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Date: 15-16 Nov. 2001 Early morning at 6:15am we gathered at Our colleague(Milind) home since we were planned to drive his car to our Diwali Exploration along with him. We were 3 in numbers. Myself Rajan, Milind & Deepak. Due to Diwali vacation for 3 days, all we got a good opportunity to optimize our exploratory tour to Raigadh. We started at 6:30 AM from Andheri for Mahad. Raigadh was the capital fort of Raze Shivaji.
On the way to Mahad on can find some caves at Gandharpale village at National Highway 17. We reached Mahad at 11:30 AM & 20 KMs further from a Mahad (before 2 kms.) we reached Pachad at 12:15 PM We went by Raigadh Rope Way instead of climbing steps which leads to the main gate (Maha Darwaja) of the fort. Before startup you can see a little Museum & 20 min. video documentary about Raigadh fort. It took 2 hr. to explore almost complete fort including Takmak Tok, Jagdishwar temple, Samadhi & Sinhasan We were back to Pachad by 3:15pm.
From Pachad we started our journey to Mahabaleshwar via Poladpur. Poladpur is 17 kms. from Mahad. Further ahead 40 kms. is Mahabaleshwar. Our tire got punctured before reaching Mahad from Raigadh. Near Mahad petrol pump on the way to Poladpur we got it repaired. Before reaching Poladpur we charged our body energy at one roadside Dhaba. We left the place at 6:35 to Mahabaleshwar & we reached there at 8:15 p.m. Due to tourist season it took time to get a place to sleep for one night in a considerable rate. 1 km ahead there is a place called quarters where we decided to take rest. The atmosphere was not that cold. Around 8:30am on Friday we left the place to visit Mahabaleshwar Temple which is 6 Kms from Mahabaleshwar Bus Depot. On the way we found very scenic places. One can enjoy by visiting all those places popularly known as points. Since we were aware of such places we haven't visited instead prefer to return back from the temple. At 12:00 noon we started our return journey to Mumbai. One can see different views of Pratapgadh, another fort of Shivaji. If times permits one can visit this historic fort very nearby to Mahabaleshwar. While returning at the same Dhaba we had our lunch. At around 5:00pm we reached Karnala. Karnala is a famous bird sanctuary. Here the Jungle is protected by the forest dept. One can find only peak in this area to identify Karnala Fort. After cup of tea we spend 40 min to catch any birds glimpse in the surrounding. Inside the sanctuary we found all cages are broken with no birds inside. One way we were happy to find those birds are in their natural state since they might be part of the jungle. While returning we found one large barbet whistling with his peculiar sound. We reached Mumbai(Andheri) at 8:15pm. Route: Mumbai-Mahad-Pachad-Raigadh-Mahabaleshwar(via
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