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Monday, August 21, 2017

49. An Overnight Trip to the Koyna Dam

If you read the local newspaper today you may have seen a small but front page news, an earthquake of 4.5 intensity struck in the vicinity of Koyna Dam on Saturday the 19th. Rajeev read out the news aloud with great excitement because just the day before we were happily cavorting there. The MTDC has a resort overlooking the lake and the Koyna Dam, which happened to be completely booked on all the weekends of the month so we booked on Thursday-Friday. It is a good idea to avoid the holidays and weekends if you can. We started in the wee hours of the morning to avoid the traffic and also get the most of the day to spend at the resort. Normally you have to transmit the booking amount to their account after confirming availability through phone. Since it was not the weekend Deepak Gramopadhye, who took the call, booked our rooms without that formality. Incidentally you are unlikely to get any kind of network there so if you are the kind to get a panic attack when separated from your phone it is not the place for you.

So, as I was saying, we took off early morning and drove some 200 kms on the Bangalore Highway via Satara to reach this heavenly place. With a leisurely breakfast halt at Kamat Restaurant on the way it took us about four and a half hours to reach. The breakfast halt immediately uplifted my spirits because I discovered a tiny Oriental White Eye nesting in a Neem Tree in front. Its immaculate little nest was a surprise discovery for me and also the bird which looked at me warily with one of its characteristic white rimmed eyes. There were plenty of Scaly Breasted Munias too frolicking in the morning sun on the sugarcane clumps growing nearby. The rest of the group’s spirits went up too with a good breakfast which we had outside in the company of the birds.


Yes! the nest has been discovered! Our breakfast halt.

Having Breakfast under the sun with the birds for company will definitely put a smile on your face
An Oriental White Eye cosy in its nest
Scaly-breasted Munias frolicking in the sugar cane field.

With Chetali navigating with the help of the GPS we reached without any adventure on the way. Somehow the GPS has cheated us of all the excitement of finding unknown places by using road maps and at times creative methods of communication, India being a country with innumerable languages and dialects. Mr Fadnis the affable manager of the resort gave us a warm welcome and made us comfortable. The resort is well maintained and ideally located. I could hear a lot of bird sounds which promised some sightings for sure even with the cloudy weather and so much human presence. I hopefully asked a worker if any snakes can be spotted in the campus and was amused to hear him vociferously deny it. When he understood I wanted to see some he assured me they can be seen outside the MTDC premises! Well I didn’t encounter any. What I did see and hear were birds. Due to the cloudy weather and poor light I didn’t get clear pictures but the whole place resounded with bird calls.

The view of the dam from the resort

Lake view from our room. The tree line in the middle looked like elephants crossing. In winters migratory birds would be roosting on them.



Out to explore outside the resort

Our discovery! a PCO & STD booth. Now you know I was serious about "no network" It served as shelter from the drizzle

On a longish trek to the Waterfall and swayambhu Mahadev temple

Hmmm surreptitiously using the umbrellas as walking sticks!!

literally everything is green!!



On the bridge over the waterfall

The beautiful little waterfall one can take a shower under. Not us.

Back in the room at our favourite passtime. It was Chetali's initiation to the 30 cards Rummy too.

The Nehru Garden but we didn't wait for the documentary they show at 11am
The 800 ft high Ozarde waterfall



The local delicacy not to be missed



The Beautiful Inhabitants of Koyna


Spotted Dove on the lawn



Jungle Babbler

White Bellied Drongo

Found this Leaf Bird admiring himself in a car mirror





A Tailor Bird paid us a visit

Not commonly seen Common Blackbirds


Always the Show-stopper! The Orange-headed Thrush
After a most delightful time we were loath to come away from this little piece of heaven on earth. We intended to detour to the Kaas Valley but as there was no chatter on the net of the flowers having bloomed we just made a small detour into Satara to buy some Kandi Pedas, a specialty of Satara, for Chetali's colleagues. We were back much before the weekend crowd got going.

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Wednesday, August 16, 2017

48. A Day Trip to Ozar, Lenyadri and Malshej Ghat

Last weekend, along with the rest of Pune, we decided to take a trip out. We decided to go to Malshej Ghat and surrounding areas. There were no Hotel bookings available but our young and restless companions were in no mood to waste a perfect monsoon weekend in Pune. So off we went very early in the morning thinking we will barely be able to cover Malshej Ghat some 130 kms from Pune compounded by the weekend traffic. But along the way the GPS lady and the local people all pointed us towards Ozar and we found ourselves taking a left turn at Narayangaon and lo and behold we were meandering through scenic village roads to Ozar. We had an interesting time identifying the various crops growing on both sides of the narrow road. But it definitely seemed like an onion belt which had been harvested and lying in big metal storage cages.

