Date : 29 Jun 2013
It had begun to rain pretty heavy in Mumbai, which was a surprise considering the last season. In fact, based on last years rainfall we had planned to have all our monsoon trips in the latter half. But the incessant rains in the first two weeks of June started to tickle my travel buds 🙂 . Wifey also started pestering me for a weekend drive.
We started looking for some new place to drive to. The usual Lonavla, Igatpuri were put on backburner and we decided to explore some new area around Pune. But, any trip to Pune would require a night halt as I did not want to tire myself with a to and fro drive to Pune in a single day which actually leaves very less time to explore the place. This is where my good friend Santosh came to my rescue. He agreed to join me and, moreover, was prepared to tolerate my family for a night at his place in Pune. The plan was simple – start early morning for Pune – pick Santosh from his place – drive to Tamhini and back – spend the night at his home – drive back to Mumbai the next day.
All plans set, we set off at 8:30 am on D-day. I had bought a car seat for my daughter assuming it would be used on such long highway drives, but she had other plans. Refusing to use that seat, she even made my wife sit at the rear making me look like a driver all the way :). I could make out from the looks people gave me at the toll plaza.
Getting through Vashi – Belapur – Kharghar – Panvel stretch was a pain as some work is in progress for flyovers. It took me almost 1.5 hours to reach the start of Mumbai-Pune expressway. From thereon, it was a smooth ride on the expressway till the toll plaza. Since there was intermittent rain, the spray of water from the tyres of vehicles in front was very frustrating to handle. We had a short stop at the Food Mall for Petrol and then resumed our drive. The ghat climb was surprisingly quick considering it was Saturday morning, when it seems like the whole of Mumbai shifts to Lonavla. Once we crossed the Lonavla exit, it got even smoother as I played RJ for all music requests by my daughter.
We reached Baner by 12 pm, picked up Santosh and his family from his home and were on our way to Tamhini by 12:30. I find Chandani Chowk very confusing and hence requested Santosh to help me with the right turn on Paud road. But, as we had met after a year or so, we were lost in a recap of memories and eventually missed the turn. Luckily, we found a U-turn real quick and were ack enroute Tamhini.
Tamhini Ghat is a good 75 km drive from Chandani Chowk via Pirangut, Paud and Mulshi. The initial part of the drive until Mulshi lake was pretty boring as the road passes through small towns. Could see signs to Malhar Machi all though the way. That reminded me of the harrowing experience I had last year, when I trusted Google Maps to take me to Malhar Machi via Lonavla and Pawana. It was an offroad drive experience with my humble Estilo somehow taking me through a road which had ceased to exist for atleast 5 years. I love Maruti for that 🙂 and was very sad when I had to sell my car.
Once we took the left at Mulshi it was an amazing drive – not so much for the quality of road but for the sheer greenery around. For this I prefer Malshej ghat (on weekdays) as the roads are smooth. Rightaway, there was a lunch break taken at Paradise Café. Had heard good reviews of it from a travel forum. It serves Dhaba style food and the parathas are real good – though it has a queer style of prepaid order at the counter and waiting at the table for delivery. Don’t miss the Paneer pakodas if you ever pass by. I’m sure non-veg food will be a treat – but best avoided in monsoon. The location is decent, alongside Mulshi Lake and makes for a good photo stop as well.
We resumed post lunch at around 2 pm. Waterfalls were all over the place – some nestled faraway in the valley and others right by the roadside. However, the roadside ones were filed to the brim with picknickers – though the situation wasn’t as bad as Malshej Ghat. A couple of waterfalls were pretty huge. As I was travelling with family, we resisted getting into any of these waterfalls and ended up spending time at a small but available waterfall. It was getting pretty dark although the clock showed just 4 pm, and we decided to turn back when the ghat descent to Kolad began. Took a short halt at a waterfall with a board nearby mentioning it as a prohibited place under the state secrets act – whatever that means 🙂
Had another short stop at Hotel Saumili for some yummy Onion Bhajias (do try them) alongwith tea and bhutta (i.e coal roasted corn – very tender – unlike Mumbai ones) and then raced back to Pune. Reached home by 7. We had a tasty dinner at the famous Shreyas thali restaurant on FC Road and after a good nights sleep, left the next morning to Mumbai. Being a Sunday, we reached home in 2 hours flat :).
Now that the monsoon trips for 2013 have kickstarted, hoping for some more. !!! … do let me know if there is some good non-crowded place around Mumbai – Pune.
Here are the pictures from the trip
Map Location
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