Thoseghar water falls / Chalkewadi Wind mills / Urmodi Project

It was day 2 of our trip to Satara. We were well partially disappointed at having come to Kaas early by almost two weeks and flowering was only partial. So we wanted a good 2nd day to even things up. We vacated our hotel immediately after breakfast and our first stop was the Thoseghar waterfalls which was around 25 to 30 kms from Satara town.

The route passes through scenic valleys and you start seeing a number of wind Mills which grow larger with every passing minute. We had plans to visit chalkewadi wind mills after visiting Thoseghar as this place was further down the same road. Suddenly was in a state of doubt - which came first Thoseghar or Chalkewadi. We decided to stick to the original plan and my assessment based on the maps that the wind mill farm lay somewhere after Thoseghar.

The falls has a large parking area, good walkway to reach the falls and a platform from which the falls could be viewed.

As we approached the falls from the parking through a comfortable ten minute walk, the roar starts getting louder and louder. There is an exhilarating feeling on seeing a large waterfall gushing down a steep mountain and this falls did provide it. The water gushing down from over 200 ft was breathtaking to watch. We were here towards the fag end of the monsoon and the rains had abated over past few days but still the water flow was decent. Was just thinking what a sight it would have been during the monsoon.

The falls created a mist around the landing area and with the sun beating down it formed a colourful rainbow effect. We could see flocks of small birds flying closer to the ground near the waterfall. Tried my maximum to get a shot of them in flight with the waterfall in the background which proved difficult with my 70-200 mm lens and the rocky terrain which provided good camouflage for the birds. However just adjacent to the platform we had a group of monkeys in a branch swinging around for our attention and making all kinds of noices. My daughter is particularly terrified of them ever since a small monkey picked her packet of lays at Sanjay Gandhi national park and she now started kicking up a fuss about the monkeys.

With our photos done we left the place and moved to the next stop for the day - Chalkewadi wind mills.

A further two kms on the same road amid some breathtaking sceneries of lush greenery which presented a picture perfect view under a clear blue sky with a few white clouds interspersed along, is the Chalkewadi wind mills. The last few hundred metres is a treacherous drive for the car as roads are non existent and we clung on to our seats like the Fevicol ad with the bus.

It was extremely windy when we entered the place. Hold on. It's a wind mill farm. It's supposed to be windy around. We entered the place to a guard of honour from huge wind Mills on both sides spinning away merrily. There were hundreds of them. The idea of coming to this place was to educate my daughter on the wind Mills and how they help. With that done and more photos taken, we decided to return back.

On the way back we stopped near Sajjangad fort base. There is a spot from where you get breathtaking views of the urmodi dam project on one side and the valley offering views till Satara on the other. After a rest for sometime here we descended down towards Satara. 

There was one more stop for a photo upon seeing this large and imposing Pavanputra Hanuman standing in all glory as a guardian of the hills.

With that our musings with Satara ended and next pitstop was Wai on the way back to Mumbai for a second visit there post monsoons. That's in another blog.