6th April 2007 : A Good Friday for a Great Weekend

We had lost sleep the preceding nights, as the excitement to travel by our Car on a long journer neared. Sowmya had packed everything, or grabbed half the stuff in the house since we were driving. The Car was being transformed into our home on wheels for the 4 hour journey. My colleague Prashant, his wife Ramya and their 3 year old, Jyotsna were to be joining us in their car from Aundh, Pune. Sowmya had baked a fruit cake for Jyotsna.

We left our home (Vimannagar,Pune) at 5:30 a.m. in the morning drove down to Prashant's house at Aundh. We reached Prashant's house at 6:00 a.m. We would have reached earlier, but were delayed. Thanks to the slow paced flyover construction by the Pune Municipal Corporation.

We left Prashant's place at 6:15 morning and drove down the Pune-Mumbai Expressway to Khopoli (map).

The journey on the Expressway was smooth, pothole free and quite unlike the lunar landscape in Pune. We paid a toll of Rs.89 to go to Penn . Our spirits were rising along with the sun as we proceeded to Khopoli. We took a westward diversion at Khopoli to Penn. We took a break to have our breakfast. Ramya had made some delicious Mysore Dal Idlis.

We joined the NH 17 (Mumbai Goa Highway) at Penn and proceeded southwards towards Wadkal Naka. My cousin had suggested a Wada Paav joint at Wadkal Naka, but we decided against it keeping our delicate tummies in our mind. We proceeded toward Alibaug. A few kilometers from Alibaug we saw a diversion to Revdanda.

As we drove down the road toward Revdanda, we spotted a pond full of our national flower. We decided to take a 15 minute break to enjoy the Lotus pond. We then pushed the pedal and continued our journey. We saw a breached wall and proceeded towards Kashid without realising that we were crossing the wall of the Revdanda Fort. We were about 20 Kms away from Kashid. We reached Kashid at 11:15 a.m.

We were welcomed at Prakruti Resorts by uniformed guards. A welcome drink followed and we were escorted to our rooms.