[Dodge_Viper]

Originally Posted by Guna

Beautiful report and pics, thanks for sharing.
@SDP, how long do you think the flowers will last (in full bloom). have they already peaked?

They will start to wither away probably mid next week.

[abirnale]

Beautiful pictures and narration SDP. The sprinkle of pink on green is such a great combination, its difficult to put it in words. Yet you did a fab job! Otherwise the ordinary place with green would not have seemed so fantastic pink to us

Thanks for bringing this up. +1 in the list of things to be done before calling it quit!

[SDP]

A concentration of whites in one patch.


Spotted this deep-purple variety.


A closer look.








This portion of the plateau was a bit far. Possibly the reason why there were very few people over there.


Can we call these meadows? There is an implicit 'green' associated with meadows and here besides the green you can see yellow, white, pink and violet as well.




With a few people in the frame ... to give a sense of scale.




1:00pm: Walking back.








The traffic had become unruly by now.


The whites create the illusion of the grass being covered with fresh snow.


Let alone the flowers, even leaves are quite interesting on the plateau.

[swapszone]

Sanjay, please plan another drive to this place. Feels like that song from the movie "Silsila"

[SDP]

Spotted this beauty in the Kaas parking..with the latest safety feature - the Limbu-Mirchi.


Posing with my beast.


1:15pm: Everybody reached the parking in time. Everybody was hungry by now. We decided to stop at the first decent place for lunch and started towards Satara.

After 10 minutes we pulled over at this small hotel.






We waited for all 7 cars to pull over.


Ordered thalis so that it would be faster.


The veggie guys got lucky and got their hands on the food pretty fast. The chicken-thali took forever.

2:45pm: Lunch done. Kido in good mood. All set to roll.


We wanted to take a few snaps with all cars lined up next to each other. We looked for a suitable spot on the Kaas to Satara road, but it did not work out.

Some snaps taken during the return journey on the Kaas to Satara road.

[SDP]

3:45pm: We joined back the NH4. This was the first regroup point. We saw a empty parking lot just next to where we had stopped and thought - why not do a photoshoot over there?

Six cars lined up.


Avinash's Elantra joined in.




Rides with the owners.








A group pic.


4:00pm: Back on the road. Avinash's Elantra is quick. It was fun chasing it.


Got some mild showers on the way.


5:30pm: We crossed the 2nd toll naka and reached the next regroup point - Kailash Bhel.


Luckily the rain took a break which coincided with our tea-break.




Some good tea! Thanks Kailash, for recommending this place!


Rohit with his son.




All smiles.


We started from there around 6pm. While Avinash dropped off somewhere on the Pune outskirts, most of us did regroup one more time just before the start of the Expressway. It rained for most part of the expressway. In some sections it was a mini-thunderstorm with a brilliant light and sound show.

I (and Rohit because of me) got lost for 10 minutes after taking the JNPT exit. Navi Mumbai and Mumbai were getting lashed by heavy rains since evening. Eventually reached home at 10:15pm, completely exhausted. Aman was the last one to reach his place at 11:15pm.

Who was that idiot who said the day-trip to Kaas would be "slightly hectic"? Oops, that was me!

[SDP]

I am done with my set of snaps. Waiting for others to share.
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Here are a few selected snaps from what Pritam shared via email:

[SDP]

More snaps from Pritam:







































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Finally, a special thanks to Pritam for the following pics. My kids were amused to see the pic where I am flat on the ground clicking snaps.

[vvb8530]

Ok guys a few not so good quality pics from my end. Since both Sanjay and Pritam have clicked and posted such awesome pics of the plateau my pics will be limited only to the drive and rides.

Early morning drive on the expressway towards the first pit stop, while Superbee started flying right from the start and eventually disappeared Me, SDP and Rohit kept driving together till the first stop followed by Pritam and Kailash.







Sanjay just before his car started rolling into the guard rail



Rohit with his Duster and Pritams Micra behind



I got a little left behind after the expressway as we decided to take an unscheduled stop. After crossing Pune caught up with this guy and thought he was one off us who decided to join in from Pune or maybe it was Avinash as I did not know which ride Avinash had, so kept following him and he was driving at a pretty slow speed till I get a call from Sanjay informing me that they have all crossed the toll and are waiting for me









Satara's version of the BIC

[vvb8530]

Rohit clicking me while i click him and his cousin



Humare Neta SDP

[sukhoi30]

Very nice travelogue. Have seen plenty of photographs of the Kaas plateau in lot of websites and blogs. But this is the first time seeing a travelogue on Kaas. Very informative and unique.

A grasshopper has been caught flying in the below pic ... makes the pic very interesting.

