Water fall at Kondana caves. Salila, Anbu and his friend are rejoicing the spray.
Shahbuddin, Anbu, Benny and Salila. The water fall is on the left side of the photo. The kondana (buddhist) caves are on the right (behind the water fall). Some tourists are eating the food they brought from home. We too ate the bread and jam that we had brought. Luckily, an enterprising vendor from the nearby village brought provisions for 'poha' (prepared from beaten rice) and tea. We started by ordering one plate of poha each; repeat orders followed till he had no more provisions for poha. He had only onions left with him. He made some bhajjias; we ate them too; had triple cups of chaay (tea). The consequent happiness made us to decide (on the spot) to proceed to Rajmachi (even though it was probably past 2pm)!
Eating poha and drinking chaay after bath. The green plastic sheet (part of the temporary kitchen of the vendor) is visible on the left of the photo.
Anbu and Benny at the edge of the cave
After a lot of hesitation, the elders finally threw caution to the wind and settled down to an unscheduled (and unprepared - no extra clothes) bath. It was worth it.
At Rajmachi, we decided not to stay thru the night, but to move on to Lonavala and catch a public transport. It was about 5:30pm. We had to walk 11km. The elders were walking a bit slow. The youngsters (in the picture) jumped into the water on seeing a stream (their romance with water was going strong). The elders moved on because the youngsters would virtually run thru the path and close the gap quickly.
