It was June 2012 and all planned that we are going to much awaited destination –Bhimashankar.
As always we don’t like to be part of crowd so instead of choosing Sat+Sunday we opted for Sunday+Monday. Also on Sunday morning I was appearing for my MPSC exams.
By the time I reached Bandra from Churchgate, Pravin and Dsu had also reached Bandra, and waited for Kamran while having some Mutton Samosa+Apple pie outside Lucky.
As always we were running late in our plan and by the time we left Bandra it was 3PM. It was me+Pravin+Dsu+kammo. Ateeq was waiting at vashi for us. We picked him up at around 3:30. And kept runnig on old Mumbai-pune highway. By the time it was 5 we were at Lonavala exit and suddenly we opted for Lonavala for night stay as it was lush green outside and we were not very sure about route to Bhimashankar. And we do not wanted to reach an unknown place in the wee hours, sleep till late noon and leave, without exploring much.
Our stay @ Hill Forest Resort made our decision of halting in Lonavala acceptable.
Next day we got up @ 9, enjoyed some time in swimming pool and check out of hotel @11 and went straight to Tiger hills. It was my first trip to Tiger Hills and it was an amazing climate with breath taking views. Perfect thing was the day being Monday- a weekday. No traffic, no rush, less crowd, so we took our time and breath to enjoy the climate at fullest.
But in the lush climate of lonavala we forgot our real destination –Bhimashankar.
By the time we left lonavala it was 3PM, and we took the PUne-Talegaon-Chakan-Dehu Road route.
The route was very internal but gave some very beautiful views of Chaskaman Dam and surrounding mountains. We reach ‘Blue Mor Mon’ Resort by 7PM. Although there was no rain in Bhimashankar but the climate was cool due to the extreme height the blowing wind was chilling. I liked the place I wanted to stay there,wanted to visit the famous Jyotirlinga, but need to reach Bombay back was on priority. So we decided to immediately move back to Bombay. Challenge was the route- via Malshej Ghat or via Pune,from where we came. We decided not to go back on the same route so we went ahead towards, Ghodegaon-Junnar. Halted at Ghodegaon for some food as the last time we had something was vada-pav @ Tiger Hills. Continued our journey straight but were in doubt whether to choose Malshej for night journey or not. Following our GPS we skipped way to Malshej and reached NH50( Pune-Nashik). From there we reached Pune Exp way and some hard-hitting drive by Kammo we were in Panvel by 12 midnight. Then we dropped everyone to their nearby feasible location in order- Ateeq(Vashi), Kamran(Bandra), Ameeth(Malad), Me(Kandivali) and priavin took the car to his home the last destination-Thane.
Date = 24 & 25th June2012.
Distance = 550kms(approx)
Fuel = 20 ltrs
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