Travelling

December, the grand finale of the year, always seems to be packed with excitement and fresh hopes. My friend dropped by with his daughter, and we decided to make the most of the weekend by heading to the beach. Our initial plan to visit Alibaug was quickly swapped for the quieter Aravi Beach near Shrivardhan. We hit the road bright and early at 5:40 AM on Saturday. The 162 km drive took us about six hours, including a leisurely breakfast break and a couple of pit stops along the way. We passed through Mann Village in Hinjewadi and Tamhini Ghat, with mostly smooth roads—though there were a few bumpy spots to keep us on our toes. By 11:30 AM, we arrived at the peaceful Aravi Beach. This hidden gem was a serene escape, untouched by heavy crowds or commercialization. A handful of modest stalls offered snacks and refreshing juices, but the real charm was in the spacious parking and the unspoiled stretch of sand. After parking, we slipped into our swimwear and lathered up with su...

This is the full merged blog of a 13-day road trip from Pune to Gujarat and back. Day wise separate blogs are available in the hyperlinks as this entire could be too lengthy to read. Day 1 Pune - Ahmedabad   We started from our home in Pune at 4:15am for Ahmedabad. The expected drive time was around 13 hours by the map ( excluding breaks). We took the Ravet route to Mumbai which was good. The saying "Mumbai never sleeps" could be sensed when people seemed rushing to their workplaces even before 7am. The roads between Mumbai and Vapi were terrible and took much longer. The roads were under construction and had heavy vehicles all the way. It needed patience and skills to navigate that route. After crossing Vapi , we finally stopped for a break and had lunch. After a filling lunch, we resumed our journey. At Bharuch, we got onto NE4 (National Expressway 4) which is one part of the golden quadrilateral project connecting Mumbai to Delhi. Now this was an enjoyable driv...

This is the final part of the day wise series of the Gujarat Trip planned in the month of December.  The days will then be merged for the final blog. Day 13 Saputara - Pune We left from Uday Hill Resort in Saputara by 6:40am and started our journey towards home (Pune). It was a 280km journey. It was dense fog till around 8:45am. The condition of the roads wasn't great either. After driving around 150km , we took a break at Crown Curry restaurant near Sangamner and had breakfast. The journey started again and we finally were back home by 1:30pm with sweet memories from the trip!! 😊😊🙏

This will be a day wise series of the Gujarat Trip planned in the month of December.  The days will then be merged for the final blog. Day 12 Saputara Sight seeing - 2 Lazy day started only by waking up at 8am followed by some fun with the kids. We got ready followed by an impromptu visit to a strawberry farm. We picked strawberries and ate them fresh from the farm. We got back to our room and relaxed some more. We then left the room by 12noon. Today's destinations were all within 2km radius. We first reached honeybee center. The honeybees were kept in wooden closures where they live and produce honey as well. It also housed some beautiful flowers. Next we walked to the adventure park nearby. We had fun with the bumping cars and the kids also experienced the zipline. Next was the saputara lake where we had some maggi and lemon soda. Also got some pictures clicked. This was followed by a visit to the Saputara museum and a fish aquarium with different types of fishes. Fro...

This will be a day wise series of the Gujarat Trip planned in the month of December.  The days will then be merged for the final blog. Day 11 Saputara Sight seeing  We started by 10:30am from our accommodation for sight seeing in Saputara. First stop was the Gira waterfall. It is said to have close to 200 waterfalls during the monsoons. As this was December end, there was only one waterfall but had good flow of water. It was very hot and sunny even at this time of the year. There were some shops with stuff made out of bamboo. Next on, the Waghai botanical garden was a 15-min drive. Not a great destination, but it housed a variety of trees, plants , flowers and a namesake butterfly park. At the exit was an Amul parlour. Took a short refreshing break there and then started towards Shabari Dham. On the way was a fruti vendor selling pineapples and oranges. We stopped for a natural refreshment and savoured on some sweet pineapples and oranges and started our onward jou...

This will be a day wise series of the Gujarat Trip planned in the month of December.  The days will then be merged for the final blog. Day 10 Ahmedabad - Saputara  We started at 8:15am from the accommodation at Ahmedabad for our journey towards Saputara. The roads were good. We stopped on the way on NE4 for breakfast. The Jagdish outlet serves good breakfast, a bit spicy though for my liking. Replica of the mall is on the other side of the Expressway where we stopped while going towards Ahmedabad on Day1. The drive started again and after 3 hours , stopped for lunch at Hotel Furat. We got good Punjabi food followed by very thick sweet lassi. We started our journey again. Saputara is a hill station. We wanted to see the sunset , but the sunset point was under maintenance. We then re-routed towards table land. That was a happening place with loads of activities like horse riding, camel riding, balloon shooting, ring game, scooter, bike, remote controlled car, decorat...