We had been pondering on going somewhere with both the mothers ever since they had come. Zero-ed on Mahabaleshwar as me, the mothers have not visited this place and H. , although had been to this place, but he had forgotten. I wasted no time deciding and planning much, straight away logged into the MTDC site and booked 2 rooms for the 4 of us. Finally the day for our going to Mahabaleshwar had come and I was very excited as I have heard a lot, good things about this place. We had already planned on driving to this hill station and thence set out on our maroon Chevy.
View of the Dhom Lake from Parsi Point, Panchgani
Mahabaleshwar is a small hill station in the laps of Western Ghats in Maharashtra located in Satara district and is considered one of the evergreen forests of India. The best time to visit is during the monsoons where the lush green trees give a velvety look and the scenery is worth visiting. It is about 295km from my place (lesser than from Mumbai as I don’t live exactly in Mumbai to be precise 😛 ). Nonetheless, the spiraling roads all the way to Mahabaleshwar is precarious and was full of traffic, proving a lot of people were going to Mahabaleshwar or Panchgani that weekend. Panchgani is another hill station, but at a lesser altitude and some 17-20 km before Mahabaleshwar (on the way to Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar). Panchgani is very well-known for old boarding schools and some beautiful points like Parsi Point etc.
Another view from the Parsi Point
The Krishna River which flows across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh all the way to the Bay of Bengal has its origin from spout from the mouth of a statue of a cow in the ancient temple of Mahadev in Old Mahabaleshwar. Legend has it that Krishna is Lord Vishnu himself as a result of a curse on the trimurtis by Savitri. Also, its tributaries Venna and Koyana are said to be Lord Shiva and Lord Brahma themselves. An interesting thing to notice is that 4 other rivers come out from the cow’s mouth apart from Krishna and they all travel some distance before merging into Krishna. These rivers are the Koyna, Venna, Savitri and Gayatri.
It took around 5.5-6 hours to finally reach Mahabaleshwar and the hill station was all wet and the market area was too crowded. A note to keep in mind- please do not take the Google maps route after reaching Mahabaleshwar. Ask some locals for the way to MTDC Mahabaleshwar. The Google maps had shown a wrong route to us. Got our rooms (very shabby and damp rooms at MTDC Mahabaleshwar and unkempt and ill-maintained). Got some rest and then went to have lunch at the hotel that is inside MTDC. The food was a bit expensive and unclean food. It started raining as soon as we started having our lunch. Another note to keep in mind is- never forget to take some warm and waterproof clothes if going to Mahabaleshwar during monsoons. It is too cold and windy that it chills you to the bones.
The entrance to MTDC Mahabaleshwar.
MTDC campus.
After our lunch we had a nice siesta as we were dead tired after the road journey of 5-6 hours. In the evening we did go out for some sight-seeing but where were the sights? Everywhere it’s cloudy and raining and foggy with zero visibility.After an uneventful ride in the town we returned to our resort and though it’s better to be in the comforts of our warm beds and rooms and watched “Mother India”.
The next day we had planned to go to Pratapgarh Fort when we already had traveled this far.
The entrance to Pratapgarh Fort.
The road to the Pratapgarh Fort is full of scenic beauty, with lush greens trees which is a treat to the eyes.
On our way to Pratapgarh Fort
The Western Ghats
Hilly waterfalls.
We couldn’t see much of the fort as it was fully covered with clouds and fog and was raining along with cold winds which chilled us to our bones. Nonetheless, we kept on our mission of climbing 400 steps all the way up to the fort. There is a “Matarani ka Mandir” too atop the fort. But as we Indians are, we have a bad habit of polluting wherever we go whether by throwing rubbish here and there or spitting or whatever.
There is provision for boating for the tourists in the Venna Lake but unfortunately we couldn’t do boating as it was raining heavily and the lake was looking frightening 😛
The way up to the fort.
The entrance to the fort.
After our visit to Pratapgarh Fort and Mahabaleshwar, we headed straight to Old Mahabaleshwar. Now here let me warn you folks of the locals who loot the tourists here by forcing some bullshit pollution tax, visitor’s entry fees, vehicle fees, toll tax etc and charge INR 150.
Pratapgarh Fort entrance.
Beware of these locals and no need to pay these shitty taxes or amounts. We drove past these shitheads as they are of no use, they won’t work but will only find new idiotic ways to earn and loot tourists.
The compound houses 3 temples, and the origin of the 5 rivers is in the Panchganga Temple which is an old temple adjoining the main Mahabaleshwar Temple.
Traveling the journey called- LIFE...!! 