OZAR
During the monsoons the rough and rugged terrain of Maharashtra gets a coat of different shades of green and with its outline of hills with laden clouds wafting on top, it is a sight for sore eyes. Within four hours we were in Ozar despite a breakfast halt at the Kamat Restaurant in Khed.  Rajeev impressed us by remembering the route even after some 6-7 years, but the smoothness with which places not on our itinerary were falling in place, all of us agreed our route was predestined.
The swayambhu ( self-emanated) Vighneswara temple at Ozar is part of the Ashtavinayak circuit that people in Maharashtra undertake as a pilgrimage. Ganesha is worshipped here as the benevolent remover of obstacles. It is said that Vighnasura, a demon, was wreaking havoc generally and particularly harassing King Abhinandana who was trying to perform a yagya or sacrificial fire. He prayed to the Gods for help and Ganesha fought and defeated the demon and got the name VIGHNESHWARA. Vighn in Sanskrit means obstacles and it is common belief amongst the Hindus that before undertaking any major activity one seeks the blessings of the benevolent Vighneshwara, the remover of obstacles. So after offering our oblations to Vighneshwara the successful completion of our journey was guaranteed.

Our Breakfast halt






LENYADRI (mountain cave)
We knew about the Lenyadri caves which date back to the 1st century AD, but we were not aware that another of the Ashtavinayaks was housed in one of the caves. Just about 15 km from Ozar the road sign beckoned us to make the trip. So off we went seeing the Divine hand in everything. However, when we got out of the car we saw a serpentine line of people laboriously climbing up some 300 rocky steps and the euphoria quickly came down. I was all prepared to bide my time in the colourful little market which sprouts up around all temples in India selling the same kind of trinkets, while the others clambered up. But Chetali would hear none of it and persuaded me to attempt it or sit in one of the palkis and be carried by four men up the hill. Obviously I climbed up without much difficulty and the faith was renewed.
These are Hinayana Buddhist caves but cave number 7 houses Ganapati, a Hindu god. Here he is worshipped as Girijatmaj (son of Parvati).

A serpentine climb up hill to the Lenyadri caves
Palki carrying the infirm

Colourful Temple market
"KAPICHITA" one name of these hills means "favourite of the monkeys"
Chetali carried a packet of sweets and roasted chickpeas to offer as prasad to the God, swinging the packet in her hand with typical youthful abandon. I told her if she is not careful Hanuman and not Ganesh will be the recipient of it and sure enough a monkey with a tiny baby snatched the packet from her.

The last chickpea being polished off
''Kand Mool" or ''Ram Kand" this is what the sanyasis in the forests survived on. Tastes sweet and crisp
The sight of this thing which looked like a unfinished Indian drum or a "dholak'' made us run to the guy selling thin slices of it and flood him with questions. He just told us the name Kand-mul and nothing else. I remembered in childhood I used to read a kids' magazine called "Chandamama" which was replete with stories of ascetics and rishis living in forests and surviving on "kand-mul''. I used to think that was a generic name for all things they dug up to eat. Apparently there is something actually called that. 

MALSHEJ GHAT
We made a valiant effort to see the Shivneri Fort on the way, where Shivaji was born but the weekend crowds meant we couldn’t drive up to the top. After the 300 odd steps climb at Lenyadri nobody fancied a uphill trek of at least a couple of kms, except our young friend Kuldeep, who was vociferously outvoted. So we drove some 30 km through some mesmerizing landscape to the MTDC guest house for our evening tea but the crowds of tourists proved a dampener and we just enjoyed the sight of the rising mist and the distant waterfalls while sipping hot tea at a stall within the premises and then drove on to explore the waterfalls up close. The chilly breeze kept us from getting under the waterfall so we did the next best thing – took the car under one!
All in all we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves specially birthday boy Rajeev who had a cake waiting for him at home, sent by Chetali’s dad, to cut.






Finally got a glimpse of the Angel guiding us. Rajeev swears he saw a face in this sudden effulgence that broke through the clouds.

Kuldeep doing a Mary Poppins
                           

                         

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