[pramod]

[prasadee]

Nice to see "KA 05 car" in such scenic places, and open roads. Great pics, awesome trip. Thanks for sharing.

[hvkumar]

Pramod, you reminded me of my own mobike trip in 1988 searching for Magod Falls, but from the Sirsi-Yellapura road side. After lots of dirt roads, river crossings, I was finally stopped in mytracks by a fallen tree on the track, so I could not see Magod Falls then, thanks for showing me Magod Falls in your photos.

I always carry water from my home in a 20-litre can, which I refill with water from the hotel where I stay in. Never buy water, less plastic too! Bottled Water is dreadfully expensive.

Why were all the vehicles standing in that stretch after Pali on your way to Ganapatipule? Any accident?

Any bad experiences with cops in any of the States?

[ranjitp1]

The Benne dosas reminded me of the Mylari dosas in Mysore!

[pramod]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Pramod, you reminded me of my own mobike trip in 1988 searching for Magod Falls, but from the Sirsi-Yellapura road side. After lots of dirt roads, river crossings, I was finally stopped in mytracks by a fallen tree on the track, so I could not see Magod Falls then, thanks for showing me Magod Falls in your photos.

I always carry water from my home in a 20-litre can, which I refill with water from the hotel where I stay in. Never buy water, less plastic too! Bottled Water is dreadfully expensive.

Why were all the vehicles standing in that stretch after Pali on your way to Ganapatipule? Any accident?

Any bad experiences with cops in any of the States?

HVK, i am sure, 1988 saw Yellapur-Sirsi as a much more dense stretch of forests. Also, we had gone as a family to Unchalli falls (Lushington falls) way back in 1995, from Sirsi. And that again, was bad bad roads. There used to be huge cracks in the middle of the track. But due of one of those huge cracks, we couldnt reach Unchalli. Next time !

In the Paali stretch, there were 3 Electric wires (not the 11000 Kv) fallen on the road. So the road was blocked for a while. But by the time, a few of us found a bypass to that stretch, one of the taxi drivers, had managed to cut those wires to give way. I seriously dont know how he managed to cut it.

NH17 was straining for sure, to drive for 300 + kms, till SH106.

Wrt Water, we did carry 6 bottles in each car and it was obviously less. We should plan to carry a 25 Lt can from next time.

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

The Benne dosas reminded me of the Mylari dosas in Mysore!

Mylari dosas is different from GTR in mysore(Gayatri Tiffin room) ?

[pramod]

Day 3 : Ganapathipule, Ratnagiri.

We have breakfast at 9 AM and decided to drive towards Ratnagiri on the coastal drive of 28 Kms. At the entrance of Ganapathipule, there is a road which forks to the right along the sea side. Thats the route to take to reach Ratnagiri. As already told by DD, we come across 2 beaches, which mostly seems untouched by tourists - Are beach and Ware beach.

We did see a luxury resort - Krishnali, a few Kms from GP. It seems to be nice.

I loved the concept of driving on the sea side, especially, at an altitiude most of the time, giving us a spectacular view all the time. But the feeling only gets better after 5 in the evening, when the Sun is milder and you could actually sit infront of the sea, on one of the grassy cliffs.

We reached Ratnadurg fort after an hour of relaxed driving. You have sign boards pointing you towards the Bhandar. After passing the Bhandar area, you hit the fort.
It was super hot at Ratnagiri. So, exploring the fort on the other side was out of question. We climbed the main fort. Stayed under shade , gazing at the green sea through one of those stone windows.

Some portriat clicks later, we decide to go towards Ratnagiri town.
We will directed to Hotel Mithali or Mithili for a very good thali.
I should definitely mention the custard fruit salad as i had 2 more servings of it. This hotel is on the main road, next to the Bus stand.

After lunch, we explore the Thibaw palace for a while and we head back towards GP at 4.30 PM. Our plan was to settle on one of the cliffs, to watch the sunset, somewhere after Ware.

So, we again, drive through Are and Ware and reach the high point, to watch the sunset. We climbed down the grassy cliff to reach a nice place to settle down for the next hour.










































After sunset, we reach back to the resort. A quick visit to the Ganapati temple and we end the day, after dinner at the mTDC resort.

