My first travelogue

If I have to express my travel experiences in a few words, I would say "I am a badly traveled person". To substantiate it, I have never traveled any where except when required, the only places are Mumbai(where I have spent substantial part of life), Pune(currently working), Nashik(visiting aunt) and my home town of Azamgarh. Even in the cities that I had been staying, I found myself not visiting most of the places worth a visit. So I had not known how Essel world looks like till a year ago or say Water kingdom, Madh, Matheran.... There are so many places that I have not visited for some reason or other.

So when a travel site asks me to write about one of my most memorable visits, I am in trouble what should I write about? Some friends suggested to read about a place and write the same, after all who's gonna check, but I decide other wise. So I dig into my memories to find out an visit worth a mention and remember the following trip to Nashik which was incidentally my first one.

It was around 6 years back when I first went to Nashik with my aunt, we took a local train to Kasara and a cab thereafter. The best part of the traveling to Nashik is passing through Kasara Ghat, especially in rainy season, so you have the road cut out through these huge mountains and surrounded by dangerously deep valley and gorges. Moving on this dangerously beautiful road was a thrill until the car broke down, the driver informed "30 mins to move". I grabbed the chance to explore the Ghat. The scene out side was amazing, there was a kind of foggy drizzle I had never experienced before, the whole Ghat was covered with foggy clouds and a number of small waterfalls coming down from the hills made the scene more delightful. The valley below was alive with greenery although it was the first rains of the season.

I have always wondered how it takes only a day of rain for the hills steeped in dark brown to turn green, within a couple of days as the rains approach one can see the hilltop covered with greenery and life. What with the greenery and blooming flowers attracting different birds and animals alike, including yours truly.

Since then onwards I always looked ahead to my Nashik visits every time the rainy season arrived, until I shifted to Pune. The scenery around the road to pune, especially in the Lonavala ghat area is equally beautiful if not more than Kasara and aiding to it is the beautifully built, comfortable and speedy expressway. The ghat area stretches longer than the 12-14 kilometres than that of Kasara and has got some of the most beautiful stretch of mountains I have ever seen.

By now I have lost count of the number of times I have passed through these ghats and know nearly all the places well, including the number of tunnels and the shape of each mountain or hill, each curve on the road, but the journey is still full of excitement and thrill. But some how now I prefer taking the NH4 or what is called as the old Mumbai-Pune highway, when in the mood of leisure. The road is much slower and narrower than the expressway and is lot more dangerous too, the curves and climbings are very steep than the ones you face on the expressway but neverthless add to the excitement of the journey.