Khandala – The Weekend Paradise

Lonavala – The Travel Bug Has Bitten Me! – That was the blog I wrote when I went on my trip to Khandala and Lonavala. So don’t you want to know what I did at Khandala? It is thrilling to go through this experience of going to a place, and then writing about it and then having people from far and wide reading it, and giving their impressions and opinions. It is good to have an extended family to whom you can communicate on a regular basis. Thank you readers, and thanks for all the feedback that you give and make me write better.

So what did I do at Khandala? First of all, the whole idea to go to Khandala was itself exciting. At my age isn’t it a great break to get away from schedule, leave the family behind and be yourself for a change. So after the lovely break that I got scheduled, we did leave finally. So at Khandala as you would have read in my other blog Lonavala – The Travel Bug Has Bitten Me! We halted at Khandala. At Khandala we decided to take a break and go round the place. We looked around a place to stay and actually found a small cottage cum lodge which gave lodging to females travelling alone. Wow! We just settled down into the Goan cottage and the lady in the house actually was more than pleased to give us hot Goan cuisine. What luck! So over a delicious lunch we planned the day. Firstly we needed to know what to see in Khandala. We went over to the resort next to the cottage and managed to get a pamphlet on Khandala. We read on that Khandala is around 100km from Mumbai and is at an altitude of 625m. The pamphlet went on to say that it is internationally renowned for its hilly surroundings and amazing scenic beauty. This nature lover’s delight is completely surrounded by majestic ranges of the Sahyadri Ranges. The waterfalls and the misty morning fog here are its major attractions. People who come here are said to fall in love with the place on first sight. It is the ideal getaway spot for all the Mumbaiites. The freshness of the air here is like a rejuvenation spot for them.

“Phew! That was quite a bit of reading.” I said after reading the entire thing. “I never knew that the place was actually a creation of the great Maratha leader Chhatrapati Shivaji.  To know that this serene hill station was actually under the Peshwa rulers?” Yes the catalogue we had brought was indeed very informative and gave us the full history of how the Peshwa ruler lost power and gave the British a chance to take over the entire place.

“Wow! After all this, today Khandala is such a popular tourist spot.” Said Sandra. As we sat in the veranda of the cottage, we looked at the green blanket that enveloped the entire area and in the far distance there was a trickle of water falling in between two mountains. The sight was breathtaking.

“So where do we go first?” asked Nisha. Lavi said we should go to the points first. All of us agreed and we set out. Our car and us made such a nice company that soon we were speeding off into the green expanse and into the open air. As we approached the Tiger’s point, the sheer beauty of the surroundings really overpowered our emotions. This fascinating zone is named thus because if viewed from the point, the valley looks as if a tiger is leaping into the valley area. So this point is also known as the Tiger’s Leap. This lovely panoramic view that we got from here was even more lovelier because of the arrangement made for tourists. There was a big hole through which we could view the entire valley. I threw a stone down and looked as it went rocking down and actually broke into many pieces. Wow! Some sight and wonderful at that.

Filled with excitement like small children, we were actually enjoying this breathtaking view and experience of a point in a hill station. Phew! We proceeded next to the next point – The Amrutanjan Point.

The Amrutanjan Point made me feel as if the whole area was going to smell of Amrutanjan – the antidote for a headache. ! Located at a great height, the view from this point was equally beautiful and I was so taken in by the fact that in spite of visiting this place a hundred times, the feel is different when you visit it with friends. Amrutanjan point also gave us a view of the Duke’s Nose. The entire city of Khopoli was seen from the point. Oh how nice the view was from here and how I wished we had a cottage on top of the point. All day, I would sit back and enjoy the beautiful view I thought.

It rained lightly and the rain pattering on our heads we made our way towards the car. We splashed rain that splashed on the car on each other, got ourselves dirty and went back to childhood. Yes, it was a breakaway feeling to do things you shouldn’t do, at this age. Khandala was indeed fun.

