Bhandardhara

10-12 Sept was a rare long weekend for me and i was despo to make it count...but my big boss was all ready to play spoil sport. Finally, I managed to work on 1 holiday and save the rest 2 for my big plans.
After days of planning we finally (on the last night) decided to visit this small village called Bhandardhara, some 185 kms from Mumbai. I booked the cab, sent invites but kept the hotel booking open.
We left early @7:30 to avoid traffic and were glad to find the roads empty.the feeling was good and it was all building up when after only bout 30 mins driver stopped on mid highway to inform us that his tank is empty!!! but we were lucky enough to stop right in front of the sole petrol pump for some distance and needed to push the cab just across the road...
after taking a 15-20 min break we were on our way again acroos the beautiful lush green western ghats. after bout 2.5 hrs of more driving we finally reached the village at around 11ish.

Looking for a place to stay, we were lucky enough (yet again) to be informed that there is a provision for camping by the lake side + camp fire. w/o much doubts we finalized it, caught a glimpse of the breathtaking view of the lake, hired a guide and left off to cover the points.

After a couple of points we reached the highlight of the trip..the spillway..always knew their is a provision in dams to drain excess water once the reservoir is full. but never knew that this provision is so accessible and so beautiful. we immeditely tacitly decided to jump into the water w/o caring for the rest of the day. the view of an entire reserviour at yr eye level and u at the edge of the overflowing it. we enjoyed for some 1-1.5 hrs. i was yet again lucky when i dropped my specs in running water but thanks to madhu whose keen eyes located it..the trip would have been a disaster w/o my eyes.

rest of the points were pretty routine though the sight of greenest hills and bluest water kept us in awe all the time. we returned to our tent location by 4:30. saboo and i decided to shop for tent essentials like coil, oil etc and also bought utensils to cook tea and maggi among other things.

post the erection of tents and dinner we lighted the bon fire and cooked tea. after a few rounds of antakshari it was poker time in one of the tents.

Its very rare when u wake up with a view of clean blue sea and green hills in front of u and one would like to capture the sight and the feeling for a long time. the next morning was truly refreshing. we cooked maggi on the bonfire as breakfast and went for boating in the lake. thanks to my rowing skills learned at mahabaleswar trip i enjoyed rowing the boat and surprized everyone with it!!
post that we again went to the spillway for second round of madness. we were soon exhausted but never less appretiative of the view the place provided.

finally, we left back for home by 2 pm. i was happy to be my old self after a long while and truly missed the place the next morning while travelling throught the madenning streets of mumbai!!