Travelling

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...

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...

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 9 Kutch - Ahmedabad A relaxed day started by waking up at 6am. We got ready and had delicious poori bhaji for breakfast. Our journey started by 9am where we headed towards Aaina Mahal. It displayed the kings and queens from history, the currencies used, their old pictures, vehicles and other household items used , etc. It was a very narrow street, a bit of an effort to navigate the xuv there. Next destination was the Vande Mataram memorial housing a museum (was unavailable for general public as there was some session going on for students) , pictures and statues from Mahatma Gandhi's life, the brave soldiers of our country and an artisan block. The drive to Ahmedabad was now 7 hours. Most of the roads were good but a lot of maintenance work was taking place at various highways causing the highways to be blocked for normal flow of tra...

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 8 Dholavira - Kutch The day started by 6:15am in the tryst to view the sunrise. It was a cold December morning and getting out of the bed was difficult. However the thought of the sun rise was motivational. We got ready to reach the sunrise point which was 35kms away from our resort. Almost there, we could not spot the sun and hence thought of completing the few kilometres left of the "Road to heaven". We again stopped at the sunrise point while getting back from the end point of road to heaven, but still no signs of the sun. The kids refused to get down due to the chilly wind. Husband & I got down, went down on the sand and patiently waited for the sun to show up for around 30 minutes but the clouds won't give way. We clicked some pictures and for back to the hotel with no sight of the sun. We had breakfast at the hote...

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 5 Dwarka - Somnath The day started much earlier at 2am. We got ready and checked out of our accomodation by 3:25am. The first destination was Girnar which was a 4 hours' smooth drive. The mountain is at an altitude of 3672ft comprising of 10k steps from the base. The ropeway covers the initial 5k steps reaching mata Ambaji temple. Further up is the Gorakhnath temple and then the next peak is gurudev Datt mandir. It is all stairs to navigate through. Took us around 2.5 hours to cover the 3 peaks. Neminath temple is 1200 steps below the ropeway point but I chose to skip it. The ropeway charges 700INR both ways for adults and half the price for kids below 110cm. The ropeway is very well managed and even during peak hours, the waiting time wasn't high. The ropeway takes 7-8 mins each side. Darshan at dattatreya temple was just amazin...

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 2 Ahmedabad  We started in the morning by 8:30am from our accomodation towards our first destination - Adalaj step well. Brilliant architecture with intricate carvings on the walls and pillars. This well's construction was started by a king, but completed because of his queen. From here, we headed over to Kankaria lake. This wasn't a part of the original itinerary but while talking to some locals the previous day, this was an addition to the list. Kankaria lake and the surrounding area is beautifully developed. There's a nominal entry fee into the campus, followed by upfront payment for the individual activities you may want to do. We bought tickets for the toy train. Though it is called toy train but accommodates all ages. It is a 15-min ride around the lake. While we waited for the train, we got some snacks from the food co...

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 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 drive. NE4 joins NE1 later ahead. There was a police ...

Monsoon getaways are always fun. This one was the first in this season.  We got our XUV700 ready for the trip and started around 8am from home.  On to the Pune - Bangalore highway , is the BAPS swaminarayan temple around 45 mins from our home in Pimple saudagar. There was minimal traffic and the drive was smooth. The parking was muddy, but the temple was beautiful. It had been raining causing the floor to be slippery. Mats were laid to avoid slippage. There were some people as well to warn about the slippery floors. The temple interior is intricately carved and houses idols of majority Hindu Gods and swamis. Luckily it was Guru Purnima as well that added to the charm and decorations. The surroundings are beautifully maintained with trees and gardens around. We clicked some pictures and spent some time there before moving ahead. Our next stop was Necklace point in Bhor. It's a river in the form of Necklace. A view point only. There is no place to get down to the wat...