A DREAM TRIP IN 24 HOURS

A TRIP TO KAS PLATEAU:)
This trip wasnt that easy to start.. It is always a struggle to get ur dreams and so was it this time.. Just befor the night we were supposed to leave it was raining cats and dogs... THe rapid lightning and thunders made my mom think again of the decision to go so far that to in an ST bus.. I was quite firm on goin COME WAT MAY and forutnately my friends also didnt drop the idea..
I and my Mom left from Vasai at 8 p.m on friday night.. It was my Mom's first nature trail.... Already the first sign was not good..We had planned to meet at Dadar stn at around 9. We reached by 9.40.THe train was terribly late.. 2nd bad sign. We hurried to Elephinstone station.. From there we walked to Parel Bus depot. The 3rd sign- Was good. We immediately got a bus and tht too a decent one.. We were nicely seated and had a good journey though a bit bumpy..
FIanlly we reached Satara by 4.30 am..
I called up my friend's uncle who stays in satara and we went to his place. THe wee hours of satara was chilly and quite..
After a quick wash we got ready for leaving.. Uncle spoke to a Rickshaw fellow in the neighbourhood. By the time the Rick came the sun was slowly coming up.. THe WhiteBrowed fantail, MAgpie robin, tailor bird were callin out loudly.. We also started takin pics of plants in his garden.. We then had a quick breakfast and departed for Kas.. We also had a word with the local reitred botany prof who also guided us on the probables.
I took the pillion seat on uncles bike to stay ahead and look out for anything interesting to stop the rick. We left at 8.am.. We were a bit late actually..
We drove past narrow lanes featuring old historical houses and finally huge set of mountains came into sight.. Uncle but pointed to other mountains at a distance and said that we r goin there..
I was really excited as the view that he showed was tall GREEn mountains crowned with creamy clouds and flanked with mist.. My heart leaped with joy.. As soon as we covered around 2 out of 25 kms i felt at bliss.. On one side was a beautiful valley whereas on the other patches of flowers on elevated hillocks.. The first stop revealed the lavender plant (Lavandula) a member Cyanotis common called cats ears in plenty.. THe lavender plants are herbs growing upto 1-2 feet height. They have purplish flowers and narrow leaves.. We also saw Lot of Oriental white eyes. Unfortunately didnt get a pic of it.. We walked here and there seein and photographin some more plants.. I took a snap of Indian robin too with blue sky as the backdrop. He let me come almost 4 feet close.. THen on insistence of the driver we pushed on reluctantly..
Though i kept seeing some new plants which are rare and interesting i dint stop him.. I made a mental of the places and decided to stop when we return.. Further ahead we stoped at a point which gave an excellent scenic view.. After some quick pics of landscapes and some more plants we hastened back to our vehicles...
Soon we reached a point that seemed that we were in heaven.. Birds like Red vented bulbul, Pied bushchat, wire tailed swallows, Spotted doves, Laughing doves were our constant companions.. Some were sitting leisurely on wires and some busy eating....They were least bothered abt our presence and gave good pose.. But we cudnt stop all the time for them.. THey were really annoyed with us... Soon we crossed some 5 kms which seemed like endless miles... We stopped to see interesting wildflowers. The butterflies tht were active at that time where the Grassyellows.. The biggies were not up stilll.
The road we were riding upon was flanked on both sides by green valleys. we cud see the satara city too.. The mountain on which we were riding was crowned with flat pleateau.. From this plateau u can clearly see the hills of Mahabaleshwar..
the unwinding paths, green floors on either sides, occasional tribal kids and people, small hills, PAtches of bright yellow flowers was knocking us of.. I cudnt stop sayin WOW WOW WOW.. I and uncle then were much ahead of ht group tht was followin in rick.. Goin ahead i did miss the Crested bunting of which Ritesh got a good snap..
