Land of Strawberries and much more….
When I was out there, exploring the scenic beauty of Mahabaleshwar, I knew how exactly I wanted to share my ‘travel’ experience. But now, it took me a good 3 hours of staring at my laptop screen, to kick start off. I realised that sometimes it gets really difficult to express in words what you really experience.
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| Photo Credits: Vandana Surya |
The trip to Mahabaleshwar was a sudden and last minute plan made over a cup of chai, one fine evening. We decided to go via car to Mahabaleshwar. And since none of us was really confident of our driving skills, we hired a driver. It took us a good 3 hour drive to reach our destination.
And this being our first ever trip together, we were filled up with all sort of emotions.
As we sat in the car, listening to the radio, we like many people would do, opened up most of our life saver, Google, and started reading up about ‘Mahableshwar’ .
So halfway down, we started feeling hungry and so stopped at a food court that we saw on the way.
We stopped for breakfast in between, when one of the most amazing thing happened. As the three of us entered the food court, the song that played was ‘Dil Chahta Hai’. And what else could be more perfect that this moment. The three of us looked at each other and just giggled.
So after a sumptuous meal, we set out once again.
After a few hours, the cool breeze and the chills outside woke us up. And we knew that we had reached our destination.
Where all did we go?
1. Lodwick Point: Standing 4087 feet above ground level, this point is named after General Peter Lodwick, who was the first Englishman to set foot on this hill, way back in 1824. So this point is like a tribute to him. It is said that in 1973, a lightning destroyed the whole point and then it was later on reconstructed. The Prathapghat fort can be seen from this point. Oh and yeah, you get amazing Strawberry Gola here.
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| Photo Credits: Vandana Surya |
2. Lingmala Waterfalls: There are two sets of waterfalls, one is the smaller one and the other is the humongous waterfall. And as we walked down a hundred steps down in order to go see the smaller waterfall, we saw boards on the sides that gave us a brief descriptions of the Giant Squirrel and the Great Pied Horn bill, and presumed that they could be seen in there, though we din't really see any. The falls were a treat to my eyes. The very sight, smell and the sound of the flowing fresh water just takes you into another world. And what was further interesting was to just watch the crowd that was there. Newly married couples, who were clicking a lot of photos and posing away to glory; families enjoying a break; kids playing in the water and giggling; teenage boys trying to do stunts and stuff to gain the attention of girls; elderly couple sitting by the bank and enjoying the view.
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| Photo Credits: Vandana Surya |
3. Venna Lake: This Lake is a beauty all by itself. The lake is about 120 feet above ground and is 2 km long. The best way to relax is by taking a boat ride in the lake. As you are moving you can see a Hanuman temple towards the shore. This temple has been in place since the time of the British. As we were rowing, we saw a roof kind of structure in between the water and curiously asked the guide what that was. He then told us that it was their old pump room and when they raised the level of water, the room sunk and is completely under water now. Around the parking area of the lake, there also provide horse riding. And what seemed interesting to me were the names of the horses. All of them were named after some Bollywood movie. ‘Chulbul Pandey’, ‘R Rajkumar’, ‘Baazigar’… and so on…
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| Photo Credits: Vandana Surya |
4. Mapro Garden: What more fun that visit the hub of strawberry farming. Their ‘Fresh Strawberry Cream’ was a real treat to my taste buds. They also sell all ‘Mapro’products in there. They have a chocolate factory and to all the chocoholics out there, trust me, your taste buds will just melt by the mere sight of how they make chocolates.
There are a few more places and points to be seen in there, but due to time constraint, we could explore only so much. And as we ended our expedition, we realised that a mere trip, no matter to which part of the world, makes a huge difference to a person’s life, and it brings so much joy and happiness.
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| Photo Credits: Vandana Surya |
Message to all ‘Strawberry lovers’: Pack your bags and leave right now. And yes eat the yummiest strawberries ever, all you want.
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| Photo Credits: Vandana Surya |
