One fine morning, I have just done with my breakfast and getting ready for workplace, suddenly I looked into the wall-calendar and my eyes stacked to a verdant picture of a valley. It’s so much charming and vibrant that for a few moments I feel myself in this. Just then I got a call from my friend asking about whether I am free for the weekend or not. I replied positively and asked the account .Guess what I get in reply?
“Nothing much, just planning to for a hilly holydays”. And without wasting anytime I confirmed it full heartedly. Jaunts are always welcomed as they bring fresh air to the grasping bones. This time, our destination is mahabaleswar (a name of Lord ‘Shiva’), the biggest and highest hill station of Maharashtra, famous for different berries and cool breezy weather. We had done all the vehicle and hotel booking in advance. Finally, we started our journey towards the Region of Soaring Peak. Its long bus journey of 8 hours, but when you are enjoying the time passes by so quickly. We have started to play some games afterwards when the bus started riding through Ghats, weather gets cooler and cooler and the bus started to jerk heavily. I looked through the windows but only I can hear the roaring of winds, an invisible cloak reign all over the terrains. Certainly, driver stopped the bus, and this is for some mechanical reason as our upcoming road is sloppier. Finally sunlight came and removes the dark canvas revealing the silent city over the top. I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.
It’s a beauty. All over the boundary I only can see lushes of green valleys, breathtaking depth, some remote villages and some blue lakes. It’s like a cool, green canvas that will heel all the pain, anger, unrest from your mind and makes you feel that you on ninth cloud. After a short tempting promo of greenery, we have reached our destination. Carried our luggage to hotel rooms and then take fresh bath and came out with my camera and notebook. After breakfast (at Malcolm peth) we started walking towards Arthur Seat point. It’s a Sunny day, but it so breezy that we never felt burning screen under sun. So we were walking at a good space through the dense forest, saw different types of trees and birds. The sky is clear, it looks bluer. And finally we had reached the peak point. After that muddy road started and we had to walk though a narrow path one by one, beside this only emptiness reveal, if you miss your step then that will be your last fall. That valleys belongs to three district, they are divided by series of peaks. At the bottom a steady flow of water is flowing along but it does not seem calm. But at rainy season, this river ‘Savitri’ become ferocious and life-taking wild stream of water .It is originated from Lingmala waterfall, mainly active in monsoon. Then we saw a range of peaks seems like a dinosaur is sleeping over the origin .Local people called it ‘Dinosaur Point’. A series of points continued come like Echo Point, Hunting Point, Monkey Point (natural representation of 3 symbolic monkeys).
And finally the end point arrived. It’s named after Sir Arthur as he used to seat there and saw the river as it had drawn his wife and son in a devastating flood. Then, I just throw one flying object and saw it is revolving at same point for quite some time and then it disappeared in the vast valley. We have spent some time viewing region of Western Ghats, and then we started our return journey to main road. In between we found ‘Tiger spring’, as the name says it’s a small about 2 x 2 square meters natural spring water tank where Tigers comes to drink water during nights. You can see few footsteps of animal if you come early morning. In our way back to main market, we have visited three temples also. Among them Mahabaleswar temple is the oldest one, it is likely created about 4500 years ago. From there you can view the Venna Lake and experienced a song of air and sun.
After hiking so long we feel tired and hungry too, we decided to take our lunch and then should continue our journey towards another .Now we hired some cab to reach Panchghani, is nestled at middle of five hills in the Sayadri mountain ranges, which is 18 km away from market. It is famous for strawberry garden and five hill point and most famous one is the Table Land. As geography suggest, tableland is the tabletop plane ground of a mountain, an elevation of 4550 feet above sea level & covers 95 acres. This plane land is amazing ,you only see a veil of green grass all over it and certainly a endless end, the beneath land seems a sketch of artist. It is so windy that sometimes you feel you also can fly away like a bird of desire. The Sydney point is like a green attire of nature. Some spacious caves including the “Devil's Kitchen” are visible from here. We breaths fresh air full to our lungs. And finally we started our journey back to hotel, but I don’t want to come back.
Reaching hotel we take some rest and freshen ourselves for our final charm to see the sunset from Bombay Point. It is a 4 km journey through forest, where you hardly can see the sunlight. We experienced a picturesque way down of sun towards the mountains. Natures show you all the various grades of red, and suddenly it makes the forest darker and deeper. After enjoying this nature’s grace we end’s our day journey. Cumming back to hotel, we faced some difficulty to find our way. At a point we can’t figure out which way to take among three ways .And haplessly we tried one root after another. That time we field little bit scary as we are new to the place and there is no light in the road at all. Only source is our torch. We here different kind of sounds and voices coming out of the jungle, many kind of insect that thrashed to our faces. The weather is becoming cooler and night become darker. At this crucial juncture we saw a source of light is coming towards us, one hand we are happy that someone is coming, on the other hand we don’t know what it is. But finally it is forest jeep and they told that it is not right way we should go back and should follow the left path. Finally we made our way as they advised and after a while of walking we reached the market.
We completed our dinner and came back to hotel and spend that night sharing different stories and experience. And finally in morning we left the hotel and started our journey downwards our home.
The journey ends here but will soon start a new journey towards a new destination. Nature is always mysterious and adventurous, we just have to take first step, and then it is the unputdownable attraction that gives you all the strength. Just remember ‘Not all those who wander are lost’.
