[SDP]

We all know where the Creator resides, right? Of course, in the God's Own Country !
But you know what place the Creator visits when he is in the mood for painting? The answer is: Kaas!

Kaas in Satara is the Creator's canvas and he paints a new masterpiece every year in the later half of September month. I was fortunate enough to experience the masterpiece this year.

Here are a couple of teaser pics:

The Background

Its interesting how most of my recent trips have been inspired by some or the other travelogue on TBHP. Read about Kaas for the first time more than a year back in MX6's Maharashtra Unlimited Mahalog. Missed last year's opportunity as was tied up with a lot of things. But following the tbhp-Kaas meet 2010 and the subsequent flurry of snaps, the desire to visit Kaas became stronger. Especially liked StarVegabond and Genesis's travelogues. Laluks wrote his fabulous travelogue almost a year later and I was again reminded of the unbelievable beauty of this place. So finalized visiting Kaas in Sep-2011, no matter what. I am not the type who says, "Ek baar jo maine commitment kar dee, uske baad to main khudki bhi nahin sunta". But I wanted to do this trip at all costs, unless a major disaster happens.

[SDP]

Planning

Since we have been to Satara (Thoseghar) in July end, there was not too much in terms of planning. Last time, we had missed Chalkewadi and that was put on the plan this time around. Bamnoli and Sajjangad were also added to the plan. My son's b'day on 23rd Sep was on the Friday and the initial plan was to take Friday off from work as well as school and make it a long weekend. That would mean staying in Satara on Fri and Sat (23rd and 24th). Being a peak tourist season meant need to book hotel well in advance.

During last year's TBHP meet, a few TBHPians had stayed at Maharaja Regency. I call them up 2 weeks in advance and they say they do not have anything available in non-AC. The only rooms available were from 2800 Rs onwards. Since the stay was 2 nights, ruled out Maharaja Regency for budget reasons. PMed Ashish Pallod, he suggested Mahendra Executive. Call them up, they are completely booked as well.

Another 2 days are lost in this. There is very little information available on net for any other hotels in Satara. Opened Google-maps and started noting down hotels quite near to Powai Naka (center of the Satara city). Spoke to Hotel Rajthadri (which is bang at the Powai Naka in Satara). They say they don't take phone bookings. I have to come there on the day and if a room is available, I would get it.

In the mean time, plan changed. Fri 23rd is out of the plan. My son going to school in new clothes on his b'day and distributing biscuit packs to his classmates is more important than the long-weekend. So the plan is: school and office as usual, son's b'day cake-cutting on 23rd evening at home, dinner at a nearby hotel with close family and then start from Mumbai on early Saturday morning.

Finally on Wednesday got a booking in Hotel Pearl. Relief!

Saturday 17th Sep, I get a call from Hotel Pearl. They are expecting guests of the owner and can not honour my booking. I know that arguing with him would not get us anywhere, so I just say OK. The guy on the phone is surprised, he reconfirms if I am OK with the change. I think of calling them from another number and asking for a booking, but then realize the futility of the exercise. If somebody is unprofessional and does not want to do business ethically, you can't force them.

The search begins all over again. Another 2-3 hotels, no rooms available. StarVegabond's travelogue has snapshots of a few pages from Lonely Planet. It mentions one Hotel Aakar International starting from 800 Rs. I call the number on 18th and got a booking for Saturday 24th Sep. But this whole experience has stirred me up and I am no longer sure that even after booking we would get the room.
Contingency plan-> After reaching Satara on 24th morning, claim the room immediately and not wait for the evening/night to check-in.

[SDP]

Sometime early that week, the entire family gets bad throat. The BMC water supply has improved since last week and the water is no longer brownish. May be the body which got used to bad water is protesting after it is offered better water .

We keep on gulping our respective cough syrups. I keep hoping that this would get over before the weekend. It didn't. On Thursday night, the daughter had some temperature.

