Malshej Ghat

It had been a while since we had visited any hill station. And what an opportune moment to do so than during the onset of monsoons? Never heard about the place before this planning, we were surely excited to explore this new destination. It had rained just two days before our trip and timely arrival of monsoons added to the attraction. We were accompanied by my brother, Rikki, who was on his holidays in Mumbai. I remember last visit which we had with him and my parents to Pachgani. It was same time and the trip was unforgettable.

A night prior to our planned departure, it rained so heavily in Mumbai that I doubted if we will be able to start in the morning. Luckily, as I woke up in the morning weather was quite nice and perfect for a drive. The route was through Kalyan and drive from Mumbai to Kalyan was quite frustrating with all the traffics due to huge trucks. But once we crossed Kalyan and took the road to Murbad, the traffic became quite smooth. The sky was covered with clouds and it rained intermittently during whole journey making it more exciting and thrilling. As we approached the Ghats, the landscape was getting more and more beautiful. One stretch of journey was almost parallel to the Ghats and we could see the white clouds banging themselves against the walls of rock. And suddenly road started climbing up the walls. Soon the clouds had totally encircled the car. The view, whatever we were able to make out, was mesmerizing and somewhat scary too. The visibility was a few meters only. But among that scare, it was still very refreshing.

We made it to M.T.D.C resort which is, by the way, only one place of accommodation there. It too was surrounded by clouds in each direction. The weather was cool and wet. It was somewhat disappointing as we couldn’t make out any of the Ghats around. It wasn’t before sunset that the weather cleared out and we were able to acknowledge the beauty around. M.T.D.C has surely picked up a perfect spot for this resort. There was a deep cliff on other side a lake was visible some miles away. Small pieces of clouds were still climbing up the cliffs obscuring the view sometime. The sunset at the background was just giving a face-lift to the countryside. And I could finally feel good about the trip. We ended our day with some good whiskey and somewhat delicious food.

I have this habit of sleeping less during trips and consequently was the first one to wake up next morning. I was sure that my efforts to wake others were completely futile. So I went for a stroll myself. The scenery was as eye-warming as previous evening but oozing with morning freshness. We decided to start early for Pune and having our breakfast on the way. We drove for more than one-and-half hour finding some good place to have breakfast till we spotted a wine bar and restaurant. As everybody knows, Pune-Nashik highway is famous for its vineyards and we were on this road only. The restaurant, situated on edge of a vineyard, was superbly constructed with ideal ambience for having wine. We hadn’t had any wine but purchased some good red and rose wine at cheap prices and had a healthy breakfast of toasts and eggs. Sitting at that place, we surely decided to give it a visit again from Pune for sole purpose of enjoying wine and food while the monsoons are on.

The trip ended as we reached Pune post noon but it was surely refreshing enough for another month or so when we will plan our next trip.