Day 2 : In search of the Buddha

 Our plan to visit Lonavla was partly due to my desire to see the Buddhist caves that were close by. I had read about Karla, Bhaja and other less well-known caves in William Dalrymple’s newest book The Golden Road and was keen to check them out. We were expecting a 6 – 6.30 hour journey and we were out of the MTDC Ganapatipule resort by 7.15. The map read 296 km to destination and estimated arrival was 1. 21 pm. If we were in around that time we could probably make it one of the caves that day itself.

The first stretch of 20 kilometres was on a flat plateau. It was later when I was reviewing the route that I came to learn that we had passed by a couple petroglyphs. We had seen petroglyphs at Usgalimal near Rivona in South Goa and the prehistoric rock carvings from 8-10000 years ago were very impressive.  At Jakadevi, a village where businesses had already opened and children were turned up and on their way school, we turned off towards a more rural road. The area became more forested and road started going down and we crossed the river Bav. Now we started climbing once again with the river often visible through the trees. The habitations were smaller, and the huts very basic. It looked an area where Adivasis. Sometimes it is so easy to discern how important a social group is in a countries imagination by looking at how and where they live. The Konkan railway line accompanied us part of the way and soon we could see another highway across the river. Suddenly the road became rubble and made a steep climb and joined the same NH 66 which we had taken from Benaulim yesterday when we started out. NH 66 is still a work in progress so for the next 170 kilometres we had to move from one side of the road as there were numerous diversions.

Twice the traffic was held up as the road passed through two busy towns and one vehicle after another would squeeze through the main marketplace where people crossed the and two wheelers snaked their way through the parked cars, trucks, busses and pickups. At one point we saw an exit for Buddhist caves at Gandharpale. Looking up on the other side of the road we could clearly make out the neat row of rock cut caves from nearly 2000 years ago.

Breakfast on a clearing next to the highway consisted of coffee made with hot water we were carrying, some nuts, a granola bar and a banana. Later we stopped for a drink and bio-break at a roadside eatery ambitiously named Garden restaurant. All it could serve us was cold water and a glass of not very tasty solkadi. The toilets were locked, and the keys took some time to locate. Highway eating joints and restrooms outside the most well-travelled routes still have some way to go.

At a little beyond 12 noon we left NH 66 to move west and join the Mumbai Pune Highway. It was a State Highway and went past small towns and villages. Interestingly the were many posters and signage for plots for sale. Clearly, we were moving towards urban areas and people with disposable incomes. Soon we saw a tall hill dominating the landscape in front. It looked exactly like the mesa and butte we had read in our high school geography books. At a small town, Pali we went round the base. There were 3 smaller stove pipe shaped columns behind which we couldn't see from the front. The view was quite awesome.

All this while our destination drew closer, and we felt certain we would reach by 2.30, two short breaks not withstanding. How wrong we were! We passed an industrial town Khopoli where Google map wanted us to take a right turn. There were 3 options and unfortunately, we took the wrong one. Instead of going for the the 3rd option we took the second one. This is of course hindsight because we thought we had taken the right option. Google immediately adjusted to our mistake and marked out a route. Unfortunately, we didn't have voice prompts on, so we didn't have any voice guidance. We were now on what looked like an expressway and a tollgate was coming up. The map showed our route taking the last lane on the left. We moved towards the left and the blue line of the route adjusted a little to the right, and I followed, crossing the toll gate. On the other side I realised I was on Bangalore - Mumbai Expressway and we raced towards Mumbai at 100kph. Lonavla was suddenly 65 km away instead of a mere 25. We went thundering towards Mumbai for nearly 20 km and Panvel was barely 20 km away when we did a complicated manoeuvre across another Highway to come back on the Mumbai - Bangalore highway. This time we were headed in the right direction. By this time we realised that it would be smarter to have the voice prompts on. Soon we were approaching the same tollgate where we had made our 2nd mistake. The map showed us an exit for Lonavla and we started moving slowly hugging the left lane hesitating to even overtake lumbering trucks. We passed the tollgate and still there was no exit. Instead a Food plaza cum petrol pump came up. It was past 2 and we were hungry, so we turned off. It would also give us an opportunity to check with some human being (human intel) since our faith in computer intel (AI?) was a trifle rattled.

A tunnel on Mumbai - Pune Expressway

The highway food courts seem to follow the same pattern everywhere. They have all kinds of 'standardised options' - dosa/idli/uttapam to chole bhature/chat and pizza and Chinese. We checked with the waiters and were relieved to know we had to go straight on, we hadn't missed any exit. The highway from here on became quite chaotic with many twists and turns and some repair work. The multi axle trucks often changed lanes making things worse. Soon there was another highway above us AH 47 and we were on tenterhooks once again looking for the right exit for Lonavla. This time we made no mistake and finally we reached Adore Meritas Resort a small resort that was well rated and the tariff was within our budget. The time was 3.45pm. Our mistake in reading the map and subsequent detour had cost us an extra 60 km, 480 rupees in toll taxes and an hours driving time. We were now a little tired and wanted to rest for a while. Our scearch for the Buddha would have to wait till next morning.

Driving time - 7.14 hours

Distance - 350 km

Fuel ave - 15kpl

(P.C. -Jashodhara)