After a number of iterations, last minute to-go-or-not-to-go discussions we finally left for the outdoor with minimal expectations in our minds. The weather was cloudy and lovely breeze to give us a perfect start. We started early and the journey was two hours drive from Mumbai(110km). The journey made sure we could play songs as per all our respective choices with minimal fights amongst each other. On our way to Kolad we halted at Sai Palace near Imagica for a quick Vada-pav/Misal. Monsoon was already reaching its peak and the timing was perfect for a hot Vadapav to make the most of it. We had our reservation at Kundalika Resort and the check-in was at 5pm. Since we were to reach 12-ish ,we had researched some nearby places to make our trip worth!
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Bhira me Hira:) |
1)Bhira Dam was first in our go-to list and thanks to
Google Maps we landed on the unmanned end of it making it a
brouhaha moment. There were well cut stones arranged properly over a ramp in a systematic manner. The mountains were covered in dark clouds and the water below was absolutely calm making it a perfect place to forget our worries and allow ourselves to soak in the beauty of nature. With a couple of selfies here and there we left for our next destination.
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Brothers for life..... |
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Itnaaa bada hai Tamhini Ghat!!! |
2)
Tamhini Ghat: The en route to these Ghats was off track from our resort but due to sufficient time in hand we headed towards our next destination. There were plenty mini waterfalls all through the driveway in the Ghat and we realized the beauty of each of them basis the crowd thronging alongside each of them. It was as if nature was giving us a teaser/trailer of our remaining journey in bits and pieces. On our way we even had the ritual -
Bhutta(sweetcorn) and
tea. Our discussions ranged from business perspectives to office politics to burning social issues. The weather certainly played the role of distraction in between all these talks and unite us all for more and more photographs.
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House kum,tent jyada..hygienic & well maintained |
It was almost 3pm by then and since we were starving it was time we reach our resort to enjoy its hospitality. The pathway towards the resort wasn't too flashy and for a minute on seeing some far away bungalows we just wished if they were the ones we'd actually booked. Finally, we reached around 3.45 pm and the moment we entered the staff started explaining us all the activities they would conduct. Being price conscious we were skeptical of participating in all of them but to our pleasant surprise all of it were covered as a part of our package. We inquired for lunch but the team suggested we get the activities done first and later return to the resort for snacks. The rooms allotted actually gave a feel of staying in a tent from within and like a
pakka house from outside.
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Loving nature & its beauty..humbled |
There were a series of activities like
Zip-line,
Tarzan Sling and
Burma Bridge. All of them though were easy got our adrenaline pumping. It got us to cheer not only amongst ourselves but also for others who could do it successfully. To top it all,
kaya-king too was one of the activities. It was a very soothing experience we could witness the mesmerizing nature as we sailed over. Evening was further lightened up by
Treasure hunt. With some wet spells of moderate to heavy rains our appetite to play
Cricket too was royally fulfilled. We couldn't have asked for more. The night was yet to pass and we ended up playing cards till the time we were done and dusted.
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Task ki tayyari.....safety belts were a bit tighter but the pleasant weather made us smile:) |
Next morning we started early around 7.30am for our river rafting experience. Post a heavy breakfast of
Vada-sambar we reached near the
Kundalika river for another breath-taking experience. The trainers were a set of mixed bag from North/ Northeast and were debriefing all the minute details of rowing forward, backward, duct, stop, hold and some simple but effective life-saving techniques in their own funny diction. It was a group of 10 people on each boat and we were to do the acts in tandem and listen carefully to the instructions. It was very cloudy but wasn't raining and was acting like a dampener to our experience till then.
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After enough of Row forward....row backward....phew....a sigh of relief for the knights leading from the front |
We did a couple of rounds on still water to understand the instructions "Team, all forward he said and off we go......."
Then came the actual time to row across a series of
rapids. Interestingly all have got funny names (God knows who gave them so!) like
Morning Buddha, Hilton(we wondered if it was Paris Hilton the celeb or the hotel)
, Pumphouse, Fishermen(guess this was easy as fishes were been caught there!)
, ferocious
John Kerry(arghhhh...not sure if he exists) followed by
Rajdhani(presume the express). To add to our thunderous noise & cheer was the heavy rain which simply joined the party,uninvited. We literally motivated each other by shouting and attentively listening to our command of
"Row forward....Wait...Row Backward...Hold....Duct...and repeat..."
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Abhinav ka Swag!! |
Dharamveer (special mention of the heavy tongue trainer with matching sense of humour & vast experience) gave us this opportunity to let go of our fears and do bodysurfing for over 5 km stretch. Believe me guys, the feeling is priceless with many heads in water already taking oaths of coming there over and over(not sure how much would be true)! We covered over 16 km in less than 2 hours. After hauling the raft up (literally up on our heads) the riverbank, we descended on the nearby shacks like a pack of hungry wolves for our deserving
corn bhajias,vada-pav and cup(s) of tea smiling at each other (both known and unknown faces) for an unforgettable experience.
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Dharmveer leads like a boss |