It was 'far' so to say in terms of traditional weekend getaways. But it was worth the every mile traveled. We planned our trip just before monsoons to get out of the world climate and a negligible crowd. We planned with quite a few people to begin with but few of them backed out due to one or the other reasons, perhaps everyone does not deserve a heaven on earth. But finally we were ready with our group which add up to the lucky'13'.
We set sailing in out state of the art 17 seater cruiser on Friday evening. As the vehicle had all the accessories including the CD player and the plasma TV we make it a point to carry few of our audio and video Cds. We boarded the van at about 5:30 in the evening. The van just managed to clear the mumbai traffic and from panvel it was a real straight road. As the music start playing the tall buildings out side was replaced by lush green hills. we all were awestruck with the beauty side and the driver raced it towards the destination which is called 'Amboli' .
Amboli is in southern konkan about 530 kms from mumbai and 60 kms before goa. It is best when covered while
coming back from a trip to goa. But it a pleasant getaway where anyone can just go and chill. You will not have to switch off your mobile as the service is very weak in most of the places. So all in all a perfect hiding place for the overworked.
The journey was taking its toll while going through all those hilly curvy roads and people inside were desperate to get down. We halted at few places for dinner , refershment and diesel. Finally all our prayers were answered and about 5:00 in the morning the night began to disappear and what we saw was out of the world.
The view was so beautiful that you can just expereince that and can't bring it back in photographs. We all were tired with ourovernight journey but a single glimpse of the view outside gave our energy levels a quantum leap and we all were busy looking into the windows clicking photographs. No body was tired nobody. As the sun came out it got much greener and much exotic. We all in true sense were awestruck.
We reached the place at about 6:00 am and booked a lodge soon after. We quickly got freshenup and left for the nearest point. No one wanted to have rest then. It was about 2.5 km from our lodge. We thought of walking the distance. The way to the point was lush green hills with lots of bush berries. We had one dog as our guide to the place. He accomapnied us to the point showing us the path. The climate was soothing and it was really a refreshing expereince which you can never get in mumbai.
The point was amazing and was crowdless. It was so magical that you want all your life to be so pleasent. We tried catching as much as possible to bring back with us.
We came back to have some rest and then it was one point to the other covering the waterfalls,temples,forest plantations and whatever possible in next two days.
The visit was thrilling in all its manifestations. More than anything else it gave us all a time to look into ourselves while bouncing with the clouds in mother nature's lap.
For more information on amboli visit.
www.mtdcindia.com
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