A natural landscape of high altitudes, close to mumbai & highly improved picnic destiny.
I am here to share my Lonavala trip experience (Under MAHARASHTRA DAURA), a car journey mostly enjoyed as a picnic with my friends.
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| Theme group phot #Lonavala |
DAY 1:
17 June 2016, finally a date for fun arrived. Last night I had came from a bike ride from bandra at 1 AM & it was going to be a very heavy car journey for me. I got ready in morning at 5:45 AM, all packed & stepped out from home(Badlapur-West), picked Shivam Singh & Srinath Srirangam at my parking area & settled us in my Honda Jazz. We initiated our drive, enroute picked Sankalp Thakur (Badlapur west) & Vinay Dhankute(Badlapur east MIDC).
The morning drive was fresh & healthy, everyone was in the mood of outing. I routed my Jazz via Vangani, Neral, Karjat, Palasdari straight to Mahd(Near Khopoli). At this point, we took a left & joined up Mumbai - Pune Old Highway. We were chit chatting, laughting, yelling & what not. The route now started to climb Khandala Ghat which was affecting Jazz's Fuel efficiency. *1500 CC Powerfull I-Dtec machine, drived its own weight along with five of us & a dicky full of luggage, but Jazz got it done!
We took our first stop in Khandala Ghat, prior to Khandala view point. This was fresh photography break, I then changed my mode of action from Honda Jazz to Canon EOS.
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| Vinay - Srinath - Shivam - Sankalp #Prior to Khandala Ghat |
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| Shivam Singh #Prior to Khandala Ghat |
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| Our Ride #Jazz #Prior to Khandala Ghat |
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| Vinay - Srinath - Shivam - Me(Sagar Mali) #Prior to Khandala Ghat |
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| Srinath Srirangam #Prior to Khandala Ghat |
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| Shivam Singh #Prior to Khandala Ghat |
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| Sankalp Thakur #Prior to Khandala Ghat |
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| Vinay Dhankute #Prior to Khandala Ghat |
Capturing many clicks, we moved further for a while & stopped again after 1 KM at Khandala View Point(MBT Road-Near Vaghjai Mata Temple). This was a breakfast time. We had it, sitting in front of the valley scene at View point, their too we had some usual snaps. It was 7:30 AM now & was the time to start our main course of sightseeing. From Khandala, its a straight route(Mumbai Pune Old Highway) towards Lonavala & further to Pune.
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| Me #Khandala Ghat View #MBT Road |
Departing from Khandala, we reached Lonavala city region at a count of 7 KM. Without stopping, we moved further for a couple of KMs & took a turn at Karla village. The typical sturdy village route took us at Karla Caves Parking via a short Mount drive. It was 8:10 AM now, We started climbing the steps for Karla caves. Couple of minutes took us at the mount top giving a reverbrating view of Karla caves & Ekvira mata temple.
We visited the temple in no time & stepped in Karla Caves main shrine hall. The Overall surrounds were just astounding each one of us with its serene beauty in carving such huge mountain top into a cave within a single stone. Karla caves top is enclaved with wooden plates which are still in good condition showing its resonance for decomposition. The Main Stupa is what known to be devotional point which was workshipped as a shrine. Karla Caves, as to be seen are at so called centre of India vertically, the destination was once a famous trading centre. Karla caves became a famous workshipping point their which leaded into rise of trade towards the eastern India & also the rise in buddhism. A certain region of the caves is restricted for tourist by Indian Govt. We had many clicks their in and left from their at 9 AM. While climbing the steps down, we got some snaps for a Eagle eye view of Karla village base .
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| Base Villgae #View from Karla Caves Top |
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| Main Shrine #Karla Caves |
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| Karla Caves Scenes |
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| Karla Caves |
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| Main Stupa #Karla Caves |
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| Stone Carvings on Pillar ends #Karla Caves |
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| Stone Carvings #Karla Caves |
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| Group Selfie #Karla Caves |
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| Shivam Singh #Karla Caves |
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| Vinay Dhankute #Karla Caves |
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| Shivam - Srinath - Me - Sankalp # Karla Caves Scenes |
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| Pathetic Pose #Karla Caves |
We started our drive downwards of mountain & leaded towards the famous Celebrity Wax museum. Got our tickets stamped & entered the so called heaven. Heaven, said because to see & explore those high people which a common man can see in dreams only. Thanks to Mr. Sunil kandallor to bring Celebrity Wax museum at the doorstep of common man's eye. This simple & short museum holds up statues of Wax of Celebrities, giving us a replica of Madame Tussauds of London. Real sized celebs statues of legends like Mahatma Gandhiji, Chacha Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore, Sai Baba, Shivaji Maharaj, Narendra Modi, Swami Vivekanand, Kapil Dev, Saddam Husseun, Amitabh Bachhan, Baghat Singh, Prabhudeva, Michael Jackson, Mr.Bean, Shaktiman, James Bond, Indira Gandhi, Angelina Jolie and many more.