We will drive to Mahabaleshwar on Day 4.

[musafir_blr]

Originally Posted by pramod

It should take u 6 hours to Hubli, + 1.5 Hours to Yellapur + 1.5 Hours to Karwar = 9 hours in all. Add some breaks, u can cover in 10.5 hours max.

Thanks Pramod for the response.... how about the road raod condition between hubli and karwar?

[viv1984]

Superb Travelogue!!!

What was the period when you did this trip?

I m glued to hear more on Aurangabad, Ajanta and Ellora which I plan to visit next week.

[pramod]

Snaps from RatnaDurg Fort at Ratnagiri:















A few more from the Sunset vista, that we created for ourselves, 3 Kms before GP, from Ratnagiri






Thibaw Palace Snaps:







View point near Thibaw palace:


next post would be the travel towards Mahabaleshwar.

[pramod]

Ganapathipule to Polandpur, Enroute to Mahabaleshwar:

We start GP at 6.40 am at tripmeter 1042. The drive till Nivali on NH17 junction was 38 kms long and full of fog. The visibility was down to a few feet and add to that, trucks coming in from the opposite direction without any lights switched on.

We hit the Nivali NH17 junction and take the left turn on NH17 towards Sangameshwar.











We reach Swad hotel before Sangameshwar at 8:10 am and 1099 tripmeter. Breakfast was below average. Puva, omlette, bread.

Sangameshwar came immeditately after breakfast at 8:50am, Sangameshwar river bridge at 9:15, and Chiplun at 9:40 and 1147 kms.

Sangameshwar - Chiplun was very good. Chiplun - Poladpur was one of the best roads i have driven on. It was magnificient. We could constantly do 100-120 on a 2 lane road, braking only for slow movers on the left.
Fog was a big factor at some high points all through the morning session.

Khed comes at 10:25 (1182 kms), Poladpur at 11:05 (1219 kms).
We took the right at Poladpur with 40 kms to Mahabaleshwar.





















This single road was in bad shape. And it was hot by now. For people from south, who are used to the tropical jungles and greenery in the western ghats in Karnataka/Kerala, would find this terrain very difficult, but beautiful for sure. As we climb up the ghat, surprising sceneries open up, suddenly. It reminded me of the Grand Canyons of the americas!

We soon see the Pratapgadh fort and decide to visit it, before we enter Mahabaleshwar. We had very nice Chaas at the fort entrance. And then climbed up the stairs for some nice breeze and scenery. Personally, i am not a fan of this terrain though. I would anyday take the charmadis













After 30 mins at the fort, we drive the next 10 Kms to Mahabaleshwar.
We enter the hillstation town at 1:40 pm.

[hvkumar]

I think the Pholadpur-Mahabaleswar road is becoming a chronic bad road, rains or no rains. That is why for those coming from Bombay, the longer route via Pune is popular instead of the NH17 route via Pholadpur to Mahabaleswar.

[pramod]

Originally Posted by musafir_blr

Thanks Pramod for the response.... how about the road raod condition between hubli and karwar?

Hubli Karwar is beautiful. It is a 2 laner. But very well done. It is a team-bhp favourite road Last 20 kms towards karwar, has some potholed sections. You need to take them slow on the curves. Even though Hubli-karwar is a fast route, you need to careful with one thing:

1. Since the road hits crusts & Troughs, you shouldnt overtake when approaching a trough. This is a common thing i observed.

Originally Posted by viv1984

Superb Travelogue!!!

What was the period when you did this trip?

I m glued to hear more on Aurangabad, Ajanta and Ellora which I plan to visit next week.

This trip was done from 24rth Nov to 2nd Dec. I skipped Ajantha this time. It will get another chance in the future

Originally Posted by hvkumar

I think the Pholadpur-Mahabaleswar road is becoming a chronic bad road, rains or no rains. That is why for those coming from Bombay, the longer route via Pune is popular instead of the NH17 route via Pholadpur to Mahabaleswar.

