Swapn gandh, Chorla Ghat, Nature's treat.

Two years back when we visited Goa, that time on the way back home, I found this nature's real beauty in Chorla ghat.
And we have decided to visit the place soon.
But unfortunately that soon turns too longer and finally we have planned this mesmerizing Holiday to rejuvenate ourselves from the effects of COVID pandemic.
On the December 1st Early morning at 5.00 am we (Me, my wife and my 1.5 yrs old son Vihaan) started our journey to Chorla ghat from Pune.
Crossing the 239 kms in 4 hrs 30 min. We reached Kolhapur. Just ahead of Kolhapur when you enter in Karnataka you will find few amazing eateries, one of those is Hotel Amar on the right side of the highway, just at the beginning of Tawandi ghat (near Nipani).
We had our breakfast there and headed towards Belgaum.
When you cross Nippani, the highway becomes more scenic and fun to drive due to less traffic and beautiful scenic points like Hargapur gad windmills, Back waters of Hidkal dam, lush green sugarcane farms and a clean four lane highway...
What else do you expect from a fun drive...
By 11.30 am we reached Belgaum.
Now it's only 52 kms approx. for Swapna gandh resort ( A subsidary of Wilderness Nature resort, Chorla Ghat).
These 52 kms took us to scenic beauty picturized in Movie Raaz...
Really such a dense forest covering the road that you couldn't even feel the sunny noon.
Crossing the beautiful ghat section, we reached our destination by 1 pm. ( The check in time was 12.30).

Immediately at the entry we got surprise welcome by a tree 🐍. The very common scene in Swapna Gandh. So prepare your mind and come for company of enormous snakes, insects, birds,chirpping sounds etc.

Immediately we had a quick tour of the resort. The peace in the surrounding touched my soul.
No noise only pleasant bird humming sound, wind breeze making 🌿 to add on background music.

Before moving to our room we chose to have our lunch as we are too much hungry and tired.
The lunch was ethenic fusion of Goan, Maharashtrian cusine cooked in clay pots and served hot.
The dinning is buffet and is a mix of Veg and Non veg dishes. Outside alcohol is not allowed. You need to serve yourself from inside bar counter (at additional cost)
I will rate the food 10/10 and the staff 11/10. It is said true that you will be pleased by the surrounding much more when the people serving around you are well versed and connected with you.
Post lunch we headed towards our room and another surprising beauty revealed to us.
We have booked a waterfall view iternary and so it has beautiful waterfall exactly ahead in the valley.
Actually our woode cottage itself was in valley built on a platform with transperent glass walls on three sides (with courtons though).
The cottages are equipped with authentic cutlery (of copper) and ayurvedic bathing products (Ritha, awala, Shikakai). The cottages purposefully doesn't have ACs and TVs to avoid Sound and Air pollution. (So they banned any kind of sound systems, late night parties in the resort)
The owners have tried their level best to maintain the nature with minimal damage to bio-diversity of Western ghats in any form.
In the nature's lap with tummy full of tasty food we took a quick nap and headed in the evening for tea/snacks followed by Mehandi Art session.
After our evening walk in the premises we were ready for Folk dance(lamp dance) session arranged in the evening before dinner.
Actually every day in the evening before dinner there is one hour program either it will be a local folk dance or a wild life movie or a local drama act. We really enjoyed the lamp dance. The important part of this activity is the local people. All the staff, all the artists performing in the acts are from neighbouring villages.
It's so good thought to creat a source of income to the locals in there own terrane.
We ended our exausting day in a bed with the surrounding of dark dense and silent nature.

Very Good Morning!!
Another sunny chilled morning.
Actually the good thing here is the staff displays the next day activity schedule on the previous evening so that you can plan your day accordingly.
As we had a kid with us we were not allowed to join the morning trek to Water fall (approx. 3.5 kms to and fro).
So we decided to dive into an infinity pool.
The water in the pool is also from the springs in the mountain.
In the evening, my little champ took a inspection round with the staff around the resort premises.
Our tummy really blasted with hunger when we took several rounds across the ups and downs in the resort.
Once again the dinner was delicious 10/10. Today also we enjoyed a Konkani folk dance session from a
Group of ladies from Chorla village.

The package here includes breakfast, lunch, evening snacks and dinner (everything unlimited buffet).

Very refreshing morning!
The day of departure, from the peaceful nature to human chaos.
We started our day with hot coffee and fresh served breakfast.
We actually decided to join the pottery session but Vihaan forced us for the swimming again.
Immediately after our pool time pass , we moved on to pottery session.
While returning to our cottage, we had our final round of photo session to cherish our memories.
With the loads of memories, rejuvenated mind we started back to Pune heavy heartedly.

On the way back we stopped in Belgaum and purchased famous sweet of Belgaum "Kunda" from very famous Purohit Sweets. You can refer it as Chitale Bandhu of Belgaum.

Now the beautiful nature trip came to an end...with a plan for next tour to Karwar-Gokarn and Murudeshwar and obiviously pledge to revisit Chorla Ghat again soon.

Good Bye....
See you soon in the new blog of Gokarn and Murudeshwar.