Day D-1

On Friday morning, we have a debate whether to send the daughter to school or not. She no longer has temperature in the morning, but is reluctant to go to school. We trust her instincts. Wife stays at home with her and gives her fever medicine around noon. She plays throughout the day and enjoys the day with undivided attention from her Mumma.

The b'day cake-cutting happens around 7:15PM. We give the kido a set of 4 beyblades as a gift. He knows the weird names of the 4 beyblades. I do not understand what is the big deal about something which is basically a modified top. He is more excited than last year when he got a big bicycle as b'day present. The plan is still on track. We will go out for early dinner at 8:00PM, finish dinner by 10:00PM, hit the sack by 10:30PM, get up by 3:00-3:30AM and start for Satara.

We go to a restaurant and order food. Everything is below-average in taste, possibly a early sign of something going wrong. My daughter started complaining about feeling cold. She is having temperature again. She is 4 and touch-wood hasn't been really sick for quite some time. So I am confident that with another dose or two, she would be fine. My wife is already in two minds at this point of time. We finish the unimpressive dinner and reach home.

I am in risk-taking mood, the thought-process is: if the situation worsens, we have a hotel room where we can come back to if she is not enjoying. My wife is not in risk-taking mood because we would be in a unknown town. Can we postpone by a week? With Kaas, that is not really an option. Most likely there would be hardly anything left to see next week. So finally a decision: wife would stay back with the daughter and I will proceed to Kaas with the son. Its a tough decision and came with a lot of guilt attached with it.

[SDP]

D Day

With 2 members out, I set the alarm for 3:30 instead of 3:00AM. I anyway get up a few minutes before 3 without the alarm. I get ready in next 30 minutes and then try to wake up my son. Generally when we are headed out for a long trip, he is pretty excited and gets up in no time. Today, its a different story. May be he is exhausted from all the b'day excitement and hyperactivity on the day before. With some effort, I manage to get him out of bed. In another 20 minutes I had given him a bath and he is 'physically' ready. But something is not right. Every minor thing seems to upset him and seems like he is on the verge of crying. My wife has woken up by this time and we ask him if he really wants to go with me or stay back. He does not want to go. Next minute he has jumped back into the bed. Was I forcing my own agenda on my unwilling family? I feel deserted.

I quickly brush aside those negative thoughts. Now what? That's a big question. Should I just cancel the whole trip for this year? Should we postpone it to next week and take a huge chance? Or should I just proceed alone?
After waiting for an year, after planning the trip meticulously over the last month, after spending countless hours on admiring the photos and travelogues; I was mentally beyond the point of no return. Announced the decision, quickly repacked the luggage, said goodbye and by 4:00AM I hit the road.

In the almost 10 years of married life, I have never been on an outing without family (except a couple of office picnics). Even on office-group picnics, if not the wife, at least one kid has always accompanied me. So it is definitely feeling weird (on top of the guilt).

[SDP]

04:00AM -> Started from Mulund.

In another 4 minutes, I am at the Airoli toll-naka and officially outside Mumbai. This is one of the big advantages of staying on the outskirts of Mumbai.

I put on one of the FM channels that is playing old hindi songs. One song in particular perks me up.

Unlike my last Satara trip in July-end, this time around its not raining and I make quick progress.

04:23AM -> Joined the Mumbai-Pune expressway.

No queue at Khalapur toll-naka, smooth flowing traffic, no traffic jam at Khandala, no tortoise-race in the ghat section. Good luck seems to be on my side today and that helps improve the grumpy mood.

05:43AM -> Exited the expressway. 1 hour 20 minutes, in the night, not bad.

It is still dark outside.

06:11AM -> Crossed the New Katraj Tunnel

The sky is becoming lighter. I have no expectation of catching a good sunrise. I mean, we are still officially in monsoon. So overcast skies and missed sunrises are common. The sun decides to surprise me and puts up a nice show.

