Winter Retreat
The beauty of Mumbai is that it is situated in a region surrounded by the beautiful Ghats. With monsoon over and the cool winter setting in, it was obvious that it was time for me to take a road trip to a beautiful and sedate place. After consulting some friends the best recommendation was the hilly location known as Matheran.
Having heard so much about the hill station and having never visited the area despite it being just 100 kilometers from the city, it was an obvious choice. So I packed the essentials and headed out on the weekend for a short retreat. I took my wife along because there is no sense in visiting a lovely place without a lovely person. We left by 9 a.m. and exited the city boundary by 11 a.m. owing to heavy traffic, but once we got out of Mumbai, the roads cleared up and it was smooth sailing.
The roads leading to Matheran are quite good and with no hassles. We passed through some scenic locations including the Morbe Dam where we stopped to check out the beautiful lake which lies just off the NH4. The place is very clean and full of tourists. We reached the town of Halivali and asked for directions to Neral – the last destination by car. The town of Matheran does not allow cars to enter, which makes it an even more peaceful location. We must have reached Neral a little after noon and from there we had a choice to walk, hire horses or take the famed toy train into the town. Again an obvious choice for us was to take the train. It is a well maintained small train that takes you straight into the heart of the hill station.
The town of Matheran is beautiful and is covered by lush green hills and many rivers and high waterfalls that look breathtaking. There are many viewing points in the hill station but my favorite was the Charlotte point from where you can see the beautiful clean lake. There are many tourists here but there’s no noise or commotion because no cars are allowed – this is a great initiative I feel. There are so many trekking paths and we had an amazing time just walking in such a beautiful and quite location. We watched the sun set from another great viewing point and enjoyed every bit of it. It truly is a beautiful place and, that too, so close to the crowded city of Mumbai.
We enjoyed the weekend and now that I have visited this magnificent place I can surely say that I will definitely be making more trips here. I was told that the waterfalls are the best in the monsoon so again my obvious choice is to come back here during the monsoon months.
Anju
Mumbai
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