Backpacking in India | The Lost Lander

This post is a follow-up on my 3-days backpacking trip to Satara. If you haven’t read it already, you can do so by clicking here. I had backpacked across Satara district covering Satara town – Wai – Panchgani – Mahabaleshwar – Khas plateau – Satara town

In this post, I have tried to share details of my day trip to Mahabaleshwar. The place as such, doesn’t needs any special introduction. This hill station is a favorite haunt of tourists from the nearby metropolis and afar. While its stunning views of the surrounding Sahyadri mountains and Deccan traps attracts the weekenders in large numbers, it sees a large footfall of Hindu pilgrims as well. Mahabaleshwar can be broadly classified into two parts, the New and the Old. I started my day trip to Mahabaleshwar from Panchgani on a Sunday morning. I have tried to explain my Mahabaleshwar trip in detail through this post.

Part 1: New Mahabaleshwar

This part of the hill station is popular for its breathtaking sceneries of the western Ghats or the Sahyadri mountains. It was mainly popularized as the summer capital by the British. The table top mountains were strategically used by the Marathas for holding up enemies. Today, it is especially popular among the honeymooners and millennials as a short getaway from the nearby cities.

With many good viewpoints falling on the way, the 15kilometer stretch from Panchgani to Mahabaleshwar calls for many pitstops enroute. We stopped in the following order of places.

a. Parsi point: that gives a view of the Dhom dam from a different direction than what we had been seeing all through the previous day.

b. The Lingmala & Bhilawar waterfalls: These places weren’t as appealing as the case would have been with a good monsoon season.

c. Mapro garden & chocolate factory: This is the venue of the annual strawberry festival and one can see the chocolate making process at the factory through a glass wall. We tried shots of different juices & crushes they offer at the factory and picked up some bottles and chocolates as souvenirs from our trip.

The Mapro strawberry garden and Chocolate factory

d. Kate’s point: It was a pleasant drive amid the Koyna forest reserve to get here. The highlight for tourists visiting this valley is the echo point and the elephant’s head / Needle hole point. From here, we caught a beautiful view of Dhom dam, Balkawadi dam, Krishna valley and the Kamalgarh fort.

e. Savitri point: We drove through the forests hoping to sight a few peafowls, deer etc. but had no luck. Our visit to Savitri point was disappointing because the entire valley had been engulfed by mist. Since the entire valley was filled with mist even at peak noon-time, there seemed no signs of it clearing out.

Kate's point & the elephant head — Kate’s point & the elephant head

f. Castle rock, 3 monkey point, Malcom point, window point, tiger spring, hunter’s point, echo point and Arthur’s point: These are view-points in the same valley, but now enshrouded by the clouds. We only walked past all these spots without being able to see even the faces of the people standing next to us. In fact, this very valley was what had inspired me to plan my trip to Mahabaleshwar. The view of these deccan traps / table-top mountains had mesmerized me through several Bollywood movies that had been shot here. However, that visit was a matter of bad luck.

g. Marjorie and the Elphinstone points: The drive through these places too meant only disappointment.

Part 2: Old Mahabaleshwar

This part of Mahabaleshwar spikes up the interest of the history buffs and those that are culturally or spiritually inclined. Several ancient temples are dotted here amid the serenity of the Krishna valley. Some of the important landmarks are listed below:

h. Panchganga temple: This is the place of origin for 5 important rivers in the region, namely Gayathri, Savitri, Koyna, Venna and Krishna. The five rivers conflux underground and then spout together through the mouth of a cow carved out of a stone about 4500 years ago.

i. Mahabaleshwar temple: This temple dedicated to lord Shiva is accessible from the Panchganga temple, after a small walk through the shopping lanes. This temple is what gives the hill station, it’s name. The legends mention about Atibaleshwar and Kotibaleshwar also, but those are temples that are lost.

j. Krishnabhai temple: A further walk of about 100 meters from the Mahabaleshwar temple led us to an archeological treasure that remains untouched by mainstream tourists. The stream of water spouting from a Gomukh (the mouth of a stone sculpted cow) in this 13.C.E temple is believed by a few to be the origin of river Krishna. Situated almost on a cliff, the place offered a great view of the Krishna valley around. For those familiar with ancient architectural styles, this temple is a good example of the Hemadpanti style of temple architecture.

k. Venna lake: A popular and a beautiful place otherwise, we decided not to stop here when we arrived there. The place was maddening and crowded with tourists.

l. Other places of interest in Mahabaleshwar: On a clear day, one could plan to see the sunrise at Wilson point that is known to be the highest part of Mahabaleshwar and Sunset at Bombay point. Both viewpoints are part of the Sindola hill.

