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.