06:54AM -> Khambatki ghat started.
In the morning light everything takes on a beautiful golden hue. The outside temperature is fantastic. I roll down the window-glass and enjoy the breeze.

The ghat had some beautiful flowers. Stopped to click a snap.

Except in one section, where 2 large slow trucks were blocking both the lanes, the traffic was smooth flowing in the Khambatki ghat.

07:09AM -> I am out of Khambatki ghat.

After the ghat, I was doing speeds of 100-110. For the snap above, put my hand and the DSLR outside the car to click the picture. The wind resistance was quite high and it was difficult to balance the weight of the camera. On top of that the snap came out lopsided. (So later, I had to rotate the snap significantly and crop heavily to get it in shape). Realized the stupidity of the whole thing and focussed on driving from then on.

07:36AM -> Took the turn for Satara

07:43AM -> Reached Aakar International hotel. The trip-meter shows 252.7 KMs.

[SDP]

Checked in, quickly freshened up. The person at reception recommended the Hotel Shiv Sagar for breakfast which is just next door. I order medu-wada and quickly finish it. The taste was average, the prices were directly copied from Mumbai and the service was sluggish.

08:16AM -> Started after breakfast.

Till this point the plan was not finalized whether to cover Kaas today or tomorrow, first half or second half. Since I have reached quite early, decided to visit Kaas first followed by Bamnoli and Kaas lake later in the day. Sajjangad, Chalkewadi and possibly Thoseghar tomorrow. If I get up really early on Sunday, visiting Kaas again in early morning is an option (a la Starvegabond and Laluks).

Spotted the RajPurohit shop at the Powai naka. Mental note: Need to pick up 'kandi pedha' on the way back.

08:26AM -> Reached the famous 'Bogda'. I have been here couple of months back, plus read so much and seen so many snaps, that everything feels quite familiar. I do not stop anywhere to ask for directions.

For Kaas, I take the right turn before the tunnel. In the beginning section of the road, one can see the Satara city in the valley on the right side. The road is really narrow and it takes some effort to overtake a slow moving tractor with a trailer.

As the road creeps up the mountain, I spot 2 interesting structures overlooking the valley.

The first one is a 'opening-soon' resort.

A closer look at the resort. Looks promising, isn't it?

The second structure seems to be an private bungalow.

When I see a beautiful bungalow with a fantastic view, the heart immediately wonders: I wish I could own a beautiful bungalow on the banks of a calm river, or on a cliff overlooking a beautiful valley or overlooking a vast expanse of an ocean. Acquiring it could be a huge strain on the finances for mango-people, but it is not impossible. How many people that you know have a 'second home' at a holiday destination? So people are doing it and realizing their dream. But then my brain counter-argues: there is a difference between 'realizing' your dream and 'living' your dream. While you are still working in Mumbai, realistically how many days in a year would you go and stay in a bungalow on a cliff? 5 days, 10 days, 20 days? And for those handful of days, does it really make any sense to acquire and maintain such a property for the entire year? If you keep the appreciation of the value of the property aside (since this is more about 'chasing a dream' rather than 'investment'), the equation and logic doesn't really add up. Just my thoughts, you don't necessarily have to agree .

Anyways, back to the travelogue.

The morning sun is behind me and as you can see there is lot of reflection from the white walls of the resort and the bungalow. That reminds me of my polarizer. I took it out from the case and screw it on top of the UV filter.

A couple of KMs later, I can see the Kanher dam on the right hand side.

As you can see, the CPL is causing vignetting (the dark corners). So I remove the UV and keep only the CPL on.

I zoom in on the dam to check out the details.

From the road to Kaas (shown in blue in the pic below), you get to see both the Urmodi Dam (on LHS) and the Kanher dam (on the RHS). Its beautiful!

That's the Urmodi dam.

We see Urmodi dam and Sajjangad on the right when you going to Thoseghar. Now while going to Kaas, you see them on the left side.
That's Sajjangad in the snap below.

Another view of the Kanher Dam.

