Weekend for me mean sleep and catch up on more sleep but my true self wants to get those feet working and moving out of this hectic and nonstop working city so the first break I catch from my sleep I hit the road. My favorite road is the Mumbai – Pune Expressway that connects through the amazing Lonavla, this time it being my wife’s birthday I decided to take her to a place she had never been to. Thus following the guidelines of Dalai Lama we researched our path to a destination just 22km into Satara lies this magnificent valley of flowers which gives complex to our brothers in the north. Getting up after a long day at work itself was a task then moving to get ready we finally left the doorstep at 11 we had one more seat to fill in Pune so we headed out of Mumbai and plunged through the infamous ghats to Lonavala and Khandala enjoy absolutely scorching sun (Trying some Sarcasm), we moved ahead. Reaching the city of Pune thought will give us any relief but it happily denied.
I thought we totally messed up and going ahead was a very bad idea, none the less new destination it was so we kept moving ahead the car was moving through traffic aiming to reach our eating spots Kailash Bhel in Khed- Shivapur having giving our stomach some work we headed to Satara now only a 100 ish kilometers away, Driving through nothing but Diversions due to expansion of roads and handling those dead slow speed bumps we made it to Satara by 4 and started the climb towards Kaas, destination being so close and the sun still showing no signs of relief I thought if humans can survive this scorch I highly doubt the flowers can, keeping hopes high we enjoyed the brief patch of the ghats covered with trees just to know that the winds even through the heat of the sun were nothing but cold, taking down the windows and ditching the air conditioning, we made are way to the first plateau (Not Kaas) it is a approx 7 km before kaas and usually is filled with beautiful yellow flowers but my fear of the sun killing them came true the first plateau was a bust now we were only hoping that we get to see some purples up top. Without further delay we moved towards the final plateau just as we excited the first plateau we entered a small ridge and could see a large portion of the valley and it almost hitting the 5 o’clock time the sun managed to give us some spectacular views right from the car of the beautiful reservoirs and the shine over the mountains casting a shadow and sun giving the most spectacular speculars in golden, I just then realized what that brief moment did was put a smile to my face a Ahhaaa moment.
As there aint no rest for the wicked we moved ahead climbing the ghats turn after turn just to hit traffic a jam on narrow road with people that brains the size of a peanut pushing cars from wrong side sliding through dirt tracks one wheel spinning for grip and the other trying to catch up, the icing on the cake was parking, the queue for the car park was longer than the plateau itself it stretch right a couple of kilometers before to the end of the horizon strip, after the war for the parking was over it was about quarter to six and we set foot on the plateau just for it to feel like Neil Armstrong taking his giant leap for mankind. From there onwards the sun decided to rest and give clouds some way making the weather cold thin crisp and demanding for a jacket. Clouds stepped down to say hello and flowers just 4 to 6 inches in height stood out of the ground just to greet us.
There were a lot of people there the 1,000-hectare region undergoes a most outlandish phenomenon and turns into a riot of colour, with wildflowers carpeting the land as far as you can see , a feeling to see the edge took over us and we headed towards the north of the plateau to figure if we can find a stream or water body where more of these magnificent lill flowers bloomed to our surprise the more smaller the crowd started looking the number of flower multiplied and a host of colors took to our eyes, we started joking of hallucination due to the purity of air, few of us even convinced ourself that we would head out every weekend to explore new skies and I took to writing these experiences, they are short lived but cherished beyond measure. Good time in open air with amazing friends and family isn’t that why the green notes are earned and spent. A feeling it left behind has deep motivations inside us and hope to see more such adventures line up. We finally had enjoyed the color riot of flowers pleasant air and mesmerizing sunset we started our decent and head back to Mumbai, we were greeted by Ganpati’s going towards Visrjan and Dhol Tasha and music becoming a high that people relished and cherished themselves into. We reached back to our coy comfy bed by 2 in the night after some amazing dhabba food and loads of memories to digest.
What we missed:
A little downhill from the plateau is the moss green Kaas Talav, which has a lovely waterfall flowing into it during the peak of monsoon (This year it is only a small stream) . The shore of the lake is flat and sandy making it a great place to hang out or even pitch a tent for the evening.
Information on Kaas
State: Maharashtra
Location in the Sahyadri range, 22 km from Satara
Distance 280 km SE of Mumbai Travel Time By rail 71/2 hrs + road 11/2 hrs by road 41/2 hrs
When to go: Best time to visit Kaas Plateau is after the rains till October end. Many people visit Kaas during the rains. However, the flowers bloom only in late August to September
Forest Office: Dy Conservator Of Forests (Satara Division)
Old Treasury Office Compound, Powai Naka , Satara
Tel: 02162-220059
Website: www.kas.ind.in
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