Ghumakkar's Diary

Have always been wondering what this spit thing all around on the bushes, generally near the joint of the branches or leaves. Unable to get an answer ( and never realizing about Google'ing it ), I stopped taking pictures and perhaps started deleting whatever I had. SpittleBug - Shot at Matheran in 2010 Then few days back, I came across DesiTraveller's blog post on something called Spittle Bug ! Woot! It's something like a larvae secreting some foam (or spitting) around it as a protective cover. To know more about these Cercopidae Family bugs, you should visit here . [REBLOGed]  Spittlebug: The Soap Foam Bug A few days ago I wrote about our visit to the  Nature farm  where they grow organic food and do not use any chemical pesticides. While walking on the farm I noticed a small foam kind of thing on one of the plants. It was as if somebody was washing clothes and dropped some soapy foam there at best or somebody had spit at worst.  As it was jus...

Have you ever appreciated that visiting few places becomes a religion for you? Like, visiting that particular chae wala shop around the corner in Kolkata or that old movie theater that has stopped screening new movies in Old Delhi since a long time or that particular CCD in Lucknow where you had coffee with your soul mate? Nostalgic, isn't it! I find this theory true to our travelling too. Just a view of Vishwanath Temple of BHU, idling at Assi and Dashaswamedh Ghats of Banaras, trekking every year at Naneghat, bathing at Nagaon - Alibaug are the few of the travelling things that I do almost every year. The new entrant to this annual travelling pilgrimage list is Kas Plateau. Just like the last year we rode to this place again and were happier than ever. Trivia Kas (Kaas) Pathaar or Kaas Plateau is located in the Satara District, some 30 kilometers off NH-4 (now NH 48) towards West. Plateau is about 300 kilometers from Mumbai via NH-4 and 375km via NH 17. We took...

Naneghat has been like an annual pilgrimage for me. So, when I planned for the ride and trek this year, I was sure I wouldn’t be blogging about it. But the way it turned out to be – I couldn’t resist jotting it down and share. On just a few days’ notice three Decide&Ride TM Bullet guys agreed for the ride and trek along with a colleague and my roommate. Plan was simple - Ride/ Food/ Trek/ Food/ Trek down/ Food/ Ride back. Itinerary included Heavy to moderate Rain and Fatigue with Directions, misdirection, lot of fresh pahadi water, scenery and slips. We started it at around 6 AM morning. It was raining since last evening, and when we started it was still raining. Josh took Ashutosh as pillion and Abhishek hoped on to my pillion seat, Sandy was to join us at Kalyan naka with Monty – who found his bull not ready for ride and had to cancel it ( though he rushed and did power-trek to meet us at top later ). Anyways, it was still raining when we met at Kalyan naka and left for N...

So, I finally could ride to Kaas Plateau last Sunday. Almost a year back I came to know about this place, popular as Maharashtra’s Valley of Flower, in a Jet Airlines magazine; was scared to miss visiting the place this monsoon and wait for one more year. Trivia Kaas (Kas) Pathaar or Kaas Plateau is located in the Satara District, some 30 kilometers off NH-4 (now NH 48) towards West. Plateau is about 300 kilometers from Mumbai via NH-4 and 375km via NH 17. We took NH-4, which is obviously a faster and better option to ride, though NH-17 is more scenic and the last leg of some 70 km through ghats would be rather amazing to ride.

Have you ever been on road to ascend the heights of a jungle? A trip to Naneghat may provide the best of both, a short but marvellous scenic ride as well a moderate but certainly a demanding trek! The Naneghat Peak Naneghat is considered as one of the highest peaks in Maharashtra of the Sahyadris , the Western Ghats mountain range. At an elevation of about 700meters, it provides amateurs and  travelers , especially who spend their hours sedentarily in offices , an opportunity to reveal their limits, a chance to exhaust their hearts out!