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| Indira Gandhi #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Kapil Dev #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Amitabh Bachhan #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Sharad Pawar #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Narendra Modi #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Ramdev Baba #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Prabhu Deva #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Michael Jackson #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Nelson Mandela #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Bhagat Singh #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Anna Hazare #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Rabindranath Tagore #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Mahatma Gandhi #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
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| Mr. Bean #Wax Museum#Lonavala |
Finally the tour to experience the wax museum came to end, we stepped out Wax museum at 11 AM. We made us comfortable in my Jazz, enabled Brother-GPS to guide us for further sights. The route GPS made us to follow was a crowdy, heavily trafficed & local area which affected our time. Finally we reached Bhushi Dam at 12 AM. Parked the car, at started walking towards the dam. Bhushi Dam is know for its extraordinary beauty of water flow & surroundings, but the time of season we choosed to visit bhushi dam was very off. Dam was in dried position, water swelling the ground level. We enjoyed the Idli breakfast there, specially home made brought by our buddy Srinath. Some usual selfies at dam site & it was done.
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| Selfies at Bhishi Dam #Lonavala |
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| Bhaushi Dam inner wall #Lonavala |
We moved towards the parking lot, picked our Jazz and moved further straight to the hill top where Lion point was eagerly waiting for our toes touched to this Panorama view of valley down & INS Shivaji. We captured many clicks at Lion Point(Kurvande). This scenario was just awesome, clouds showing their shadows in the valley & wind was blowing to its fullest speed. We had a cold drink break before leaving Lion Point.
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| Valley scene #Lion Point #Lonavala |
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| Valley Scene #Lion Point #Lonavala |
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| My Selfie #Lion Point #Lonavala |
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| Srinath Srirangam #Lion Point #Lonavala |
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| Vinay Dhankute #Lion Point #Lonavala |
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| Shivam Singh #Lion Point #Lonavala |
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| Srinath & Shivam #Lion Point #Lonavala |
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| Sankalp Thakur #Lion Point #Lonavala |
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| Me(Sagar Mali) #Lion Point #Lonavala |
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| Me & Shivam Singh #Lion Point #Lonavala |
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| Me - Shivam - Vinay - Srinath #Lion Point #Lonavala |
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| Srinath - Sankalp - Shivam - Vinay #Lion Point #Lonavala |
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| Shivam - Vinay - Srinath #Lion Point #Lonavala |
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| Night Fun & Long Walk #Tungarli Hills #Lonavala |
It was 4 PM & we were departing from lion point, 18 KMs South to Lonavala city region. We traced back our route till Lonavala city further reached Tungarli hills region of Lonavala, specially famous for stay, lodges & hotels for tourists. We called up our coaching class sir Mr. Tushar Mallelwar to ask about the sanetorium, to which our classes had organised a picnic in December 2009. Took a fine guidance from him & reached Lohana Sanetorium, near HDFC bank at Tungarli hills. The place is presently very old but fine for a horror & adventurous stay out their in lonavala, a mini bunglow at very cheap rate. It was 5:20 PM & finally we got a place for stay as expected. We settled down ourselves, got our luggages in the home & went down for a short nap requested by our tired brains.
It was 6:30 now, everyone got freshened, Vinay & Srinath brought a Vadapav & snacks from nearby, we enjoyed it then started some talks about old memories, stories about friends, etc. This activity took the clock till 7:30 PM. As we had skipped the afternoon lunch, each one's stomach of us was expecting a heavy dinner. We locked the stay & swamped out with our Jazz in the market region. We bought some Chikkis & sweets from Maganlal's Chikki Store(One of the famous chikki brand). Finally we found a decent & good restaurant to full our stomach.
It was 9:10 now, & we returned back to our stay with Jazz. Everyone was very tiered, busy watching TV & some might be busy in their phones. We were out for holidays & such laziness is not allowed here so I & Vinay took initiative for everyone to go on a late night walk. Initially we decided to walk near to our stay, but it walked around 3 + 3, 6 km to & fro. We walked along the small streets hanging along with laughters & jokes, we saw a sight of expressway crossing & we sat along the Mumbai-Pune Expressway edges. We spent their around half hour & started tracing our path back to stay. It was around 12 AM, we also captured some selfies during night walk with a JCB parked along the street. While returning we also missed our path, but finally reached the stay back at 1 AM.
