Painted a little over the weekend..
Saturday Stuff
Tag: weekend
Trip to Sula Land
That was us as we started on the road trip from Pune to Nasik. Flygirl and Ani being the only two who could drive a vehicle, Nik and I lounged on the backseat switching songs on the Bluetooth speaker.
After approximately 5 hours – with breakfast and lunch breaks (Nikmade yummy biryani) – we reached The Sula Vineyards.
Even though it was only Feb, the vineyards were quite bare actually. So, maybe the right time to visit would be before the Sula fest (which takes place on the first weekend of Feb) or the fest itself.
But since we were already here, we weren’t about to let the bare landscapes spoil the fun.
We roamed the estate snapping pictures like regular tourists.
We then had our scheduled Wine Tasting Tour.
It is quite an informative tour where the guide takes you through each step of the wine making process – from the crushing of the grapes, fermentation to ageing of the wines.
We were also taught the 4 S’s of Wine Tasting – See, Swirl, Sniff, Sip
We tasted these:
- Brut Chardonnay
- Savignon Blanc Reserve
- Dindori Chardonnay
- Rasa Syrah
- Rasa Cabarnet Savignon
- Chenin Blanc
To be honest, loved the Rasa Cabarnet and the Chenin Blanc while mentally making a note to never taste the Savignon Blanc again.
We also visited the Bottle Store and purchased some souvenirs for home.
We had wanted to try the Grape Stomping but it was priced at an unreasonable amount, so we skipped it.
We spent some time in the evening letting the light hum of the wine nicely douse us.
Me and Flygirl having a fake candid chat for the pictures 😝
Do give the vineyards a visit if you are curious about it. Coz, Wine not?!
Matheran
Matheran is a step back from the hustle of routine life.
From Goa to Neral and till we reached the Dasturi parking, I did not have any plan of how we would explore this hill station.
The toy train that usually runs from Neral to Matheran was not available due to the derailing of the tracks during Monsoons.
Automobiles aren’t allowed in Matheran. So, our options to trugde up the hill were – either walk, or take a hand pushed rickshaw or
Every horse here has a serial number and a name. The names are quite interesting. My friend here is called Tez and he was really impatient to just complete the ride as soon as possible.
I guess when I am going to think of Matheran, I am always going to remember the horses first.
On Saturday night, the marketplace was teeming with horses and tourists. There was a lot of chatter and music.
Matheran has many viewpoints that are separated by a lot of distance. We decided to explore on foot and those 18 hours, I just walked around and talked endlessly.
At the end of the day, we had clocked up 24.5 kms 😁
I wanted to watch the sunrise as I have never seen one before. So I dragged my husband out at 4.30 am and we waited 2 hours to watch the sun rise.
The food here is quite pricey for normal food but I’m a sucker for Pahadi Maggi and Adrak Wali Chai so I wasn’t about to let that go
Even if this simple breakfast cost us 140 bucks😝
Most of the spots that we covered were in South Matheran. We had a target of about 12 spots and we are glad we could do that and a bit more.
There is a small but amazing Vastu Sangrahalaya on Shivaji Maharaj. It houses the letters originally written by him,
the armory,
and his sword.
The life story of Shivaji too is depicted and was quite an interesting read for a history buff like me.
There are games organised at some of the points. Me being very lucky at these things, I won us a Frooti bottle 😂😂
The landscapes are serene.
By evening, we were happily awaiting the sunset.
Night was a bit of a shopping.
Monday morning when we were leaving Matheran, the hill station was already deserted. We were two content souls making it down the slope with our luggage!
