Weekend getaways in Western Ghats around Pune: KAS PLATEAU

Kaas my favorite destination during Monsoon... Just thought of writing here about it and my experience with this place..

Flora

Kaas Flowers

What Kaas is - Natural Shawl of Flowers in Maharashtra - The Kaas Plateau....This place has been declared as world natural heritage. I must say this is good move to protect biodiversity in western Ghats....but bit of disappointing for visitors..The identity of this place is as valley of flowers. In month of September / October you will see the shades of natural colour....It’s nothing but flowers with different colours. Beauty is that all flowers grow naturally in the particular region in specific time during each year..... I will leave it to scholars in this field to understand and reveal the secret behind it.... Its feast for eyes....

Kaas Flora

Kaas

When and How to Visit - September / October. Just 3-4 years back this place was unexplored and unknown places for many of the travelers…But if you go now, you will see huge rush and you may get stucked in traffic, specifically during the monsoon weekends. But again it all depends on you if you decide to enjoy in the traffic, locals are there to help you by making corn readily available for you with a cup of tea on the way in foggy environment.

But if you would like to avoid the traffic situation, visit this place peacefully and want to explore it completely try to visit it during monsoon weekdays... and if not at all possible on weekdays then try to start very early in the morning so as to reach the places at around 9.00 am. If you decide to spend complete two days for picnic, you can stay near to kaas and visit the place early in the morning. Believe me you will have completely different experience which you will cherish in your lifetime. You will notice dense fog, sprinkles of water from sky..Cool climate... pollution free environment...smell of flowers...and quietness, only whistle sound of blowing wind, complete peace. But if you want to experience this all, you have to reach at the places in morning only.

Just putting down here quick reference to plan your travel to this place -

First online booking - Visit this website http://www.kas.ind.in/

How to reach at kaas from pune - Zoom in for details...

Stay Options near Kaas - http://www.nivantresort.com/

There is couple more good resorts on the way to Kaas apart from Nivant hill resort.

What else you can see on the way to Kaas - Its feast for flower lovers off course! but yes if you think it’s just getting there and watching colorful flowers and coming back then hold on. It’s not just the natural flower museum but the way to plateau itself is so soothing that you can’t move forward without stopping at various places. There is couple of good places other than plateau of flowers.

Kaas Lake - Never miss this if you are visiting first time. Just make sure you are driving slow to notice the lake. Because it’s on the way after you cross the actual plateau of flowers. When I visited let me tell you I haven’t noticed that its lake until I reached very near to it. Because it was so much of cloudy climate that no one amongst us realized that so much source of water is in front of us. We just moved inside the forest to check how long the lake is where it ends. Believe me we were reached to the place where the hidden waterfall begins in forest. My actual phto's below will tell the reality. We spent almost an hour there and later when we returned to the points where we started from lake front, what we saw was unbelievable. Since fog was clear, we could see the entire lake in front of us. I was just amazed with view and the experience I had during that couple of hours. We never realized that the huge Kaas Lake was there where we started out trail to forest. But yes to enjoy all these moments fully as I said earlier, start early in the morning. I will put down my own photos of that place during my visits to have feel for that place.

Waterfall Point - There is another road which goes in the forest. I do not recall the landmark here but the there is small board that takes you towards the waterfall. If you are not interested in watching waterfall just enjoy that road. It is always pleasure traveling that road slowly and listening to soothing music.

Bamnoli - At the end of the Kaas road this small village Bamnoli is situated 35 kms fom Satara city. This village lies on Shore of Shivsagar Lake. Shivsagar is back water of Koyana Dam. You can ejoy boating here. Boating in cloudy climate is bit of hatake (different) experience. This place is free from city crowd, pollution and noise. The famous fort Vasota is situated near from Bamnoli. You can go to Vasota or Tapolathrough the boat. It is not recommended to visit / trekking to Vasota during Monsoon season. Having said that I recoemmned visiting Bamnoli when you plan for Kaas.

There is lot of other places nearby but I would like give true justice to those places and will cover it in another post.

Here are few clicks of this beautiful place. Have a great journey……

- महेश आवटे