Monsoon Masti On 15th August.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

15 Th august 2009

6am:
Tring tring tring.........., alarm blows in the ear, got up, freshened up, went to morning walk.
During walk, i plan my days work.
But today is no work, travel plan with family cancelled due to swine flu.
So, what to do?
I was aimless, workless, cluless.

7am:
I was taking breakfast.
Newspaper had not arrived yet.
July2009 issue of outlook traveller was lying on sofa.
Started to read it.
Front page title was " Monsoon holidays- rain or shine". Read 2-3 articles on monsoon destinations.
Made up my mind to travel.

8am:
Called my friend.

me: hello, whats your plan today.
friend: nothing. whats up?
me: lets go somewhere.
friend: where?
me: tu bol
friend: tu bol
me: somewhere near and dear.
friend: near and dear? mahabaleshwar? no way. panchgani is swine flu area.
me: ok, then?
friend: go to sajjangad fort.
me: it is also in satara district, swine flu area.
friend: oh no, then?
me: lets decide while we start.
friend: ok, what time?
me: 9:45 am.
friend: ok, done, see you.

I called two more friends and got positive confirmation.
So, finally, my holiday will not be ruined due to swine flu.
Time to act fast and get ready for this trip.
Got jacket, camerra, sunglasses, extra hanky, hat and yes, mask...swine flu ki to...

Members: Me[Ashish], Sujit, Kailas, Makarand.

Car: Indigo cs

Criteria for deastination: distance should be 300-400km to and fro, clouds, mountain and waterfall must.
there should be no crowd. To ensure this, we should travel to the destination which has worst road as approach so that regular tourist from swine flu hit Pune and Mumbai do not dare to travel.

Destination: Unknown

SOME TEASER PICS.

guys, guess the destination if you can.
this destination is not featured on team-bhp yet.[ i have not found it in any travelogue.]

[ASHISHPALLOD]

some more teasers...

[rageshgr]

Wow! great place. Look at the wet fresh green look! I too had plans on a driving trip on Aug 15, but cancelled it to some reasons! As for the place, I have no idea.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

10:30 am

Makarand, last man who just sat in the car, yelled, "i am hungry, i had not taken breakfast."
Me: ok, then have bf.
Makarand: i want to eat best misal pav.
Me: where can you get best in baramati?
Makarand: i know one hotel named nisarg. it has best misal pav. it is in Phaltan.
Me: Phaltan??

Now, Phaltan is another town 20 km away from Baramati on other side of the river Nira in Satara district.
Nira river is the border of pune and satara district.
We started toward Phaltan at 10:45am, one hour late, in search of best misal pav.

Crossed river Nira and entered in Satara district.



Reached Phaltan and asked about direction.
Hotel Nisarg is @ 7 km away from Phaltan on Lonanad road.
Reached to hotel at 11:45AM to have breakfast of misal pav.

Hotel is beautiful with lush green garden. Took some pics.

beautiful entrance


lush greenery



beautiful seat out.


hotel


Misal pav was good but not enough hot like Kolhapuri misalpav.
Still, we had not discussed about where to go?
When we crossed Nira river, river was flowing in full swing.

friend: hey, river is flowing like hell.
me: yeah, water is released from veer dam as it is almost full.
friend: that must be good sight na.
me: yeah
friend: then lets go there.

So, at least , we decided next halt.
Veer dam is built on Nira river which is further 25 km away from the hotel westward on Lonand Shirwal road.
Meantime, i explored surrounding of the hotel and took some pics.

nariyal/coconut/palm


papaya garden


papaya


bajra field


bajra corn

[abhijitaparadh]

did you guys go to Shivthar Ghal ?

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Originally Posted by rageshgr

Wow! great place. Look at the wet fresh green look! As for the place, I have no idea.

yeah, everything was green, cool.

Originally Posted by abhijitaparadh

did you guys go to Shivthar Ghal ?

I was expecting someone from Pune will answer it and you ......... .

I remember that you had answered my question about Ajinkyatara fort last year.

[pulsar56]

Is the location revealed yet?

Ashish bhai, why are you trying to make Sherlock Holmes's out of a bunch of car crazy people?

Awaiting to see more greenery since we get to see only Concrete Forests in Hyderabad!

[deky]

Its always a pleasure to see greenery, waterfalls, rivers in the monsoon. Everything looks just perfect. Waiting to see more.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

12:30 pm

Started from that hotel toward veer dam via lonand.
Phaltan-lonand road section is part of pune-pandharpur palkhi mahamarg.
Road is wide but somewhat uneven.
Landscape was green.

