Walk by the silent trees ...

  Matheran, India
Wednesday, June 6, 2007

    It was February and the climate was just perfect. We
took a train around noon from  CST station in Mumbai and reached
Neral afternoon. It took one and a half hours. for there we took a car
to reach the nearest spot called "Bazar pet".


Fuel driven vehicles were not allowed from then on. Either you can go on horse back or just walk.We chose the latter.

We walked along a toy-train track (which was out
of order that time). It was a long but pleasant walk. The earth was red
and the trees green...clouds and fog clumped along the mountain slopes.
It took us about 2 hours to reach the  Matheran market place. We
got a room in the hotel named Point View. The rooms were comfortable..
that too with a small balcony.

    The best thing about Matheran is its purity... no
pollution,
no traffic... all you have to do is just watch and walk. Feb was a good
time because after that the place becomes very dusty. We
spent the rest of the day by the Cherlott lake.

The view of the sunset
behind the hills was beautiful.

The choco-coffee shakes and chicken
tikka were refreshing. We chose chinese for dinner. The food wasn't
taht good but the wonderful ambience made-up for it. We sat in the
small park for long after dinner and enjoyed the cool mountain
breeze... chatting and laughing.

    Early morning the next day we went to see the
sunrise from the Khandala point.

We walked along the long winding paths
which led to various points each with wondeful view of the mountains. I
loved the Monkey point most.... the name sounds funny but the place and
time was perfect.

It was early morning... the trees were silent, the
paths misty... everything was calm, only the birds twittered...... the
forest was beautiful.

    While we were walking, a dog started to walk
along...it accompanied us for few hours and finally left us after a
treat of biscuits.

     We returned that afternoon........ refreshed and back to work!