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Car
The car we traveled by About the place: Amba is a small, unexplored scenic hill station on Kolhapur – Ratnagiri highway (NH204) equally distanced (65 KM) from both the places. There are many good hotels for the stay and many places to visit around. We stayed at Hornbill Resort and it was a remarkable experience for us due to the the relaxed stay, wonderful treatment, tasty food served there and various programs arranged for the tourists. It would be good for nature lovers to visit there for 3-4 days in any season.
Route we followed: Mumbai- Pune – Satara – Karad – Kokrud – Malkapur – Amba. Alternatively you can reach there by Mumbai- Goa highway via Devrukh.
It was nice hazy climate when we three friends, Amit (My self), Saurabh and Sachin started our journey from Mumbai to Amba on Friday morning. Saurabh had bought new Ford Fiesta just few days back and it was our first long drive by the car. I should mention here that the day we started was only the 10th day for Saurabh since the day he started learning to drive. But he did well throughout the travel. We picked up one more friend, Vaibhav from
View from hotel room
View from hotel room Vile Parle who was to company us till Pune. Before traffic could saturate the road, we left the busy city behind.
We took the first halt at foot court at Khalapur on Mumbai-Pune express way. Ofcourse it was gonna be journey with lots of halts. After delicious breakfast, we started for Pune. No need to mention that traveling by express way by new robust Ford car was a speedy experience. We were traveling by average of 130 kmph and once had reached 150 kmph also.
We took the second halt at Vaibhav’s home at Pune. After sipping wonderful coffee with cardamom flavor at his home, we started for the further journey by Pune – Bangalore highway (NH4). From Pune, we were to cover 257 KMs for Amba. Pune – Bangalore highway is awesome to experience a pleasure travel. The wide good condition road, the roadside beauty, the misty climate and the old RD Burman melodies in background together were adding delight to the journey.
Again before khambatki ghat, which comes after leaving Pune, we took one more halt for tea and performed some photo session. After this halt, Sachin took over the charge of driving for a
Devrai
Devrai, the dense, human cultivated forest change. We crossed Khabatki ghat and unfortunately we encountered with two incidents through which we escaped on the edge.
First incident was the front tyre of our car busted badly wobbling the car at the speed of 100 kmph. Sachin managed to control it and parked it aside. Without having known how to change the tire, after 45 minutes, we three somehow managed to change it and started the journey. Sachin was our team leader for this small assignment. But our bad time was still following us. Near Satara, while taking reverse on a narrow service road in the heavy rain, the car was about to fall into 8 feet deep channel. With the help of some localities, my friends pulled it out of the danger. Ohh….simply thanks God for these two escapes. I think Marathi proverb ‘ Teen Tigada kaam Bigada’ was coming true again and again. But after the second incident, till return to Mumbai on third day, God did not let the proverb come true.
In Satara, we had to buy new tyre, which we had replaced. All this tyre business had already caused late for us. After having lunch at 5 PM, we left
Friends
Saurabh and Sachin, my travel mates Satara and traveled non-stop till Malkapur. Though in the dark, this patch of traveling was pleasant due to chill climate, upshot of the rain. In this patch in the dark, we failed to spot one correct turn towards Malkapur. We went ahead in the wrong direction for a quite reasonable distance and had to come all the way back with the guidance of localites there. But none of these late causing reasons were bringing our enthusiasm down.
Finally, we reached the destination, Hornbill Resort, Amba at 10 PM in night versus 2 PM in the afternoon, we were supposed to reach at. The resort owner Mr. Sunil Gupte welcomed us and due to his very friendly approach, there was nice shoot the breeze, which lasted for long. He showed us the amazing act of fireflies (Kajve) which was for the first time in our lives. All those fireflies in an enormous quantity were glittering on all trees in a given range in a specific sequence. This was simply fantastic than any human organized light ornamentation. IT was a great coordination between those creatures.
Our dinner was ready with the barbeque on the bricks. We had a great tasty
Hotel
Hotel we stayed dinner and went in the rooms for a relaxed stay. The accommodation was simply fantastic.
When we got up next morning, it was drizzling outside. Coming in the balcony of the resort, we realized the beauty of the place. It was nice landscape view from the balcony and the drizzle of last two days had made the earth lush green and misty. Mr. Gupte served us with the tasty CKP type breakfast, which delighted everyone there. There were many tourists along with us who had come there for the stay. The tasty veg and non-veg food served here is the specialty of this resort, which we experienced throughout all three days. While having breakfast, Mr. Gupte shared with us valuable knowledge about ecological chain and aayurvedic plants.
After breakfast, there was well-organized program by Mr. Gupte waiting for us. There were specially designed open jeeps for jungle safari through which we all traveled sitting on the top of the jeeps. Our first visit was to a place called ‘Devrai’ which is very old human cultivated forest with many medicinal and fruit plants in it. It is dense forest and we could feel the real pleasure of a trail simultaneously
Jungle safari
Safari on the top of jeep gobbling the fruits like medicinal Nerale Hannu (Jambhul), Karonda berries (karvanda) and juicy mangos. There was guide from the resort to give us information about the place. After ‘Devrai’, we visited Emu farm and tea gardens. Traveling on the scenic roads of Amba village amidst green meadows, sitting on the top of jeeps with the cool breeze coming across was a wonderful experience that we had never ever had before.
We came back to the resort and once again had tasty lunch. After lunch, we along with other tourists, immediately started for ‘Pawankhind’, the historical place in the era of Shivaji Maharaj renowned for the bravery of the great warrior Bajiprabhu Deshpande. The tar road passes through the dense forest but unfortunately the road condition is not so good. While traveling to the place, the pouring rain started adding thrill to the journey. To reach Pawankhind, one has to park the vehicles at one place and from there one has to descend for half n hour on a bit tough route. But the heavy rain and we all without windcheaters could not manage to see the historical place. It was slight disappointing moment for everybody. Better luck next time.
Hotel room
Hornbill resort room While returning from there, we took a small halt at one typical village house and had tasty tea in the serene ambiance there. All these small moments count for a true nature lover. Drenched in the rain and with shivering bodies when we reached back the resort, Mr. Gupte had kept garma garam kanda bhaji and tea ready for us in view of that. It was really nice of him.
At night, again we had the tasty dinner along with Mr. Gupte having some clued-up talks. Next day morning after having typical CKP type tasty breakfast (Pohe and Sabudana khichadi), we started for Kolhapur, which is 65 KMs from Amba. One thing to mention here is Hornbill resort is worth visiting for its location, chill climate, many good places to see around and of course very friendly approach & personal attention of Mr. Gupte towards all the tourists.
With 2 hours of journey, we reached Kolhapur and had nice mukh darshan of goddess Mahalakhsmi. After darshan, without spending much time in Kolhapur, we started for Mumbai by Bangalore – Pune highway. This national highway deserves appreciation for its construction and maintenance, which makes your journey worthwhile. We reached
Safari
Ready for jungle safari Pune at around 7 PM and picked up the same friend we had dropped while coming. Finally, we entered into the busy city, Mumbai at around 10 PM, though unwillingly but at the same time fixing the dates of next such trip.
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