Travelling

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 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...

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...