HI All,
Did a small 2 day road trip to koyna dam from pune. Here a brief account of it.
The trip was originally planned for 3 days by one of my relative last week while I was already on vacation. So I was not sure, whether I will be able to make it as taking another day leave just after a week's holiday was impossible but I said YES on phone. I was disparate for a long drive as havent done any in last couple of months.
Finally the day arrived and the trip was cut down to only sat-sunday. In all 3 families including 6 adults and 5 kids in two cars. Mine cedia sports and another palio.
We started on sat after a heavy breakfast around 11:55am. Took the NH 4 and made a first stop just before Satara for a quick lunch. There was no signs of heavy rains till this part and we only faced light drizzles. We carried onto NH 4 till Umbraj (some 30 km futher to Satara on NH 4) without any trouble as road was fantastic with light traffic. From Umbraj we took right turn towards Patan and from there roads become a narrow 2 lane (wihtout seperate division for incoming traffic) but still road was excellent tarmac.
I must say that there appears to be infinite no of toll booths, though every time one has to pay 10-14-25-45 odd rupees but it irritates after couple of them. Scenery around NH 4 was very pleasing, with green all around but as soon as you take diversion for patan, this turns into thick vegetation with small rivers and mountains with small ghat sections. Only bad roads (for 4-5 km stretch) we encountered was near patan and driving through Patan.
We paid the last toll (Rs 10) just before Koyna nagari and stopped at Koyna ST stand for further directions. Finally we reached at the Koyna lake view Resort, which is situated on a steep hill just behind ST stand. A narrow (1 lane) road with steep climb and hair pins took us to the resort. It was 4:15pm and odo was reading 197.5 km (from chandni chowk , Pune). While climibing, I manage to get few glimpses of the DAM and valley (just terrific).
The resort was ok with basic facilities but terrific view. We had booked a dormitory (10 capacity).
Just after a tea, we all took a stroll and ended up in a small hut like structure which is built for viewing and there was a small musical fountain
![Frustration](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/Frustration.gif)
dancing on hindi film songs. By this time (6pm) it had started to rain heavily but it was in small breaks. We chatted with a local and got tips for general spots.
There is a Nehru center, located near DAM, where one can get all the information about dam and its history. They also show a small documentary of 1/2 an hr. We had dinner at about 8pm and retire with gossips and chit chats. By this time, rains have gathered pace and it was pouring like any thing.
DAY 2: Sunday
Every body got ready to go out after a heavy break fast. We first saw the Nehru center, watched the documentary. It was worth it. Then went to a small Mahadev mandir. Again 1 lane road takes u there. We encountered numerous small water falls and some quite big one. Every time me and my relative walked to the destination and checked road (for turning possibility of car). The temple was ok but main thing was view of valley, water falls and stepped rice fields. It was mesmerising. Totally worth getting wrench in heavy rains and roaming in open areas, with valley and DAM's catchment area in one side and water falls on one side. And clouds make a cherry toppings. Ina min u have a thick clouds all around u , with visibility of 5 mtrs and in few seconds they clear out.
We got back to resort at 2 for lunch. Everybody enjoyed every bit of it. After lunch we packed up and decided to see the Ozardy's water fall. Man it was huge (Never imagined it to be of that size). There is a plan to built a power gen unit at its base using just water fall (it is that huge). It is situated some 6-7 kms from ST stand.
On the way to Ozardy, we again encountered many water falls (we mistook one for ozarday itself). All were just terrific. Once at Ozarday we all were stunned to see it. Could not get out of car as it was raining heavily, just spent some time watching it.
That was end of our trip. We started back journey at 5pm and reached pune @ 9:15pm. It was raining very heavily on most of the NH 4. That itself was an experience in itself for me. Never driven with such a down pour and so less visibility.
Thanks for reading till this point
![Smile](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.png)
. So fianlly some pictures. Havent got time for processing , just posting few of them.