F&B Chronicles Day 2 : Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani

Mahabaleshwar-Pratapgad Fort-Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani-Mahabaleshwar

We woke up late after the tiring first day of the trip. While motoring around Mahabaleshwar the previous day, we spotted a quaint looking restaurant called Grapevine and we headed there for breakfast. There were no other patrons and we ordered eggs with some sides.

The grapes were sour

After a long wait that made us ponder the question – which came first, the chicken or the egg – the very oily breakfast arrived. We had to order toast separately, not a good deal at all. We were still hungry after this so we headed to Elsie’s Bakery, the one we spotted the previous evening. We tried some patties and some other pastries. Ordinary stuff, so we decided against returning.

Nice building, okay food

Next, we headed to Pratapgad at approx 11 am. Not a great time to be walking around the fort, I know, but there was nothing much else to do. The route was same as the way to Mumbai and it wound down the hills for about 15 km before flatenning out for another 8-10. The fort is not controlled by any government agency and is supposedly private property. As a result, there are no regulations about commercial exploitation of the fort and there are shops everywhere. We took a guide who gave us an hour’s tour, however, it went to only a few parts of the fort where the “touristy points” were.

Pratapgad Fort

This was one of the forts where Shivaji used to visit quite often. According to the guide, Shivaji used to visit twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from Raigad, which was the capital and 60 km away. We debated how likely that would have been, considering that there were no roads or automobiles in those days and he would have had a long horse ride each way.

It was really hot and by 1 we were frying in the sun. We stopped at a place that had a good view of one of the bastions and shared a Maharastrian thali –  bhakri, kadi, ussal, papad, pickle, baingan bharta @120. The proprietor offered us sol kadi  which was strictly okay. After some photographs, we left and were back at Mahabaleshwar by 1:30.

A friend had recommended staying at Dina Hotel, but as it was a bit expensive for our trip budget, we had skipped it. However it was also recommended for its food so we headed there for lunch only to discover that they had only a set continental menu for 600 apiece. We decided we were not THAT hungry and instead went driving to Lodwick Point and Elephant Head’s Point which turned out to be quite decent compared to Wilson and Bombay Points.

Elephant Head’s Point

Lodwick Point is named after a General Lodwick who made some of the area popular during the British Raj. This made us thirsty and hungry as well so we went back to town to Treacher’s for beer, sizzlers and chinese lunch. Decent stuff. We discovered that in the afternoons Treacher’s transforms from businessmen’s den into a dating hangout.

Delicious strawberries

After a good 45 minute nap back at the hotel, we headed to Panchgani, aiming to catch sunset at the Table Land which is a huge plateau there. Enroute, we stopped at Mapro garden to buy and taste some strawberries. The place was unnecessarily expensive for snacks so we bought some strawberry crush and jams and bought fresh strawberries from some vendors outside. Just Rs 100 a kg !  We bought 2 kg for our friends who were going to join us the next day at Murud.

The Bloody Car at Table Land

Heading to Panchgani, we found Table Land after some odd directions from the locals. The views were worth it and after staying till moonrise, we left. Feeling a bit hungry, we stopped at Mapro again, this time having a strawberry shake each. At Rs 150 each, we did the math and visualised Mapro’s profit margins. Dont bother having anything at Mapro. They had veggie pizzas made in a wood-fired oven for Rs 400 each. And people were actually ordering them.

We headed back to the Savoy for a nice hot bath and decided to have a spot of dinner at the Punjabi restaurant in the same compound. The food was okay and by 11 we were off to sleep.