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TRIP TO MAHABALESHWAR AND LONAVALA

       This time I would like to share my trip experience to MAHABALESHWAR and LONAVALA (PUNE).  After disappointment from my last trip in respect of paragliding, this time I went to two famous hill stations  Mahabaleshwar and Lonavala near PUNE. The best way to reach those hill stations is to reach PUNE first. Then by road you can visit the hill stations for best experience.  This time as there is limited bus services to these hill stations I decided to go on bike.  I would like to share my experience in detail as it may help others to plan their trip perfectly.

               IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PARAGLIDING SPORT AND LOOKING FOR IT ONLINE, THE BEST WAY IS CONTACT ADVENTURE SPORTS SCHOOLS LIKE TEMPLEPILOTS, FLYNIRVANA, THRILLOPHILIA ETC. FOR OTHER INSTITUTIONS YOU CAN SEARCH ONLINE. ITS WASTE OF TIME TO GO TO THE PLACES WHERE PARAGLIDING IS PERFORMED BECAUSE THERE WONT BE 365 DAYS AVAILABILITY OF PARAGLIDING AND ALSO YOU CAN’T EVEN FIND THE PLACE WHERE IT IS PERFORMED. IF YOU CONTACT THE ABOVE SCHOOLS/INSTITUTIONS THEY WILL GUIDE YOU THE NEAREST PLACE FROM YOU AND DATES OF AVAILABILITY. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS IF YOU ARE GOING FOR GREENERY AND WATERFALLS AND PLEASANT CLIMATE MAKE SURE YOU PLAN YOUR TRIP  BETWEEN JULY-FEBRUARY( MONSOON AND SPRING).

      If you go after February there will be no waterfalls and no greenery and you will get disappointed.  I visited during March first week and I am just okay with my experience as there is no greenery and view of waterfalls. When compared to lonavala , mahabaleshwar is very good as it has many view points of sahyadri mountain rangers. Lonavala is only for a monsoon and spring visit so don’t prefer it for summer.

            First of all I would like to share about Bike rental services Boong Bikes from which I took a bike on rent for two days. I found many bike rental services in online located in PUNE. As far as my research almost all the rental services have certain rules to rent bikes like security deposit and local address proof or company ID etc. But when it comes to Boong Bikes located in hinjenwadi and balewadi, PUNE has no such requirements.  Except the Bike condition I have no other complaints with them. They delivered the bike in time without any security deposit or agreements and they even accept paytm for payment. As I planned my trip 2 days before the travel and that too in festive weekend because of limited availability they provided me scooty ACTIVA. They took 400 per day as rent and no kilometer limit and no extra charge per km as well. No hidden charges were there and this what I liked about them. Other rental services has their own rules like 150 kilometres per day and 5/- per km like that. Even though I travelled more than 600 kilometres in 2 days during my trip there were no breakdowns and no any other problems. At last when it comes to bike’s condition it was average and look was below average. It was very limited budget offer with equal satisfaction from the rental service.

                 On the 1st day I went to mahabaleswar which is around 140 km from pune. I started in evening and reached the hill station by night because I took breaks in my journey.  I stayed in hotel and started in morning to see view points on hill. There are various viewpoints in mahabaleswar, as some are situated very close to each other and for some points you should travel 4-5 kms. One of the famous attraction of mahabaleswar is that Elephant Head view point from where we can see the hill/rock formed in the shape of elephant trunk.  As far as my trip is concerned I didn’t found the exact view of that. There are almost 3-4 points named elephant point. And I went to all the places which are said to be a view point of elephant trunk but I didn’t found that. I contacted the local guys but everyone said different place from where it can be seen. All the day I went searching for that view but didn’t found that. From my experience I can say that it’s viewed only in particular season like monsoon/spring because of greenery you can view the perfect shape of the elephant trunk. And I may be wrong because I kept searching for that view point but every time they kept saying another place name so at last I gave it up as I ran out of time. As I planned to visit again in monsoon so I will try again for that place. So if you are interested in that view point you can search in Google and you can confirm with the guides about that viewpoint.  Why I am stressing only about this view is that it’s the top most view point every one search for and visit without fail. Usually its Elephant Head point where it is said that you will find view of trunk. But There is two points named Elephant head and Elephantine point in which one will consists of a valley where you can see the multiple elephant trunk formations and at another place you can see a long way to a view point through a narrow route which leads to a view point elephant head Point where it is said you are actually standing on the particular Elephant Trunk. But I didn’t find a place from where I can view that place i.e., the view of elephant head point. If you are really going for that view and contacting a guide make sure that you ask for that.  

               Coming to other places, the real beauty of a hill station will be in monsoon and spring as there will be flowing water falls due to rains and full of greenery in spring.  As I said in starting of this article If you have no problem with rains you can go in July- September as you can find flowing water and rainy climate. Otherwise you go after the monsoon completes may be after September as you can enjoy full greenery. In mahabaleshwar I went to many view points and famous viewpoints that are worth watching are Elephant Head point, lodwick point, Arthorseat, elphinstone point. There are waterfalls like dhobi waterfall and lingamala falls which can be seen after monsoon. Keeping all this apart you can find best view of multiple mountains and panaromic views in mahabaleshwar. There is a bus station available in city centre and many hotels on the hill. And another main attraction is Panchagani which you will find on the way to mahabaleshwar and if you want to go to pratapgarh fort you need to travel another 50 kms from mahabaleshwar.

