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Wanting to go to these places since 2009 (mentioned in my 2009 blog as well 😉 ) .. and finally could get it planned!!
Our only conditions before we left.. self drive and fill in as much adventure as we can !!
Mahabaleshwar- the place which produces 80%!o(MISSING)f the country's strawberries looked more like a strawberry town as we entered. Filled with mapro products all over and beautiful hills. Wasn't too green as it was of course summer but it had its own beauty.. Checked in to the Bella Vista resort and started our sight seeing right away. With kids of hyper energy levels, there is never a rest day 😉 All thanks to Google and their maps, we started our drive with Venna lake- a place kids would love for their horse riding and boating. And wanted to end the day with something easy and hence went to the Mapro garden. The highlights of this place - a video showing how they produce strawberry and its products, a store for all their products and the best part - awesome fresh fruit juice with cream and pizzzaas (and you can see them make it from scratch). The day
ended with a peaceful dinner at the resort as they had a kids play room near the restaurant 😊
The next day was allocated just for the hills- started with Kates point, Mahabaleshwar temple, Auther's seat, Elphinstone point, Pratapgad Fort and finally Mumbai sunset point. The view points were beautiful view of the valleys from different angels and the fort is a must see in spite of its 300+ steps. For the mommies with little kids, you can get help to carry your kid all through at the bottom of the fort 😊 It happens only in India !! Mahabaleshwar derives its name from "Mahabal"- Mahabal and Atibal created huge disruptions in the world and Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh were prayed to release the world from their wrath. Vishnu killed Atibal, however Mahabal had the boon of 'death at will'. Hence, the gods requested Adimaya to charm Mahabal. Mahabal said to Adimaya that I will die in your hands only if the 3 Gods agree to reside on earth in our names. Hence, Vishnu in the form of Atibaleshwar, Shiva in the form of Mahabaleshwar and Brahma in the form of Koteshwar (The demon army) resided here.
And now
comes the best part of the M'war trip, as we were done with all the regular view point stuff, thought of doing something different and hence did some small search on google and went to the Tapola lake. We knew that it would be a good drive with good roads and greenery but didn't expect to land up in a rare taken road with the whole tapola lake just for ourselves. We could not see a soul and had the hills and lake just for ourselves. Amazing beauty!
The next day we left early for Khandala - Lonavla. Wonderful Zara resort, but were pretty disappointed as we were not aware that every place requires a trek to reach the place!! We managed the Bhaja caves 300+ steps with Jaggu carrying Vahin all through, but didn't have the strength for the Lohagod Fort, Karva caves and Pavana dam trek. We did see them all from a distance though and did try to drive until Pavana- but the road was atrocious and returned when we were 3 km away from the lake. This place is surely a treat for trekkers, and a good challenging drive for driving and nature lovers 😊
Thanks to Lions point, the kids got their share of horse rides, camel rides and maggi as we saw the sunset.
And now we were truly looking forward to our Lavasa stay. We have heard so much about the place and seen it on our Telugu Mahesh Babu songs 😊 that the kids were super excited.. As we were driving towards The Waterfront Shaw, we were so upset to see no water in the river.. just parked and entered the Promenade and were zapped. WOW! Truly amazing. What a sight to see.. hills, lovely water and the awesomely maintained streets. It was total fun and adventure the next 2 days with water sports, adventure sports- zip line, burma bridge, archery, shooting, cycling, driving around and our late night walks. Lovely street food and everything we could ask for to end our vacation with a bang!! The studio apartment on the water front let us put the kids to bed and walk down for a late night stroll as well!! Loved the place!
And with loads of memories and tons of pictures, we dropped the car back at the airport (the carzonrent experience was great too!) and got back
home with energy to surely last us for a few more months.. or at least until our next trip 😊
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