Trip to Mahabaleshwar

Mahabaleshwar is a hill station in the Satara district of Maharashtra. You cannot travel from Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar by train since there is no railway station in Mahabaleshwar. The nearest railway station to Mahabaleshwar is in Wathar. You can travel from Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar by bus and there are many buses plying between these two cities. The nearest airport to Mahabaleshwar is the Pune International Airport. The most convenient way to visit Mahabaleshwar is to travel by cab. When you travel from Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar by cab, you can enjoy the scenic drive and extend the trip according to your will. The distance 260 kilometres between Mumbai and Mahabaleshwar is 260 kilometres.

My families and me had a visted  to mahabaleshwar by car during Ganpati festival.While traveling we have push our seats back, roll down the window and enjoy the beautiful sceneries while the Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar distance is being covered by road.After reaching Mahabaleshwar ,we stayed Hotel Shanti Palace and  we had decided to see Lingmala waterfall.Lingmala waterfall was not exactly on this road. There was an entry gate on the road for the waterfall. One has to park the vehicle near that entry gate and then has to walk a bit to see the waterfall. For visiting the waterfall, one has to buy a ticket at the entry gate which costs Rs. 20/- per person.And we have to walk around 5 minutes from entry gate.There were other tourists who had visited,they told us that the track on the other side of the stream would lead to the viewpoint for the main waterfall.So we dicided to go with them,after walking for around 15 minutes, we reached the viewpoint. It was an uphill walk but not too steep and therefore enjoyable especially in that weather.From the viewpoint, Lingmala waterfall was looking magnificent. It was a three-stage waterfall with an overall height of 500 ft. Because of heavy downpour in the Mahabaleshwar area in the last two months, the waterfall was at its gushing best.From the viewpoint, Venna valley was also visible albeit. It was a bit hazy because of cloud covers 

a)Venna valley

b)Lingmala waterfall 

 

 

Next day , we had planned to go to the Mahabaleshwar temple at Old Mahabaleshwar and also visit some nearby viewpoints.After reaching the Elphinstone point, we parked our vehicle at the designated parking lot. The parking lot was quite big. Only a handful of vehicles were there.The Elphinstone point was discovered in 1830 by Dr. James Murray. On a clear day, it offers the views of Koyana valley on the left, Savitri valley on the right, and Pratapgad Fort in front.There are various view points like Marjorie viewpoint,Savitri Point,Hunting Point ,Echo Point,Tiger Spring Point,etc.We have visited all the view point.Atlast after visiting Old Mahabaleshwar which was 7 km from Mahabaleshwar, my dad decided to leave for mumbai because my holiday were getting over.