Mahabaleshwar

Mahabaleshwar has become one of my favorite tourist spots thanks to my Bro-in-law and family who love the place during the rains. This was my third visit to Mahabaleshwar, all three were made during the rains, all three I enjoyed to the core.
Mahabaleshwar is a small, sleepy town in the midst of thick jungles along the Sahyadri range in Maharastra. Its proximity to Mumbai and Pune has made it a very popular holiday resort. I trust if you visit Mahabaleshwar during the tourist (autumn to summer) - it will be like any other hill station you would have been to. What inspires our monsoon jaunts was total change the rains bring about. Mahabaleshwar receives heavy rainfall. So heavy that all the hotels shut down and are sealed with tarpaulins. The entire town is engulfed by the rain clouds for weeks. That's when we drive in, to savour the beauty of the place when there are not too many noisy tourists around.
Mahabaleshwar was established as a health resort in the early 1900s, after which it also hosted a jail for Chinese and Malay convicts for a brief while. It is said that many of these prisoners stayed back in Mahabaleshwar after release. The Mahabaleshwar - Panchgani belt is produce-rich - strawberries, potatoes, beetroot and corn being the dominant crops.
As for our trip this time. We drove down from Pune in their Qualis and for most part the ride was a pleasure thanks to Vajpeyee's Golden Quadrilateral project. This time we stayed at this fairly new resort called Sherwood which is located about 2 KM from the heart of the town towards the Satara road. Sherwood is a beautiful place and thanks to the off-season, we managed to get a wonderful duplex bungalow.
We spent time playing Scrabble, which was quite satisfying. Of course, our visits are always punctuated by trips a beautiful wine shop next to the bus stand in Mahabaleshwar. Bacardi kept us warm and cosy. Apart from that we ventured out to this place called Tapola which is situated about thirty KM from Mahabaleshwar down the valley. Enjoyed the nice little Speed boat rides in the lake, though the water level was down drastically because of the scanty rains. Also visited the Mahabaleshwar temple which gave town its name.
This time had the pleasure of tasting Bhakri (a bread made of corn) with chicken curry (yummm). Also tried some Parsi Brown Rice at Sherwood, which was decent.
On the way back to Pune, there is this new nature theme park called Sherbaug which is quite hot. We were planning to stop by for my nephew Arhan to play around and also for lunch; unfortunately, they was not allowing cars inside that day. Maybe next time, with places like Mahabaleshwar - there's always a next time.