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Video Tour: KAAS Plateau Satara: The (Hidden) Valley of Flowers - 2018
Dear friends,
I came across a travelogue on the internet a couple of years back. It was about Kaas. And simply put, I was blown away by what I saw. This place was quickly added to my bucket list. At the time, I used to live in Navi Mumbai, which was approx 5 hours away by road from Kaas.
Fast forward to now, I put up in New Delhi. Which is a little over 2,000 kms away from Kaas! But the dream finally came true.
Here's the video tour of KAAS Plateau + Our Delhi - Kaas - Delhi journey:
We had a Vistara flight from Delhi to Mumbai.
Vistara Airlines surprised us with a differently painted plane. Turns out its a very special plane.
It is India's First 'Retrojet': the design is inspired by India's FIRST COMMERCIAL JET owned by TATA AIR LINES and piloted by Mr. J.R.D. Tata himself.
Vistara has been able to register this as VT-ATV. This is the same registration borne by the historical plane.
We also saw this weird unmarked white windowless jumbo jet waiting to take off. It wasn't registered in India (non VT registration)
It was a smooth flight and we reached Bombay ahead of time.
After that, it was time to head over to our home and call it an early night.
The next morning, we made our way to Navi Mumbai, and stopped at Kalamboli McDonald's. This is where I realised the difference between the McD in west India and those in Delhi. The ones in West & South India are managed by HardCastle Restaurants and seem to be doing very well. They have all the new items which we don't get to see in Delhi.
Eventually, we got onto the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Refer to video and you'll see me remember my time driving on this highway almost a decade ago on my SS80.
As we made our way past Pune, we came across beautiful yellow and orange flowers on the medians and sides of the highway.
On entering Satara, we got some roadwork and traffic. Google Maps got a little confused, but we eventually got on the road to Kaas.
And after a couple of kms, the entire scenery changed. Refer to the video to see this.
By 5 pm, we reached our hotel, and found some gorgeous views from the room. The room itself was quite average, but the people and views made up for it
Check out the views and time-lapse in the video.
The next morning, we made an early start and reached the Kaas plateau parking. We boarded the shuttle bus that took us to the actual plateau itself. And man of man were we taken away by the sheer beauty of the place!
Eventually we made our way back to the hotel, and got ready to leave for Mumbai.
Some interesting points about Kaas
Having read a little bit of the above, and done some research before going, I felt really blessed to be there, in the middle of this biological wonderland.
In case you want to go there, keep in mind:
1. Time of the Year: Right after monsoons in Mid September to Early October (with some variations) is when you'll get to see most plants. It can be a bit of a hit or miss, as a heavy shower will sometimes take away most plants.
2. Getting there: Satara city is about 100 kms away from Pune, and Kaas is about 30 kms from Satara. You can drive to Satara from Pune, or take the bus. After that, you can get an auto rickshaw or other public transport to Kaas.
Pune is about 200 kms from Mumbai, and about 160 kms from Navi Mumbai. It is well connected via Mumbai-Pune expressway.
3. Precaution to take as a Responsible Visitor:
This place is bio-diverse, but extremely sensitive to human activity. This is why the number of visitors is limited to 3000/day. During season time, you must pre-book your visit online (explained in video).
Once you reach, make sure you:
4. To book your tickets (during season), visit www.kas.ind.in
Remember, most of these plants CAN NOT grow anywhere else apart from this plateau.
Check out some more pictures:
I came across a travelogue on the internet a couple of years back. It was about Kaas. And simply put, I was blown away by what I saw. This place was quickly added to my bucket list. At the time, I used to live in Navi Mumbai, which was approx 5 hours away by road from Kaas.
Fast forward to now, I put up in New Delhi. Which is a little over 2,000 kms away from Kaas! But the dream finally came true.
Here's the video tour of KAAS Plateau + Our Delhi - Kaas - Delhi journey:
We had a Vistara flight from Delhi to Mumbai.
Vistara Airlines surprised us with a differently painted plane. Turns out its a very special plane.
It is India's First 'Retrojet': the design is inspired by India's FIRST COMMERCIAL JET owned by TATA AIR LINES and piloted by Mr. J.R.D. Tata himself.
Vistara has been able to register this as VT-ATV. This is the same registration borne by the historical plane.
We also saw this weird unmarked white windowless jumbo jet waiting to take off. It wasn't registered in India (non VT registration)
It was a smooth flight and we reached Bombay ahead of time.
After that, it was time to head over to our home and call it an early night.
The next morning, we made our way to Navi Mumbai, and stopped at Kalamboli McDonald's. This is where I realised the difference between the McD in west India and those in Delhi. The ones in West & South India are managed by HardCastle Restaurants and seem to be doing very well. They have all the new items which we don't get to see in Delhi.
Eventually, we got onto the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Refer to video and you'll see me remember my time driving on this highway almost a decade ago on my SS80.
As we made our way past Pune, we came across beautiful yellow and orange flowers on the medians and sides of the highway.
On entering Satara, we got some roadwork and traffic. Google Maps got a little confused, but we eventually got on the road to Kaas.
And after a couple of kms, the entire scenery changed. Refer to the video to see this.
By 5 pm, we reached our hotel, and found some gorgeous views from the room. The room itself was quite average, but the people and views made up for it
Check out the views and time-lapse in the video.
The next morning, we made an early start and reached the Kaas plateau parking. We boarded the shuttle bus that took us to the actual plateau itself. And man of man were we taken away by the sheer beauty of the place!
Eventually we made our way back to the hotel, and got ready to leave for Mumbai.
Some interesting points about Kaas
- Kaas is a UNESCO certified World Heritage Site
- It has 850 species of flowering plants. Out of these, 624 are listed in the Red Book by IUCN, marking them endangered species. 39 of these 624 are found ONLY at Kaas.
- This extensive diversity in flora also means there's a diverse bit of fauna around. This includes many types of insects.
- Why Kaas is Able To Support Such Diversity: Kaas plateau has been formed out of volcanic upwells. This volcanic rock has a thin layer of soil over it. Normally, this thin layer of soil should have been able to support only thorny plants that require very little moisture to survive. However, being in a region getting good amount of rains in the winters, Kaas also has smaller plant species, including all the flowering plants, that grow here.
- Most interestingly, these plants remain underground and only pop-up during the monsoons, upon getting the moisture they require.
Having read a little bit of the above, and done some research before going, I felt really blessed to be there, in the middle of this biological wonderland.
In case you want to go there, keep in mind:
1. Time of the Year: Right after monsoons in Mid September to Early October (with some variations) is when you'll get to see most plants. It can be a bit of a hit or miss, as a heavy shower will sometimes take away most plants.
2. Getting there: Satara city is about 100 kms away from Pune, and Kaas is about 30 kms from Satara. You can drive to Satara from Pune, or take the bus. After that, you can get an auto rickshaw or other public transport to Kaas.
Pune is about 200 kms from Mumbai, and about 160 kms from Navi Mumbai. It is well connected via Mumbai-Pune expressway.
3. Precaution to take as a Responsible Visitor:
This place is bio-diverse, but extremely sensitive to human activity. This is why the number of visitors is limited to 3000/day. During season time, you must pre-book your visit online (explained in video).
Once you reach, make sure you:
- Don't get closer than 3 kms to the plateau in your own vehicle
- Don't play loud music or honk the horn in the vicinity
- Don't eat/drink/smoke at the plateau
- Don't litter
- Don't pluck the flowers
- Don't walk on the flower beds
4. To book your tickets (during season), visit www.kas.ind.in
Remember, most of these plants CAN NOT grow anywhere else apart from this plateau.
Check out some more pictures:
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