It was Janmastami, a holiday. Just near the ST stand, I met a group of three couples. They were looking for some place to refresh themselves. I was not able to help them as I had no idea. A little ahead I saw a luxury bus parked. Its passengers were going through the daily routine of brushing teeth and washing face while they had their kitchen on the footpath.
I picked up the busy Saputara Nasik road and after the bridge on the lake, I turned to the right and I was on the ropeway road. I was alone. Whistles of different notes and scales were like birds flirting with me. Occasionally, some bird hovered over me in a seductive style luring me to take path to the trees on the left side of the road. I made a round trip and reached Tourism guest house for tea.
Here I met the group that had asked me for a place to refresh. They recognized me. I learnt that they had no accommodation as Saputara was full and they were staying in the Innova in which they had come from Rajkot. They would continue to roam around in their car and return home in the evening. Holidays are the days when there is no accommodation available in Saputara and hundreds enjoy the hill station with their own accommodations on wheels.
I feel that some cloak room facility with toilet and bathroom can be of a great help to tourists both budget tourists and those who want to hang round in adventure spirit.
Around 9 my local guide Ramesh Chaudhary, Talati of Saputara was there to take me around the place. He had borrowed a motorcycle of a friend with whom he shared a room. In Saputara, most of people live without family. They are government employees and prefer to keep their families in cities. On holidays, when people come here, they either go home or bring their family here. So everyone here lives like a tourist. Ramesh was also to go to his village in the afternoon.
I asked him just to move round the places of tourist attraction to save his time. In the morning, I had met a person Pandu in the Tourism guest house. He had told me about Nanda's temple and said that it brought good luck to his village Navagam. He was talking about the Ganesh temple after the echo point. Guardian secretary S K Nanda had helped villagers a lot in building the temple right from the selection of land to the idol and the direction of its installation in the temple.
It was a case where people and places have different identity. For villagers, it was Nanda's Mandir! I went there and found number of tourists having darshan of Dakshinavarti Lord Ganesh.
From here, my next point was the Governor's hill. Here one can enjoy the beauty of Saputara in the ropeway. Rs 40 for a 20 minute return ride is worth having. It is such a steep climb to the Hill that buses stop halfway and many drivers have to negotiate their gear controls to maintain forward journey. And as I feared, my friend Naresh stopped the motorcycle and I got off the vehicle and walked the climb.
It is called Governor's hill because there was a plan to have Governor's residence here. But the plan did not materialize. However, Saputarat's elevated point got a name Governor's hill.
On Governor's hill, it was just fun and frolic. Spirit of bonhomie floated in the air with the clouds. A group of young tourists had deck of their car on and they were dancing. Light showers made it rain dance.
Some were having camel ride while some other enjoyed horse ride. Sweet corns and tea vendors made good business. What was noticeable that these vendors did not charge extra, better than the lot at Saputara circle who fleeced everyone.
I wanted to cross the border just one kilometer from the Saputara circle. Naresh took me to Hathgad in Maharashtra, five kilometers from Saputara. His friend has a shop there. He and his family told stories about Shivaji who used to stay in the fort while moving towards Gujarat. Stories of long tunnels from the fort has the usual charm of such stories associated with most of the forts
Just across the border, some major hotels of Saputara have wine and dine facility. Certainly a nice way to offer value added service to the customers of dry Gujarat. Many from Surat come here with the one point agenda of boozing like north Gujarat and Saurashtra crowd going to Mount Abu in Rajasthan.
We returned to Saputara. I forced Naresh to have lunch with me before going to his village, a bus journey of about four hours. He took me to a Dhaba of his choice and we two had a sumptuous lunch for Rs 70. I am not sure whether his friend offered some concession or it was a usual rate.
After some rest in the circuit House, I began the second leg of round the Saputara on leg. I had to meet Yogesh Goswami who has artist's village here. A friend of mine Mandeep Kaler who was here with tourism office couple of years back had given his reference. Here they have arranged tours with a nature club of Surat and others. His brother Surya Goswami an artists is well known here.
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In the evening, it was raining. I had reached the lake to enjoy boating, but could not go for the ride because of the rains. I had three rounds of special tea while sitting under a shelter at a corner of the lake. I thought of trying a fast food centre at the lake. Rates were not much. I had to order three different snacks to get a feel of some stuff in my belly. It never happened in Ahmedabad, nor was it an effect of hilly water. The catch was in quantity.
There is nothing like local food at the eating joints, though roti of Nagli and pickle of bamboo are the popular varieties of Dangis. In such a case, I think Buffet system of Gujarat tourism of Rs 60 is a good choice when one is not fussy about food in travel. Even otherwise, Gujaratis look around for Gujarati food when they go out of Gujarat.