[abirnale]

This is that time of the year I keenly look forward to - drive anywhere on the west coast of our country through the western ghats/ Sahyadri. Thus every year I think of driving more and more in this area and end up driving less and less - thanks to the crazy work schedules and some or the other challenges that keep popping up.

This year is going to be the better one though. Here is why:

• I have taken the break from my career now - at least for a few months and spend time with family.
• I am keen to take TheRedSparkle to places that are worthy of it's driving abilities to explore.
• I am going to be #NotOnClock and thats most fun!

This comes with its own penalties, but that's not the point of this thread

The rains and route are most important for a monsoon drive!

And of course a great company - car and people!

The key highlight of a monsoon drive is - there has to be the rain and the route should be fun to drive (depending on yur vehicle choice, of course). So when you think of monsoon drive, the KA, KL and MH comes to the top of the list. The easiest for me is MH and KA, thanks to local cultural and topographical knowledge sources I have access to from these areas.

Last week, I went to my parents’ home in MH, at Sangli. And then to visit extended family in Pune - the goal was to take the roads to that are longer to these destinations and the ones that avoid as much mayhem as possible on the NH48 section between Sankeswar to Karad! It's been a year since I went to Sangli and I have heard horror stories of the infinite diversions on the NH48 between KA-MH boundary.

So ideally, this isn't a real monsoon drive yet - best is yet to come.

For now, the key decisions made for the route choices are:

• Bengaluru - Belgavi - Chikodi - Kagwad - Miraj - Sangli
• Sangli - Palus - Karad - Satara - Pune
• Pune - Mulshi - Tamhini - Dapoli
• Dapoli - Kasheli - Ambolgad - Anuskura - Gaganbawada - Radhanagari - Nipani - Sankeswar - Belgavi - Bengaluru

The routes are mix of highways and some teaser of Sahyadri Range. The June first week is when the Monsoon reaches this region in general. This is ideally not the perfect timing for monsoon drive. The real rains with overflowing rivers, waterbodies and reservoirs can be seen in July - August in MH/ KA region. So I took the gamble to take a teaser drive in this region to see how much rains we can experience. As the luck would have been, we had great rains all through the Pune - Bengaluru (last leg of the route charted above).

Pasting the actual Sahyadri Range routes I took for your reference here:







The section between Pune to Dapoli is usual. The Tamhini Ghat is scenic as usual, roads still holding OK, nothing to worry about even for a low slung sedan. There are tons of roadside eateries along the route. The most hyped one is QuickBite - avoid if you can. For the sake of rude service, delayed servings and exorbitant prices! The Mangaon town is sometimes notorious due to NH66 traffic and and narrow roads that goes through the town with a lot of locals parking their vehicles anywhere they like. If you survive this jam, rest is relatively easy. The NH66 except at a few places like Mangaon is pretty much ready and not much to worry about. of course if you have time and patience, take MH-SH4 as much as you can!

Anuskura Ghat road is beautiful as always - black tarmac, wide roads and almost no traffic! Take time to soak into this section. The luxurious resort Cherylene Monta at the Oni end of Ghat is good option for relaxed lunch/ breakfast. It's pricey but worth it. After Anuskura Ghat end take diversions at Kale towards Gaganbawada using SH166G. This is a narrow and stretch that may get some rivers overflowing during peak monsoon. Before the broken section of the Gaganbawada Ghat, take a left towards Radhanagari - the roads are super scenic. They are also narrow and pass through some villages that you may have to be careful about while driving. Rest is usual affair.

Since it is not a peak season for holidays, you should be able to get accommodation last minute. I typically use Google, MMT and search for approximate destination. Whatever works for that day is good for us. This time my daughter being my navigator, used to check the google reviews, images, call the given number, inquire about availability, price and then we used to take the decision. The common observation we both had - the hotels are not overbooked for weekdays, they charge less if you simply walk-in and directly book over phone. Our goal was always eat breakfast and dinner at the places where we stay and lunch/ snacking on the way. Any place where we see descent crowd, cleanliness or restroom availability, we will pick that for our breaks.

