Kolad - An overnight trip

Remember I wrote about a trip to Kolad a couple of days back, thought I did finally tell you about it. Kolad is a place in Raigad Dist in Maharashtra and there are a lot of farm houses or adventure resorts built around the river kundalika here. It was an overnight trip and we had made our bookings at Hans adventures. It is a beautiful place with greenery all around and with farm animals roaming the roads.

Since this was a team building exercise, there were a couple of activities planned like the bridge crossing and lake crossing for the day. Inspite of the hour-by-hour itinerary we planned, the gang decided to go to the waterfall first and get our selves drenched in the cold water after the long journey. By the time we(as in girls and the peapod) reached the waterfall the guys were already in. The peapod watched on and then shly, put a finger to her nose and announced "puppishame puppishame". We waited for the guys to get out of the waterfall, so that we could get it in. The peapod enjoyed the waterfall shower.

The cold gushing water from a waterfall is what you need on a scorching afternoon. We went straight from the waterfall into the swimming pool and played ball all afternoon untill 3. The boys in the team pampered her and each was trying to teach her swimming right then. She has started using the word "chalo chalo" and splashing water after that everytime she is in the bath tub. At 3pm, I had to literally drag her out of the pool and feed her something. She had the rice and dal and slept for the next 3 hours. Since she was sleeping I couldn't go for the bridge crossing and lake crossing activities. It was indeed fun like the team says and its my miss.

This place had ducks and swans quacking all around. What else did my little one need. She was following them around little bushes and gardens and chairs and tables. If they quacked, she quacked twice over and louder. After a little while I got tired following her and gave up. She kept everyone entertained over lunch and breakfast with her quacks and whacks. When the ducks went into their shed, she followed them and refused to come.

After the peapod was up, had milk and fed it was late evening. When we reached the lake the bonfire was lit and chairs had been arranged around it. A beautiful evening.
The lake, the dark sky, a full moon (almost), twinkling stars, the reflection in the lake, the bon fire, the peapod running around chairs. Everything was so picture perfect. So peaceful. Lots of good hot food. They had arranged for music as well. The peapod danced initially but she looked a lot confused with the kind of dancing happening around her. She just knows to do a little step here and turn there and rolling hands and she hasn't seen any of this on TV either. Latter she crawled into my lap and stayed there while I kept talking about the sky and stars and moon untill she drifted off to sleep. We started back next morning around 9 and this wasn't a pleasant journey since it was getting hotter by the hour. She was getting slightly cranky but still manageable inspite of the heat and the roads. A peekaboo and some distraction on the road was working for short durations as well. I myself was dead tired and if she would have cried, I probably would only have just cried along making quite a scene.

Overall, a pleasant outing but I did make sure of a AC bus next time I am travelling with the peapod.