Crocodile Safari and Guhagar Beach with Pagal Mates!!

        

               This weekend (3rd-4th NOV 2012) it was time to meet some crocodiles in the Maldoli river in Chiplun and then enjoying the serene  beaches of Guhagar with Trek Mates India.I have been going to so many treks with the Mates now that we have become a bunch of crazy Pagals now.. This was my first ever Tour with them though. 

CROCODILE SAFARI AT MALDOLI BACKWATERS.

           

                 

We left Dadar at around 11:30 on Friday 2nd Nov night in a bus which from inside looked nothing less than a Limo..with awesome and intelligent lighting and crisp ad loud music system we knew from the start its going to be a tour to remember. Picking up our fellow travellers at various places we then got onto the NH 17 Mumbai Panaji highway. All 12 of us  asked our sleep to be at bay as we were too busy singing...we then reached our Host's house for the crocodile safari at Maldoli. We had our introduction round which was special beacuse for the first time we had a sit-down,round-table introduction.. After the obvious Chaha-Kande Pohe breakfast we left in the boat for our crocodile safari.. With the LOW TIDE not being low enough the water hadnt receeded as much as it ideally shoud have leaving us a little chance of seeing crocodile. we roamed in the water for a good 1 hour and found around 18 odd crocodiles of different shapes and sizes.I think given the situation we were very lucky to see that many of them... We then came back to our staying place and had a awesome session of the card game MAFIA.. which made people Friends, enemies and much more... and then some delicious lunch waited for us.. During the lunch there were some bonds made well long lasting ones indeed... afterwards it was time to proceed to the next stop Guhagar...

GUHAGAR BEACH

                  After the Crocodiles it was time to go to Guhagar and meet other sea creatures like crabs,star fishes and JELLY FISHes... We took our bus from Maldoli to Guhagar,Checked into the Beach resort owned by Mr. Khare who was a very nice and warm welcoming host to us. We got our rooms as well as a tent right on the beach itself. We went on to the beach to enjoy one of the cleanest beaches I have ever seen.

Manoj,our leader went and joined the local guys who were playing beach cricket.All was going well and suddenly we heard one of our friends screaming as she was bitten by a Jelly fish in the season. After a little first aid she was all ready and set to go back in the ocean and everything was back to normal.. we all spent a little mor time on the beach took a long walk and came back to our rooms.

                 When the sunset was round the corner we had a very nice and close session of guitar playing and singing where one of our friends played some nice songs on my guitar (yes, i have a guitar but cant play anything except our National Anthem..). Afterwords we headed to the Market and the and Vyadeshwar temple in the Guhagar city,had some snacks and came back to our resort and continued with the songs..

After the dinner,which was again scrumptious konkani cuisine complete with a glass of SOLKADHI, it was GHOST stories time,even this time just like my last outing to RRK i saved myself by playing music in my earphones... then it was lights out.. Trust me Sleeping in a tent on a beach is an experience tht can not be expressed in words..

GOVALKOT FORT AND COMING BACK

                    Sunday Morning we all woke up early and got ready and left Guhagar with a lot of good memories and a promise to come back for the Turtle Season in Dec-Feb... We went on to visit the Govalkot fort near Chiplun which has very less reminents now but gives a wide birds eye view of the surrounding area and the Vasisthi river. On our way back we stopped for wht was the most memorable 15-20 minutes of our time it was time for eating BARF KA GOLA..... We enjoyed every slurp and every drop of it.. From there it was a way heading straight back home and with the PILOT OF A DRIVER we had we reached home eralier than anyone expected...

          CONCLUSION

                   All in all,after so many tiring and exausting and thrilling treks this was a nice,smooth and calming experience of a tour with company of 12 nicest people and though somehow by the end of it i became the RAVAN i still enjoyed every bit of the weekends all thanks to my fellow mates, Manoj (the LEADER), Mahesh and Anand (The silent Spectators), Sourabh(sole Punekar), Viral (Commission agent cum Machine-gun photographer),Clyde (The Experienced One), Chintan(Our very own American Accent wala English speaker), Muthu (Gadgets and Books and Coke Studio), Sai ( Multitalent Personified), Kalpana( Bus seat Partner, My best friend on the tour ) and Dolly (the self-proclaimed center of attraction / Drama queen of our group)... with all these different sweet,spicy and tangy people we made a delscious BHEL of a weekend..

All that remains is one question "Is it too early to say it  or have I fallen in love with NATURE and its ETERNAL BEAUTY???"

See you all soon, till then Keep Travelling,Keep Living the Dream!!!! 

Rohida,Raireshwar,Kenjalgad!!! Revisiting the History!!!

