[SDP]

Its really amazing how people -who have mostly interacted online on the Team-BHP forum and possibly met in person only a couple of times for an hour or two at the Powai-mini-meet- can come together and spend the entire day in the company of each other and explore a fairly distant location like Kaas.

Its not like Team-BHP meets/drives were not happening in Mumbai. But I believe, the regularity of the Powai-fortnightly-meet provided an opportunity to know like-minded members in person and a few folks started bonding. Variations like the the brunch drive-&-meet to SoBo and the zombie midnight drive from Carter Road to the Worli also clicked. New friendships were formed and among others, lot of ideas for a longish drive+meet were also explored. The first such plan materialized in the form of an EPIC drive to Bhandardara led by Swapszone and captured beautifully by EagleEye here. This thread is about the sequel to the EPIC drive...let's call it the EPIC Drive-2 .

[SDP]

Date: 15th Sep 2013
Place: Kaas, Satara, Maharashtra. Around 275kms from Mumbai.
Why Kaas?: The Kaas plateau blooms once a year for around 2-3 weeks in Sep.
My own experience from last 2 years is shared at: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...sterpiece.html
Lalu's log (especially page 4 and 5) have some stunning images of Kaas in early morning here.

There were twist and turns. With 550kms in a day, there were lots of doubts about this being a hectic day-trip. Enthusiasm was high. Even when the start-time was proposed as 4:30AM on a Sunday morning, nobody really complained. Bamnoli, Thoseghar waterfalls + Chalkewadi windmills or Sajjangad were also considered and later dropped from the plan as it would have extended the trip by another 3 hours at least. Pritam took a fall 2 days before the trip and hurt his knee putting a question-mark against his name. EagleEye who was in the confirmed list had to drop out because of some new commitments cropping up at last moment. My wife and kids dropped out on Saturday night.

So, here's the list of folks who finally made it: VVB8530 (+ friends), engrohit (with family and cousin), Superbee, amansanc, SDP , Dodge_Viper (+ a friend), Pritam, LP640 (with family),

*Not everybody is in the above picture

Rides: i10 (Dodge_Viper + a friend), Innova (VVB8530 + 3 friends), Duster (engrohit with family and cousin), Swift (Superbee + amansanc), Elantra (LP640 with family), Micra (Pritam), XUV5OO (SDP)

I offered Pritam (whose knee was still swollen on Saturday night) to join me in my car, but people who 'Live to Drive' don't prefer to ride shotgun!
Huge excitement and the whatsapp group was buzzing till pretty late on the Saturday night. Where to meet, where to regroup, which hotels are better for breakfast. This is where Kailash (aka Dodge_Viper) provided a lot of insights and the planning became more realistic.

Final plan: Everyone from Mumbai would meet directly at Kalamboli McD at 5:15am. Next regrouping directly at Hotel Aashirvad Palace on NH4 just before the right turn that takes you to Panchgani. Avinash (LP640) to join the group at Balewadi on Pune-bypass. Regroup again just before leaving the NH4 (at Satara's entry point) and then drive as a convoy all the way to Kaas. Reach the plateau by 10:30ish. Spend 2 hours on the plateau. Start back around 1pm. Have lunch in Satara and then head back to Mumbai. Plan to reach Mumbai by 7 or 8pm.

Disclaimer: This photologue is more about the drive and less about Kaas itself. If you want to see tons of Kaas pics, please check out the 2 links posted at the top of this post.

[SDP]

D-day:

I really don't know how many of us actually slept due to the excitement of the drive, but everybody reached Kalamboli McD before 5:15am! Pritam waited for me at the Airoli underpass and we drove together to the first meeting point. In fact, we were the last to reach the place. We were supposed to start from there by 5:30am. But since everybody was already there, we started rolling immediately.

5:45am: Refuel halt at Khalapur food mall on expressway.

