Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Malshej Ghat : Travelogue ( Safarnama)

Café Reminiscence : Malshej Ghat
Ascending clouds
















It was the extended weekend of Friday-Sunday(10-12 Aug.) due to Janmashtami , I had therefore already booked room at  MTDC, Malshej Ghat in advance for Friday overnight stay  , as it is impossible to get booking for Saturdays , blame it on Gujjus who are always ahead in planning their vacations , also manage to bring big families together without conflict , I like this quality & family togetherness & always adore them for their travel enthu. I am having tendency to analyze people , there geographical location  , roots & behavior , this time also I have observed  that whole place was occupied by them only , as usual .
KM in parenthesis is distance from Thane Maziwada Jn.
We loaded essentials like Latest songs , water ,some munching stuff  & lots of enthu .We started at 9:30 AM from Thane ,through Bhiwandi - Kalyan –Nashik NH3- route , we took right turn exit from highway at Kalyan(20 KM)  to Murbad route .

Crossing Kalyan was a bad experience ,  bad road , full of pot holes , even down  side road was closed , as it was in extremely bad condition , even munciple authorities have lost hope to revive it , oh yes I also paid 25 bucks toll for this Kalyan road , phew... At (25 KM)we saw  1st sign board  Malshej Ghat , NH222 .We took right side flyover road forming  “ Y” shape bifurcation . Next was Ulhasnagar at approx (26 KM) , my daughter who was tracking route told me that  now we will drive thru highway ( mean NH222) , she was expecting Mumbai-Pune expressway sort of  highway , I told her , single pot holes road what we are driving thru right now  in fact is national highway NH222 , she somehow did not like this new info , anyways after crossing river (picx)at (34 KM) road quality suddenly improved , almost no pot holes , with green surroundings  , road side sign board reads Malshej Ghat 67 KM. Road after  Murbad ( 55 KM) was much better , smoothened  , weather was cloudy but almost no rain so far.

Only after crossing Murbad  real pleasure trip starts Lush mint green surroundings , beautiful , smooth dark black Asphalt road , as if painted just now (pica), Car outside Temp. reading was 26 Degrees wow !We reached Salgaon village ( 66.7 KM) ,  road side board reads Malshej Ghat 46 KM .
 Mountain range with cliffs covered with clouds  now visible , adding excitement & fuelling our expectations for what lies ahead .We had our tea at Pranjali restaurant (73.6 KM) as I was delighted to see a restaurant facing small river ( rain water nallah), flow was in full swing , making it a perfect place to have Chai , fantastic.

We then reached village Tokawadi ( 81 KM) What a beautiful scenic view truly majestic , misty  hill tops , few waterfalls also visible , trees lined up on both side of roads , I also snapped few huge wisdom trees pics , I am always fond of huge trees specially Wisdom ( Bargad)& remember most of the places in Mumbai , where we have huge tress like south Mumbai  , Matunga , Khar ,  Bnadra etc.

Road before waterfall
We started ascending hill at (86 KM), with every passing KM scenic beauty also getting better & better , Mile Stone at 91.8 KM reading NH222 Malshej (pic) .After few KM ( 103 KM) there was a water falls on right side , we got down & took some snaps .Now we can feel clouds .,fog at road level like we are passing thru deep fog & many water falls were there .

Although I was expecting that there will be dense fog & few water falls , but did not expect that a water fall (pic) with tons of water just at the center of road from cave like mountain hammering your vehicle ( Nano may not take that load )  , this water fall  ( 112 KM) was just amazing .

Main Waterfal
It was heavy fog with visibility of only 10 mtrs , temperature was a bit chilly ,we drove thru few more  minor waterfalls , so far after Murbad road condition was extremely good , but due to waterfalls & landslide road condition was slightly bad & also at one place half of the road was closed due to landslide , although heavy machines were already deployed to clear the landslide .

After crossing water fall we had bhuttas as some  parking space was available , overall environment & panoramic scene was beyond imagination , it was raining , clouds , fog , also seen clouds ascending picxx , the whole view was panoramic , ahhhha ,feel like just sit there forever  & watch nature .

MTDC Resort
Finally we reached MTDC resort ( 115 KM ) visibility was hardly 10-12 mtrs , only gate was visible , also inside MTDC (pic) resort it was water everywhere , clouds at your room level , parked cars also not fully visible. Awesome….
After check in we had our lunch , it was OK , Flamingo dining hall was nearly full , everybody seems to enjoying wetness as whole resort including corridors were wet & literally Pani  everywhere .



Lake
After having our lunch ,me & Sid wanted to walk up to nearby waterfall , we went out but come back again as outside MTDC resort main entrance, on main road ( NH222),visibility was so poor that it was impossible to walk on road side , as passing by vehicles only head lights  were visible & driver may not be able to see you ,  it was rather unsafe ,therefore we came back. It was better to  drive then walk , we then took our car and we all went for a drive back to waterfalls to enjoy surroundings , also further down side after  MTDC there is a Dam & Lake , also not much fog , area was lush green ,  there is a resort named Sushant . We had our evening Chai at road side Thela , having dam/lake(pic) in the background .
Dinner at MTDC was OK .

I went out for a  walk after dinner , the place reminds me of starting scene of the BR Chopra movie “ Dhund” watched long back starring my fav,Danny & Zeenat , that place also seems to look like Malshej  only  ,Dhund everywhere & only vehicles  head lights are visible. I must say that Danny has played the  role of a handicapped jealous husband of  a beautiful young wife ( Zeenat , who else ) with ease & perfection.

It was raining intermittently almost whole night  , I was wondering there is almost no continuous rain this season in Mumbai , no water logging , no disruption & this place , oh ! water & water everywhere !!
Next day we checked out at 9 :00 AM it was raining heavily  & very cold , we did not find anybody at any waterfall, maybe it was too early also water may be very cold , I wanted to take few snaps of the valley , but unable to take as it was raining , also fog was too dense & almost no visibility to take snaps , but it was heavenly experience to walk or drive thru such a lovely place . It took almost 2 ½ hrs to reach Thane ( 115 KM) .
Whole trip was such a wonderful experience & we overjoyed it.

2 comments:

  1. Ah lovely pics and thanks for putting this up, we have been wondering where to go and never thought of this place :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is an excellent guide.Thanks very much for sharing these tips!To enjoy the waterfall with the beautiful nature, we decided to visit Malshej Ghat area. Get complete information about
    How to reach Malshej Ghat from different places of India only at Maharashtraplanet.

    ReplyDelete

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