The magic of Matheran..😍😍😍😍😍😍
Monsoon diaries - Matheran.....a heaven abode...
I have heard a lot about Matheran and it's serene beauty. It always made me wonder ..was it over hyped or it deserved more recognition and appreciation???....True to its name....matheran ...the mother of forest embraces you with so much love ...you don't feel like leaving this place which is filled with so much of beauty...it had been one of the best family trip so far ...
We started from Pune on 7 July 18 in our Maruti Breeza. I was bit casual since it was just 100kms away from Pune and it would take hardly 3hrs to reach the place. But I didn't anticipate the palki procession and we got stuck in Pune for nearly 2hrs. We hit the express highway by 1230pm(left home @1000hrs).
Driving in the express highway in a monsoon is altogether a different experience. We crossed Lonavala and then took an exit from the highways , drove down to kapoli-neral-matheran. The roads were good and one could constantly maintain a speed of 60-80km/hr after exiting from the express highways. There's are lots of tea shops and hotels where you can have a break and have hot 🌽 corn. It's amazing to have something hot when it's raining cats and dogs.
We reached Neral and Matheran was some 10-12kms from there. The road which leads to Matheran is a narrow but well maintained road. If you are going on a weekend you may come across a lot of traffic and the local vans will be parked along the road. We have to drive carefully since the driving of the local drivers are quite rash.
Enroute to Matheran there were many beautiful small waterfalls. During weekends you will not have space to park your vehicles. Patience and parking go hand in hand in Matheran. They have a huge parking space at dasturi point and all you need is patience to get a space. We easily got a space inspite of heavy rain and congestion.
Remember Matheran is the smallest hill station in Maharashtra and only hill station in Asia where vehicles both two wheelers and four wheelers are not allowed. We need to get an entry ticket for adults and children above certain age group.
Though the toy train route becomes restricted during Monsoon , I would strongly recommend you to take the toy train from the lodge station to matheran city and come back by walk along the train tracks. It's an amazing experience.
We planned for a overnight stay so we had enough time for going around Matheran. People who want to do a one day trip, I would suggest you to reach Matheran by 10am. You will get plenty of options for staying and the price is slightly expensive during the weekends. You will get a pretty decent accomodation for 1.5k-2k. MTDC's accomodation are well maintained but expensive. But the first one you need to do after reaching there during Monsoons is to buy a raincoat and a cap which you get for Rs 60.
We had a wonderful stay and checked out around 9 am on Sunday morning. Always be sure about your check out whenever you book an accomodation in Matheran. We then had some good food in the MTDC's cafeteria. Here the food is tasty and you do get variety in both veg and non veg. The price is almost the same everywhere in this hill.
We had two options for sight seeing , one is going on horses and the other is hand cart.We preferred to take horses. The rate list is put on the parking slot near dasturi. You can always bargain. It's more to do with the circles and the number of points they show you. We had a deal of rs 2k for each horse for nearly 14 points. We never regretted that since both my wife and child enjoyed the ride in rain. Superstar and Joy wwere beautiful and we'll behaved horses.
The climb is of moderate difficulty and one can cover all the points if you are travelling with your friends. With child or an old person i would suggest you to take a horse. Try not to over stay at the view points since you need to cover a lots of points which are far away from each other. Enjoy the serene nature , click photos and then keep moving. There are so many breathtaking views you will witness. Never miss Louisa point , Charlotee lake, sunset point , monkey point , Lord point , king George point , Malang point. There are definitely other beautiful view points too. So plan accordingly so that you will be able to visit maximum view points. There are plenty of tea stalls near the view points but don't let the your time consumed by tea stalls and corn stalls.
Though we all got wet in rain inspite of rain coats but we truly and fully enjoyed the sightseeing and the splendid views and gifts of nature. Surely this is a place to visit in monsoon and you will enjoy every minute spend on this little hill of Maharashtra. My daughter was never in a mood to leave Matheran. We had to force fully get her out from there. It's not over rated, it's a beautiful place to go and spend a day or two with your loved ones.As a responsible persons let's not litter around and pollute the place. So don't wait for the monsoon to get over, what are you waiting for ? Pack up and move.... Happy and safe journey guys
I have heard a lot about Matheran and it's serene beauty. It always made me wonder ..was it over hyped or it deserved more recognition and appreciation???....True to its name....matheran ...the mother of forest embraces you with so much love ...you don't feel like leaving this place which is filled with so much of beauty...it had been one of the best family trip so far ...