I was trying to get some pics in running car.


15 km area along with both banks of river nira is fully irrigated due to water from four dams built in catchment area of river nira.
Crossed lonand.
Took right turn toward shirwal on small road.
I was surprised to see massive industrialization going along this road.
Govt has started 4 laning of this road from shirwal-lonand-phaltan-baramati.
Presently, this road is wide but full of potholes and patches.
Reached to veer dam.
Dam was almost full. The road runs parallel to backwater.
One can stop on road, walk 50 meters and wash your feet in the dam water.

veer dam


backwater


small broken shack at waterfront


some guys enjoying the independence on 15th aug.


One can catch glimpse of twin forts purander and fort vajragad.
The mountain with huge plateau on left side is purander and small one on right side is vajragad.
I was there some times back. Your car can go up to top of that fort.



We were discussing about the nira river and dams.
One friend suggested to check another dam which is built on this nira river further 40 km away.
Thats nira-devdhar dam.
Veer dam is relatively small dam compared to nira devdhar dam.
It was 1:45pm and we started toward another dam.
We were still unclear about our final destination.
Further continuing on same road, we reached shirwal and entered on NH4.


Stopped at shirwal for little purchasing and moved toward bhor phata, 10 km away from shirwal.

[ambivalent_98]

Ashish,
Did you not snap any pictures in the magnificent Varandha ghat ? Just saw two of those, that ghat is one deadly place to drive.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Originally Posted by pulsar56

Is the location revealed yet?

Ashish bhai, why are you trying to make Sherlock Holmes's out of a bunch of car crazy people?

Awaiting to see more greenery since we get to see only Concrete Forests in Hyderabad!

i am trying to narrate the things as happened.
the location is not revealed yet.
right from start of our trip, it was green, green and green.

Originally Posted by deky

Its always a pleasure to see greenery, waterfalls, rivers in the monsoon. Everything looks just perfect. Waiting to see more.

yeah, more is coming.
dams, backwater, waterfalls, ghat, caves, monkeys, dancers.

Originally Posted by ambivalent_98

Ashish,
Did you not snap any pictures in the magnificent Varandha ghat ? Just saw two of those, that ghat is one deadly place to drive.

wait, wait, wait,
in the travelogue, we had not decided yet where to go.


edit:

@rkavathekar-Just saw your thread today.

..........

[rkavthekar]

Just saw your thread today. It is Shivtharghal and you travelled via Bhor, Varandha Ghat to Shivtharghal.

I am not sure of the the hotel, but teaser pics definitely point out to Shivtharghal.

Nice place during monsoon and good to trek in November Decmber timeframe.

takecare and drive safely

Rajesh

[ASHISHPALLOD]

2:30pm
Turned left toward bhor.
Surrounding changed dramatically.




Bajra and sugarcane fields changed into paddy fields.
Soil changed to rocks.
Plateau changed to mountains.
Dark green colour changed to light green colour.
Hot air changed to cool breeze.
Straight lines changed to curvy lines.
RCC homes changed to sloped, tiled, muddy houses.
Ok, enough.
Some black dots.



Crossed Bhor town.
Nira-devdhar dam is some 10/15km away on Mahad road.
Road is not enough wide.



Earlier, road was so worst that i had taken 2.5 hours to travel 70 km between bhor and mahad.
Now, it seems that situation is improved.


First glimpse of the dam.


The dam


We at the dam


Backwater and lovely mountains.


There were @10 cars parked.
Some crowd was there, may be overall 100 people all from swine flu pune area.
We opted to keep distance from crowd.
There was a guy selling soft drinks all put on a table.
My friend just checked that table without asking anything and came back to car.
We started our car to move further 2-3 km at lone place to keep ourselves away from crowd.
That softdrinkwalla guy ran toward us and said, "sir, what do you want? i have everything available. all drinks".
We started to laugh and said," no, thanks."

Moved further and sat near a bridge and enjoyed the nature.

During discussion, one friend suggested to check the end of backwater, further 20 km toward mahad.
All agreed.
We were still unclear about our final destination.

[T_Girl]

Though I have never heard of these places but must say they look nice and green!! But swine flu spoilt the long weekend :(

[moralfibre]

Is this via. Verandah ghat by any chance? During the biking days we used to ride from Pune - Chandni chowk - Paud - Mulshi - Tamhini - Mangaon - NH17 - Mahad - Verandah - Bhor - Katraj - Pune. The terrain looks familiar but I haven't been on this road for a 3-4 years and just making a wild guess.