Something interesting happened while I pulled over and parked in front of the guard rail. I shifted to N to let the engine idle and forgot to put on the hand-brake. Few seconds later I killed the engine, got down from the car and was chatting with Varun with my back to the car. That's when Varun noticed the XUV rolling forward. He called out and I turned back horror-struck . Felt like a jackass. The car rolled forward and came to a halt resting against the guard rail. Would there be scratches? My heart sank. Got into the car and started the engine. Varun went to the guard rail and checked for any damage. Then the 2nd mistake. I accidently put the car in first instead of reverse and moved half an inch forward. Arrghhh! Varun was stunned and shouted "Reverse..reverse". I put the car in reverse and backed up around couple of feet. Then the 3rd mistake. With Varun in front of the car, I stalled the car and it lurched forward scaring Varun. When I had seen the car rolling forward I felt like a jackass. After the 3rd mistake, I felt like a king of the jackasses . The good thing was that neither Varun nor the XUV got hurt.

That's Varun and Rahul ..Kailash's (Dodge_Viper) friend.


Pritam filling up the Micra.


Rohit and family joined in. Time for the first group pic of the day.
L to R: Rohit's wife, Rohit with kido, Varun, Rahul, Kailash and Pritam


I swapped places with Varun.


The expressway drive was fairly quick. As usual had loads of fun in a couple of tunnels where Raghav's FFE Swift roared liked crazy.

Avinash (LP640) joined at Balewadi after we exited the expressway.


That's Avinash's Elantra.


7:35am: After the Khed-Shivapur toll-naka, there were beautiful clouds settled on the hills to the right. I pulled over.





Rohit, Avinash, Raghav also stopped.
L to R: Rohit, Avinash, Aman, Raghav




We called up Kailash and realized that the i10 and the Micra were quite ahead of us. Varun's Innova was behind. I asked the others to catch up with Kailash and Pritam while I waited for Varun.


One last glimpse at the hills wearing the clouds.


(to be continued)

This is going to be a collaborative travelogues. Requesting Kailash, Varun, Rohit, Avinash and others to share their pics.

[ajmat]

Moved to the travelogues section
Thanks for sharing

[Mohan Mathew A]

Looks like it was a wonderful trip. Looking forward to the rest of the TL

[SDP]

The Khambatki ghat is a good stretch. But we wished the heavy vehicle traffic would be less.

8:40am: Reached hotel Aashirvad Palace for breakfast.

View from the hotel.






That tea-cup clicked by Kailash.






A sparrow.


Avinash missed the hotel and moved ahead. We asked him to have a breakfast at a suitable place further down rather than turning back.

9:15am: Breakfast done. Time to restart.




Pritam posing with his ride.


Varun with friends.




Kailash and Pritam waiting for others to emerge from the hotel parking.




We decided to move in a convoy from here.

[Jignesh]

Thank you SDP for making me feel sad for missing the trip. Actually my in-Laws were scheduled to visit my (new) home so I could not give them a miss. Also the idea of doing a 600 kms round trip in a day seemed little hectic to me.

Anyways your pictures are great as always & not waiting for Dodge_Viper's & Pritam's pictures.

Also I request the team to plan one more drive before monsoon officially ends to place like Bamnoli, Thoseghar waterfalls, Chalkewadi windmills, Sajjangad, etc.

Thanks,

[ampere]

Looks like you guys had a good drive to Kaas. 500+ km seems order of the day for a day visit with lots of time for snaps! Lots of greenery too.

You guys should also do Paud-Mahad-Bhor circuit.

[vvb8530]

SDP no worries your 3 mistakes and specially the last one where you managed to startle me with your DUMA lurching forward at me made sure i was awake for the rest of the trip

We missed your official photographer this time (your son) hence i guess you would not have many pictures of the drive bit with you. I on the other hand have more than 250 pictures divided between a camera, an iphone and an ipad so will need to combine, sort and select before posting them here. Will try and post the snaps very soon.

Thanks again to you and Dodge_Viper for a very well planned trip. Your planning skills, leadership qualities and the calm composed always smiling nature always inspire me.

Regards,
Varun

[TheG2]

Dear SDP,
Lovely start to the meet drive. Waiting for the remaining action.
You can actually write a blog and title it "3 mistakes of my drive".

Is there a whatsapp group of Mumbai TBHPians?

