Kundalika Valley: Mystic Mountains in Magical Monsoon

Mystic Peaks

Monsoon is always magical in the Sahyadris. The irregular shapes and peaks of the mighty mountains, draped in prosperous green, playing hide and seek behind scurrying clouds make for a spectacular sight when accompanied by the random plays of shadows and light, selectively illuminating only certain portion of the mountains at a time. This coupled with the diffused light, thanks to the clouds, and a clean atmosphere, devoid of haze, washed off by rain, makes for a very good photo-op when the mist clears up once in a while. Only problem: when it rains in the sahyadris, it pours, and on a given day, you may not stand a chance of having the mist cleared up.

Tamhini region is one such place which comes alive during monsoon. It has been my go-to in monsoon, for last 4 years or so since when I came to Pune. This monsoon was not to be an exception.


Kundalika Valley

Kundalika valley, I was told, is a strange place with two huge mountain walls separated by a narrow gorge. I had never been there, and last Sunday, when I finally made it, that was the very time and very day of monsoon onset. It was all hidden behind clouds. The cloud cover was thick enough to hide everything beyond 5-10 feet. We had come back a little disappointed, even after having a Devrai (sacred-grove) trail as a consolation.

But I had heard too many things about this place to give up in one attempt. So after it appeared that we might have a no-rain window over the Saturday morning (23-June), we quickly planned another drive to the same place with all the photography gear we could get.

We started at around 4:30am in the morning. Early morning light was what we were after, if not sunrise. Roads in Tamhini have improved quite a bit over last few years, and the drive was pleasant.

The moment you take the turn towards the valley, the atmosphere changes. Small well laid road, mobbed by dense forests on both sides, canopies of trees making it darker, affecting visibility in addition to the mist and clouds that surround you. Various whistles, cacklings, melodious songs, chirps fill the otherwise silent environment. These forests are teeming with unusual birds, and they create a fish-market of sounds. Vishal could identify quite a few of those and would even mimic it in a humanised marathi 'transliteration'! This, as I came to know from him, is nesting season of Malabar Whistling Thrush, and we could indeed hear melodious whistles all through, literally without a break.

Fortunately it was not raining, and we were inclined to take our chances with carrying our gear out in the open with some basic rain protection like umbrellas and ponchos, just in case. I parked the car on the roadside, and we started towards the edge of the valley. It's hardly few hundred meters from the road.

Chestnut/Cinnamon Bittern

We met a lake en route, and were wondering about how best to shoot it, when suddenly I noticed a pair of rusty-brown coloured birds with heron like beaks and overall gait, circling the lake. Vishal was quick to identify them as cinnamon/chestnut bitterns. Lifer for me. I tried to get an in-flight shot, but despite having Vishal's L-series 100-400 mounted on my camera, all I could manage was a blurred record shot.

After the lake, we moved on towards the edge. It was still cloudy and we didn't have much hopes for a clear-up. Yet, we took a stroll around the edge in search of some small waterfall to shoot. The place has got a lot of biodiversity. Various types of birds, butterflies, frogs, flies, crabs of all shapes and sizes (though not as big as what I had seen and 'handled' on Visapur, couple years back), and all sounding their best, except for the irritating cicadas which were sounding like somebody was getting zapped in slow motion with a low quality chinese taser.


Dramatic Clouds at Jannat Point

All we saw were marks of waterfalls. No water to fall. We decided to turn back and head towards a vantage point, when suddenly I noticed a peak emerging in front of me, out of clouds. I had never seen what was on the other side of that gorge before, and seeing that peak emerge out of nowhere, in front of my eyes, was nothing short of magic for me. I reacted with a loud 'wow'. It covered up with clouds shortly. But there were such short 'wow' moments while we continued on our way to find that vantage point to best experience this drama from. Finally we found one open space where we could safely sit very near the edge, with no obstruction to our view, and settled there hoping for another clear-up.

It was all cloudy. It is a very narrow gorge between two huge mountain walls, and the gorge eventually opens in the vast plain of Kundalika valley. Due to such rare geography, the clouds coming from the Arabian sea via Kundalika valley, funnel through this gorge and rise up. Since wind was blowing hard that time, the clouds were funneling and moving at maniac speed. So it would clear up momentarily, at some place and then would quickly cover up again the next moment. I managed to have few glimpses of what kind of a wall lies in front of me, but not the complete picture.

