Before the Covid pandemic struck I was fortunate enough to make two trips in 2020 - Pune and Panchgani in February and Chennai in March. I have written about my Chennai trip in a story earlier as a part of Tripoto's contest my last trip before lockdown. This is the story of my first trip of 2020 or the second last before lockdown. I was actually in Pune for a conference organised by CDAC and held at IISER. After the conference concluded I had kept on hand an extra day to explore this region. Not to mention that there are numerous hill stations in this region that serve as weekend getaways for Punekars. But the best time to visit the region is during or after the monsoon when the landscape is at its best green. Unfortunately, I was there at a time when there were only dry leaves and grasses on the hills.
After a lot of consideration about where to go, I narrowed it down to Panchgani. Panchgani is a small hill town near the more touristic Mahabaleshwar. The choice of 'small' was good because I was looking for a place to explore on foot. In hill stations, it is best to hire a taxi or rent a two-wheeler to go around different points. Panchgani is no different but also has a set of places close to the town that can be explored on foot and for a bit distant places one can take a shared jeep that plies along the main road. So on 2nd February morning, I boarded a bus from Pune's Swargate that would drop me off Wai. From Wai, I took another bus to Panchgani. Panchgani is a hundred kilometres from Pune and takes about 4 hours to reach by public bus.
Zostel Panchgani was yet another reason to come to this place. The hostel is unique because the dorms and rooms are made from shipping containers stacked over one another along a hill slope that offers a panoramic view of the valley below. Check out this video on YouTube that made me say yes to this location.
If you are from Wai, you would cross Zostel about three kilometres before reaching Panchgani town. However, due to a wrong interpretation of Google maps, I had assumed it to be after crossing the Panchgani bus stand. By the time I realised this, the bus had reached the bus stand and I had to walk back. After having settled down I had 24 hours to explore this place. The good people at Zostel helped me prepare an itinerary for the day. I started with a walk again to the town to have lunch. The central place in Panchgani is not too big with just a few hundred shops around the bus stand. Post lunch I headed to the first viewpoint in my itinerary, the Sydney point. I literally have no idea about why this place is named after the Australian city. While entering Panchgani from Wai, a road branching right near the toll gate goes spiralling up to Sydney point. The place offers an amazing view of the Dhoom dam. But the best part was the amazing breeze that came from the lake in the hot afternoon, which helped soothe the tiredness from listening to a continuous session of talks the day earlier. I happily spent an hour or two in the sole sitting area here. Lucky enough to find it empty.
As it was closing to 4 pm, I had to head back to the hostel to join the Zostel organised hike to a sunset viewpoint. From the hostel, we were first taken to the base by car and then walked over a kilometre to the viewpoint that again offered a superb view of the sunset taking place over the hills surrounding the Dhoom lake. This was the point I felt, it was worth coming to Panchgani even in the offseason. It was just magical to see the hills surrounding me turn to gold as the rays from the setting sun fell on the brownish-yellow dry grasses. And to experience this magic, you have to stay at Zostel as the location is private and not frequented by others.
Once I was done with this, along with a few other hostellers, I headed to Mapro garden. This is another recommended place to be while in Panchgani or Mahabaleswar. Panchgani and the surrounding areas is famous for their berries. In season, you would find different types of berries being sold all along the road in Panchgani. The area also houses several food processing companies and Mapro is one of them. The food court at Mapro Garden offers a wide range of food starting from pizzas to soups to beverages. But what beats all others is their speciality whipped strawberry cream served over fresh strawberries and strawberry flavoured ice cream. Besides, the food court, Mapro garden also houses a store that sells locally processed fruit-based products like juices, syrups, jams, candies etc.
The night had another great planned activity - a star gazing hike to the famed tabletop of Panchgani. Again, this was organised by Zostel for its members. The tabletop is a flat land above the Panchgani town. We were first taken by the car and hiked through the dark to the top where a bonfire was arranged to keep warm.
Day 2 and the last few hours in the town. I woke up early expecting to get a glimpse of the sunrise. But unfortunately, it was cloudy. I freshened up and headed back to the Centre for breakfast, followed by another walk towards Parsi point. Again the views here were blinded by the clouds. What can be better than a cup of strawberry cream to clear the bad lucks. Hence, I headed once again to Mapro Gardens. When I had gone the day before, it was pitch dark outside and nothing much was visible but today, it was amazing to see the stretches of berry farms around. I was also able to shop some strawberries directly from the farm. And this was the end of exploring yet another small town of India. I returned back to Zostel, collected my bags and headed to Pune via Wai from where I had a train to Allahabad.
Check out more pictures from the trip on Instagram.
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