Panchagani - Wai was very good. Should be an obvious choice for Mumbaikars.

HVK, we need to archive somewhere on this site, the bypassing of all major and 2nd level cities of India. I suffered heavily trying to cross Pune, while driving to Shirdi from Mahabaleshwar.

[MohsinRoadster]

Originally Posted by pramod

Ganapathipule to Polandpur, Enroute to Mahabaleshwar:

We soon see the Pratapgadh fort and decide to visit it, before we enter Mahabaleshwar. We had very nice Chaas at the fort entrance. And then climbed up the stairs for some nice breeze and scenery. Personally, i am not a fan of this terrain though. I would anyday take the charmadis

Yeah.. charmadi is very serene. I did charmadi earlier this year.
Check it out here
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-charmadi.html

[pramod]

Originally Posted by MohsinRoadster

Yeah.. charmadi is very serene. I did charmadi earlier this year.
Check it out here
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-charmadi.html

Even i have contributed 2 snaps on ur thread!

--------------------
Mahabaleshwar :
Mahabaleshwar and Panchagani are twin Hillstations, the former at a higher altitude and Panchagani, a bit lower down.River Krishna flows through these ranges and forms a beautiful setting at Kate's point near
Mahabaleshwar. Mahabaleshwar is very well known for Strawberry gardens. You could find a number of such gardens around where you could buy fresh Strawberry straight from the Gardens. There would be a Ice-
Cream, Juice parlour adjoining the gardens too, for some fresh milk shakes and creams with strawberries.

I personally loved the corn here. The variety i tried here are definitely a lot more juicier and sweeter compared to the ones, we find in Karnataka.
So had corn more than a few times in the 24 Hours we stayed at Mahabaleshwar.On reaching Mahabaleshwar, we were eagerly looking
out for a decent place for lunch. We explored the Market place where we found a road side stall selling fresh jalebis and Vada pav. Half the lunch
completed here.

The next stall vendor had some Machai Frankies. Its basically a buritto with Veggie filling. We had 1 of these.

The stall next to the that was a soda/milk shake/ice cola stall. I had a decent chocolate shake. So, our lunch was complete.Before having these, we did enter a few hotels, but found the menus to be exorbitantly priced. One such garden restaurant had Sizzlers at 500 Rs. I was definitely not ready to spend that kind of money here. Anyways i am fed up with sizzlers and stuff at Bangalore.

We checked in at MTDC Mahabaleshwar. It was a simple Non-AC double rooms. It was clean and comfortable for sure. If i had plans of staying at
Mahabaleshar and relaxing for 3 days or so, i would have chosen a Resort. But MTDC was nice for a day's stay.

Infact, i am all praise for the MTDC accomodations at all the locations on this trip. Its nice to see well maintained accomodations which are on par or better than the private resorts in most locations. Other states have something to learn on this respect, i guess.

The evening was there to be spent. We drove to Old Mahabaleshwar and Elephant point. We came back to Venna lake by 6 pm. The usual boating scene. The huge crowds. It was bad.

I hate hillstations for this reason. Hope Munnar doesnt fall all the way to these disgusting levels! I still love Munnar for what it is.
Btw, i will most definitely add Chikaldara to this list, along with Munnar. Chikaldara is far away from the buzzling cities. It is pristine and beautiful. Will come to that later though.

After a boating session at Venna, we spend the next hour on the lake side eatery stalls for some bombay chats. I also tried my hand on some "7 UP - 7 Down" and made 50 bucks..lol.

We drive back and relax at MTDC. Dinner was kept simple for the night at MTDC restaurant in the same premises.

Day 5 : We plan to see Strawberry gardens, panchagani on the way to Shirdi. We gotta reach Shirdi by 7 pm that evening, to have darshan before the end of day.


PratapGad fort:







































Elephant Rock View point






Venna Lake boating




Stalls infront of Venna






Next Day, we wil travel to Shirdi.

[amitwlele]

Great write up Pramod accompanied with superb snaps. You have captured sun sets at different destinations perfectly.

Would be following this thread for sure..

Cheers,
Amit