And then suddenly, out of the blue, it all started to clear up at the same time. The clouds started getting thinner and thinner. Some dense ones still hesitated near peaks, while the clouds in the skies made a gap to allow sun rays to shine on select portion of the mountain in front. This selective clouding and selective illumination of various features of the mountain, was, insanely surreal and dreamy. It gave the scenery such a mystic feeling that we watched this otherworldly drama in pure awe. I don't remember experiencing something as spectacular as this during any previous monsoons, and sat there spellbound.

We sat there for a long time. The drama repeated a few times. I shot a video no less, as it happened next time. This was one of those moments, when I dearly miss having a DSLR with video recording capability. 450D unfortunately doesn't have it, so I had to make do with what my Moto Milestone offered.

Owing to all the spectacular spellbinding drama that we witnessed there, I marked the GPS coordinates of the spot in my navigator as Jannat Point. Here are the GPS coords, go crank-up your GPS and explore -

Jannat Point: N18°30.810' E073°24.899'

We got back to car, had our breakfast partly on the road, and remaining at house in a nearby village (Pimpri). Came to know from the man of the house that the forests behind his place are home to शेकरू, the giant squirrel, the state animal of Maharashtra - something I havent seen till date. "In abundance" he told us, when, surprised, we asked details. Someday I want to go there again, just for spotting and clicking that giant squirrel.

We came back to the Jannat point after breakfast, and again spent more time clicking. This time though the clouds had totally cleared up and it was as clean as it could get, though, the plays of shadow and light was still on, presenting some unique photography opportunities. This time I had the wide-angle mounted on my camera, and went on clicking whatever that appealed to me. After about half an hour, we started back towards the car.

View of the Kundalika Valley from the Jannat Point

Hide and Seek

Ghangad and Telbaila

Last week when we had come to Kundalika Valley, we had turned back on the same route. This time, we decided to keep going on till the end and see where it goes. A quick search on Google Maps a day before, had hinted that we would end up in Lonavala, and we had marked way-points for Ghangad and Telbaila in our navigator.

The road was not very good, but the weather was. It would pour and then clear up, exposing clean cut green mountains on the left, and Mulshi dam backwaters peeking once in a while on the right. At one point in time, the downpour was so heavy that the visibility was almost nil even after keeping the wipers wiping at highest frequency possible. It was very much as if we were driving under some heavy waterfall.

En route we turned a bend, and there on the horizon stood the pair of Telbaila walls. The striking feature of the walls, apart from their humongous size and strange gait, is that they are totally separated from all other mountains and ranges, and they take a solitary spot on the horizon all for themselves. No sharing. As if somebody decided to give them their due.

Silhoutte of a Giant - The Telbaila Walls

Mesmerized, we kept following the road, and our eyes kept following and admiring those massive walls, as if hypnotized. Along the way, another structure took our attention. It was covered partially in green, and was glowing in the sun after the clouds gave way for a few moments. Later on we came to know it's called नवरा-नवरी (Navara-navari - literal translation: husband-wife), and if I remember correctly, these peaks have been summited and are known in the climbing community around here.

नवरा-नवरी Peaks

Telbaila Walls

We spotted Ghangad with some help, and then went on till the base of Telbaila. It's a fork on the Tamhini-Lonavala road that we were following till that point, and the road till Telbaila was in very bad state. It must have been hard on my नाजुका - Palio, but it sailed without complaint nevertheless.


Lonavala and Back to Home

Saffron God

After shooting the Telbaila walls, we turned back and drove towards Lonavala. The road further went through quite dense jungles - dense enough to qualify as  देवराई (Devraai - sacred groves). Here too, there were lots of bird calls audible, one of which Vishal recognized as that of a Shama.

Eventually the road met with Amby Valley road, and the road to Amby Valley, is a driver's paradise, as I knew from previous experience. And suddenly the car picked up speed. Driving on these kinds of metaled, well-laid, well-banked heavily winding roads is a driver's dream and I was no exception. Someday I am going to get the suspensions stiffened up and drive on this heavenly road without any body sway.

Eventually, we reached the Lonavala hype, spent a few minutes at the "Shivling point", had a plate of Kanda-bhaji and shot off towards Lonavala. Lonavala to Pune was again on the highway, though a little trafficky. By 7:30pm we were in Pune stuffing ourselves with some tasty food.


I am still in awe of that drama which unfolded at the Jannat point. It's the magic of monsoon that makes the massive Sahyadri mountains mystic and surreal. And there is no better way to experience it than getting on your feet and wandering aimlessly. Photography, again as I had mentioned in some earlier post, is an enabler that makes you see things in different light, pun intended, and experience some otherworldly moments in the process while exploring this hidden treasure.