From the land of Mackenna's Gold ~ Life through `mm'

If you have seen the english classic "Mackenna's Gold", you will know what I meant when you look at the pictures below.

"Good Friday" ride, this was not at all the planned one. I had a greater plan in place. A coastal ride on bullet to "Shrivardhan - Harihareshwar - Diveagar - Velas" for the long weekend. Everything was ready, bags were almost packed, just then my friend, who was to accompany with me for the ride, called yesterday Morning to cancel the ride, as he had a back-injury.

I won't say the plan is cancelled, I will say its postponed, as definitely we will revisit it soon.

So, about today's location.. any other year, I still would have preferred to keep it a secret. But now, over the period this place is known to many now. 5-7 years back, this place was absolutely raw, unknown .. is now a hot-spot for pre-wedding shoots, camping's, treks, monsoon-family-trips and a home to many under-construction resorts.

Couple of years back, I was here in monsoon and the sight of this place was pathetic. It was over-crowded. People, of all types were spread across. Many, had a loud music playing in their busses, cars and dancing around. Half of them drunk. I sweared not to come back again, though today I was.. :-)

This is the same place from where the now-famous, Andharban Trek starts. You will have to descend the valley and then walk in the usually dimly light forest in monsoon. I have heard about it, how thrilling yet beautiful it is. How rich the flora & fauna of it is. It's a Foggy-wet trek with lots of waterfalls in sight and many water-streams to cross, is a moderate level trek.

Last year, we planned, but had no courage to do it. Hopefully, this is the year, we will do it.

Pimpri / Plus valley, as it is known to many now is on a diversion road, just before the Tamhini Ghat. A rough road that takes you to Lonavala from here. 10 years back, we dared to go through this road, that too in monsoon. A very narrow path from the dense trees, with now mobile coverage. At times we lost our way, but the mighty Lohagad / Visapur helped us, for that lead us back to the express way.

We started our ride very early morning, around 5.30 am, as the distance to the location is almost 80km one way.

With no breaks at all, we reached the place just after 15-20 mins of sunrise. Summer have started its glory and all the landscape, already in golden colored, was shining with the golden-light of the morning light.

Thankfully, it was not crowded, only one pre-wedding shoot was rolling its camera's, we had the location all for ourselves.