Travelogues: Igatpuri->Sula->Bhandaradara

A trip- long needed, which made it all the more fun. The Christmas break made it possible. Good thing about Mumbai is that you have lot of places for weekend getaways.  We chose to explore Igatpuri, Sula Vineyards and Bhandardara.

Igatpuri is approx 120kms from Mumbai and can be reached either by Bus or train or by car. There is a train station in Igatpuri where all the long route trains entering Mumbai from Thane stop, so that makes it even more convenient. We decided to take the early morning train(Panchvati Express-from Dadar). From Igatpuri station we took an auto to our resort. We had made our bookings in Shree Venkatesh Nagar after a friend referred it to us.  As the auto ventured into a no man’s land we kind of grew skeptical about the kind of resort it would be. Even when we reached the resort the entrance was not too impressive to wipe off our skepticism.  But the rooms were pretty decent. We were more than relieved to have made the booking at Shree Venkatesh Nagar for there was no other options nearby to change our plan at the last minute had we booked in some not so good resort.

The Resort had everything- from nicely maintained rooms, villas, decent quality food, plenty of fun activities like carom, lawn tennis, bicycles, table tennis, rubber garden,  archery and a whole lot of other things. If you request they even arrange for bonfire and music for dance floor. What they do not serve is non-veg food which was not a problem for us as we were all vegetarian. They only serve veg and jain food. But overall in Rs. 2500 per person per night it was a great place to stay.

Day one- after freshening up and taking a tour of the amenities in the resort we booked a cab from the front desk to Sula Vineyard which is approx 50kms from Igatpuri. We reached the place around 3:30pm and were lucky to get entry into 4:30pm winery tour because of some cancellation. Otherwise there was a long waiting time for the next tour. The charges for the tour were Rs.250/- per person, it is higher on weekends.  The tour guide told us all about the wine making process from crushing to fermenting to the materials they use at Sula for every stage. After the tour they take you for wine tasting, there is an option to not opt for this. The ticket charges would be less in that case. During wine tasting, we were taught about the basics of wine drinking the 3S(Sniff-swirl-sip), we were made to taste 5 different wines, the facilitator even described the difference between the wines from making to taste. It was a great experience and definitely a new one for all of us as we were all teetotaler, atleast we were before this experience.  We wanted to try “Soleil by La Plage” which was quite an appealing restaurant in the Vineyard itself but by the time our tour ended, the restaurant had closed.

Back at the resort we enjoyed the dinner, bonfire and music.  The whole environment was quite “Christmassy”, they had set up a Christmas tree and had made all the arrangements for the people to have fun. Day one went quite well and ended with some late night chit-chatting with friends.

Day two- we had planned to visit Bhandardara.  Bhandardara is famous for waterfalls and trek trails. But since we wanted to restrict this vacation to just leisure we just wanted to visit the place for the scenic beauty and water-bodies.  But to our surprise, when we visited the first place it was all dry, there was hardly any water or any greenery. The driver told us that due to scanty rainfall since last two years the water level has gone down tremendously. The lush green scenery that I had read about was anything but green and was all lifeless. Even the other places that we visited in Bhandaradara were all stating a dismal story. On our visit to Bhandaradara it hit all of us in our face as to what could happen if we stop caring about nature. It was right there in front of us, the dry water bodies, the grasslands turned into a wasteland. We visited three places to see waterfalls but were disappointed to see the waterfalls were now just barren rocky hills. On our way back just one thought kept troubling us what could be done to save it.

Day three- it started with an energy packed sport "lawn tennis", we were all amateurs but we didnt shy away from playing and sweating out like real pros. It was like a good workout in a long time and a good workout always refreshes you. We had our train back home in the evening, so one last place before the end of our visit was Dhammagiri. Dhammagiri is a well known Vipassana centre. It was started by S.N. Goenka. There are Vipassana centres all over the world.This is located very close to Igatpuri Station. Just to give an idea about Vipassana centre- it is a meditation centre where they conduct 10days sessions, which are all free of cost. This place is run totally on donations. We took a tour of the facility got to know about what and how exactly the session takes place. The whole place was so quiet and serene it was setup right in the middle of green hills.

The trip ended on a calm and rejuvenating note, which basically was the whole point of taking this break.