March 29, 2024

Saturday afternoon blues..

and browns… The hills so green and alive for most of the year, brown and parched, just like the trees dotting their backs. An hour on the super smooth expressway and then a left just after Lonavala. Happy and bright sunflower beds on one side of the narrow road, sugarcane fields on the other. The railway gate shut, people on motorbikes bending under the long barrier and walking across the tracks, impatient to get on with their journey. The road itself getting progressively narrower and stone-ridden. The drive getting more tiring with each mile, the phone calls asking for directions more and more desperate… You can see the lake on your right? Then you are lost. Turn around and drive back on the same road around the hill till you can see the lake on your left…

Saturday afternoon blues...

And so we turned back and drove again on the same road, cattle crossing, road-rollers and melting tar and all. Tired and hungry, sure of finding lunch where we were headed; the place on the banks of the lake that we had read about on the internet, pretty cottages and paragliding courses which we wanted to find out about. We found the place at last, but not lunch – whose was the cheerful voice who had assured us in the morning over the phone? And upon our insistence ( despair?), an astronomical amount thrown casually at us as the cost of lunch, enough to feed the three of us for the next week…

You know this bit that followed. We turned back and drove again on the same road, too tired and hungry to care about which side of the road the lake was on…

Saturday afternoon blues. And oh, some striking yellows on the way too…

***
This was our miserable trip to Vadivilli lake in Kamshet, entirely avoidable unless staying there for the paragliding. If it is a quiet afternoon by the lake you seek, I recommend Pawna, also in Kamshet… As you get off the expressway and drive on to Kamshet, take a right turn for Pawna and a left (preferably not) for Vadivili.

One thought on “Saturday afternoon blues..

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *