbington point and ahead, On that occassion i had returned to Mahabaleshwar and made the trip back to pune cursing the monopoly and inefficiency of google the giant corporate misleader!! on after thoughts however google maps is not that bad, the only thing that i dont trust about google maps is the distance quoted and approximate projection of time required. They just calulate the time with anassumption of 60 Km/hr without considering the road condition or terrain. So i have learnt to live with it and use it only for general research or lets say for starters i have google maps and for main course i go some where else !!

So this monsoons i decided to bell the cat anywhich way. I left for Tapola from Pune at 6:30 am to reach Panchgani at about 8-8:30. I had planned to have my breakfast at mapro garden. Normally they are open by the time i reach but this time i found them closed. Was the Tapola jinx still working; for those who dont know i have a superstitiously skeptic tinge to my personality. Once i settled for a less than special breakfast elsewhere i carried on to Tapola. From Mahabaleshwar the roads are quite confusing and i ended up at some view point. Apparently i had taken a right instead of a left and had deviated from the main road. How am i to blame when both the roads where of the same width and equally muddy because of the continual drizzle, more over the visibility was on the lower side on account of the fog. However i was quick to recover and resumed my trip to Tapola. The roads like the tail of a snake was taking me deeper and deeper into the land of nowhere.

10 Kms from the busy tourist hotspot of mahabaleshwar i felt as i had travelled in time back by some 30-35 years. There were old uninhabited houses once in a while, shops those where closed. Either the place wakes up very late or the shops dont open at all here! On the entire stretch to Tapola from Mahabaleshwar i wasnt able to spot a single open shop. All I was able to see was this beautiful hinterland all green,like minicured lawns,with a few trees and valleys and a lake in the distance. A word of caution - if you are riding to Tapola during monsoons the roads can be very slippery. One good thing about the route was the signboards for the phenomenal resorts which were there right uptill Tapola. Follow the signboards and you shouldnt have any difficulty finding Tapola.

The road to Tapola from Mahabaleshwar ends in a dead end which is the Shiv sagar boat club. Boating is organized in the reservoir and there are various packages that are available which would take one to different points. River camps are there on two locations with accomodation that is arranged in tents and different adventure activities are organized. Contact www.puneritraveller.com for booking in river camps and also for accomodation in Tapola. There are 2-3 lodges and a couple of bed and breakfast places here that offer accomodation. Commercialization of the place is just catching up so if you want to see the place in its pristine best i would suggest not to procastrinate your trip to Tapola like i did lest it might just be too late.