NOTE:

The entry and exit to Mahabaleshwar is only between 06.00.a.m. to 06.00.p.m. as it is a protected forest area. So, it is required to plan your travel or stay at Mahabaleshwar accordingly.
This hill station contributes to 80% of the total strawberry produce of India. Hence, it is safe to call it as the strawberry heartland of India. DO NOT miss to eat fresh strawberry with cream for dessert after a nice Maharashtrian lunch at any of the restaurants in the Mahabaleshwar market.

This visit to Tarangambadi was a part of our family’s backpacking trip, mainly conceptualized to cover a portion of the Coromandel coast. Our itinerary for this trip was Bangalore – Mayiladuthurai – Poompuhar – Tarangambadi – Karaikal – Nagapattinam – Velankanni – Tanjavur – Trichy – Bangalore.

This post is about destination no.3 on the first day on the east coast road. I had read about this place in one of the history texts about the Colonial empire in India. I had visited Portuguese, British and the French settlement towns during my earlier travels. The Danish colonized in India for over 200 years with three important settlements. Serampore (in West Bengal), Tranquebar (in Tamil Nadu) and Nicobar Islands (in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, all along the Bay of Bengal. To read about the existence of these places in modern day’s context, there was barely any information available online from a traveler’s perspective. Since we were anyway doing the ECR tour, my curiosity to know more about a Danish settlement motivated me to add Tranquebar in our itinerary. ‘Tranquebar’ as the Scandinavians called it, is a humble town known as ‘Tarangambadi’ in present times.

As we continued our secular pilgrimage, I bought tickets to a destination that was unheard of to my family until that moment. I requested the conductor to inform me when we arrived there. Accordingly, we alighted the bus at a small junction. The place looked very laid back, simple, untouched by any major developmental investments, just like any other fishing hamlet on the coasts of India. The bus conductor pointed to a small road to the right and guided us telling “one kilometer ahead is the fort”, and blew the whistle indicating the driver to proceed. My parents looked at me with a blank look on their face. I could sense that ‘Where are you taking us on this hot afternoon?’ question in their eyes. Although with the first look of the place, I too had similar apprehensions running in my mind, I wanted to walk further to see what was really there!

We walked for about half a kilometer and an old arch done with Danish art welcomed us at the entrance of the town. A board by the side of the arch read: ‘Welcome to- The land of the singing waves- Tranquebar’.

The entrance arch — The arch at the entrance of Tarangambadi/Tranquebar

As we walked through this town welcome gate, the feel of the place transcended us instantly to a different country, or a different era- perhaps. The roads were super empty & clean and old Danish buildings stood tall on either side of it. The Zion church, the Teresa’s convent school, the Danish governor’s bungalow among several other structures that tell tales of an era bygone finally led us to a fort. ‘Fort Dansborg’ as it is called, is a structure peacefully nestled on the calm shores facing the Bay of Bengal. The moment we got a glimpse of the beach from the fort entrance, we got the link to the name of this quaint little place- Tranquebar: the land of tranquil waters. The place had tranquility overloaded not just in its waters, but in its air, land and whatever we saw around. I’m usually not a beach person, but this place was magical!

Since there are just countable properties (heritage bungalows turned resorts) in the town, Tranquebar is still unconquered on the tourist radar. Also, the unavailability of affordable food in a long stretch of kilometers, the budget hoppers are those who just drop in for day trips. Hence, except for a handful of fishermen, evenings and early mornings are idyllic with you being your only company if you choose to take stroll along the calm beach. This is by far, one of the BEST beaches along the east coast that I have been to.

The serene shoreline at Tranquebar — The serene shoreline around the Tranquebar fort

The fort is well maintained and converted into a museum. An important port between 1600s to early 1900s, the walls of the port now lay dilapidated, majorly battered by the tsunami in the year 2004. A stroll along the beach take you to the Masilamaninathar temple. It dates back to 13.C.E. and is believed to have mythological importance. The sculptures on the walls of this temple and the shikara have been corroded by the salts.

Although there isn’t much to see around in Tranquebar, it was a place that filled our mind with peace and tranquility even with just a few hours spent there. My parents too, were equally excited about the place where I had brought them to. I must admit that Tarangambadi is a place that I would COME BACK soon. Then, with more time and a hotel reservation at one of those bungalows on its beaches. But for now, it was a hard but a helpless option for us to pull ourselves out of this place. Unsatisfied with the quick visit, we promised ourselves to come back exclusively to stay here as we left for our next destination- Nagore.

getting lost in traveling through places and time…