If playing wildlife explorer in any of India's more popular sanctuaries is on your bucket list, a Trip to Durshet is a terrific way to watch the trailer before you gear for the bigger picture in the wild
If playing wildlife explorer in any of India's more popular sanctuaries is on your bucket list, a Trip to Durshet is a terrific way to watch the trailer before you gear for the bigger picture in the wild
Durshet could easily make it to one of the many wildlife television documentaries that showcase nature's bounty. Once you've checked into the only accommodation within this verdant forest, you'll figure that you got more than what you had bargained for. It comes with a river, a lake and a forest attached. The place, unless on an unlucky weekend, is solitary heaven. So you can safely feel as if you own all these freebies. 
The Amba River runs close to the forest lodge property
Free for all
About an hour and fifteen minutes earlier, we had left Mumbai's maddening crowds for the calmer environs of Durshet, nestled in the Western Ghats, on the banks of Amba River, near Khopoli. The scenic drive that curled around the Old Mumbai-Pune Highway kept us in high spirits for our great escape. After we checked in to one of the comfortable cottages at the Nature Trails Forest Lodge, it was time to sit back and soak in the wooded landscape. The lodge includes a 35-acre natural forest with extensive teak trails, Flame of the Forest trees and an occasional Silver Oak thus making it a trekkers and bird watchers paradise. We were told that during the monsoons, a natural waterfall appears magically, adding to the wow factor.
Forest Calotes
From our doorstep, the changing moods of the majestic Western Ghats made for visual R&R. Later, we walked down to the Amba River, which runs adjacent to the property, to dangle our feet in its gentle waters. Durshet will please every kind of escape seeker. The naturalist can flit around with the countless species of butterfly and moth within the complex. Adventure sports buffs can opt for a river rafting rendezvous on the Kundalika River. One can also sign up for other adrenaline-rushing activities including rock climbing, river crossing and rapelling, all at an arm's distance. 
A natural waterfall emerges in the forest during the monsoon
The spiritually inclined can head to the twin Ashtavinayakas of Mahad and Pali. The Varad Vinayak at Mahad is a beautiful temple built by the Peshwas on a picturesque hillock, beside a pond while Ballaleshwar, which lies between Fort Sarasgad and Amba River, is a temple coated with the gaudiest colours ever imagined by man. History buffs can figure the mystique around the Thanala Rock Cut Caves or relive the battlefield of Umbarkhind where Shivaji defeated the massive army led by the general Kartalab Khan.
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It's thriller night!
However, the high point of our stay in Durshet was the jungle trek at nightfall. We set off after dinner into the moonless forest, the lone beam of the guide's torch lighting up the pathless land. The forest was enveloped in dense darkness. The sky was starlit; but one realised that even a thousand stars can't make up for the missing moon. The creatures of the night were making their presence felt with their eerie calls: the owls, the nightjars and the occasional jackal. The hunt for the Tarantula Spider drew a blank, but the torchlight caught a Black-Naped Hare that darted across us in sheer fright. 
Monkeys are a common sight inside Durshet's forests
It was difficult to say who was more scared, the hare, or us. Suddenly, the forest became silent, even the cicadas stopped midway into their night song; and I was reminded of the time when I witnessed a solar eclipse in the forests of Nagzira in eastern Maharashtra. It was late afternoon and the forest was alive and vibrant. The moment the sun was covered by the eclipse, the entire forest became silent, as if night had fallen. When the eclipse passed and the sun regained its lost glory, the forest became alive again. For those twenty odd minutes the denizens of the forest would have been confused as to how the night lasted only for such a short duration!
We stood at the edge of darkness and stared at the Durshet Valley below. One was reminded of a night inside Tadoba National Park during a census, when we had a close encounter with a family of bears. In the safety of a rickety machaan, we didn't come face to face with them but the brush with the wild left us with fantastic memories. Every creak of a loose wooden plank reverberated in the pin drop silence of the forest.
On that lonely night that seemed to have no dawn, we spotted many animals that ventured into the waterhole, scorched by the searing night temperature of 48 degrees Celsius: Sambar deer, Indian Gaur, jackal, wild dogs, wild boar, jungle cats and the lone leopard, just before the break of dawn. Durshet wasn't any different.
When we returned to the safety of the well-lit cottage, we realised an eternal truth that even the caveman would have realised to his delight many eons ago: darkness is fear and light is courage.
Howu00a0to reach
Durshet is 105 kms to the south-east of Mumbai on the old Mumbai-Pune Highway. Take the turn towards Pali at Khopoli.
Where to stay
Nature Trails at Durshet. For bookings, log on to www.naturetrails.com.
When to go
Throughout the year
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