Overnight Outing @Mahabaleshwar: Part Three

Day Three: 20.11.2017

We got up at 7am and got ready for the day. Today we ordered tea at our room. Our breakfast was just tea and biscuits. We visited Wilson Point, should have reached there early morning, but never mind. The next was Ganesh Mandir. Then we had to walk through the muddy terrain and through the bushes to reach Plato point. 

The grass was dry and there were two long benches to sit and view the surroundings. The next place in queue was Lingmala waterfall. We had to walk down some 100+ steps from the main gate. We were surrounded by greenery, there were boards displaying information of animals, plants, etc with their scientific names. At last, we reached the waterfall at 12pm. The atmosphere was calm and the voice of flowing water was so soothing to the ears. I sat on a big stone, with my legs crossed on a tiny branch. Others were wetting their legs in water. The place itself was giving out positive vibes. The waterfall indeed is a sign of going ahead in life, no matter how many boulders come in the path, way your way through them and finally meet the ocean.

Then we reached Parsi Point, viewed Table Point from there itself. Some enjoyed the strawberry icecream cone while some enjoyed at try your luck games. 

We had lunch at Hotel Gokul and then visited Mala's factory. There was a Taste Center for tasting different types of mock-tail flavors and juices etc. Then we bought chikki and masala chana at Mini's. Here again tasting different types of chikkis. The next on list was Mapro Garden.

It was beautiful with a variety of flowers and pot plants everywhere. There was a Mapro Car, Mapro Auto, Strawberry carriage, Marigold mountain, strawberry farm, etc. The Mapro Mart had a lot of stuff from variety of chocolates to juices to fudge to what not. Then we moved to Venna Lake for boating. 

"Row row row your boat gently down the stream,

Merrily merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream" 

The water was calm and the boatman was rowing the boat with oars. It was the typical old boat, not the ones with paddles or motor. Adjacent to the lake, there was horse riding point. But those horsemen were charging too much. Hence the idea was dropped. Some of us had tea at the stalls and some were again trying their luck at games. The last point was Sunset Point. We reached the spot, here again there were horses. Finally six of us did horse riding in couples. I was with Priya, our horse name was Online WhatsApp. 

It was my first experience to ride on any animal. The horse was calm and we enjoyed the ride. At the sunset point, there were many catching the sun photographs clicked. The weather was not clear, it was cloudy. Hence we couldn't view actual sunset since the sun was hiding behind the clouds. Then we relaxed at Kiran's room for some time and returned to our room. Again my dinner was Maggi, since I was bored to go back to the market for dinner. Then we did all the packing and realized that the numbers of bags had increased and fresh strawberries were yet to buy. Finally we dozed off instead of playing games.

Day Four: 21.11.2017

We got up early and got ready as fast as we could; ordered tea and had our biscuit breakfast. Done with all the room payment and formalities, we left the hotel and walked our way to the Neeta Volvo Stop passing through the market. The bus was already at the venue. We put in our luggage's and some went back to the market for buying strawberries. The bus left at sharp 09:30am. There was a 5 minutes halt between Mahabaleshwar and Pune. Then the bus drove straight to Neeta Inn, the same halt where we stopped on the way to Mahabaleshwar. Post that some passengers were dropped at Lonavala. Then the bus drove straight to Panvel. Here on the frequency of halts increased. The bus started getting vacant. Mohini and Priya got down at McD Kalamboli. The bus drove through the highways and finally cross the Vashi bridge, thus entering into Mumbai. The second lot: Kiran, Janki, Shubhangi, Rishika and Yojana got down at Sion. Now only Smita and myself were left, as always. The bus drove through the Western Express Highway, dropping passengers at their stops. Finally we got down at National Park stop, took a rick, dropped Smita at her home and then straight to Dahisar station. I boarded a Virar slow and reached home at 6pm. Here's a group photo:

Yojana, Kiran, Rishika, Smita, Mohini, me, Priya, Janki, Shubhangi

Days at Mahabaleshwar were spent just being myself and enjoying each and every moment with friends and clicking photos and videos and shopping. Like I started with the quote:

"Travel to gift ourselves much needed peace and refresh mind,

Travel to get away from worries and get closer to nature,

Travel to make yourself happen"