The car sped past the trees, the green expanse and the idyllic ambience and made us feel like we were walking through heaven. The entire beauty was hypnotizing and it was like we were Alice and we were speeding past wonderland. We went to the Reversing Station after Amrutanjan Point. This station which once belonged to the Railways was a deserted and unused place. Tunnel No.26 lay outside the rail route which we reached. We could see the Khopoli city again from here. Khopoli lies at the base where the road to Khandala begins so is easily visible from everywhere. The whole area presented itself like a beautiful green velvety cover which was unbelievably true. I guess if we had come here during night time and seen the lights flickering in the darkness of the night, our visit here would have been much more fruitful.

“We can do that next time Radhika.” Said Nisha when I told her that I wanted to see this whole place at night. It would look like Santa’s Christmas Town. Considering that I really wanted to see the sight, we took a decision to wait here till it gets dark and then see the sight, capture it on camera and then go back happier. We walked around and came across a man selling tea. We had the tea and some biscuits he had. We took in the beautiful surroundings listening to the birds chirp. As the sun set and the area turned darker we were getting scared but I was desperate to see Khandala the night beauty. Sure enough as the moon rose and the sun set the entire region seemed to switch on a beautiful blanket of glittering lights. Wow! The sight sure was exciting and memorable. Even today, I thank Nisha, Sandra and Lavi for having waited to satisfy this childish desire of mine.

We came back to our good old cottage and had good homemade food given by Mrs. Lobo the owner of the cottage. Mrs. Lobo was really a very good cook and I wished I could take her back to Mumbai! Night over at Khandala and we were talking till late in the night. The sheer feeling of a night over away from routine was relaxing. As we snored our way to sleep, the morning crept in and we had to hurriedly wake up as we had plans to go to Karla caves.

Karla caves is around 16km from Khandala so we had a long ride to go. It is also reachable by auto rickshaw from Lonavala. Many people trek the area to Bhaja caves nearby. Buses also run between Karla and Khandala Lonavala. We took the auto rickshaw to Bhaja village. The lovely surroundings and the misty morning set the right mood for us to trek the entire cave area. Bhaja village was just waking up to the lovely mystical morning. And we loved the experience. Every bit of it. We started walking from Bhaja village. We had our knapsacks and water ready. I wasn’t sure if we could actually trek up. But there were many like us so we were consoled by the fact that people could be as crazy as us. As we walked we realized that the trek wasn’t going to as tough as we thought it would be.

“So what do you know about the Karla caves?” I asked a person who was trekking with us. She said that the caves were around 2000 years old and it is mainly made up of Buddhist architecture. It was built in the 2nd century BC and is famous as the best rock cut caves in the state of Maharashtra.

Feeling slightly peevish that I didn’t know so much, I hurriedly mumbled an OK to her and continued walking.  In around ten minutes we reached the Bhaja caves. Here we took rest and had some tea and refreshments. It was good to see the whole morning coming alive slowly. After enjoying the rest we continued walking and went around the Bhaja Caves. The lush greenery and the quietness around mesmerized us. The caves here are as old as 200BC. There were around 18 caves here. Out of these 10 caves are viharas. The entire feel was so good that my camera was just clicking away to glory. We reached Cave No.12 which is actually a chaitya. The tour guide was telling this to the group nearby. This chaitya had a dagoba. Then we walked on and saw a collection of around 14 stupas. There was a cave outside which these stupas were there. There were five stupas inside and around 9 outside the cave. As we reached the top of the cave zone we saw the Lohagad and the Visapur fort in the distance. We wanted to go there and planned to go there too. Bhaja Caves was a wonderful experience and we came back and continued walking.

We were tired but we were happy we could manage this trek. Finally we reached the Malavali railway station. This is the place where people take a bus to Karla caves. But we continued walking. We were now on the Mumbai Pune highway which we crossed. The road was over the railway track. We went on walking to the caves and enjoyed the surroundings. The birds flying overhead and the morning sun slowly creeping in through the trees rendered us completely weak and we were just slaves of Mother Nature that day. In an hour we reached Karla hill. There was a mini bazaar at the base of the hill. I picked up some trinkets for my daughter from here. Sandra and Lavi also picked up some. Nisha who keeps visiting this place wasn’t interested.

