Roads

There are seven miles and five furlongs of tar roads, 34 miles and half furlong metalled and 37 miles of unmetalled roads back in the 1960's. Modern day equipment have made the place well connected.

Mahabaleshwar is reached by three chief roads, the Poona road from the east branching off from the Poona-Satara road at Surul, the Satara and Kelghar road from the south-east, and the Fitz-Gerald pass road from the west. In travelling to Mahabaleshwar from Surul the Poona road begins to rise almost immediately after leaving Wai and climbs along the north face of a steep and barren range of hills almost as far as Panchgani, a distance of about eight miles. Frequent turns open fine views of the upper Krishna valley and of the hills that face Mahabaleshwar which are nearly as barren as those up which the road winds. One or two points give a glimpse of the peaks of Torna (4605) and Rajgad (3992), and at the highest point of one steep rise, the wood-encircled temple and village of Mahabaleshwar is seen, but again lost when the curve of the road turns to the south-west. Except along the banks of the Krishna and its tributaries there is little vegetation. The sides of the hills are terraced in a few places for the growth of coarse grain, but the rest is utterly bare.

At the top of this ascent the little settlement of Panchgani (ht.4000; P. 4337) breaks pleasantly on the view with its long lines of casuarina trees and bamboos in which are bedded a number of substantial little houses, buildings of residential schools, hotels and a market. Until Panchgani is passed there is no view to the south or south-east, but about a mile further the road to Mahabaleshwar strikes along the edge of a deep valley that opens on the southern plains with Yavtesvar and the Satara Fort (3307) in the back ground. The hills round Panchgani are flattopped and, except close to the station, untilled. In the valleys below, the streams, so long as they keep running are used to water small patches of wheat or vegetables, but the bulk of the crops consisting of rice or nachm is harvested soon after the end of the rains and only stubble is left to mark the patches of tillage. A little beyond Panchgani the road rises with several ups and downs to Mahabaleshwar, passing along the table land which forms the top of this spur of the Mahabaleshwar, system of hills. about half-way between the two stations, signs of a heavy rainfall appear in the richness of the bracken and other ferns and in the numbers of bulbous plants which flourish nowhere but near the western crest of the Sahyadris. The valley of the Yenna is soon reached, along the north-eastern side of which the road is carried to the embankment of the lake immediately below the station. The Yenna falls are not visible though the rocks near them can be made out. Unlike the Panchgani spur the south-western side of the valley up which the road to Satara winds is clothed with scrub jungle. The gardens, begun by the Chinese convicts and continued by local workmen whom they have taught, are seen on both banks of the upper Yenna, on the south-west of which close to Mahabaleshwar, the view is bounded by the ridge of Sindola the highest point of the hill. From the lake the road winds rounds one or two small valleys to the Frere Hall, from which all distances are calculated.

 For those who have time a better route is from Bombay by the Fitz-Gerald pass with district bungalow at Dasganv in Kolaba, and inspection bungalow at Vada at the foot of the Fitz-Gerald pass. Coasting steamers touch Bankot at the mouth of the Savitri and from Bankot small steamers or boats ply twenty four miles up to Dasganv.   Leaving Poladpur eighteen miles from Dasganv, the line goes by the old Kinesvar road for five and half miles. It then branches to the left, gradually climbing roun the western and northern shoulders of Pratapgad for sixteen miles to the Vada bungalow on the first plateau. From Vada the road winds ten miles more, round the valleys between Bombay and Sidney Points, and passing close under Bombay Point, rises easily from the east of it into the Bombay Point road by the Terraces. The scenery along this route is very fine, but it is very dusty below the hill in the hot weather.