                  This weekend (20-21st Oct 2012) It was time for a 2 day trek to Rohida,Raireshwar and Kenjalgad with my beloved Trek Mates India.Out of the three Rohida and Kenjalgad are Man-Built Forts while Raireshwar is the place where Shivaji Maharaj took the Oath of the "Hindavi Swarajya".. so in a way we were visiting the very roots of the great Maratha Empire.We felt blessed by walking the same ground as the great Shivaji Maharaj himself... 

DAY 1:ROHIDA AND RAIRESHWAR.

                   As all the 3 places are situated around Bhor Taluka in Pune District of Maharashtra,We started our journey from Dadar  by the Mumbai Central-Bhor ST bus @12:30 am on 20th Morning with 4 trekkers and our leadeers Manoj and Vishal.. All 6 of us experienced the coolest and the chilliest side of the Expressway and reached Bhor by 4:30 AM.. We met 4 mates joining us from Pune at Bhor.. It was so cold at that time tht everyone got their sweaters and shawls out as soon as reaching there... I even wanted a Bucket full of Tea to fight the cold but cudnt get it... After Having Chaha-Pohe at the canteen(2.5 plates of Poha for me) we proceeded towards the base village of Rohida called Haatnoshi. After the introduction round we started our climb towards Rohida. which was on to a ridge and above was neither easy nor difficult, it took us around 1.5 hrs to reach to reach the Entrance of the of the fort Rohida. from there we explored the whole fort.. which has 3 Bastions(Buruj) and even a Shiva Mandir on top... We were surprised to find a source of fresh,clean and purest water amongs the steps of the Fort. we refilled our bottles and started our journey back to the 2nd Base village called Bajarwadi.

                 While on our way back we encountered a raging bull which was intimidated by our presence and thought of us as some kind of intruders or competitiors.. we were all very scared but thanks to Vishal and Manoj's quick thinking got out of there without as much as a bruise.We reached the base village and waited at the local Primary school called "Baji Pasalkar Vidyalay"  Our car arrived and we left for the Base of Raireshwar. It was a bumpy ride from start to end but we thoroughly enjoyed it beacuse of Vishal,Kalpana and my "VERNACLE" english.... and some good songs on the music system.. also we got the surprise of Ice-cream and Nalli on the way...

                   After reaching the base Raireshwar we walked for some time before the steps were visible which took us up to the raireshwar Village where we had planned for stay.. We had an authentic,mouth watering and Zanzanit(trust me there is no english word to describe this) Lunch of Pithale,Nachnichi Bhakri,Varan,Bhaat,Kadhi aani Thecha.. Needless to say after that we all were very sleepy and took a nap for an hour.. We then went ahead to the topmost point of the Village from where we caught the Sunset right in time while all the way continuing the Vernacle Madness. we came back to the village and visited the Raireshwar Mandir where Shivaji Maharaj Took the oath before starting to conquer the Forts for the Swarajya!! We really were lucky to be in the same premise as him. 

We then called it a day and 

returned to our House there.. After the dinner which was nowhere less Zanzanit.. we all sat down for the famous Mafia game of cards... which was full of finger pointing and settling personal differnces but we enjoyed to the core.. then there was a GHOST story session which I saved myself from  by turning on music in my headphones and pretending to be asleep...(I really cant listen to ghost stories...) and then it was LIGHTS OUT..

DAY 2: KENJALGAD AND BACK HOME.

                   The day started as early as 7 AM where we were welcomed by a light to medium shower of rains which made us very fresh and ready to go ahead with our schedule.. after Chaha-Pohe breakfast we started on our way to Kenjalgad... the rain had caused a medium dense fog which made the Climate very very pleasnt ans enjoyable... we kept on going to our destination and by 10 o clock reached the base of Kenjalgad, we kept the bags at the base village and approached the steep and slippery climb towards the Gad.. once we reached there the view from top was well worth the effort we took to reach there.. then sadly we encountered a little mishap. one large sized stone fell of its place and right onto Vishal's toe injuring him a little bit.. But its Vishal-The Trekker we are talking about, it hampered him in no way and kept his enthusiasm and spirit as high as always.. we then descended to the base village and went ahead the road towarsds the base village of KORLE in the Bhor District.. one more intresting fact is one crosses the ditricts while goinf to Kenjalgad,though Korle is in Pune,Kenjalgad is actually situated in Satara District...

                   We got our local transport from Korle back to Bhor ST depot and waited for the buses for Pune and Mumbai for sometime.. The Pune bus was first to arrive and the 4 of our friends from Pune left and then the 6 of us got the next bus to Mumbai thus concluding the very awesome of a weekend....