The lady next to us was grumbling that we have to be fast as she had kept an auto in waiting and she would have to pay extra otherwise.

“How much does it cost from Lonavala to here?” I asked her out of curiosity. “A good Rs.400’ she said.  We just smiled at each other at her expression and continued the climb up. After twenty minutes we were in the Karla caves. There was a pillar with three lions that greeted us. There was a temple of Goddess Ekveera on the other side. We looked at the lovely rock cut caves and realized what a treasure land India is. The Buddhist rock cut temple architecture was just an eye opener to us to make us understand the richness of Indian history. Karla caves is actually a Buddhist chaitya which got completed in the 80 BC. The 40m 15m high chaitya with its lovely motifs really was impressive.

“This might not be as impressive as the Ajanta Caves and Ellora caves but it still is a magnificent place.” Said Sandra. We agreed and continued to walk around.

We were quite pained to see the rubbish around and really felt like cleaning the entire place. But we had to get back and we hadn’t the time to do this. I decided one of the Sundays I could bring my environmental group here and get this done. We then went into the small cells and stood in the centre of the cave. The group of boys next to us let out a big “Ho” and immediately the entire “Ho” sound reverberated in the entire cave. It was so exciting. We let out an OM sound and the whole cave started shaking with the OM sound. Oh how exciting it was!

We continued walking through the caves, and saw the inscriptional records in the Brahmi characters. Breathing in the entire ambience and enjoying the beauty of the surroundings, we came back to the highway and took the auto rickshaw to the Bedsa caves. These caves were not as big as the Karla Caves. They lay on the other side of the road. Not much tourists were here but we were determined to come here to complete the tour of caves in Khandala. There was a huge hall and lion pillars in these caves. This is apparently the specialty of the caves. The pillars were very smooth and were shaped like lions or humans. The prayer hall was such that the sun rays would fall directly there. Karla, Bhaja and Bedsa caves were called “Leny” by the locals.

I was quite impressed with the sculpted history of India and wished to visit more such places. Slowly we took the auto rickshaw and edged our way back to the cottage. We had left our car behind as we didn’t know the way and neither did the driver. The whole day was spent in the Karla and Bhaja caves and we just relaxed in the evening listening to music and walking around in the area near the cottage. Night closed in and we had just more to do but we were exhausted, tired and slept a sound sleep.

The next morning we woke up and decided to have breakfast outside. We drove towards the Bhushi Lake. Bhushi Lake was the most peaceful place I ever saw in Khandala. The tranquil surroundings and the absolutely crystal clear water of the lake gave the reason why this was a much favored spot by tourists.

Next morning we decided to go to visit all the forts. We first went to Rajmachi fort. We had to drive down to reach Rajmachi. As we entered the fort we could see how old it was and we knew it belonged to the Yadav period. We had read it somewhere.

“There are two more attached to this fort – The Shrivardhan fort and the Manoranjan Fort. As we drove up to Rajmachi we saw the dense forests that covered the area and the deep valleys that lay below. Taking in the ancientness of Rajmachi Fort we proceeded further and went to the Shrivardhan fort.

Shrivardhan fort was again another ancient fort with the Bhairavnath temple nearby. As we reached the entrance of the fort, we saw the posts that were meant for the watchmen. The uniqueness of the entrance was that it was semicircular in shape. This was so that in earlier days, the enemies couldn’t locate the fort entrance easily. As we walked we saw a cave belonging to the Buddhist period. The feel was so mesmerizing. The Ganesha on the door and the water tanks revealed that there was a Maratha style of architecture too that existed here. These water tanks are perennially full of water. There were people living within the fort. There were guards who lived at the other end of the fort. We saw some other forts from Shrivardhan fort. They were the Lohagad, Visapur, Tungi and Nagfani forts. Our driver had told us to look out for them. Indeed the history of India and Khandala forts had a lot of connection.

