Cycling in the Enchanting mahabaleshwar

Why we choose cycling?

To have a different experience  me and my friend decided to explore mahabaleshwar on foot. We stayed at the Maharashtra tourism development corporation guest house. On the first day we bought a map rom the local store and just discussed about the view points we can cover. From the map we inferred the nearest points are within a kilometre in range and started immiediately to the  Mumbai point-other name for sunset point .

                                                  The road to Mumbai point.

We reached in no time around 3:00 PM, spent some time there enjoying the sun waiting for it   to disappear when viewed from a hill. We lost patience at around 4:00 PM and realised our mistake. Because it is a sunset point , sun need not set whenever a tourist comes there and we are too early for that. So we sent on foot to our next view point – The lodwick point.

                                                 On the way to lodwick point

The road was good and  we walked the four and half km stretch from the Mumbai point and reached around 5:30 PM. We had some evening snacks sold by the vendors. We didn’t feel tired , thanks to the dense trees which shaded the road completely throughout the stretch of our walk. The lodwick point was named after the first person who set foot at the place in the year 1824 CE. We did have some spectacular views and having a good time with so many people around.  And then we visited the elephant point.

                                                                  The elephant point

Suddenly we realised people are leaving the spot and we too started our  return to guest house. Within no time it was dark and we are terrified to go back on foot, as the last man hinted about panthers visiting the area in night and nobody stays there. We have no other option at that time, as there is no mobile signal, and we asked our last man to send any vehicle to take us back. This is what prompted to hire a cycle for our next days expedition.

Deciding the route- the planning job

We studied the map individually and suggesting our ideas of how our trip should be as we are going to explore with cycle the next day. Mahabaleshwar is the most beautiful of hill stations in sahyadri range. The town is surrounded by deccan plateau in the north, Krishna valley in the east and venna valley in the south east, Blue valley in the south and koyana valley in the west and south west. We finalised on visiting some points in koyana valley – Elphinston point, Marjorie point, Monkey point , savithri point, Arthur seat etc., which will cover the entire west and also enroute the old mahabaleshwar, where there is a shiva temple and panchganga temple.

The Cycling expedition

In corporate terms the plan is now ready and we have to execute the plan and complete the project on in time for the customer satisfaction. Here the project is touring mahabaleshwar, and we are our own customers and also bosses. So we have to arrange all resources(cycle) for executing the project. We were very over ambitious about the project and hired a cycle previous day itself. The next day we started our cycling expedition at around 9:00 AM in the morning.

We started with our cycle and camera and headed straight to old mahabaleshwar. The roads were very good and after some time we decided to go into the trails away from the main road. We just deviated from the main road and we were now into the forests of mahabaleshwar, Birds crossing our path frequently , particularly the bulbul.

We encountered a baboon on the way and found there is no way out. We are in his place and we have to cross him to go further , without knowing what lies ahead. We remembered the previous day attack by the monkeys near the room in MTDC. After some time the baboon went away and we proceeded as if the signal changed from green to red in a busy traffic.

                                       the signal in the jungle- waiting for red

Having gone into the wild, we lost where we were. No mobile signal, no trace of any fellow humans, no trace of the main road which is only one km as per map, what to do now. We decided o simply follow the trails where it leads and finally reached the main road after an hour of cycling in the jungle. It is 12:00 noon and already we were feeling hungry, but there is no sight of any shops- you shouldn’t expect one in a jungle. Again one more doubt, which direction to go. Using shadows we located the direction and started our journey to the panchganga temple in the old mahabaleshwar.

Happy to see some hotels, we visited the shiva temple and panchganga temple and had our sumptuous meal and then headed to the aurthurs seat. Till now we were in the somewhat flat plains. Now we have to ride up the hill to see the koyona valley. My friend got tired and took too many stops to  take rest which made our journey a bit late. We reached there in the evening around 4:00 PM and once reaching elphinston point, we had huge satisfaction of making the trip memorable. All the other view points are nearby with each 1-3 kms apart and the terrain was also flat comparatively , we were able to reach arthur’s seat. Took some clicks here and there and found difficult to photograph against the background of sun. Then came the return journey. We remembered the previous day struck up in a jungle but now we had cycle but still less confident as the forward journey itself has taken the whole day. Again we were in the same situation, worst this time , it was dark , not even last man available to send taxi, no mobile signal and also tired. We took the map and saw only 2 km to reach old mahabaleshwar town. The two km journey was the toughest i ever had as i have to tope my friend also in the hilly terrain , he could hardly pedal the cycle at that time. We decided to put our cycles there and with the help of taxi reached our room in the cottage.