CONCLUSION

                  In retrospect, It was a very very refreshing and enjoyable trek altogether. I thank Vishal, Manoj and TMI for organising,managing and executing wonderful treks week after week without any gaps or lapse. I would also like to thank my fellow trekkers Kalpana,Adarsh,Harikesh,Deepak,Tanu,Prasad and Ramya for making the trek so memorable and worthwhile.. This surely will be the Trek to remember for the rest of our lives. 

                  See you all later, till then Keep Travelling,Keep Living the Dream....

GONDAVLE: Place of True Charity

Greetings Fellow Travelers,

              

                 Let me come out very clear at the outset.I am an Atheist and don't believe in finding God in any statue or sculpture or any Mandir,Mosque or Church. So when I am writing about two religious places in Maharashtra its fair for you all to be skeptical in the beginning  but trust me I am just writing this to let you know about my personal experiences and it has got nothing to do with my Views towards religions and GOD.

                   Recently,I have been to Gondavale as well as Pandharpur with my parents.This is a write up just to get to light these two places, having no intention of advertising or defaming any of the places,these are just my personal views so there is no right or wrong about it.

GONDAVALE: Place of True Charity 

                   Gondavale, famous for SHRI BRHMACHAITANYA GONDAVALEKAR MAHARAJ, is situated in the Satara district at 65 KMS from the city of Satara, on the Satara-Solapur Road.There are daily ST buses available from Mumbai,Pune and Satara.

                       Gondavalekar Maharaj was a great devotee of Lord Ram, and spent his entire life in devotion and worship of the Lord. Today there is a Sansthan formed on the basis of his thoughts and teachings. There are also other Mandirs in Gondavale including Thorle Ram Mandir,Dhakte Ram Mandir and Appa Maharaj Samadhi.

                        My Parents are followers of the Maharaj, so when they decided to hire a car and visit Gondavale along with Pandharpur and a chance of visiting Kaas on the return, the dormant traveler inside me said "lets go for it as a road trip"... So we left from Thane very early on a Saturday morning and reached Gondavale by 12 noon. It was the first time for me to visit this so place so I was picturing a over-crowded religious place,with lots of noise and the typical smell of stale flowers and all, around.... To my surprise i was welcomed by the calm surroundings of this very small village. The Sansthan itself is very vast and spread over a very large piece of land... 

                           Being a foodie i asked my Parents for the Lunch options around and was surprised to see that there is a free lunch service for all the devotees everyday. the whole area is so clean and well kept I felt guilty about being skeptical beforehand.We proceeded to have the lunch served which was very simple Maharashtrian Lunch with Dal,Rice,Khichadi,1 Bhaji and Taak(Buttermilk) and Sheera...(same applies for dinner with a lil change in the menu)

                          Offcourse after that good a lunch naturally wanted to crash for an afternoon nap, then i came to know tht not only the food was free for everyone even the Accommodation is without any charges.If you are a family you get a room in any of the 5-6 different buildings there and if you are alone or with a group of friends there is the dormitory open for all of you..

                             When I inquired about the very thought behind this kind of a service, I got the answer the the Gondavalekar Maharaj believed in chanting the Lord's name all the time as a way of worship. He taught his followers the mantra of "Shri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram"!!  In order to let people concentrate on taking the lords name he wanted to take the major obstacle out of the way by providing free food and accommodation for all the devotees who wanted to worship Lord Ram.

                             We then visited the Temples all around the place, there are a lot of small small temples in the viccinity if one wants to visit.Coming back to the Sansthan there is the GOSHALA that can be visited which has around 25-30 cows of both the indigenous breed as well as the Jersey breed all named after Indian rivers,and 3-4 Bulls and around 10-15 young calves.. Even the Goshala is kept very clean all the time.. After this we called it a day and went sleep and next morning to the next stop PANDHARPUR. 

                              Will be writing about the experiences about Pandharpur in the next Post...

                             As far as Gondavale is concerned it is a must visit place irrespective of you being religious or not because of the peace of mind you can get here and also feel very close to the natural surroundings of the place!!!    

                             

WELCOME FELLOW TRAVELLERS

Dear All,

I have Started this Blog to share my Travelling Experinces with everyone out there mainly for the following 2 reasons:

1) To try and inspire more and more people to Travel to various place and enjoy the Travelling experience.
2)To give enough information about the places i visit so that it will be helpful for anyone and everyone planning to travel to that particular place.

I am not here to advertise any desination,or any travel agency or something, but just to share my personal experiences for everyone to get information from.

As far as Blogging is concerned I am very inexperienced blogger, So everyone is welcome to give any kind of feedback and tips as to how we can improve this Blog..

Thank you so much.. Happy Travelling.

First Post about my Recent travels to Satara,Gondavale,Pandharpur and Kaas Flower Plateau coming soon...