52 Tulsi Lake Trek
A Trek to Tulsi Lake in Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) from Borivali Gate ...
( ... and few other Yewoor Treks in SGNP from Manpada Gate )
A Mumbai IndiaMike Meet-Up: a Monsoon Trek in SGNP on 15th August 2013
First Tulsi, then Vihar and then Powai ... the 3 Lakes, one below other, to the horizon
Two Mumbai members of IndiaMike Forum decided to arrange a Trek to Tulsi Lake on Independence Day 2013. They managed to get Forest Dept's permit and escort Guide and Guard for supervising our group of 9 people into this restricted area of SGNP.
It was an awesome trek, with the forest in brilliant monsoon greenery! We were fortunate to get a non-rainy day in the midst of one of the most rainy year in Mumbai. After driving in to the trail start point near the Forest Dept's Log-Hut we walked for an hour on a wide trail to the Bhoot-Banla. This is the stone bunglow, in dilapated ruins now, built by a British Engineer who build the Tulsi Lake reservoir, as a water supply source for Mumbai.
We had lots of fun, shooting pictures of all creatures that came out on the trail on a rainy day. The view of the Lakes - Tulsi, Vihar and Powai - in descending layers stretching to the horizon as seen from the vantage point of Bhoot-Bangla was awesome! A herd of deer and one with majestic horns.
The Bhoot-Bangla GPS marked is here: G-Maps Link
We started from SGNP Gate at 8:00AM and were back by Noon. On the way back we visited the Tulsi lake overflow dam and the Forest Dept Log-Hut.
The beautiful trail through monsoon drenched green forest
Wild flowers along the trek trail
See all my pictures of this Trek in Flickr at: Link
Two weeks after the above Tulsi Lake Trek, we did a Trek-Climb up the Yewoor Hill, from Manpada SGNP Gate. Two IMers, Sadanand Kamath and Amar Shah, turned up on Sunday 1st September. And we three had an awesome trek on the Ridge-top hill which were floating in misty clouds on that day. It culminated in a first sighting of the Crocodile in the pond-lake at the bottom of this trail.
Some members of the group, before trek start
A small herd of deer watch us get off at the Trek start point
Bhoot-Bangla - the ruins of the colonial bunglow on Tulsi bank
On 1-Sep-2013 walking the trail on ridge-top saddle the rain clouds had closed in with visibility of 100M (pic by SK).
More wild flowers along the trek trail
To read more details about this Trek and Pictures posted by other group members see IndiaMike Forum posts starting from Post#1637 here
More details and pictures of this trek by Sadanand Kamath in Post #1668 of IM thread. And all of SK's Pics are Here on Google+
Two days before (i.e. on 30th Aug 2013) I had carried my camera on the daily walk-climb up the same route and got some awesome monsoon drenched views of the trail route. See the 38 pics here on Flickr.
The crocodile in the lake/pond at the start of Yewoor trail from Manpada Gate (Tikuji-ni-wadi gate) ... (pic by SK).