We went from the Panchgani side since our hotel was in Panchgani. This place is famous for boarding schools. And right after the ghat section, is the site for paragliding.
It had attracted a pretty decent crowd even in the hot afternoon. And as soon as we had started our lunch, skies suddenly grew darker and burst into heavy rain even before we realised. And it rained hail initially. This immediately turned the place into heaven, with fog all around and the blissful smell of wet earth. Temperature suddenly dropped by 10 deg. and gave a feel of monsoon.
The climate was cold throughout the evening, but that didn't stop us from having the delicious dessert "Strawberry with cream" - the official dessert at Wimbledon. I tasted it for the first time and had to fall in love with it.
The next day began lazily and we headed for brunch to the Mapro garden. To our pleasant surprise, it was hosting the "Strawberry Festival" that weekend and we were sure that we were in for a pink treat.
And so was it. They were serving a basket of strawberries at each table, complimentary.
And the pizzas and sandwiches were too good and too filling. Then we continued on spot seeing tour of the place and took some pictures of the valley surrounding the region.
The weather was again in the mood for romance and the drizzle started and chilled the air. We had a nice cup of hot tea and then headed for the shops near the Venna lake. We played gunshot, throw-the-ring and the casino and won a nice amount there. The drizzle continued in the night and gave an awesome atmosphere for some tandoori chicken. The three day vacation was an amazing change of place.
Reasons to visit Mahabaleshwar -
1) Cool climate as compared to Mumbai and Pune.
2) Strawberries and related desserts
3) Paragliding
