Great Escape Water Park

I had a good time at The Great Escape Water Park, near Mumbai, recently. The place is located about 60 kms outside Mumbai, off the Mumbai - Ahmedabad National Highway, on the route to Vajreshwari.

The place has 3 large pools, one of which was not functional the day we visited. Of this, one of the pools is for adults, with about 6 water slides. The second is more for children, with kiddie slides. However, both the pools had a mix of adults and children, all having a good time. In addition, there is a DJ who continuously belts out the latest hits, with all time favourites.

In addition to the slides, the place offers breakfast, lunch, and evening snacks, along with snacks in between. The food was uniformly good. For Rs. 350 all inclusive for adults, and Rs. 250 for children, the place offers great Value for Money.

A few observations:
1. There were hardly any takers for most of the rides. Either the visitors were not very adventurous, or they were more keen to just laze around in the pool. If the latter were the case, then I am amazed that people were willing to travel for a couple of hours, and spend good money, just for time in the water!
2. The adult pool was too shallow. It had to be so, because a lot of children were in the pool. So one can't blame the park authorities, but it does take away from the experience.
3. It was heartening to see a lot of greenery within and around the park. Let's hope it stays that way.

This was my second experience of a water park. The first was at Mehsana, Gujarat, near Ahmedabad, about 10 years ago. It was quite surreal to see this water park, in the middle of nowhere, in a dry, dusty environment. The place was not very crowded, but I don't remember if I visited on a weekday or weekend. I wonder if the place is still functional...

Mahim Nature Park

We decided to use the occasion of World Photography Day (19th of August) to visit the Mahim Nature Park. Not many people are aware of this gem right within the heart of Mumbai. And that is a shame. The place is a veritable oasis of green, and offers a variety of habitat within a small area - pond, creek, and well wooded areas. It is hard to imagine that this place was a garbage dump 25 years back. Kudos where it is due - it is one of those rare cases when the governing body has done a great job. Today, the Mahim Nature Park offers nature lovers a place to immerse oneself, and pursue their hobbies - be it Bird watching, or photography.

The place can be covered in an hours leisurely walk, but obviously, one can spend much more time observing nature in all its splendour. As we were without binoculars or camera, we were happy to just walk. And it was a rewarding walk - we spotted Ashy Prinias, Tailorbirds, a cormorant, cattle egret, koel, Red whiskered bulbul, with the highlight being a Fantail Flycatcher.

After the walk, we were fortunate to see a slideshow of nature photographs clicked by Kakubhai, a veteran photographer. He showed us some of lion and tiger photographs, and they were simply beautiful. It was amazing how he has been able to capture and transmit the emotions of the animals to the viewers. He also regaled us with stories of his 4 decaded of experience photographing animals in the wild.

Malshej Ghat - in the monsoon

Malshej is famous for its waterfalls in the monsoon season. As my wife has not visited this place, we took the opportunity of her birthday to drive to Malshej.

I had last passed through Malshej ghat more than 2 years back, on the way to Junnar and Shivneri. In the meantime, the road was upgraded from a State Highway to a National Highway (NH 222), and an already good road just got better.

We encountered just a bit of traffic at Kalyan, but the road from then on was clear, and mind blowingly beautiful. A two lane grey ribbon with clean white markings winding its way through lush green well wooded countryside...this must easily be one of the best roads for a long drive immediately outside Mumbai.

On crossing Murbad, the traffic thins out even further, and the imposing Western ghats loom high on the horizon. The road hurtles straight towards the mountains, and takes a turn at the last moment to begin the ascend into the Deccan Plateau. For a few kilometres, the road runs parallel to the towering mountain face, rising near vertically about 500 metres. Words cannot do justice to the experience.

Soon as you start climbing the ghat, the waterfalls for which Malshej is famous start to appear. Unfortunately, with the rains on an extended leave of absence in the month of July this year, the waterfalls were just trickles. But that did not deter groups of men from frolicking underneath one that crashes down to the road from an overhanging cliff face. An enterprising person has also set up a small stall selling tea and snacks beneath this overhang!

We stopped for lunch at the MTDC resort. As is almost always the case, MTDC had the best location - overlooking the Konkan stretching down below. On both sides are tall mountains, standing as sentinels to the Deccan plateau extending behind. The tops of the mountains were framed by clouds, and there was not a patch of brown in all the green. Across the valley could be seen the grey ribbon of road coming out of a tunnel, and snaking upwards. Simply stunning, and almost spiritual.

We were at Malshej ghat for a couple of hours, before starting the return journey. Along the way, we managed to get good, close up views of the Malabar Whistling Thrush. We also oberved a pair of Brahminy Mynas at the MTDC resort.

Malabar Whistling Thrush