Koynanagar

This monsoon , we decided to visit the well known dam site of Maharashtra 'Koynanagar' to experience its abundant natural beauty and to see the famous dam known as 'Fate line of Maharashtra.'

We started our journey words koynanagar around 1 pm on 16th august 2014 from Sangli. All were very excited. Road till karad (60 km) was normal. We took left turn on chiplun road and started to go towards mountains. The road was nice  and nature was  at its full beauty all around .The paddy fields, small houses, the mountains in lush green colour were the sites all along  the road. Koyna river was accompanying us throughout this road journey. The beauty awards really spellbound.

 On the kind of beautiful road, I felt like this journey should never finish. But we had to reach our destination. So after around 25km on main road, we took one right turn and continued for 3-4 kilometers to reach koyna  dam colony and the rest house. Booking was done with some reference. The person there gave the room keys The rooms were in H1 rest house (charges  rupees 75 per day).We reached around 4 pm. Rooms where good for the rent charged. Parking space was available and kitchen was there but cook was ill, so it was closed. Lot of monkeys where there in the premises. They showed their presence from time to time and at night also from the sounds they made on the roof with their jumps.

We got ready, ate some snacks and started to go to the garden. But as we stepped out , heavy downpour  started and we waited for half hour. So it was already 5.30 pm. We decided to go to the garden in the morning (timing for garden 8 a.m. To 8 p.m). So we headed  to have a look of dam. The area was call ‘chameri’. Here main rest house and offices of dam are located. The tar road near it takes to the shore of the river. We watched the dam from a distance. It was really huge. In guest house the model and pictures and information of the dam is available. We saw that. The attendant told us that rate for the rooms for normal tourist is Rs. 750(non ac) and Rs. 1000(ac) and for employees rs. 100 and rs. 200. From here when can directly see the dam and garden around the guest house is well maintained with lot of pictures of birds found in western Ghats. We spent some times watching the dam model and then proceeded on road towards river. After some distance we could get better view of the dam, clicked some photos with the dam on background and returned to the main guest house garden area to sit and spend time there instead of sitting in the room. The caretaker told us that people can get permission to see the dam immediately if they are carrying their  id proof and photos. We decided to visit next time with preparation(with necessary documents).

 After spending some time there, we went to have a dinner in a small hotel ‘bhagyashree’ near S.T. stand. They took some time to prepare the food , but it was very good. We finished our dinner and return to guest house and went to sleep as early as at 9:30 p.m. It was raining heavily at night and we could hear sound on the roof.

In the morning we wake up around 7 a.m. Got ready and went out for breakfast and sightseeing at 8:30 a.m. We had our breakfast in same hotel and started for the Ozarde waterfall which is around 9 km. from this place. The road towards the waterfall was full of beautiful sites. We could see two big waterfalls on the way and backwaters of dam. All the journey was very beautiful. 

We reached near ozarde waterfall. It is inside the sanctuary (entry ticket in the sanctuary 30 rupees p.p. and timing is 8 a.m. To 4 p.m.).Though the waterfall can be seen from the gate, to reach near water fall 30 to 40 minutes trekking in a jungle has to be done. That experience of roaring sound of water ,thick trees with moss on the trees and stones, small streams of water on the way, jungle animals to accompany (snakes).Really thrilling experience. We started the trek at around 9:45 a.m. Most part of the route is well laid with steps. With people aged 4 to 60 years and some photo stops, we reached near waterfall in 40 minutes. As wear reached near the waterfall, small water drops were sprinkling everywhere and on us as well. In that situation also a managed to click some photos.Stayed there for 5- 10 minutes, admire the beauty of nature and started our return journey and reach base i.e. starting point in 25 to 30 minutes. From this point,there was one more path that was leading to view point of waterfall from some distance. But due to lack of time we could not go there.

From here we went to Nehru garden near the dam.( Early entry fee is 20 rupees per person and rupees 10 for child 30 car parking) Garden is really well maintain. Rose bushes maintained in one part , but there was not a single flower at that time. Pandit Neharu’s quotes are written in marathi on the big stone boards in garden. and 1 theatre and a small museum giving information about dam, how it was constructed ,how electricity is generated ,its unique location and all this information through ½ hr film and photos ,models etc. was given there. Ticket to watch the film is rs. 20 p.p. When 10 or 12 people gather the film is started.

The dam is called ‘fate line of maharashtra’ ,as when Maharashtra started becoming industrial state requirement of power was satisfied by electricity generated by this dam. Now a days also dam provides majority of electricity required by maharashtra state. Already 4 phases of dam are activated and one more is going to be started on Ozarde waterfall in near future. We were really thrilled and saluted the engineers and all the work force that was behind building and maintaining this huge dam. In Pandit Neharu’s   words “these are the prayer centers of new generation.”

After watching the film , dam from distance and storing in the garden for some time, we took lunch in canteen of the garden and proceeded to our rooms for packing and started our return journey around 2 p.m. On the way we have to visit datta dham near  Helwak. We reached near it at 2:30 p.m. It was closed but small gate was open the mandir was on top of small hill and board was showing timing 8 to 12. 30pm and 4 p.m. To 8 p.m. But as we wear near it, we decided to climb there around 300 steps to reach the top. The path was well laid and had 1 hanuman temple on our way and at top datta mandir but the gate was closed so we did prayer from the gate.Overall the location and atmosphere was very nice. There were some rooms available as bhakta nivas as it was mentioned on the board.

As we had to catch bus at 5 p.m. Karad , without wasting any time we started downward journey and started our return journey around 3 p.m. The natural beauty on the road was very nice and everything was picture perfect. we reached karad at 4.15 p.m. to catch the  bus for pune at 5:20 p.m. This was really memorable monsoon trip to Koyna dam.