Impressed by the fort history we then reached the Manoranjan Fort. This was near the Bhairavnath temple which means that the temple lay between the Shrivardhan fort and Manoranjan Fort. As we entered the Manoranjan fort, we saw the ruined entrance and also the ancient watchmen house that were used earlier. Here we saw a lake. Apparently this place also had water all the year round. There was rock which divided the beautiful lake into two parts. One could walk through this and go right across. We didn’t try it instead we went ahead and saw the other forts which could be seen from here. The forts of Pali, Karnala, Matheran, Nagfani etc. were seen. We knew the names of the forts thanks again to our driver who had asked us to see these from the respective forts.

The next fort we visited was the Visapur fort. Situated near the Lohagad fort this plateau land was beautiful. The walls here were filled with lovely intricate designs and they were extremely well maintained.

“Impressive isn’t it that in spite of heavy rains, the designs haven’t got spoilt” observed Lavi.

“What is this?” I asked pointing at a ruined structure. A person nearby told us that it was the earlier guard’s residence. Then we saw the gun turret. This was made of copper. Visapur and Lohagad forts were nearby. ‘

There was a local walking by and we asked him if he knew anything about the fort. He replied in Marathi that legend has it that there was a brave woman who actually crossed this entire valley on a rope.

Lohagad near Visapur fort was next. This fort belonging to Shivaji was actually used to keep the prisoner’s way back in the 15th century. The fort was taken over by Shivaji in the year 1670 and later in the year 1751, the fort was witness to the incarceration of Gaikwad and Dabhade family. It was all written in the catalogue on these forts that we had. As we entered the fort, the spectacular entrance enthralled us. The fort had three entrance gates. They were placed one next to the other. The first entrance or the Delhi gate as it was named was beautiful and the third one was extremely exquisitely constructed. The third gate led us to the guard’s post. There was an arrangement here to keep the gun. The beauty of construction of the gate was such that if a gun was fired from top, then the enemy at the first gate would be hit. We were quite amazed at the intelligence of those days.

“Hey there is a cave here too.” Said Sandra. As we saw the cave outside the fort, we assumed that it was maybe the granary that was mentioned in the catalogue. We saw a tomb here and also a Shivling. Praying here we proceeded to see the tank of water here. The water tasted sweet. This storehouse of water was believed to be built by Nanasaheb Phadnis. Yes I had read about it. Wow! It was nice to see what you have read about. We saw a plaque with illegible writing.

“Hey do you know that the style of writing on the walls is known as Vindhukta?” asked Nisha. “My father told me.” We saw that the Vindukhta type of writing was like the fangs of a scorpion and maybe is so named. This was the fort where Shivaji Maharaj kept his treasures brought from Surat. I read out from the pamphlet we had.

Quite an experience I said to myself and then we reached the next fort which was the Tunga fort. This was to the south of the Lohagad fort and has a jutting rock jutting out into the sky as its unique feature. There was dam here and this was the Pavana Dam. So we actually took the motor boat from the Pavana dam. There were many who were climbing the fort but Tunga Fort is a difficult climb up. The slippery roads could be dangerous for my broken knee so I decided to take the boat. We sailed through the waters of the Pavna Lake. The mystical surroundings just grew into us.  As we walked around the fort we saw the Mahadeo temple here. So much history, so much religion and so much of the past. It was a wonderful experience. It is said that this was Shivaji’s watch tower fort. This was the place from where the other forts were also watched over.

So forts over, temples over, lakes over and Khandala over. Sad but true, the trip was coming to an end. But more to see as we had to proceed to Lonavala. So readers, this is how we reached Lonavala after a lovely tour of Khandala. Please do read my blog on Lonavala – The Travel Bug Has bitten Me.! It is what we did after we left Khandala.

A word to the Diary – Falling in love with Khandala.