As I approached Kaas, large fields of yellow flowers line up the road.

I stop for a minute, click a few snaps and then start back.

[SDP]

Its still not 9 o' clock and in my view, I would be reaching Kaas pretty early. Would the forest guards reach there earlier than me?
Would I get chance to park on the plateau or would I have to park at the base of the plateau and then walk all the way up?

I see a few 'visitor' vehicles on this road. I keep an eye on TBHP stickers. I see a red Ikon parked by the roadside and the owner taking something out from the boot. Is it MX6? I slow down, no tbhp stickers on the car, also the owner looks quite different. I move on. AshishPallod had mentioned Prakruti Resort on this stretch. Although, I have had breakfast, I try to spot the resort. I see a few boards mentioning Prakruti, but somehow miss the resort.

I am following the mile-stones which show the distance to Kaas. It seems like Kaas is another 3-4 KM away and unexpectedly just before a junction, the Xylo in front of me comes to a complete halt. Looks like the forest guards have reached earlier than us and are stopping the vehicles and asking them to park right over there. I ask the guy, how far is it from here. It is just around those tall trees that you see, 5-7 minutes of walk, came the reply.

09:09AM -> I park by the side of the road. There are about 10-12 vehicles already parked. Again no TBHP stickers visible.

I get out of the car with my camera bag and a cap. (In retrospect, I should have picked up the water bottle as well.)
A small field right by the side of the road has a trailer of what to expect on the plateau and some of the guys are already on their knees to get a closeup.

This is the first time that I realize the flowers are really small miniature sized. Somehow I have missed this 'scale' part while seeing all those fantastic photos of Kaas in the past.

As per the TBHP-Kaas-2011-meet report, last week, it was raining heavily and there was thick fog cover over the plateau. Today, the climate is much more favorable. Its a sunny day till now and the temperature is pleasant. I walked up the plateau and see a crowd disproportionate to the number of parked vehicles at the base. Lots of people, lots of families, lots of serious photographers and at least 30-40 forest guards and policeman. The plateau is vast. At least an kilometer of road goes through it and it is easily half a kilometer to a kilometer on each side of the road.

[Stratos]

Thread moved from Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing.

[sachinj12]

Holly Molly! That's a beautiful and mind blowing set of pic! A very well written report too. The first pic truly is well, I am out of words. On my to do list.

[SDP]

The forest guards had marked lot of areas as off-limit so that people don't trod on the flowers. There are quite a few boards put up by the forest dept advising people about Do's and Don'ts so as to preserve the delicate ecosystem. Although I was a bit grumpy initially that I
had to walk quite a bit to reach the plateau, now I have only one thing to say for the forest department and local authorities: "Fantastic Job!".

I was amazed by the kind of photographic equipment that a lot of people were carrying. In India, I have never felt comfortable lugging around a tripod because of the kind of weird and over-inquisitive looks that you get from people around you. Here on the plateau, easily half
the people are carrying SLRs. There are a whole bunch with tripod and mini-tripods. Saw a few people with top-end DSLRs from Nikon and Canon families. Noticed a few ultra telephoto-zoom lenses (the bazooka ones used by sports photographers). Although I am not
carrying any high-end equipment, I feel at home. Practically everyone had a proper camera, hardly anyone taking snaps with their mobiles.

The second thing that I noticed was the number of groups on educational excursion. Each one of these groups had at least one knowledgeable person who was sharing scientific names of the variety of flowers and a lot of trivia: various insects, various bird species seen on the
plateau, which plants are categorized under endangered species, flowers which bloom once in 15 years. You just keep your ears open and a lot of bits & pieces of wisdom were coming your way automatically.

I have never really understood why plants and birds have such difficult scientific names that its really difficult to remember any of them. In chemistry, you don't have that problem. Helium, hydrogen, copper, chlorine, uranium; all simple to remember element names. Even more complex materials have easy to remember names: carbon-dioxide, sodium-chloride, benzene. If they were able to tackle the problem of names very well in chemistry, why not in other fields (plants, birds)?

