Plateau of flowers –
Kas Pathar
It is raining heavily outside. I
am sitting at the window enjoying a cup of hot tea and the down pour outside. I
think by the end of this month, that is Septemper, I can visit Kas in Satara . I
had been there somewhere around the first week of October last year. When the
Monsoons recede, the flowers on the Kas Plateau comes alive. The flowers remain for a
few weeks and then they are gone. So visits at different times gives a
different perspective of the plateau.
From Mumbai one can plan a day’s trip to the
plateau. Myself with five friends piled into a “Tata Sumo” one early Saturday
morning and drove off towards Satara. We drove towards Pune via the Express-Way,
and then followed the highway number four, to Satara city. At the city we asked
for directions at a few cross roads and found the uphill road to the Plateau.
So we had traveled for approximately six hours to reach Kas. This place is
absolutely un-spoilt. Hotels and restaurants are miles away from this protected
area . There is one solitary pitch road that runs through this region.
Therefore vehicle thoroughfare is restricted. We left our car at the entry
point and walked around the plateau exploring the flowers.
The ground is rocky in many places and
red mud covered in some places. The walk trails cover most of the area of
interest. We were careful while walking on the wet and slippery ground and
carried an umbrella each. The atmosphere is cool and misty with lush green
surroundings. The shrubs and bushes are just at ones ankle length. The expanse
of the plateau surface is covered with these bushes with tiny flowers. The tiny
flowers sprout out of rocks, and their cracks as well as from the red mud covered
surface. In some areas yellow flowers give a golden yellow hue to the surface
and in some direction one finds a purple hue due to tiny purple colored flowers . In fact our visit time was not the perfect one . If we had gone a week
later then many more flowers would have been in bloom. Perhaps a few days later
with more flowers in bloom, and a greater density of flowers, we would have seen
a brighter hue on thesurface . In one section of the plateau the ankle length bushes
created an undulating surface and a long distant view gave an impression of a
tea estate. I bent down to have a closer look at the flowers. Some flowers were
regular shaped, some had an asymetric shape and some had a peculiar shape and
combination of colors. Very interesting. The panoramic view of this place was
gorgeous too. I stood at the edge of the plateau to see a large lake below
cradled in the lap of lush greenery. I took in a lung full of fresh air and
absorbed the beauty of soothing green hills and dales.
After all of us had taken photographs to our hearts content , we were ready to move on. We took the down hill road . About a kilometer away was a bunch of way side eateries. We had tea and snacks here . Then we were on our way back to Satara city. By night fall we were back home at Mumbai. It was a lovely day spent in the lap of nature,
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Map of the Plateau of Flowers.
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| Shrub with tiny purple flowers. |
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| Off white Flower |
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Closer look at a purple flower
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| A different Blue flower |
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| Tiny Yellow flowers |
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| Flowers on the rock |
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A shade of purple
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| Tea estate like panorama |
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| Visitors at the plateau |
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Road through the plateau of flowers
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| Lush green hill&dale |
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