[udaydesai]

Friends,
This is my third trip to Malshej, I did this trip in 2-Aug-09, on sunday. How I did this trip and which road I had taken , this will follow, in the mean time enjoy the pic

[prince_pervez]

Attaboy! @udaydesai. Now where are the waterfalls ?

[ambivalent_98]

Awesome photos sir !!! Can we expect some more ?

[udaydesai]

Here it goes friends,

Malshej ghat is situated in Pune district near the borders of Thane and Ahmednagar districts. It is at a distance of 150 km from Mumbai towards northeast and 130 km north of Pune. The nearest railhead is Kalyan near Mumbai. To go to Malshej ghat by road from Mumbai, take NH3 to Bhiwandi and turn towards Murbad or take state highway via Kalyan, Murbad, Saralgaon and Vaishakhare to reach the ghat. To go to Malshej ghat from Pune, take NH50 (Pune-Nasik highway), turn left at Narayangaon and pass through Junar. Autorickshaws from Kalyan also take passengers on a shared basis at around 150 rupees per head. State Transport buses are cheaper and available from Kalyan, Karjat and Pune at regular intervals. Shivneri fort, where Shivaji was born, is 40 km from Malshej

It was a lazy Sunday, got up early as usual went through daily routine, had my bath and was going through Sunday newspaper. A thought crept through my mind, How about Malshej ghat ? I went to our kitchen where my mom was working on family breakfast. “We are going to Malshej ghat be ready by 12 am.” Mom was ever ready as she has not gone out for quite some time. Told my dad to be ready as we are heading too Malshej, Called up my aunt and my older bro and they happly agreed to join me.

It was very sunny morning and sun was beating down as I made my way to my car ( zen), did as very quick check on her, open the bonnet and removed the dip stick to check the oil level. Hmmm oil was very less as it showed on dip stick. Checked for any oil leak, yes there was a oil leak and quite a significant one, Hmmmm.

No way , oil leak will not set back my trip. Made a quick round to my local garage walla, and pored 1 lit of oil in my zen. ( fill it, shut it, forget it) all set and done. As it was a bright sunny day no one had any idea to take warm cloth, but I was adamant and put one shawl and one warm jacket just in case. Every one was saying that this trip will be a waste as there is little sign of rains, but I knew that since I will be reaching there in the evening and sun on the verge of going down we will be able to enjoy the good rains and also lots of mists. ( from pic you can guess that I was right).

At 12.30 pm we made it out of Borivali and on to the highway all smilling and enjoying the ride as we made it to thane to join Nasik road, ( I was not prepared to what followed thereafter ).

Being sunday I was stuck in traffic jam for ½ hour at thane, some how I made it to Nasik road and was really enjoying the ride then my AC gave up. This really got me thinking whether it was the right decision to go to Malshej, I had to take the decision now whether to go or turn back, I have oil leak in my engine & now my AC has gone Kaput. Just two day ago I had repaired my AC ( AC connection at the battery terminal had come off ), I thought that may be the wire might have come off , as I was nearing Kalyan I decided to hunt for the mechanic to atten to my AC. As a last try I again switch ON my AC and vola there was cold air. Every body was smilling as one of the problem has been sorted out.

We made it through Kalyan and in to out skirt of Ulhasnagar and then to Murbad. At Murbad we had our first break, had corn and tea at near by stall, the sun was still out and there was no sign of rain. We moved on and by 4.00 pm we were at foot hills of the ghat.
To be continued........

[jp2u]

Woow the pics are just spell bounding, We have lots of such places in India which is truly a treat to travel, must hunt for locations one by one

[HappyWheels]

Great picture and a wonderful teaser it was!

I am sure there are more beautiful pictures from where they came from!

[udaydesai]

Here are some more pic, enjoy

Hey where is Ashish Pallod, he is yet to comment on this travelogue

[muralisk]

Great pictures uday. I guess this is just the beginning and am sure there are more to come. Keep it rolling.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Originally Posted by udaydesai

Hey where is Ashish Pallod, he is yet to comment on this travelogue

I am right here sir.
Nice pics from like minded bhpian.

I have not commented yet because i was searching something new.
I think you should have planned and started early so that you could have covered other places also.
The environment around Malshej is same foggy/misty.

In the first post, pic no 3, that pinnacle, what is that? not sure but it may be same pinnacle that i had taken pic of Naneghat looking from Jivdhan fort.

Waiting for more pics.
please post bigger size pics.

[udaydesai]

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

I am right here sir.
Nice pics from like minded bhpian.

I have not commented yet because i was searching something new.
I think you should have planned and started early so that you could have covered other places also.
The environment around Malshej is same foggy/misty.

In the first post, pic no 3, that pinnacle, what is that? not sure but it may be same pinnacle that i had taken pic of Naneghat looking from Jivdhan fort.

Waiting for more pics.
please post bigger size pics.

Hey great to hear from you, yes you are right it is the pinnacle of naneghat.

Yes I should have started early but then nothing was planned, bigger size pic shall be posted

[udaydesai]

Pic are not getting uploaded, pic size is large, will try after sometime.

[motionfreak]

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

In the first post, pic no 3, that pinnacle, what is that? not sure but it may be same pinnacle that i had taken pic of Naneghat looking from Jivdhan fort.

I think it's Fantya.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Originally Posted by motionfreak

I think it's Fantya.

Little Googled and you are right, its Fantya.
Many such pinnacles are present in this area and i think "khada parsi" is the king.

[udaydesai]

Continued...

Now things were really changing very fast and we would see that clouds have now completely taken over the ghat and the visibility was very poor, as we kept on moving up the ghat, we encounter many small groups standing under the waterfall enjoying, as we made it to the top, we saw many people on the road totally drunk and misbehaving, we also saw one police van urging people to move on, but it had little effect on them. There were people having butta ( corn ) and after eating the butta they were throwing it around and dirtying the surround. People have made a mess of this beautiful hill station. We made it to MTDC resort, parked our car and moved towards the flat plateau just in front of the resort

Now the mist has totall engulfed the resort and visibility was very poor, we could not even see our own legs, we stood there and enjoyed the mist around us. We spend an hour there and then headed towards the resort canteen. Very small crowd was there in the canteen, we made our self comfortable and ordered tea as any snacks will take time. Time was 6 pm and still it was daylight. Next 30 mom were spent exploring the resort. We did wanted to see Shivneri fort but time was our concern. After spending 2 hours we decided to head back home. While accending down we again took several small halt and clicked pic , finally we reached the foot of the ghat, it was dark and not a soul around as the roads were empty I press the accelerator and we were cursing at high speed, AC was not required as tempt around was down and lot of fresh air, we reached thane at 9 pm and then had to switch on the car AC, thank got it was working. Being Sunday again we were stuck in traffic. We reached borivali at 10.30 pm. It was a memorable trip a short one but quite eventful. There was no problem given by my car. Will give it tomorrow for service and let’s hope the oil leak is sorted out.
Total KM 275.

[udaydesai]

some more pic for you to enjoy...........