Land of Strawberries

Mahabaleshwar, much awaited place. I have been waiting for an year to visit this place. We visited this place a month after visiting Trimbakeshwar, in Jan..thanks to my brother's visit.
Mahabaleshwar is famous for many scenic points, temples and mouth watering strawberries hence the name Land of strawberries...
We started from Pune and reached Mahabaleshwar via panchgani around 11:00 am. Enroute we found many industries thriving on Strawberries.

Kates point

Supporting a Marathi saying "Santh vaahate Krishnamaai" which means "quiet flows Krishna", the river here appeared very calm. The view from Balakwadi dam is spectacular. The serene blue water competes with sky in colour..

Balakwadi dam view from Kates point

 Needle hole point

Elephant head..view from needle hole point

From Kates point we went to needle hole point, i would prefer it as Elephant head point :)
..as the rock we observe from this point appears as an elephant with huge trunk...

view from Arthur's point

 Arthurs point

Arthur point is a bit far from other points..the path leading to the point is made tourist friendly..The actual point area is very small, it can accommodate very few people. You can find instant photographers there..the place was very crowded..many wanted to take their pics. Instead of enjoying the moment in present they want it to make it memorable for future...

Arthurs point

You can find the hills here in step form..we could enjoy only by viewing the nearby hills as the hills far away where covered by thin mist.. While writing this blog i got the thought that if the points where to be named in Marathi..how will they be named..!!

Many areas where its crowded we tend to go fast to avoid crowd, but we need to wait for time enjoy the place and only then if we feel to move on we need to continue(we actually didn't do this way so we paid the price...)

Shiva temple and river Krishna starting point

Old temple of lord Shiva..rear view

source of river Krishna

We went to a nearby Shiva temple...we were thinking were to find the source of river, then we found a sign board indicating the path. This path is under construction, a cement road is being made. I liked the mud road, cement road will increase vehicle traffic and it effects in many lot ways. The Shiva temple was very old, considering the view from the road one can't find any prominence of the temple. We visited the temple.In front of the temple before the sanctum-sanctorum you will find a small stream of water coming from cows mouth..the water is very cool. the water is collected in small pond. I didn't get any idea from where the water is coming except that it was coming from under the temple..We spent some time there. We observed that many were filling the water in bottles may be as a token for someone who hasn't visited..You can't find any outlet to the pond where the water falls..when you look from the temple you can find river Krishna flowing silently below in the valley..

river Krishna

 We found a small farm of Strawberries near by. The farmer allowed us visit the farm. The size of the strawberry plant came as a surprise, i thought the plant was huge and all through the path i was looking for 'trees' laden with strawberries..;-)..

snap taken at the strawberry farm

There were many other flower plants in the farm, buying the plants as a memory of the visit is a good idea.
We had our lunch in the central area of Mahabaleshwar..then we started for Venna Lake

Venna Lake

Venna Lake

It was evening by the time we reached Venna lake, there is huge rush for boat riding. You can opt for peddle boating or normal boating where a helmsman will take you around. Most of the peddle boats were on lake in tour, so we opted for normal boat. The water in the lake was not in its maximum, we had a pleasant ride in the boat. Both my husband and my brother tried a hand in steering the boat...the coxswain/helmsman also donned the role of a photographer, he made us pose for cute snaps...pleasant way to end the day.

Praveen in drivers seat..!!

After returning from the trip while browsing i found that in Mahabaleshwar five rivers will be originating and they join krishna river later..i visited the Krishnamai tmeple, but missed the panchaganga temple..

There are many options available for staying in here. There are lots of resorts & hotels in Mahabaleshwar, private or MTDC. One can have a sunset/sunrise view if opted for staying in Mahabaleshwar. Everything about Mahabaleshwar indicates its worth a visit.