Coastal Maharashtra-Bangalore to Pune !!

The most awaited road trip of the year came around after wrapping up work to to double the hours and triple to energy. Finally, it was closing of 24th evening and I was ready to start packing. Camera checked, sun-glasses checked, cash checked, car pre-travel check-up done and dump the travel bag with minimum clothes. A jacket to save the cold nights. We have a list of places to visit, no direction and no booking. As always this makes a trip to look forward to.

We start From Bangalore at 3AM 25th December. Merry Christmas Everyone. We put the GPS on action and hit the highways. We took the Neelmangala exit and headed through Tumkur, Sira and Hiriyur. On the way, tea stalls and a quick stop at a Kamat Upachar and started right onto the most loved Chitradurga food at the Green House Motel. It comes of the left side on the highway after the stream of Windmills on the National Highway.We always make it a point to stop for food there for the amazing Puri-Saagu and Idli and awesome tea. It has the amazingly clean loo.

The road remained awesome and deviating from a 2,4,6 lanes till Haveri and Hubli-Dharwaar.

From Dharwaar we took a left down road towards the Malvan Beaches via Belgaum and Sawantwadi.

Sawantwadi is a small town for an afternoon laze. We had some small food and loitered around till late evening by the lake to sip some tea and coffee. Around 7pm, tired as we were, we left for Tarkarli. We were in Tarkarli by 8pm with a total travel time.

In the next part of the blog, I will just put the high notes of must do and must eat and cut down of the long blabbering of mine.

Trip Details:
24th December 2014 - Bangalore to Chitradurga
24th December 2014 - Malvan Evening by the Jetty with Seafood and fishing town hangout
25th December 2014 - Tarkarli, Devbaug and night drive to Ratnagiri
                                     These beaches are not for visitors in a way and being so close to Goa, it is very different. Devbaug is a fishing town lined with resorts and boating arrangements. Local food in the small shops provide lip smacking lunch and dinner. We took a round in the beach, had food and moved out. Roads are extremely narrow and buses drive bad.
26th December 2014 - Ratnagiri, Ganapathipule, Are-Ware Beach and Sight the dolphin experience on the way to Ganapatipule.
27th December 2014 - Mahabaleshwar, an experience of beautiful weather, amazing strawberry field and the beautiful Pratapgarh Fort

28th December 2014 -  Panchgani, Wai, Drive to Karla, Panchgani remained a drive from Mahabaleshwar, a small flowery town on the hills. Beautiful and picturesque. Wai completely broke my heart as I had very high hope on the beautiful architecture of the Temple on the River. It was dirty and the town was stinking. There are no place to stay and no body even consider staying there, such is the environment.

29th December 2014 - Karla Cave, The drive to Karla caves was wonderful throughout the night. The mountains and the rocks are so beautiful that one must visit to understand how underrated India is when it comes to beauty of nature. It puts the Yellow stone National park to shame. We reached Karla very late and stayed in the Youth Hostel there. Karla Caves are another wonderful architecture that is ill maintained and not taken care of by the tourism department. The beautiful cave is destroyed due to errosion and unaware tourists who litter and dirty the facilities.

30th December 2014 - Lonavala, Khandala,Pune. From Karla, we drove to Lonavla and found it just an overhyped rainy town with nothing to do much other than the weather and a few view points. From there, we drove fown to Pune. The roads were good, the drive was a great experience and the tunnels were amazing.We reached Pune to stay with a friend and her loving family at the Gymkhana Club vicinity. We had a great family time on the 2nd last day of the year.

31st December 2014 - Pune has been the hangout for 31st December. We went to Malaka Spices and had our beer and brunch. What a start of the day. After the lazy lunch, we headed to shop and see the Osho Meditation Centre and a few shopping places followed by Parties to bring about the new year at a friend's farm house.

1st January 2015 - It was Pune visit to meet friends and family in Pune. We called everyone to the infamous German Bakery and had a wonderful evening.
2nd January 2015 - Left  Pune in the midnight and drove back to Bangalore.

We covered a total distance of 2790 kms.