Jhunka Bhakri.. Offbeat Maharashtra, Weekend Getaway from Mumbai #TM2021

We started our much awaited weekend trip from Mumbai early morning at 5 am. We were a bunch of 20 travellers from super senior citizens to toddlers.

We crossed Lonavala by 7.30 am and then took our first break for washrooms and breakfast. We had carried packed breakfast so had that.

Washrooms were good at one of the petrol pumps enroute.

Next we reached Wai Ganpati by 11 am. It was nice sunny morning, Ganpati mandir was open and we had nice darshan. Had a small snack at local shop and went straight to Nana Phadnavis wada.

It is an ancestral house which is nicely maintained. It was just 3 kms from Wai temple and an offbeat place so not much crowded. It has a nice ghat as well, very clam and peaceful.

Nice spot for photoshoot as well, this location is already shown in many Hindi and Marathi movies and tele series. Latest being Man Bajind zala re marathi series

We left from there by 1 pm and started looking for dhaba or restaurant for lunch.

We found many on our way to Satara. Had nice pithala Bhakri and Mutton bhakri. They also showed us their sugarcane farms.

After lunch we started by 3.30 pm for Satara. The way was scenic full of greenary, windmills can be seen. Our next destination was Sajjangad, it also has Samadhi of Ramdas Swami.

We reached Sajjangadh by 6 pm, ideal time for Sunset. One has to climb for about 50 steps, easy climb, steps are not very steeply inclined. On top of fort there are few temples, some local shops for eating and having water or juice.

There are very good views from the fort, there is a temple towards end of fort as well. Dams, sunset, windmills, green lawns all can be spotted in 1 picture.

Lots of spots for clicking nice pictures, this place is also very less crowded on normal days.

We left at 7.30 and reached our hotel on Kaas road by 9.00

Freshned up, had dinner and retired for day

We woke up early since we all were exited to visit Kaas, valley of flowers.

We had our breakfast and started for Kaas, we reached by 8.30 am and started our exploration of flowers.

There were many ladies selling Bhakri and Thecha and Jhunka, their staple food. There were around 20 ladies, all of them had difference in taste, we liked them all. They also sell cucumber and water.

After spotting flowers and eating bhakris, we started for Bamnoli.

This Bamnoli lake is starting point for 6 different locations, since we were only on weekend trip, we choose to visit just 2 spots, 1 was triveni sangam which is meeting of 3 rivers and the other was a temple of lord Shiva. Its a spot at a distance of 30 minutes by boat. Before departing for these spots, we did order our lunch at one of restaurants. All the restaurants serve Veg and non veg thalis, in non veg go for Mutton Thalis.

The temple has a short cave inside, one has to go through that tunnel to reach temple.

We came back after 2.5 hours hungry and happy.

Finished our lunch and started our journey back by 4.30.

We reached back by 11.00 pm, a very well spent weekend away from crowded locations around Mumbai.

This place has many other spots to visit, one can even plan for 3 days trip.