Some snaps taken during this stretch.
Attachment 1139753

[vvb8530]

Parking lot



The view from where we had parked our cars



Raghav



Yaa i needed that after the tiring walk









Rohit

[engrohit]

My first post on this thread, what was I doing all these days???

Nevertheless, it was an excellent experience for no. of reasons. It was my first drive with the TBHP gang (had missed the drive on NH8 and the last Zombie meet), so wanted to do this one badly. Was lucky to get my Cousin, Rajat, along who shared driving with me.

Like Jignesh, I was also apprehensive of the hectic 600 KM drive, and that too with my 20 month old kid. But after much thought I decided to go ahead and boy what an interesting day it turned out to be.

The whole thing was meticulously planned and coordinated by Sanjay & Kailash, with all the stop points identified well in advance. The ride in the morning on EE was very relaxing, with some good company (Read, Varun & SDP) as others had either zipped past or were trailing behind.

The highlight for me was my cousin waking up startled by Raghav's roaring FFE at Khambatki Ghat. I had good fun playing catch up with him on the ghat section. Then again on the return had the good fortune of being in same tunnel with him twice, and man o man what sound is that. Aman, you took some videos / sound recordings of that right?

Luckily for us my Son was in a good mood throughout and esp enjoyed the plateau on his "Pram converted into ATV" (though it lost at few places due to lower GC)

My wife was understandably apprehensive of the trip due to the distance etc, but even she returned back extremely happy and looking forward to the next one.

So with 593 KMs and 19 hours on the road, we came back with a tired backs but happy hearts, having spent time at a good place with good people. And in the end, that's what matters, nahi??

Thanks SDP, Varun for the pics, will try posting few taken by me in a day or two.

[dZired]

Wow! Never knew Kaas was so beautiful. Thanks SDP for an excellent write-up and pics. I have been following each and every thread related to this Mumbai group and believe me, I now feel that I know all you guys personally, all thanks to SDP's brilliant narrating skills.

I have saved many pics from this thread and will use it as my laptop wallpaper.

OT: I have a request though, have heard a lot about Raghav's FFE Swift's sound. Can someone please record a video of it?
And amansac, so you shifted your base from Jaipur to Mumbai since the Jaipur meet was not shaping up?

[Dodge_Viper]

Before I start to put in few words and some decently clicked snaps, I would like to thank SDP, Pritam and Varun for sharing the snaps. It's been 5 days since the drive, but every moment is still afresh in my mind!

The drive of 550kms was not at all hectic for me, in fact like everybody else I enjoyed every moment of it! As rightly said by SDP everybody bonded well with each other. No doubt they say "Birds of a feather flock together".

With all the excitement about Kaas, I barely managed to get one hour of sleep. I literally jumped out of my bed at the first ting ting. Got ready in no time and left at 4.30AM. I had warned my friend that 4.30 means sharp 4.30, not a minute late. Reached Kalamboli McD at 5AM and saw Raghav and Aman already there. They had reached at 4.45 itself. Talk about enthusiasm!

By 5.15 everybody came, and we decided to start off without wasting any time. Expressway was gobbled up in no time. Since we had planned the pitstops beforehand there was no confusion anywhere at all. Again I missed Raghav's roaring FFE. I then renamed his FFE Swift as FFFM - Free Flowing Flying Machine

Early morning start saw us at Surur in no time. It was time for breakfast. Menu? What else than national breakfast of Misal and Poha. A sense of fear had gripped Aman. He nervously asked about the level of spiciness of misal. We ensured him it will be OK and not to worry! And I am sure he would have liked it.

Breakfast done, it was time to lead the convoy . Why? It was now my territory, lol. Yes, Satara being my native I was well aware of the roads. We sneaked into the city while it was still sleepy. The first junction was Powai naka (Since, Powai has to be a part of meet - Someone had said this on that day but I forgot who)

With Ganapati pandals encroaching half roads, we had tough time negotiating the narrow roads. Once done, the road towards heaven started!

Let me share few snaps! (Few snaps were clicked by my friend)

Katraj tunnel which went deaf once Raghav's FFFM went through!


Sparse traffic post Pune on NH4, only trouble being the mad truckers!


Me and Pritam somehow missed others which were waiting after Khed Shivapur toll. So we stopped aside for some break.
That's Pritam's bright Micra!


The route before ghat


There are few places in ghat where one can park his vehicle safely. Since ghat is one way, there is no worry about oncoming traffic.
View from one the points!


Another view from one more vantage point!


My ride posing!


Pritam entering Ashirvad hotel


Duma on prowl. Varun's Innova behind!


The first halt once we started for Kaas.