Anyways, I quickly get down to business.

The area adjacent to the main road was dominated by white flowers. A lot of them together were giving a feel of a field where it has just snowed.


The yellows


Pinks and violets in minority being overwhelmed by the whites. And the yellows providing a beautiful border.




As you look further away, the various coloured 'pixels' were merging into carpets dominated by a single colour. E.g. can you see the pink carpet at the horizon in the pic below?


A closer look at the violets


The white ones are not really flowers in the general sense of the word. They were like miniature lollipops, the size of a shirt button.






Here, have a closer look at the white ones.


I click the below snap of the yellows and I realize that I am losing a lot of detail in the petals. I set the exposure compensation to -1 EV and from this point onwards, I click with that setting.




The violets are 'ek-dal' (single petal).


The pink ones are 'dwi-dal' (Two petals)


A closer look at a pink one

[C300]

Wow SDP, wonderful pictures and narration. Good to see the presence of forest officials to protect the area!

[SDP]

The picture below gives a perspective on the miniature nature of the flower plants. See those people in the background? The flower bed's height is just above the ankle level. Most of the variety is hardly 6 inches tall.










The yellow ones are slightly taller, may be a feet tall. They were mostly concentrated around the edges of the dirt-tracks.













I spot another variety of yellow flowers and these are much smaller than the first variety. These ones have 4-5 petals each (the earlier bigger yellow ones had 8-9 petals).


The white ones create an illusion as if the landscape has been sprinkled with sugar crystals.












The flowers grow on a very thin layer of dust and earth on top of a predominantly rocky surface. You can see some exposed patches of rock in the picture below.


These rocky patches are actually useful for visitors to get deeper into the fields without stepping on any flowers.


The dry patches are also useful for people to sit down and pose for pictures

[pjbiju]

Nice pictures and great narration SDP. It looks like we both started our travelogues at the same time. I too tried to see if there were any Team-Bhpians there on 26-Sep. How was the stay at the hotel and where is the hotel located? Next year, I do not mind staying at a hotel to get two full days to explore this area.

[noopster]

Brilliant stuff, SDP. Sorry that you had to go alone- I could totally identify with your misgivings at the start of the trip- but surely it must be worth it!

I missed out Kaas this year as well for unavoidable reasons. But next year, surely!

[SDP]

@Sachinj12, @C300, @pjbiju and @noopster, thank you for your kind words. There are a lot more snaps coming. Hang in there!

@pjbiju, Loved the snaps and one-liner titles from your log. The snap for which you had to stand on your head, it rocks! Eagerly following your thread. Loved the crispiness in your snaps. I have a lot to learn.
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Back to the travelogue.

Spotted these magenta coloured beauties next to a small waterbody.


This variety is almost a foot tall. Very elegant, like a ballet dancer. Even the frill around their waistline reminds you of a dancer.


Can you spot the 3 flies in the snap? Those are slightly bigger than a common house fly. That should help understand the scale.




Then I spot a lonely yellow one amongst the magenta. One look at it and the first thing that comes to your mind is: Donald Duck. And I believe, that's what they are called.


Most of the people are concentrated in the 100ft range on both sides of the road. I decide to go further inside to check for variety (and to avoid humans in the snaps ).


The overall maturity of most of the crowd was commendable. People were following the instructions given by the guards and respecting the boundaries.


A little farther on the dirt track and I spotted these plants with beautiful patterned leaves.




Pink and violet 'rangoli'.




See those vehicles in the right top corner? Those are on the main road. The plateau easily spans another half a Kilometer past that road.




The visibility is great and I could see the farthest edge of the plateau (check out the light-pink on the extreme top-right in the snap below).


This view is absolutely mesmerizing and I lost the count of how many snaps I clicked. (Have to delete a lot of them now, as quite a few of them are showing essentially the same thing, from slightly different angles )

<To be continued>