Mahabaleshwar- Mini Heaven in Maharashtra :)

Just before we left our beloved Pune to march over to USA , me and hubby visited famous hill station Mahabaleshwar, and it was a pleasant experience in all the way.

Mahabaleshwar is a very popular hill station in Maharashtra because of its places lakes, verdant hills and cascading waterfalls. thought it was not raining season here when we visited , we didnt get to see streams like waterfalls here ,but he other beauties of it were companasating this. It is not only famous for its scenic beauty but also for its various temples, spectacular viewpoints and historically significant places too.
During our trip I tried my hand on photography, and had a great time along with that too ! :)

Here are some pics of strawberry plants to share with all of you. It was really a great to visit real strawberry farms in Mahabaleshwar. Basically Mahabaleshwar is famous for that very much around here. And the market around there is full with strawberries from the starting of winter season to march . That too very fresh , big one and too yummy ! Luckily we hada guide who lead us to one of hid relative's strawberry farm there and we got to eat farms fresh strawberries there, OMG that taste still makes my mout hwater... :P

Picture 1

I had my part already there, until my stomach refused to take any more of it. :D

The fruit of strawberry starts developing from the center part of small white colored flower on the plant (pic 1 below). later on it goes on growing up in size and till much larger size of it , it remains in the color green (pic 2 below). when fully grown up it turns into perfect red color like the one shown below in pic 3.

Picture 2

Picture 3
Below are some pictures of the real beauty of Mahabaleshwar. There are more than 30 points to visit. most of them are at the hill place, situated near by and worth visiting. some other point like lake and temples are in the city and situated in the center of Mahableshwar.

Check out the picture below, here the middle of hill is in the shape of dinosaur, which I found resembling a huge lizard……… I hate lizards…. But this is looking nice, coz it is naturally turned into shapes like this. There are so many others like needle point, elephant head, the 3 monkeys of Gandhiji(Gandhiji ke teen Bandar)etc….
It was nice time when we planned visiting there, though the real season of visiting Mahabaleshwar is considered from mid- March to July. I succeed to capture a picture of monkey family on one of hill point needle point over there, I just went 'Fida' over the cute looking so young baby monkey ... :)).
Near by Mahabaleshwar is Pratapgadh – famous for its story of victory of Shivaji Maharaja over Afzal Khan. It’s a real historical place worth while visiting. It’s the one I have ever seen constructed with so much intelligence to protect it from enemies. It is really worth appreciating for each detail it is built up with. It has the entrance just of size that only one person at a time can enter. So that even if there is any attack from outsiders irrespective of the size of the army of enemy only little people at a time can be entered and that can be easily faced by the not so big army of Shivaji. Watch point 1 in red circled area
At the entrance there is a hidden cave in which 40 people can be hidden, to strike the enemy army. The next intelligence was their watch points.
As the fort is built at much height, there are 4 watch points situated at four different directions, which can easily monitor people moving in the area around and below, and before the enemy could reach the real fort mostly they can be sent to death, mostly by bombarding. There is much more to write about that , but may be some other time. Just a note that if anyone is visiting there then dont forget to get a guide along with , as without guide one can easily miss some very important points in the fort there, also to enjoy it fully guide will help you explaining each details of the constructon of fort vey well. just the point is you should not miss so many nice points worth while visiting and knowing.

This one is the complete picture of Pratap gadh taken from watch point 1. (shown in picture above)

Comiong up in next post some pictures of our trip to forests of Girnar, Junagadh - a historical city, and our trip to Farms of my uncle. so stay tuned to keep enjoyin the real pics of birds and animals enjoying in the forests, and the fresh products of farms... and yet there is so much to share with you all. So be in touch and keep enjoying your days ahead .

This is the 100th Post of this beloved Blog of mine.hope you enjoyed journey of my blog world till now, many more to share with you yet... :)

Soon posting Lauki-chanadal (bottle gourd- begal gram curry) for 'L' to Nupur for A-Z of vegetables on