Mahabaleshwar: Queen of all Hill Station

Sahyadri is like a heaven on earth. Touring any site of Sahyadri gives a lots of happiness and pleasure. It's always amazing to be in contact with nature, it teaches us lots of things. So we decided to visit Mahabaleshwar which is also known as the Queen of all hill stations. This trip was more special for me because after along time I was travelling with my parents. So as per planned date we left our dwelling at night around 10pm, we sat in bus and arrived at our destined hotel at morning 7:00Am. We were lodging in hotel called Hirkani garden, the sunrise view from the balcony of our room was amazing. We had some refreshments and got ready for sightseeing as car was going to arrive at 9:00Am. 

View from balcony

Mahabaleshwar is situated in the heart of Sahyadri. The origin of many rivers is situated in Mahabaleshwar. So our first site was Panchganga Mandir, this mandir is said to be the origin of 5 rivers such as Krishna, Koyna, Verna, Gayatri and Savitri. The temple was constructed in the 13th century by Yadav king Singhandeo. The construction improvement of the temple took place during the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj era. The temple is said to be 4500 years old, and water from 5 rivers flows from the cow statue into the kund.  Then we visited Krishna Devi temple which is 1 km away from Pachganga temple. It is said to be the origin of the Krishna river. The architecture of temple is spectacular, one can find the silence and immense pleasure in being around the temple. The view from the temple is amazing, it just refreshes the mind. The Shivlinga in Krishna Devi Temple is situated on damru and the whole structure is carved out of single stone. Krishna Devi Mandir also has kund where water come from the statue of cow.

 

Krishna Devi Temple

View from Krishna Devi Mandir

Then we visited Arthurseat, Sir Arthur used to sit there and stare at the Savitri river in which his wife & child had drowned. After that we moved towards Tiger Spring Point, it is the source of pure water. The spring water is cool and safe to drink, in the past wild animals used it as a water hole. The climate was foggy so we were not able to see the view. Then we moved toward Kate's point, it is named after British governor Sir John Malcolm's daughter. It is another wonder of nature. This point is also known as elephant head or needle hole point because of the stones naturally postured in such a typical shape. Dhom dam as well as the peaks of Kamalgad, Pandavgad, and Mandardeo can be seen from Kate's point.

View from Kate's point

Then we went to a restaurant to have lunch. After lunch, we went to veena lake. I enjoyed horse riding and playing various games over there. The climate was foggy and little rain also started so we were not able to enjoy real beauty of the nature surrounding to the veena lake. Then we went to the main market for shopping. While returning from the market it started raining heavily. The climate became colder than we expected and no one had brought either a sweater or raincoat. After a while of reaching the hotel we went to have dinner and the 1st order was to bring some hot water for drinking because it was very cold outside.

The next day we departed toward Kas Plateau which is also known as Valley of flowers. It is part of the UNESCO world heritage site. The route through which we were traveling was "Raj Marg" which means the road which was used in older days by Shivaji Maharaj and many others for traveling. The view while traveling was awesome, one can see the Koyna river flowing through the Sahyadri ranges. There were many windmills along the way, and passing through the massive windmills gave an absolutely amazing feeling. After approximately 1 hour of traveling, we reached Kas Pathar. Even though September to October is the season flowers but there were not much flowers. When we were traveling back our driver who belongs to that locality told us that when the cow, buffalos, and bulls come over the plateau for grazing their poo or cow dung is a natural fertilizer for the flowers to grow as well as their saliva which remains over the grass helps the grass to grow more beautifully. But for the last few years, the Kas Management team has put fencing over the whole plateau so neither cows nor buffalos or any cattle come there for grazing so the flowers don't get the nutrition they need for blossoming and growing. It has also become a major reason for the extinction of rare species of flowers.

After Kas Pathar we moved towards the Lingmala Waterfall which was just 5 minutes away from our hotel. The waterfall comes from the Verna river. We enjoyed ourselves a lot at the waterfall. Its burble can be heard from the balcony of our room, the time we reached the hotel yesterday we were excited about this waterfall. The burble of water, sweet chirping of the birds at early morning was pleasant to listen.  After lots of enjoyment and spending quality time with my parents, we arrived at the hotel and had dinner. The next day we packed up our bags and started our returning journey toward our dwelling by the bus that we had booked.   

View while Travelling from Mahabaleshwar to Kas 

Base/odha of Lingmala waterfall

This trip taught me a lot of things. I learned how we can conserve the biodiversity of flora and many more. I really enjoyed it a lot with my parents, at least once a year we all should go on a trip with our parents. It is really a beautiful experience........