We started from Pune on 7 July 18 in our Maruti Breeza. I was bit casual since it was just 100kms away from Pune and it would take hardly 3hrs to reach the place. But I didn't anticipate the palki procession and we got stuck in Pune for nearly 2hrs. We hit the express highway by 1230pm(left home @1000hrs).
Driving in the express highway in a monsoon is altogether a different experience. We crossed Lonavala and then took an exit from the highways , drove down to kapoli-neral-matheran. The roads were good and one could constantly maintain a speed of 60-80km/hr after exiting from the express highways. There's are lots of tea shops and hotels where you can have a break and have hot 🌽 corn. It's amazing to have something hot when it's raining cats and dogs.
We reached Neral and Matheran was some 10-12kms from there. The road which leads to Matheran is a narrow but well maintained road. If you are going on a weekend you may come across a lot of traffic and the local vans will be parked along the road. We have to drive carefully since the driving of the local drivers are quite rash.
Enroute to Matheran there were many beautiful small waterfalls. During weekends you will not have space to park your vehicles. Patience and parking go hand in hand in Matheran. They have a huge parking space at dasturi point and all you need is patience to get a space. We easily got a space inspite of heavy rain and congestion.
Remember Matheran is the smallest hill station in Maharashtra and only hill station in Asia where vehicles both two wheelers and four wheelers are not allowed. We need to get an entry ticket for adults and children above certain age group.
Though the toy train route becomes restricted during Monsoon , I would strongly recommend you to take the toy train from the lodge station to matheran city and come back by walk along the train tracks. It's an amazing experience.
We planned for a overnight stay so we had enough time for going around Matheran. People who want to do a one day trip, I would suggest you to reach Matheran by 10am. You will get plenty of options for staying and the price is slightly expensive during the weekends. You will get a pretty decent accomodation for 1.5k-2k. MTDC's accomodation are well maintained but expensive. But the first one you need to do after reaching there during Monsoons is to buy a raincoat and a cap which you get for Rs 60.
We had a wonderful stay and checked out around 9 am on Sunday morning. Always be sure about your check out whenever you book an accomodation in Matheran. We then had some good food in the MTDC's cafeteria. Here the food is tasty and you do get variety in both veg and non veg. The price is almost the same everywhere in this hill.
We had two options for sight seeing , one is going on horses and the other is hand cart.We preferred to take horses. The rate list is put on the parking slot near dasturi. You can always bargain. It's more to do with the circles and the number of points they show you. We had a deal of rs 2k for each horse for nearly 14 points. We never regretted that since both my wife and child enjoyed the ride in rain. Superstar and Joy wwere beautiful and we'll behaved horses.
The climb is of moderate difficulty and one can cover all the points if you are travelling with your friends. With child or an old person i would suggest you to take a horse. Try not to over stay at the view points since you need to cover a lots of points which are far away from each other. Enjoy the serene nature , click photos and then keep moving. There are so many breathtaking views you will witness. Never miss Louisa point , Charlotee lake, sunset point , monkey point , Lord point , king George point , Malang point. There are definitely other beautiful view points too. So plan accordingly so that you will be able to visit maximum view points. There are plenty of tea stalls near the view points but don't let the your time consumed by tea stalls and corn stalls.
Though we all got wet in rain inspite of rain coats but we truly and fully enjoyed the sightseeing and the splendid views and gifts of nature. Surely this is a place to visit in monsoon and you will enjoy every minute spend on this little hill of Maharashtra. My daughter was never in a mood to leave Matheran. We had to force fully get her out from there. It's not over rated, it's a beautiful place to go and spend a day or two with your loved ones.As a responsible persons let's not litter around and pollute the place. So don't wait for the monsoon to get over, what are you waiting for ? Pack up and move.... Happy and safe journey guys
Comments
Post a Comment