Later we got down to sleep. Srinath & Shivam in the ground floor bedroom & Me, Vinay & Sankalp in the first floor's bedroom. Good Night !!!
DAY 2:
18 June 2016, I was the first to get up around 6:30 AM. It was a rainy scene outside. Today we had planned the trek & hike to Lohagad Fort Leading to Vinchu kada. I woke up everyone by smashing pillows on them, pouring water & much more fun. The overall morning was fresh & energetic. We carried all our morning activites, bath, etc. The rain too stopped which made a clear atmosphere for the trek to Lohagad Fort.
It was 8:30, we packed all our stuff & were ready to depart. Handed over the keys of our stay to the responsible person & waved a goodbyee to that memorable stay. We catched up the route to Lohagad Fort base village(18 Km from Lonavala city region).
Enroute we had a delicious breakfast of Misal Paav. Later, we reached Lohagad Fort base village & Parking area around 9:45 AM. The 6 km road prior reaching Lohagad Firt base is a jungle route, very narrow road & highly monsoon adventurous along with that curvy, wet, long trees accompanied route. We parked our Car at the based & started the hike to Lohagad Fort.
Lohagad fort is situated 18 kms in Southeast to Lonavala. The fort is built in around 16th century, initially held the Maratha Establishment for many years & also held a 5 years period with the Mughal Empire. The fort locates at an altitude of 3430 feet. While climbing, the Visapur Fort range gives an astounding scene. A scene downwards from the above gives the lateral view of fort climb. Further reaching the fort top, we can view the Visapur fort at North, Pawna Lake view towards South & The upper plateau continous narrowing towards northwest, the Vinchu Kata. We carried our trek till the vinchu kada, explored the nature around & capture many scenes. The walk on the narrow edges of Vinchu kada were absolutely adventurous & dangerous. Later, we started tracing our path back & down the Fort. It was around 2 PM, we reached the fort base.
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| Lohagad Fort Climb starts #Lonavala |
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| Lohagad Fort Climb #Lonavala |
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| Pawna Lake scene #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| Visapur Fort range scene #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| Gamesh Dwar #Main entrance #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| #Lohagad Fort Climb #Lonavala |
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| Side view from top #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| Straight view from top #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| Vinchu Kada strech #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| Me #Posing #Vinchukada #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| Sankalp Thakur #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| Shivam Singh #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| Vinay Dhankute #Vinchukada Pose #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| Pawna Lake scene #Lohagad Fort top #Lonavala |
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| Shivam Singh #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| VinchuKada #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| Selfie #Vinchukada #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| Team ranging for Vinchukada #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| Monkey Scenes #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
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| Selfies #Lohagad Fort #Lonavala |
Within 40 mins, we reached Lonavala city region, made us comfortable in a decent hotel for lunch. The Veggie & Roti lunch placed our stomach point empty to full. Then, we departed lonavala city at 4 PM. Within a couples of minutes, we reached the Khandala view point (MBT Road- Near Vaghjai Mata Temple). Their we clicked many snaps, close ups & selfies.
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| Shiva, Singh #MBT Road Valley scene #Khandala |
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| Srinath Srirangam #MBT Road Valley scene #Khandala |
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| Sankalp Thakur #MBT Road Valley scene #Khandala |
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| Vinay Dhankute #MBT Road Valley scene #Khandala |
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| Vinat - Srinath - Shivam - Me #MBT Road Valley scene #Khandala |
We were waiting for the sunset view their. But at the count of 5 PM, we discussed about the weather that the cloudy mist wasn't going to permit us the sunset. It was of no use in waiting a much long time their, so we departed from Khandala sharp 5 PM. Traced the same route back, which we followed yesterday & also which I have used in many of my trails. The straight route till Mahd(Near Khopoli), then a hard Right tracked us via Palasdari, Karjat, Neral, Vangani & then to Badlapur. It was exact 6:15 PM, I left Vinay at Badlapur east Midc, Sankalp at Badlapur west -Manjarli, Shivam & Srinath at Badlapur west- Rameshwadi, drove my Jazz straight to my parking area, parked her & reached home at 6:40 PM.
Here by, one more region swims under my Maharashtra Daura.
Conquering roads is my aim, Exploring routes is my passion, Capturing nature in my canon is my significance, Traveller I am !
- Sagar Mali.
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