The bhataktiatma : Travelogue of a wandering soul

As promised we were back for Hemant Ogale's monsson camp in Whistling Woods Amboli , we have seen the beautiful side of monsson , the mountains , the waterfalls and the green cover but this time we were here to explore Amboli's wilderness in monsoon. Amboli is the northern most point of Malabar region , off late amboli has been shining as one of the best biodiversity hotspots in maharashtra and india. Amboli is wettest place in Maharashtra infact its monthly rainfall in June ( around 3500mm) is more than that in cherapunjee, such climate is extremely conducive for rapid reproduction of frogs there are many frog species , some of them endemic to Amboli. One from species amongst them hogs the major limelight "Malabar Gliding Frog", green colored frogs resembling cartoon characters are one of the most photographed infact they have become a trademark of amboli. These frogs breed throughout the monsoon and as soon as monsoon ends , they vanish into the thin air , never ...

Summer has been particularly hot this year with temperature clicking 40s continuously, that kept us away (thankfully!! )from doing ghat routes or our beloved high endurance treks (injection treks) . I am not particularly fan of these treks however some routes demand high endurance and cannot be done in leisure, Ninand Bartakke came up with one such route in Ahupe Region and as temperature has been on decline in last few days due to pre-monsson showers we agreed to do it. Shidobadaar – Bhairaonathdaar , we had visited pimplegare , village nearest to shidobadaar opening two years back to check the possibility of doing this route , even then none of the villagers believed that this route can be done , they were worried about a huge overhanging boulder and loose rocks which make it extremely risky to do this route but we still wanted to try our luck and promised ourselves that we will be back for it , more than the route , Deorai ( temple garden ) at ahupe was more tantalizing , we h...

Koyananagar : Maharashtra’s best kept secret Last year after our trip to tamhini ghat , we were really worried as we have seen thousands of people flocking every single waterfall in 90km long tamhini ghat . Idiots equipped with plastic, alcohol bottles   had literally hijacked the tamhini ghat and its beauty. This got ardent nature , peace and trek lovers thinking if there are any peaceful jungles left in Maharashtra where we can stay away from the citizens of “Bhavda” republic , people who wear brightest color clothes / embroidered jeans     , shirt but without buttons , glittering goggles , stand in front of the waterfall   with “click me I am sharukh khan(king of bhavdas)” expressions. ...for more specifications on bhavda republic , feel free to contact ….so we were worried …. Fortunately we got to know about koyana reserve forest , the most beautiful evergreen forest in Maharashtra. Backwaters of koyana hydro power project have kept this evergreen forest al...