While Burns was here in Pune,we had planned a trip to the places which are specific to Maharashtra,its culture and rural life. After lot of rounds of discussion Ashley,V and I finally decided on few places in and around Pune.
Fort JadhavGadh :
Situated in the beautiful rolling hills of Saswad, located 22 km away from Pune on the old Pune – Satara Road.Fort JadhavGadh is the small fort(called as Gadh-in Marathi) which is converted into the only heritage hotel in Maharashtra by Vithal Kamat group. We started our journey @ 10:30 am and reached the Fort around 11:30 am. At the entrance we were welcomed in a warm traditional Maharashtrian way (By playing Tutari and drums).
There is an entry charge (cover charge) of 500 INR per head, which can be redeemed at hotel restaurants. This entry charge covers entry to the museum and guided tour of the hotel property.
We missed 12′ tour by some minutes and next guided tour was due to start at 2pm. So we decided to visit the museum, Aai(Mother) , which is a personal collection having artifacts and historical items collected by Vithal Kamat. The museum is hosted in a typical old style Maharashtrian house,called as “Wada”.
After exploring the museum,it was time for Pet-Pooja @ ‘Chhajja’ the 24*7 restaurant. The food was chosen,keeping Burns’ liking for Indian food in mind. Food was really delicious,and everyone really enjoyed it.
After the really heavy lunch,it was time for the tour of the fort. We were happy to see the great attempt made for keeping an age-old structure intact with the help and mixture of modern structure. Since this place is converted in a heritage hotel,it has all the five-star amenities including swimming pool and Spa which are in very good condition.
After spending more than four hours in this place,it was time for us to start our journey towards Peacock Village.
Peacock Village :
Barely 50kms away from Pune,Morachi Chincholi is a peacock sanctuary on the Pune-Ahmednagar state highway. This tiny village is surrounded by tamarind groves and fields of corns,sunflowers. It is said that the villagers and their ancestors always cohabited Indian National bird. This village supposed to have around 2500 peacocks. It took us around 1.5 hrs to reach this place.
Mayur Baug has a kids park,a puppet show a magic show, and a farm full of geese, turkeys, horses, camels and other livestock. We skipped the magic show and puppet show since we were more keen on watching peacocks.But we enjoyed the bullock-cart ride along with Burns.
The peacocks are best watched at the dawn and when the sun begins to set. So we were at the Peacock viewing gallery by 5:30pm when few peacocks began to make an appearance. Everyone was very excited to see so many peacocks at one place.
This beautiful view was well complimented with hot tea,coffee and yummy kanda bhaji 🙂
The handsome hunks(Peacocks) which you are seeing in above pics are the male of the species, the ones with the flashy tails. The female and young males do not have the tail feathers but are still beautiful !!!
All in all, we ended Day-1 of our weekend trip on a very happy and satisfying note with a setting sun !
hey plz tell me can we go jadhavgadh for only 1day
Hi…Yes its the place for a day’s outing only !
Its not just a day outing place. People come and stay for 2 to 3 nights. lot of wedding and events also happen here.
wow so very beautiful 🙂
Here from uma’s blog….
Hey Shilpa..welcome to my world..see ya around 🙂
Congrats on your hundredth post!!
Beautiful place and gorgeous peacocks!!
Hey IHM..thanks a lot..nice to have you here 🙂
Congrats on the 100th post! I will probably be visiting Pune in December and will make sure I see these places then! 🙂
Hey thanks !! Yes, I hope it would be good experience for you too 🙂
Welcome to my blog..see ya around 🙂
Congrats on the century. I’ll probably be visiting Pune this December, hope to go see all these places then! 🙂
beautiful pics! especially of the peacocks 🙂
Hey thanks 🙂 Nice to see you around !
Congrats on the 100th post !!! And WOW, wonderful pics of our national bird to mark this century.
I loved the trip to the fort – I always like such places.
And the peacock sanctuary is wonderful news to me – I am so happy that the national bird is thriving better than its animal counterpart. 🙂
Thanks Uma 🙂
Yeah..we were happy to see that there are some people,some places who are taking care of our national bird very well 🙂 And of course trip to the fort was an amazing part of our outing..i loved it too 🙂
century ??? Congrats!!!!!!
hey great pics…. Except for the shaken one ofcourse 😉
With your write up and pics, you should become the tourism ambassador of MH 😛
BTW new header looks interesting.
Hey dear..thanks..just check out the history of this header in Headers and History page..you will know where it was taken 🙂 very familiar to you though !!!
Congrats on your 100th post!!! 🙂
Hey…Thank you so much 🙂 It feels nice to receive so many wishes for this small milestone 🙂
well anyone who gets to a 100 is a avid blogger..and we all appreciate that. infact i think most of the guys who congratulated you have hit 100 or more themselves. so they understand 🙂
Yeah..you are correct,Masood 🙂
Yay! Congrats on 100 posts and the peacocks add to the beauty of the same 🙂
I so wanna go there nw 🙂
Thanks for your wishes Swaram..yes its indeed a good site to watch Peacocks 🙂
Awesome 100th post! 🙂
Congrats once again!
I am bookmarking this post! Will need it when I visit Pune!
and lovely pics! 🙂
Thanks Pixie ! Sure you can always bookmark OR ask me without hesitation before planning your Pune trip 🙂
Congrats on 100 posts!!! Cool job 🙂
Beautiful post..2500 peacocks. WOW. They look breath-taking in photos only, I can only imagine how it must’ve been when you were around them. So Burns must have been thrilled I guess.
Thanks dear.. yes,everyone was excited and happy to see Peacocks..however its said that best time in the year to see lot many peacocks are during Monsoon..so will visit this place in Monsoon once again(hopefully)
i have been to pune many times for work.. but because i go for work i can never explore the city or its neighbouring places… i dint even know this fort existed. it lookes very regal.. straight out of the times of the peshawas or smthing…
i have travelled a bit in maharashtra.. never encountered any peacocks…. the only ones i have seen have been in gujarat and rajasthan…just goes to show, no matter how much to travel , there is stil more to explore!
Yeah that happens..Though i am born and broughtup in Maharashtra,residing in Pune for last 2.5 yrs just recently i came to know about such beautiful places and their existence 😉 Looks like there are lot many things remained to explore in India 🙂
I didn’t know that this place exist. Thanks for sharing.
Hey thanks for visiting my blog 🙂 Yeah there are many such places,we are not really aware of..thanks to whole blogsphere..which throws light on good things !
Nice… 🙂
My last Pune visit was not that exhaustive in seeing round the places…
Hopefully some day (in this life itself :P) I’ll find the way….
~Sattu
Yeah i know about your last Pune visit..don’t worry,if Mumbai is calling you for some good reasons..you will definitely get chances to visit the good places in and around Pune 🙂
Amazing pics of peacocks! 🙂 Other pics are also very cool. Nice read. Discription of fort is very well written.
Thanks chandrika 🙂
Really nice pics. The peacocks look beautiful. Looks like you guys had a lot of fun 🙂
Thanks ! Yeah..it was really fun to watch Peacocks and their beauty 🙂
The pictures look amazing..and Oh the peacocks..so beautiful
Thanks dear ! Peacocks are really a beautiful creature isn’t it?
100th post, eh ?
Never knew Pune had such places nearby. and btw, is that a shaken you in that restaurant snap ? 😉
Yes Vimmu..finally 100th Post 🙂
There are many such beautiful places in and around Pune. Yep its shaken me in that restaurant snap !
oh the peacocks are so beautiful..been years since I’ve seen one. Amazing!
Yeah..its really fun to watch them from so closely 🙂