Friday 29 August 2014

Ashoka Dabdaba - Ashoka Waterfalls

It had been a long time since we had stepped out of Mumbai. We were headed towards Ojhar (40kms from Nashik) where TJ's cousin and her husband were staying. There's a HAL factory at Ojhar where his brother in law was working. TJ's mom was visiting them and we were going to pick her up from there.
We left Mumbai late on Saturday morning as we had decided to spend the night at Ojhar.
The road to Ojhar (for the uninitiated) is a beautiful scenic drive (esp during monsoons) winding across the Kasara ghats towards green glades and mounds of Shahpur - Igatpuri before reaching the historic city of Nashik.




As we were crossing the Kasara Ghats (I was driving slowly - enjoying the freshness of nature), I saw a sign which stated "Ashoka Dabdaba". Dabdaba in Marathi means waterfall. I was in a meandering mood and decided to follow the sign - taking a left from the highway.
The road was extremely good (well laid) with trees lining on either sides - forming a canopy.
About 3 kms inside, we spotted another sign and took another left. This was a dirt track, slushy due to the rain.



I got to know later that parts of the movie Ashoka was shot here and so the waterfall is so named! Interesting huh? Its otherwise called Vihigaon waterfall.

We parked the Duster and started walking towards the sound of water....our first sight and lo! behold!


As we started walking down the slippery, stony path clicking a few more pics, we realised this was not a very well known place but used by locals to shit(sic!)anywhere and everywhere. The stench was unbearable whenever the breeze wafted along(*&%$^).



Carefully trekking down, we reach the base of the falls and realise this place is used by a couple of Mumbai based adventure companies for waterfall rappelling.




The mist at the base of the fall is exhilarating and after clicking a few selfies, we headed back reluctantly as we had people waiting for us to have lunch at Ojhar. The call of food was at that point of time more stronger than the call of the fall!



Stay refreshed.....till another time

Pic credits: TJ & moi with TJ's iPhone.