Some points to note for your planning, in case you are interested:

• The Saturday and Sunday are the most busy days in these areas - a lot of crowd comes for day-drive, get wet in numerous waterfalls and sometimes create ruckus. Pick your travel days accordingly.
• Another caution is - plan for fuel availability. There are bunch of fuel stations that look shabby, water mixing in their underground fuel tank seems a real possibility, and some of them don't even accept any digital payments.
• The route has almost great coverage from Jio, Lowest from Airtel and average form BSNL. Download route maps, via point maps URLs offline on your smart-device!

Now presenting you more pictures and highlights of this drive:




No trip is complete without great food:



And now time for more pictures - in next post!

[abirnale]

There was no rains anywhere when I left BLR to Sangli and thereafter upto Karad - the rains greeted us as son as we left Karad. It poured literally making driving difficult. A lot of waterlogging on the highway slowed us down - the Pune town was experiencing traffic jams. For once I felt good that Bangalore is not the only metro with traffic jams of this level

Reaching Tamhini, Crossing over to MH-SH4 and NH66 was again a routine affair. We settled for the night near Malgund - the birth place of great Marathi poet - "Keshavsut", which has a heritage memorial too! It's his home converted into the memorial - we visited that early morning before we exited the town.

For the earlier night, we had the Modak and Veg Thali Dinner at Mehendale's Swad Dining. Simple and great food, fabulous Modaks. They need you to pre-order. Luckily, we got our serving on the spot.

And some pictures from the day's drive:







The crazy Traffic in Pune:








While on this drive, we saw this magical number on TheredSparkle’s odometer!






We had fortune of sighting a pair of jackals while waiting for our Ferry Ride:











And the famous Arey-Warey!

[abirnale]

We spent maximum time on MH-SH4 and Western Ghat Roads. Avoided NH66 as much as we can.

The best find for the day was - Kasheli Beach and Ambolgad Tabletop Cliff view point. The Kasheli Tabletop Point is accessible through narrowest village roads and is a beautiful place to visit. If I had a drone with me on this trip, I would have shot some breathtaking landscapes, roads and beach. I will have to come back again for that here. Same goes for Ambolgad Fort cliff - you can take the car on the top of the cliff. Someday I hope to camp there in my car and own tent for overnight!

[abirnale]

Other than the Cherylene Monta, there are no better hygienic places for breaks on this section. Decent number of small village eateries and snacking options though, and fill up the fuel tank before you head into the Ghats.

Let the pictures do the talking for this part:

[abirnale]

Here is a short clip of #TheRedSparkle taking Ferry Ride:

https://youtu.be/0JWEoJnu5EY?si=jwT6V-BYE80XZHWF

Some beautiful roads and surroundings:

https://youtu.be/vVG9XVzdiDY?si=zrSMpn-Ovg1qHX6a

And for the records, #TheRedSparkle wears this natural paint with pride after the quick drive to get the sneak preview of the rains to come and monsoon drives for next three months:



And #TheRedSparkle is clean and shiny again only to get dirty soon!



And thus we welcomed the rains to the extent best we thought! Stay tuned for more drives and more Monsoon Drive stories to unfold!

Thanks for glancing through the thread!

[KarthikK]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Vikash Kumawat]

What's the name of this place? Breathtaking view, and amazing write up

[GeeTee TSI]

Beautiful account of a beautiful route. Hats off to your route planning snaking its way through the hills rather than a mundane blast through the NH. I wish the map had an option to select 'driving' road routes but till then I will come back to your post to sample some of them.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Vikash Kumawat

What's the name of this place? Breathtaking view, and amazing write up

Anyone who's traveled on the Pune Bangalore highway knows this place; the Belagavi Suvarna Soudha (location).

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by Vikash Kumawat

What's the name of this place? Breathtaking view, and amazing write up

It's the Belgaum assembly. Has a fascinating history. Around 2007 there were rumours that Maharashtra was going to make a strong claim on Belgaum and the then Karnataka Govt decided to urgently build an assembly building (the one you see in the pic) to ensure its claim on Belgaum was strong.

It was built at a cost of Rs 500 cr and is used exactly one time a year!

Talk about a criminal waste of resources eh.

[FAKER]

Wonderful write-up and great images. You had a really good time there.