Road Trip - Day 1 !!

Wedding-cum-Road Trip (Day 1) !!

It was marriage of two of our friends’ in 2 different locations in Maharashtra; 1 being in Pune and the other in Kolhapur !!

It was couple of weeks ago we had started to plan this whole trip and the 1^st wedding being on Saturday and 2^nd on Monday gave us ample of time to make this trip a marriage-cum-travel tour.

We had decided to go by road and thus it was going to be a Road Trip!!

So on Friday it was decided that 2 cars would go from Navi Mumbai, and the 3rd from Thane. We would start from Nerul, Navi Mumbai at around 7 am and then pick people on our way and meet our friend in Ghansoli, Navi Mumbai and the 2^nd car along with some other friends would catch up in Thane.

I and my best friend, Sujata work in night shift so for us, we would come back home, change and get ready for the journey!!

I reached home in Nerul at around 6.30 am and started doing a quick check on things I have packed and after a warm of coffee followed by and a quick shower.

I was all set and waiting for Rahul, who was supposed to pick me up from Nerul and then moving forward to pick up Nitin and Sujata from Juinagar and Sanpada respectively.

Once we all were in car, we geared up towards Ghansoli, with music blasting through the speakers.

After covering 8.7 km via Thane-Belapur road we reached to Ghansoli where we met our next friend – Snehal who came there with his car and then we proceeded towards Thane.

We drove off to Thane covering almost 13.5 km continuing via Thane-Belapur Rd where we had to wait for remaining people to join in.

Almost 30 minutes later, all the 3 cars started to en route towards Malshej Ghats, singing aloud and enjoying the music on the top of its volume.

On our way towards Malshej Ghats, along the NH-222, around 10 am, we took a halt to have our breakfast wherein we tasted yummy and spicy Missal at a small roadside Dhaba.

Once our tummies were filled in, we drove off the remaining road towards Malshej.

It was around 11 am we reached to a point on this beautiful Ghats, where the view was picturesque. The roads with sharp turnings, the valleys so deep and full of jungle, you feel close, very close to nature, the high mountain top, the way some points alongside this ghat are designed, makes you wait almost every such stop and click pictures!!

beautiful road with steep turning

pic courtesy: Snehal (clicked by : Canon 600d)

mesmerized by its beauty

Since we were running off time to reach a wedding destination, we just took a halt at 1 place and the rest ghats we just let our eyes savor the treat of beautiful scenery.

Around 2 pm in the afternoon, we reached Ozar.

The Vigneshwara Temple or Vighnahar Ganapati Temple of Ozar (also spelt as Ojhar or Ojzar) is a Hindu temple dedicated to Ganesha, the elephant-headed god of wisdom. The temple is one of the Ashtavinayaka, the eight revered shrines of Ganesha in Maharashtra, India. The Ganesha form worshipped here is called Vigneshwara. Ozar is prescribed to the seventh temple to be visited in the Ashtavinayak circuit.

Once we reached Ozar, we headed straight to the changing rooms wherein we can change to our wedding attire, which was followed by lunch, some photo session, and some gossips within our group.

It was around 5 pm in the evening we decided to leave the wedding venue and do some sight-seeing.

We headed back to our cars and started to drive towards Lenyadri.
Lenyadri represents a series of about 30 rock-cut Buddhist caves, located near Junnar in Pune district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Cave 7 is a famous Hindu temple dedicated to the god Ganesha. It is one of the Ashtavinayak shrines, a set of the eight prominent Ganesha shrines in Maharashtra. 26 of the caves are individually numbered. The caves date from between the 1st and 3rd century AD; the Ganesha shrine situated in Cave 7.

It was fun doing a small trek whilst climbing around 350 odd steps before we could do the darshan.

While moving up you could see there are men who would carry people in dolis, older people who cannot climb or people who have some difficulty in climbing. They charge you for around 700 bucks for single round trip.

Once you climb up, the view from there is spectacular! You can literally see the whole village down there, the tiny roads, the perfectly crafted fields, and small houses..

The best view was of the sky.. Beautiful in multiple colors of pink, yellow, and blue..

Around 7.30 pm we started our way to climb downwards.

From there, we started off our way to the wedding house in a small village in Pune – Dumbrewadi.

Around 8.30 pm in the night we reached our friend’s house, a 2-storey bungalow, newly constructed and yet to be done interior designing with.

He walked us through the house and I halted at the gallery on the first floor of the house and saw across the tiny kuccha road. The view was breath-taking! It were fields of onions and sugarcane which were spread for kilometers. And in the darkness which hovered above the earth, there were millions of stars, twinkling which seemed like a bed-sheet for our planet earth.

I was left in awe by the view. I couldn’t take my eyes off the stars.

I came back inside to get fresh and change into pajamas and wanted to rest for a while, as it had been more than 24 hours now i had caught some sleep.

Around 10.30 I and my friend Sujata were called for dinner. Next to the bungalow was a small mandap where thin plastic sheets were spread and people were served food.

I sat next to Sujata and we were given plastic plates and glass of water and one by one people came to serve us food. The dinner consisted of Pulav, Puri, Bhaji, and home made ladoos.

After the dinner, we went for a small walk alongside the fields.

We stopped by a field where our fellow friends were smoking and I pulled my jacket around me tighter, for there was a chill in the air.

I was still looking at the sky full of stars and i wondered how beautiful it was.

Around midnight, we dozed off only to catch up some sleep as the next day was going to be a long, full day drive with full of fun and adventure..

More of day 2 and day 3 coming up in the following posts.. Stay tuned..!! :)