Finally aft continuous nonstop drive of 15 mins i requested uncle to stop at one point. HTere was a gentle stream running and lots of wild plants around... I just coulnt stop exclaiming ' O god wat is this, O god this so cute'' Then i went on snap snap snap.. There were beds of Eriocaulon species...They themeselves are very short plants.. Amidst them were hidden lots of small plants with flowers of size 3-12 mm in length.. We also found a Crustose lichen on the Ficus tree there.. There i spotted the first Utricularia of the day.. A beautiful blue flowered plant. Besides it there were balsams and Euphorbias and Neonatis and Murdannia species..We had been there for quite long as the grp also joined us there. My friend satish who is also a taxonomist was mad with joy.. He was showin plants for photographing.. My mom also started pointing out ' vidya he bagh, te bagh, yacha photo kad' ( Look here, look there, did u take pic of this?) Finally with heavy heart we moved on.. We did becas the driver said that place ahead he muchmuch better than these.. We moved on.. From there the main flowering region started.. We spotted shades of purple and pink from a distance. When we approached closer we noticed the purple flowers waving gently with wind.. It was a lovely sight.. I cud have jumped frm the bike but fortunately the bike stopped by the time i actually did.. I wished i cud just run like mad along these beautiful flowers gulping fresh air and beautiful scent of the grass.. Everything around looked so neat.. It was as if some painter had done some brush strokes.. The soft blue sky with creamy fluffyt cloud over bluy green mountains and against them were these flower beds.. We clicked lots of pics and then moved a little ahead to find thick patch of Pink Balsams,, HEre we took groups pics, landscapes and individual shots.. At certain points u see alternating patches of pink, blue and white flowers. Looks more of a band of colors when u see them bent down.. THere were some patches with mixed colored patches too.. On of the Balsam i noticed a caterpillar of the hawkmoths.. WHen u r at such a place u just stop thinking.. Only thing that came in my mind was lie down and just stare at the clouds.. I wish i cud have.. We went ahad with little stopovers and finally stoppped at one point where we saw Karvi flowering and excessive balsams.. We took the snaps of Karvi and Sonki and went ahead.. THere was a huge grp of children spread out on that patch of balsams so we did go there... At that point we saw Malabar Crested lark picking up nesting material.. I got a decent shot of it.. When it was on the ground we cudnt actually trace it, its tht camouflaging..
We moved ahead contented and eager to see wat is in store more.. We were now heading towards the Kas lake which is suppose to be the Picnic spot for lot of ppl.. ENroute i snapped a few landscapes frm the moving bike itself..
We reache the lake and decided to have our lunch there.. As soon as we settled down to eat it started raining.. We still sat and ate. Slowly the rain drizzled and hten ceased... We had a cup of tea and returned back.On our way back we stopped only at few places.. I took pics of few plants and insects... There were a few plants which still remained to be clicked that i saw while coming here.. We stopped at regualr intervals whenever i spotted those aimed plants.. We also stopped at an waterfall which had chilled water gushin down and wetting us.. We also saw a specie of CHlorophytum and Persicaprae on the walls.. I took some more landscape shots and we moved ahead.. Earlier i had stopped to see a rare and one of fav flrs of the Pinda concanensis. Finally stops were for Pimpinella, Tephrosia and Anagallis. I cudnt locate the Sopubia delphinifolia plant which i had seen earlier.. We had started off frm Kas lake by 12.30 odd as we had planned to return back by 3 o' clock bus so as to reach back the same day. Since i had to attend some meeting on sun in New mumbai i decided to get off at Belapur and go to my Sis's place. we reached back to her home at 10.
THereofore we my dream trip indeed was covered in 24 hrs.. Thanks to my mom who came along and encouraged me, my uncle who took me on his bike, got up early and took so much pain for us, My friend ritesh who took some mind blowing shots of landscapes, plants and also MINE.., my friend Satish who guided me with the plant identifications and also shared the joy of seein flwers (this only botanists can understand) and finally Mayur dada the rick fellow who was quite patient with us and had started shwing us plants and birds to photograph... With those memories still fresh and Bright i just pray god tht i get to go back there again to se those lovely flowers again before all these seasonal beauties go away for next season.... U can have a look at the pics on http://www.flickr.com/photos/30956481@N00/sets/72157594288364113/
BEar with me for such a long report.. Wil be puttin up my checklists on my blog...
Pls give ur comments ... Do go to kas.. U can contact me for details abt how to go and even otherwise its quite simple. Canbe figured out frm the report.