Best,

[JoseVijay]

Originally Posted by SDP

Its really amazing how people -who have mostly interacted online on the Team-BHP forum and possibly met in person only a couple of times for an hour or two at the Powai-mini-meet- can come together and spend the entire day in the company of each other and explore a fairly distant location like Kaas. [13[/[/NTER]

That is the uniqueness of Team BHP. Ever willingness to spend time with each other speaks volumes about Bhpians. SDP, hope all of you enjoyed the company of each other.

[Dodge_Viper]

The magic of SDP unfolds. Crisp narration, beautiful pictures wanting for more and more! That is why I specifically mentioned "let the experts do the talking" .

And boy, I was totally unaware of the Khalapur food mall incident .

Originally Posted by TheG2

Is there a whatsapp group of Mumbai TBHPians?

TheG2, just PM your number to SDP.

[SDP]

Kailash (Dodge_Viper) had tracked the rains in Satara since 3 days before the trip. He was also in touch with Avinash since morning. When Avinash mentioned that it was raining heavily in Pune since morning, we got a bit worried about rain spoiling the Kaas experience. We had faced only light drizzle occasionally till Hotel Aashirvad Palace. As we started towards Kaas, the doubts about rain subsided and we realized that we are up for a bright sunny day.

Kailash leading the pack on his home-turf.


Even with a swollen knee, Pritam was driving well and ensured that he did not lag behind others.


There was a heart-in-the-mouth moment for me and Varun when a trailer-truck in the rightmost lane suddenly changed 2 lanes forcing Varun's Innova and my XUV to come to a screeching stop in 2 different lanes, in the middle of the highway.

A Team-BHP sticker-spotting enthusiast would have had a field day. 6 cars with stickers one after another!


There were lots of diversions on NH4 in this stretch and they did slow us down.


Varun's Innova at the next toll naka. No prizes for guessing why his handle has 8530.


Avinash and his Elantra did join us back after the 2nd toll-naka.

9:45am: After entering the Satara city, we snaked through the local traffic on narrow roads.

At some places, the narrow roads became narrower as Ganesh pandals occupied significant portion of the road. No complaints though.


One interesting thing about pandals in this area is that they are open from the front. So we did get Ganesh-darshan at multiple pandals without stopping the cars.


Once out of the main city, we took the all-too-familiar right turn before the bogda and headed towards Kaas. As the road slowly climbed up the hills, the landscape started changing dramatically.

Some snaps taken during this stretch.






10:25am: Kailash - who was leading - pulled over at one point and the rest of us pulled over one after another. There was a fantastic view of the valley below and the Kanher dam.

[Desmosedici]

Awesome stuff SDP. Keep it coming. Sorry i had to miss it. My cousin from UK has come down. But looking forward for a Zombie Drive very soon.

[SDP]

This road leading to Kaas is extremely beautiful and as Kailash rightly mentioned you get tempted to stop after every 2-3 minutes to admire the breathtaking sights.

10:35am: But we were getting late. The later we reach Kaas plateau, the lesser time we would get to enjoy the plateau of flowers. So we decided not to stop anywhere on the road and head directly for the plateau.

Beautiful clouds.




The Urmodi project on the left was urging us to stop. But we didn't.


A tighter crop of the above image.


Mesmarizing landscape.




10:50am: We reached the starting of the plateau. There were no forest guards there to stop all vehicles and asking them to park right at the bottom of the plateau. So we drove on.

Reached the plateau in next 2-3 minutes and saw hoards of people dotting the landscape. The forest guards and the police were trying hard to keep the vehicles from parking on the plateau and blocking the narrow road completely. After paying for the entry tickets, we pushed ahead looking for a suitable place to park. We went on and on, crossed the plateau and started descending towards the Kaas lake, still no parking in sight.

Finally reached the parking lot. First thought that came to our minds - its going to be a long walk from here back to the plateau.


Everybody found parking space.




Did you see the small lake behind the cars?






11:15am: A little briefing about coming back before 1:15pm and we started walking carrying caps, umbrellas, pram, cameras, water-bottles.




The vehicular traffic scene was getting worse every minute. I asked the parking lot attendant to keep an eye on double-parking.


The sun was directly above us and the day was getting hotter. Luckily it was not humid and we were not sweating.