It has been over two years since we came back to India. We have been trying to cover the places around Pune and Matheran was something in my mind for past one year.
Details about Matheran can be found from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matheran
It is about 120 KMs from Pune. We took the Mumbai Pune Expressway for this trip. This was the first time i was driving on this highway. The experience was truly amazing. I have been constantly complaining on the driving woes. But here is the road where i was able to reach upto 120 Km/hour (Just for the sake of readers, speed limit is 80 Km/hour). We reached Lonavala in about 45 minutes and from there we had to take NH4 (old mumbai pune highway). The road towards Karjat and Neral is not good. Road patches are very damaged and you cannot go over 25 K/hr. From Neral it is uphill drive. You will have to drive in 1st gear and there are about 6-7 hair pin bends. Although it is not very difficult to drive but one must be careful to avoid any accident.
It took us to the Dasturi gate. Here you have to park your car. Being it a weekend, it was crowded and finding a decent place to park turned out to be little difficult given that we were trying to find parking along mountain side. Beyond Dasturi, vehicles are not allowed. Most of the hotels are located in Market Peth which is about 2 KM from Dasturi. So either you have to walk or take horse or you can catch the toy train from there, but its frequency is not guaranteed. Since we have already made our mind to go for a horse ride, we bargained with a fellow and got 2 horses. I am glad that we did that as it was almost 12 in the afternoon and was hot.
We had booked a room in Hotel Kumar Plaza. This hotel has 2 kinds of room. AC Deluxe (B) and Super AC Deluxe (A). Since we had booked little late and it was weekend so most of the good hotels (Verandah, Usha Ascot) were already booked. If you have to stay in Kumar Plaza then go for super AC Deluxe. Other room was not of good quality. In my next visit i will try to stay in Verandah or Gujrat Bhavan.
Matheran is all about walking and enjoying the beautiful scenic points. We visited Lake Charlotte, Echo Point, Honeymoon point that evening. It was so relaxing to sit at the canyon edge and watch valley below.
We were very tired after all this walk, had dinner and then explored the market area. Matheran has lots of shops for leather accessories. I had purchased a leather belt. It seemed of good quality and for Rs 450 seems a decent price if it survives more than a year.
Next morning, for some reason i was wide awake at 5 in the morning. I went out of the room. It was dark outside. But there were few people offering horse rides for the points. I too stepped out when it was clear morning. I again reached lake charlotte. In the morning it was so peaceful and different than the evening before. I was one of the only few. Stayed there for about an hour, soaked the fresh morning air.
In the end we decided to take a horse ride to Panorama point. I had read that the view is very beautiful from there. It is closer from Dasturi. But the path towards Panorama point is not very good. For a good portion of the journey i was guiding one horse while my wife and kid were in other horse with the owner of horse. We had to abandon reaching the point as there were thick bushes on the way and its better to be safe than be sorry and be bitten by snake etc.
Thus overall it was a very memorable trip and can't wait to go there soon again. Here are some pictures from the trip.
Details about Matheran can be found from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matheran
It is about 120 KMs from Pune. We took the Mumbai Pune Expressway for this trip. This was the first time i was driving on this highway. The experience was truly amazing. I have been constantly complaining on the driving woes. But here is the road where i was able to reach upto 120 Km/hour (Just for the sake of readers, speed limit is 80 Km/hour). We reached Lonavala in about 45 minutes and from there we had to take NH4 (old mumbai pune highway). The road towards Karjat and Neral is not good. Road patches are very damaged and you cannot go over 25 K/hr. From Neral it is uphill drive. You will have to drive in 1st gear and there are about 6-7 hair pin bends. Although it is not very difficult to drive but one must be careful to avoid any accident.
It took us to the Dasturi gate. Here you have to park your car. Being it a weekend, it was crowded and finding a decent place to park turned out to be little difficult given that we were trying to find parking along mountain side. Beyond Dasturi, vehicles are not allowed. Most of the hotels are located in Market Peth which is about 2 KM from Dasturi. So either you have to walk or take horse or you can catch the toy train from there, but its frequency is not guaranteed. Since we have already made our mind to go for a horse ride, we bargained with a fellow and got 2 horses. I am glad that we did that as it was almost 12 in the afternoon and was hot.
We had booked a room in Hotel Kumar Plaza. This hotel has 2 kinds of room. AC Deluxe (B) and Super AC Deluxe (A). Since we had booked little late and it was weekend so most of the good hotels (Verandah, Usha Ascot) were already booked. If you have to stay in Kumar Plaza then go for super AC Deluxe. Other room was not of good quality. In my next visit i will try to stay in Verandah or Gujrat Bhavan.
Matheran is all about walking and enjoying the beautiful scenic points. We visited Lake Charlotte, Echo Point, Honeymoon point that evening. It was so relaxing to sit at the canyon edge and watch valley below.
We were very tired after all this walk, had dinner and then explored the market area. Matheran has lots of shops for leather accessories. I had purchased a leather belt. It seemed of good quality and for Rs 450 seems a decent price if it survives more than a year.
Next morning, for some reason i was wide awake at 5 in the morning. I went out of the room. It was dark outside. But there were few people offering horse rides for the points. I too stepped out when it was clear morning. I again reached lake charlotte. In the morning it was so peaceful and different than the evening before. I was one of the only few. Stayed there for about an hour, soaked the fresh morning air.
In the end we decided to take a horse ride to Panorama point. I had read that the view is very beautiful from there. It is closer from Dasturi. But the path towards Panorama point is not very good. For a good portion of the journey i was guiding one horse while my wife and kid were in other horse with the owner of horse. We had to abandon reaching the point as there were thick bushes on the way and its better to be safe than be sorry and be bitten by snake etc.
Thus overall it was a very memorable trip and can't wait to go there soon again. Here are some pictures from the trip.
