A trip to Paradise

26th june, a Sunday is one of those days which has made a permanent mark in my memory. After months of stress and tiredness this nature trail came to an rescue. Monsoon is indeed the best time soothe urself and wash away all the tensions and one place that is a must visit during monsoon is Tungareshwar sanctuary.I went along with a group enthusiastic and nature loving group coordinated by Doreen. The rest included Marge, Jayshree, Meera, Naseem, her 2 nieces, 1 nephew ( the youngest and most enthusiastic 5 yrs), Sakina, Harish, my bro dhananjay and sujata. I joining the grp came as a surprise as I contacted them in early morning b4 the trail.We left for the sanctuary from naigaon as the journey is very beautiful. U pass through beautiful green pastures which is indeed enjoyable. We started walking down from the main gate. At the start we saw a golden fronted Leafbird, heard Indian cuckoo too. We were not very lucky otherwise with birds as it rained frequently which made us keep our binocs inside. We passed patches of green and also rocks flowering with chlorophytum and many climbers. The vitis is flowering and therefore attracting a lot of butterflies. I was highly fascinated by the color of the leaves which were maroonish when young. We also came across a Calotropis plant which had around 10 painted grasshoppers on it. The crowd went wild with excitement. All the cameras were out and we could not decide which was the best specimen. PG of different sizes were on the plant. It was simply gorgeous. We also saw housefly mating. As we moved further we passed through farms and farms of the Wild turmeric ( Curcuma pseudomontana) and ground orchid. We also saw big patches of the chlorophytum lily. We also saw Sheval ( Amorphophallus commutatus) scattered all around. One local lady was plucking those and when asked she told us that when cooked it’s a delicacy. We took our first break at the tea stall near the temple. Till the time tea arrived we 4 of us went behind the tea stall to have a view of the beautiful waterfall and the landscape around. From there we proceeded for the biggy that is the waterfall at the top. The whole journey was just awesome as it was raining cats and dogs and the whole place was covered with fog. The level of visibility was also minimum. The trek was pretty long one and time consuming. Ofcourse we didn’t realize the time running and also specially noon time. Rather than being hot it was chilly. The wind whipped through us sending shivers throught he spine. I was getting drenched completely as I had not carried any rainwear on purpose. That was an major reason for my joy as I would not have had a better opportunity to get wet. We saw many birds flying around and hiding in the thickets. The ravines and valleys had a number of waterfalls which were small now but would become huge gradually. I was at optimum level of excitement to pass through the mist and fog. We also passed the waterfall which was quite small now. We drank the water there. We finished our late lunch nearby and returned back. The wind was very strong there and we could see nothing in the valleys or also the paths as it was just pure white. Our next stop on our return was the tea stall at the temple. Our group split there as half of us decided to go to the waterfall to get wet. Initially we walked upwards and realized that we were at an higher level and going down towards the falls from their would be challenging and impossible with kids. So we retreated back from there and walked thru the stream. As we were running short of time we stopped at a small fall and a decent part of the stream. We bathed heart out and returned back pretty contented. We were dead tired and worn out. I have heard of matheran being beautiful and also seen pictures supporting it. But let me tell u this was quite similar that of an Matheran monsoon time.