A Trip to Lonavala

A Trip to Lonavala

                             Hi Readers, i hope everyone doing well. Here im gonna share my trip experience to Lonavala (between Pune and Mumbai) in Maharastra. I hope it will be useful for someone while planning a trip to a quite location rather than roaming always inside the dense populated Indian cities.

Here we go,

            Basically im from Chennai and started our plan with 4 members including me. Usually when a group of guys planning for a trip a month before it will never happen for sure. But luckily the plan has not called off.

             Actually we planned to go a trip somewhere after considering lot of places finally we decided to go LONAVALA. It is located in the Western Ghats of India. We started our trip in the first week of July and planned for three days. Just imagine visiting a place in western ghats that too during Southwest monsoon we thought rain will affect our enjoyment. Even though we booked flight tickets from Chennai to Pune. The costs around 4500 INR per head with return tickets.  

                                                             DAY 1

          We started from Chennai airport around 8:45 AM after 1:45 hours journey we reached Pune at 10:30 AM. When we stepped into Pune the weather welcomes us with a drizzle. Actually we booked zoom car the owner directly came to airport and picked us. We choose self driving and started around 11:30 AM from pune and heading towards Lonavala.

       

Lohagad Fort

            On the way to lonavala we first decided to go Lohagad fort, which is located 52 kms from Pune. The fort is located at he top of a mountain. Once we starts to drive towards the mountain a small waterfall welcomed us with a surprise with monsoon climate. 

Waterfalls at the entrance of fort road

           We decided to visit that waterfall later so headed towards the fort. The road was very tough to drive in many locations it having a steep and few cars failed to climb it. But we got a friend who is expertise in driving. After some 30 mins drive we reached the fort parking. From there we have a take steps to climb. Almost 45 mins we need to walk in steps. In the middle way we experienced showers. We stopped in many areas for a photo shoot and for rain too. 

Lohagad Fort - Aerial view

        Whenver it rains at the top of the mountain the rain water flowing through the steps inside the fort. Its one of the wonderful experience we had the fort having lot of entrance like Hanuman Darvaza etc., Soon the climate becomes fog with rain and finally we reached the fort top it starts raining. and there a big surprise is waiting for us. Here it is

Pond at the top of Lohagad fort

                Two ponds are there in the top of the fort. It looks like the kings who loved to take bath in those ponds. Everyone eagerly wants to dive in it. But we have some electronic items so decided not to dive. and few guys took bath in that and they enjoyed it more than us. After 45 mins we returned back and reached the waterfall which we already saw at the entrance of the road. Took bath in that waterfall and had tea, snacks then we reached Lonavala at 6 PM. Lonavala welcomes us with the most edible CHIKKI in India. Chikki is literally knows a "Groundnut candy". For every 100 meters we can see at least 10 chikki shops there. and most of the shop names are Maganlal's Chikki. But we really dont know who is that Maganlal.

  

               Almost we spend Half a day in the Lohagad fort and enjoyed the monsoon. It seems like we planned for a perfect trip. In Lonavala we took a room and stayed there itself that night. Its raining continuously outside so cant able to go anywhere that day. The dinner is little bit costly there.

DAY 2

             We wokeup with lot of expectations on day2. As per planned we went to Bushi Dam first which is located just 2kms from lonavala town. Once reached there we planned to have breakfast and searching for shops. Being a southindian we prefer dosa to have but we cant find any shops like that. And finally we had the typical maharastrian breakfast Vadapav and Poha.  

Bushi Dam

   
              The dam built across the Indrayani river. Its a small one like a check dam with lots of steps in which the water over flows and its perfect place for the photo shoot. We visited on friday eventhough more crowd is there. The top side pathway is closed due to frequently people drowning there.

             Then we visited Morbe dam which is one of the main water source for Navi Mumbai city. It is built over the dhavari river and called as gravity dam. It is naturally formed one between two mountains. At the time we visited the maintenance people restricted us from entering dam. So we just saw the dam from outside and took few photos in the back side of the dam.

Morbe dam front view gates open

                                                     

Morbe dam backside

               We have one more location in our bucket list and that is Matheran. We dont have any idea about this place and what actually there just blindly started our journey towards matheran. The journey towards matheran is amazing we can see all the beauty of western ghats there. But unfortunately when we reach higher altitude its started raining and some how we reached the top parking area. There only we came to know the hotels and tourist spots are somewhere around 1.5 hrs  from the parking area and we have to go by sitting on horse. We didnt expect this, If we started that time also we will reach hotels by 6pm. After 6pm rangers wont allow for trekking. It means we have to stay in room itself and to visit next day morning. So we cancelled matheran plan itself and returned back to lonavala. 

                           

Abandoned track in matheran and view points

              The place is best for the photographers those who having DSLR and wants to capture nature wallpapers. We spent almost 1hour there for taking photos and enjoying the view points. We experienced the monsoon drizzle and chill breeze there it gives lots of relaxation to us from the stressed routine life. And finally the second day ends up with a little disappointment. Waiting for the last day of our trip.

DAY 3

                                    The third day starts with a plan to visit all the planned places and have to windup before lunch. So only we can reach pune before 7pm and can able to reach pune airport on time. We next plan to visit korigad fort. for that we have cross the same bushi dam that we visited on day2. But today that road is jammed due to traffic. Somehow we have reached Korigad fort it looks like same as lohagad fort. We took few photos and returned back to lonavala. On the way to Korigad fort we saw lots of view points including Lion's point. Aamby valley is very close from that point, due to time constraint we cant able to visit it. You know Aamby valley is famous destination for Sky divers, you can try that adventure if you dare.

Lions point

 

Korigad fort

          Then we visited the last place in our bucket list, Karla caves. The place got importance mostly because of Buddhist caves. Those are called as chaityas (the prayer hall or place of worship). The shrines in the caves were developed over the period 2nd century BC to 5th century AD. 

         

Buddhist shrine at karla caves

       After lunch we started and reached pune city by 6pm then went for small shopping and reached airport on time. The zoom carwala will drop us in airport. This trip is the most remembrance one in our life. We didnt have any idea about lonavla and completely enjoyed. Travel is the most preferable way to relax our mind. Overall we made it with in our budget. We spent around 9K per head including flight tickets, Zoom car, homestay and food. 

      I hope now you all can get an idea of a trip to lonavala with your friends. Enjoy it to the core we did with a monsoon drizzle and some of can try this in winter season and share your experience to others. 

                          And Dont Forget to taste the Lonavala famous CHIKKI....