Monsoon camping in the Sahyadris

Unlike most other trekking and camping destinations the Sahyadri range is best for hiking during the rainy season. Being lucky enough to live within a couple of hours driving distance from many great hiking locations makes monsoon season the perfect time for weekend getaways to one of these places.

So to make the best of the last leg of the rainy season I went off to one of my favourite areas - Gotha village which is about 80 Km west of Pune, near the backwaters of Mulshi lake. This is where Ecogrid has been set up - a green commune concept place which ultimately aims to become self sustainable; I'll write more on that in another post.

En route to the final destination

This one is going to be about the cave-behind-the-waterfall that was discovered about a 45 minute trek from Ecogrid and found to be a perfect camping place. 

 So we set off from Ecogrid, through the very green and lush landscape which is surrounded by hills. In the rains there are streams of water falling down the slopes creating lots of small waterfalls - what a sight!

 Our destination was a natural shelf formed behind one of the larger waterfalls. The picture below is taken from right behind the falling water, standing warm and cozy inside the 'cave'! We pitched our tents and slept off with the sound of the falling water as the background score. 

Behind the falls

The whole experience was as close as it could get to the kind of adventures I read about in Enid Blyton books growing up and always wishing I could be there. Well this time I was!