Busy life....long client calls....irritating bugs....annoying managers....or f**ked up personal life. Most of us really dreamed to spend our weekend without worrying about all this freaking stuff. The place where we can enjoy our time with nature....known friends...or friends whom you never meet till date...and of course with your self. Yes, it is very important to spend some time alone.
But how? Are there such places around Ahmedabad? Here is the answer - Polo Forest !!
Polo forest is one such place where you can plan your one day trip. It's just 160 KM away from Ahmedabad and roads are also very good and safe. You can spent some quality time doing nothing just sitting around dam site, river side in forest or walk around different near by places and temple. If you take service from local guide then you will be able to listen some stories behind every temple and places you visit.
I have visited this place quite a few times during my college life on bike road trip and now I also had two trip with my office mates.
Starting point of our trip was the ancient temple Sharaneswar Mahadev. As name suggests temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and just like most of the temples of that age this temple is also famous for it's architectural view and cravings on stones.
Very peaceful place generally but if you visit on weekend then it can be really noisy due to school picnics. When we visited last time there was some shooting going on for Gujarati movie and we had fun watching it.
After the clicking few pics of this architectural beauty and having light breakfast we moved towards the actual trekking. As it was office trip the difficulty level of trip was very easy and safe. The hill to climb was around 800 meter high and distance to travel was 3-4 KM . For office goers like us it was still adventurous trekking experience. Few of us got brushes and strain in muscles as well.
This area was not so known till recently but since last few years....after tourism gujrat has started various campaigns ,,,people has started visiting it. Ideal condition to visit this place is around monsoon when you can expect lush green beauty of thick forest. Bird watchers can find over 200 species of rare birds. Botanical experts can find 450 various species of plants and many of them are rare medicinal plants. They also says that it is a home of leopards, bears and flying squirrels. However during my five visit I have never seen any of them. So don't expect to see them :).
Once after trekking finished ....there came a time of getting rid of sweat , dust and pain of fighting with rocks and bushes. Yeah time to have fun with water....freezing cold and clean water. Dam built on Harnav river and a small stream of water passing through rocks and few check dams are real attraction. You can seat on the rocks at the Dam site and enjoy the natural beauty.
You can't have fun of playing with water on Dam site as it is restricted and very dangerous due to unknown depths of water. Guard also talked about crocodiles and other reptiles like snakes. However, they are not often seen at Dam site location. (No reason to get scared) .You can certainly have fun with water near the check dams.
Due to the Dam build on Harnav river water flow in small streams always continue so even in early summer you would be able to see the running water through the check dams. Chilled and clean waters passing through round shape stones and pebbles by default get filtered. And as the say running water is always clean.
From My diary -
I have been here at this place quite a few times every time with different group of people. So many memories associated with the place. Each time I have visited this place I have experienced something different. Let me share few pics of me and my crazy friends.....