               The next day I returned to PUNE and went to lonavala which is around 70 kms from pune. It is better to talk less about lonavala because after watching the view points in mahabaleshwar I bet you cannot satisfy with lonavala because there will be very less view points. And I suggest please avoid Lonavala in summer as you won’t enjoy it at all. Lonavala is famous for its climate and waterfalls which you can only see in monsoon and spring.

               The main reason I went to Lonavala is  “KAMSHET” a place where you can find the paragliding sport. KAMSHET is around 50 km from Pune i.e., you will find it on the way to Lonavala. I just don’t know how I missed paragliding this time also as I went to the famous place which famous for paragliding. I searched for paragliding in kamshet but failed as it’s not a public sport that a adventure park can setup. As a beginner I thought that paragliding will be available like any other sport but I am totally wrong. Keeping in view of the risk associated with this sport, it is only provided by particular institutions or organizations which have experience and license.  And also you cannot find it whenever and wherever you can even though you read about it online. Each and every place you heard that it hosts paragliding will have certain limitations like pre-booking with specified hotels or adventure schools that too in some specified seasons or months.  I came to know all this with my experience with locals. They said that its only provided by some hotels which you should book in advance.  And then I returned to pune and ended my trip. After coming to my home I knew that there are some schools for paragliding like TemplePilots, FlyNirvana, Thrillophilia etc.. which you can find online and book in advance.  So It is better to contact the schools/ institutions that provide adventure sports rather than going to the places and searching for adventure sports like paragliding.  Overall the trip was interesting because it is on Bike and I travelled a lot in two of the hill stations.

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TRIP EXPERIENCE TO YELAGIRI HILLS, TAMILNADU

                  Yelagiri Hills, Tamilnadu is one of the hill stations in south India. The reason I decided to visit the hill station is because it is the nearest hill station where chance of paragliding is available. I got disappointed as there is no such availability of paragliding at present on the hill.   I found many articles and videos online regarding paragliding on the hill but I didn’t found any such availability. I think either paragliding was discontinued due to some issues or the facility was provided only by some organizations like adventure clubs on particular days. In future if u wants to go for paragliding then I suggest you to contact any adventure clubs rather than searching online.

                 Nearest station to reach Yelagiri Hills through train is Jolarpettai Junction.  I went to Chennai and then to jolarpettai because of lack of availability of direct trains from my place on that day. You can find frequent trains from Chennai or Banglore to jolarpettai Junction which is around distance of 200 or 100 Kilo Meters.  I went in the first week of February 2017, as it was Sunday I can see some families on the hill,  I reached Jolarpettai Junciton around 7 O’ Clock in the evening.  From Railway station it is around 20 KMs which you should travel by road.  The best thing about Jolarpettai station is you can find hotels/lodges immediately as you come to main road. As the station is located out of town you cannot find luxury hotels near to railway station. If you want luxury hotels  you should go to Tirupattur which is around 10 kms from Jolarpettai station.  But as for who don’t need best hotels you can prefer hotels near  to railway station as they were not that bad. If u comes to main road you can find the Government Transport. As the Autos charge around 400  for one way up to hill I suggest to wait for Government Buses every 1 hour and cost is around 20 - 30 Rs. It will take around 45 mins to 1 hour to reach the top of the hill. The first bus will be early morning 4:30 to 5:00 and then after 1 hour. But you cannot guarantee the exact timing, in my case as I missed the first bus I had to wait till 8 O’clock as the bus was late which supposed to come around 6:30.  There will be no separate Bus stop or Bus stand. If you come out of railway station immediately you can see a place where autos are available, that is the place you should board the bus.

The hotel which I stayed was exactly opposite to Station Road and cost was 600 for two persons. The next day I  reached the top of the hill by bus around 9 in the morning.   Coming to the places on the hill, there are not worth watching when compared to other hill stations like Araku, Munnar, and Coorg. There are hotels available on the hill station which was very good compared to hotels near railway station.  My suggestion for those who are visiting any hill station is to stay on top of hill and spend a night so that you can actually experience the night and early morning climate. Here as there are no such worth watching places it will be satisfying if you  at least spend a night on the hill.

The places you can see are flower garden, nature park, Boat House, Water falls in rainy season, and adventure activities.  As I came for adventure activities I decided to spend time completely on adventure games available. You can even go for trek with your gang to a temple situated on small hill. But to reach that temple area you need to go around 10 kms from the actual hill station main road. You can find many residential houses available on the hill. You can even find Resorts for luxurious activities.

I visited all the outlets which offer adventurous games. You can find all the boarding on the hill showing various adventurous games available with them.  Luckily we found a shop where we took gear cycles for rent (50/hour/cycle). Because I am new to cycling so we enjoyed a lot with the new experience. It became easy for us as the hill has ups and downs. Ropes and Knots, Thrill valley, Mountain View Adventure Park are the main outlets where you can find various activities. I visited two of them except thrill Valley. My best advice for you is to avoid Ropes and Knots as there is no such activity which can impress you. Mountain View Park was nice with some thrilling activities such as sling shot which I tried for first time and some other activities which were better when compared to other outlets as this park was very spacious.   As expected by me the cost of the activities available is very high when compared to the duration of the activity.  We almost spent entire time in searching for other adventures activities and evening also we returned by local bus transport.

Yelagiri is a one day visit place for Chennai and Banglore people as it is near to those cities. If you are a first time visitor to hill station and you are a resident of cities near yelagiri, as there are no worth watching places when compared to other famous hill stations,  it is better to plan a night stay so that you can experience the climate(July-Feb).