Parali Suryamal Khodala Vihigaon - Monsoon trip
Trip Start
Aug 07, 2011
1
6
10
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Wada Parali Suryamal Khodala Vihigaon
Tansa
Wada Parali Suryamal Khodala Vihigaon, Mahārāshtra, India
Monday, August 30, 2010
The road from Wada to Parali and Suryamal traverses lush rural paddy fields - delicious Wada Kolam rice! and dense jungles of the Tansa sanctuary. The countryside is at its most verdant green during the monsoons.
Suryamal is a small plateau. From here the road goes on to Khodala from where one can go on to Trimbakeshwar and Nashik, or to Jawhar, or like we did, to Vihigaon and Kasara.
Beautiful monsoon wildflower
Abundant monsoon grass is collected by villagers to be sold as fodder and hay
Erinocarpus nimmonii - forest tree with pretty yellow flowers that bloom in the rains, endemic to this part of the Western Ghats:
Mountain Goats on a hillside!
The Middle Vaitarna dam project is under construction right in the middle of the beautiful once dense forest between Khodala and Vihigaon. It will eventually submerge large tracts of the forest, valley, a few villages and a 200 year old stone bridge.
Scenes from the forest road overlooking the Vaitarna valley:
Rural paddy fields and tribal houses
Hills and dales - English countryside between Khodala and Kasara
The road less travelled! Villagers here as in all of India, walk miles.
The village laundry in a monsoon rivulet
Lush paddy fields
A rough 3-4km path from just after Parali, off the Parali Suryamal road, leads to the cliffs edge overlooking the Modak Sagar or Lower Vaitarna reservoir
The beautiful VIHIGAON WATERFALLS - the site of the Shahrukh Khan film Asoka
