Mahabaleshwar - Tapola - Panchgani


This time it's a weekend getaway. Though very close to the last road trip to Gujarat, but pre-birthday celebration for daughter!!

Day 1


We started from our home in Pune around 5:40am on a Saturday morning. It was around 120km to the Mapro Garden. We reached by 8:10am. Google says Mapro Garden opens at 8am, but for their staff. Their restaurant is only operational by 9am and the mall is not totally functional even by 10am. They have put some tables for testers , however the staff was reluctant to get the samples tested. As a word of caution, this is an over hyped place. Only the strawberry cream is delicious. We bought a few things from the mall , had our breakfast and started towards Mahabaleshwar. Approx 25mins drive and we reached Marjorie point. We stopped to look at the scenic view and click some pictures. We then moved on to reach Arthur's seat point. There were a few more points on the way like Hunting point, echo point, Malcolm point, tiger spring point and finally the Arthur seat point. Some stairs and some walk to cover all the points, but not exhausting. At the tiger spring point, you get natural drinking water coming down a mountain. Next we covered Elphinston point, which had a very scenic view. Even with bright sun shining above, these points were covered in fog and looked absolutely lovely. We then went to Mahabaleshwar temple, which is a shiva temple. The place is called Mahabaleshwar on the name of the temple. Next we started towards our accommodation (Maangalya Agro tourism)that was booked in Tapola. It was an hour's drive from Mahabaleshwar temple. There were some very scenic views on the way. We checked-in and relaxed for a bit. In the meanwhile, we also discussed and booked a boating session for ourselves in the backwaters of Koyna river. "Vishal boat club" agreed to take us with them. We took a motor boat to cover around 7-8kms in the backwaters. The trip covered Island point, Triveni Sangam and temple. There are a few islands in the backwater which were covered with water. Our guide and sailor told us when the water level starts going down, the islands start getting visible. We got down where there were temples. There were temples of Ganpati ji, Gurudev Dattatrey, and a cave temple of lord Shiva. The temples were clean and peaceful. After finishing darshan at the temples, we got back on our boat to reach back at the starting point. The sun was also on its way back home. It was a beautiful experience to see the setting sun from a moving boat. The changing hues and the rays on the water gives a different solace to the heart. Kids had an experience with the water scooter. After this, we bid adieu to our warm host at Vishal Boat club and started back to reach out accommodation. It was 6:15pm when we reached back. We enquired and ordered for food. While dinner was being prepared, we played some games and enjoyed some kanda and batata bhaji with very yummy ginger tea. Dinner was ready and served by 8pm. We had dinner, went back to our room to call it a day. However, while getting back I got to know bonfire starts at 9:30pm. I sat writing this blog and then went out to enjoy the warmth of the bonfire on a cold night just before Lohri 😆

Day 2


Day started a bit late by around 7am after a good long sleep. It was a lovely beautiful morning. The view of Koyna river from the resort was entirely covered in fog. We took a stroll on the dewy grass and played turn-ball and badminton. We then went back to our room to get ready. Breakfast was served piping hot at the table followed by refreshing tea/coffee brewed fresh. This followed by completing the remaining packing and off we started for another fun-filled day to unpack. We wanted to enjoy some strawberry plucking and binging on some juicy strawberries. We reached Anvi strawberry garden which was a 15-min drive from our resort. We plucked fresh strawberries, ate them and got some for the trip ahead. We also got strawberry cream which was a delight with all the fresh ingredients. We started from there to stop 5 mins later at Rahul strawberry garden. This was an even better experience. We again plucked more strawberries, ate more strawberries , ate strawberry and mulberry ice cream and also strawberry cream. Their mulberry jam was tasty, so got that too!! Okay, enough of strawberries and the cream. Let's now reach somewhere. We headed towards Kate's point in Mahabaleshwar. Ohh!! Another stall selling strawberries?? Let's buy some more na please 😉 
We reached Kate's point also called elephant's head point or the needle hole point. It was all foggy with the sun shining bright. The view was amazing and the strawberries delicious. We had eaten too much by now. Next stop was the Table Land in Panchgani. It was around 45 mins drive from Kate's point. Table land had a different look now compared to the monsoon look 6 months ago. There were horses and horse carts all over the place. We took a horse cart to cover points like pandav chulha, shooting point, pandav footprints point, Ganpati visarjan point, sunset point and monkey point. We got down at the sunset point to click some pictures also with the floral heart out out there. We then walked towards the caves. There are 2 caves - Cave 1 is the kailash and Cave 2 is the tiger cave. We entered from the kailash cave. There's a den dine restaurant in the cave and a shiva statue. The cave is quite cool even in the blazing heat. A few steps and a narrow jungle terrain lead to the tiger cave. The tiger cave again has a dine restaurant and a cave. Word of caution: they both are called dine restaurant, but aren't restaurants in the real sense. Just a shop or 2 selling dry snacks - chips, biscuits ,etc. From tiger cave, we climbed a few steps to reach back at the table land. Parking was a 7-min walk, post which we started back towards Mahabaleshwar. Mala's factory outlet was about 25-min drive. Tasted and purchased a few things from there. From there we went to the cheese factory to buy some yummy liquid cheese. We also ate some cheesilicious dishes at their cafe. It was already 5:45pm and we had to reach back home to be able to get back to the Monday routine 😀.
On the way we took a break at Namah restaurant at Kalewadi phata for dinner. A bit off the route, but they serve really good food. We finally reached home by 10:10pm. 

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