Our Travelogue

[ Our travel stories are in our blog www.travelwithacouple.com For photostories of our trips, check the 'Photo Blogs' section in www.travelwithacouple.com ] Our travels have been a mixture of treks, backpack trips, and road trips. And we have been actively travelling only in the last four years, ever since we came to Mumbai. Our most memorable experience has been the four-day expedition to Koyna valley and forests in Maharashtra. Armed with some old maps, google maps, and a tribal man as guide, we trekked and hiked for over 9 hours on the first day through thick forests and settled down for the day in a tribal village. Next day, there was a one-hour trek and a 3.5-hour boat ride through the Shivsagar Lake, flanked by hills and forests, to the base camp at Vasota. On the third day, we trekked up to Vasota Fort and returned. By late afternoon, we hit the lake again to Tapola, followed by a bus ride to Mahabaleshwar. One of our longest road trips was to the Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka from Mumbai. We had planned to camp at Belgaum on the first day, but after reaching Belgaum, we decided to continue driving to Dandeli. By the time, we hit the road through the forest, it was dark. With only two of us and very bad roads, we were damn scared thinking of encounter with wild elephants or a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere. We reached Dandeli after almost an hour of tense drive. In the next two days, we explored many parts of the Dandeli forests and also did a deep jungle trek to Nagzari Falls with the help of one of the oldest and experienced forest guides. Another interesting trip was along the Konkan coast from Mumbai to Guhagar, crossing over to Chiplun and climbing the hills to Koyna Nagar. We reached Guhagar late in the evening after an interesting drive along beaches and ghats that touches these beaches – characteristic terrain of Konkan – and knock every door in search of a place to stay. Finally, a friendly family accepts us. Forests, wildlife, and birding have been our areas of interest and most of our trips are revolved around them. More travel stories and photo features are in our blog…