Fireflies festival at Purushwadi

So ... I came across a lonely planet snippet on the million fireflies at Purushwadi sometime in January ( or was it February ? ) when I visited my dentist ... :) I surreptitiously took quick notes in my handy Evernote ( did I tell you I love this app ?? )  .... so I would not lose any info since I was browsing through many issues and I did not want to miss anything just b'cos I forgot the issue date ! :)

Got many many ideas for future travel and have now started to buy the mag regularly too ... :) For some reason in spite of my interest in travel; I initially disliked the mag. Somehow the places they mentioned seemed out of reach for my budget. However the issues I saw at the dentist made me revise my opinion .. :)

Back to my trip ...... I was fascinated by the idea of seeing so many fireflies. After talking with Grassroutes - the people who organized the trip to this place - we decided to go for it. Booked early since they said they tend to get filled up pretty quickly for the relevant weeks. The prime season is May end and June 2-3 weeks.

The journey to Purushwadi was uneventful.  We took snaps on the ghat just before Rajur. Although we were to reach the place by 12 noon we took a more relaxed approach and reached by 4 I think. The traffic from Pune to Narayangaon was full of trucks and we did not expect that many else we would have reached by 2 pm I think.

From Rajur to Purushwadi a local guide from the village will help get to the site. Since there are no markers to the village this is good !! We found this route also very scenic. We took snaps on the way back though. It was rainy and misty and I thought the golden grass with the misty clouds was perfect ! :)

Place : We missed lunch but had tea. It was tea without milk. Seems there is not much milk in this place. They also give murmura with farsan as a snack. We found the tea predictably too sweet ! :) Anyway .. after that we went on a sunset trek. This was really good. We were not too keen on the dam walk; that is for people who want a gentle walk which is not too strenuous. :)

We passed fields of bajra, saw flint stone and tried to get sparks from it ( no luck ) and climbed up and up. I personally did not think it was too bad ... slightly less than moderate in terms of difficulty I would say. Just had to be careful of the slippery slopes where loose mud was present.

The view at the top was really good ... :) Although the clouds played spoilsport with the sunset honestly I did not mind. It was beautiful anyway ....

Came back and had a mango feast ... the mangoes were really sweet and very juicy ... :) We could have as much as we wanted. Then settled down for the amazing evening firefly show ....

The fireflies : I cannot say just how beautiful the area was once dusk settled in ..... we did try our level best but could not capture the fireflies on camera ... we definitely need a tripod for this .... So anyway took videos ... :)  They have come out well but do not capture the awesome show ... it is just too too good !!! The entire area is blanketed in these tiny tiny lit insects.

It is all around ... no need to take a walk but if you do - you can see the valley covered with fireflies .. just beautiful !!! When you walk down the road you feel surrounded by tiny Christmas lights. That is the best comparison I can think of ! :)

Other activities :  I liked the other activities we did the next day - chopping wood, sowing paddy, grinding wheat and the guides were very helpful and very very eager to show all the activities. I do not think I can give an unbiased opinion of these since .. I used to spend 2 months of summer vacation in both my grandparent's villages - so nothing was new to me ! :)

They bring back memories of ... grinding wheat / dal / sometimes rice with my grandmother or mami.  Milking the cow ( once was enough ) and drinking fresh milk .. it really has a different taste. Pounding wheat for that kheer with jaggery [ yummy ... :)  ], taking sugarcane from the fields and eating them till our tongues were raw with those minor cuts ... plucking mangoes and eating them .. and seeing rooms full of mangoes to be sent to bigger towns and selling some of them in the local village market ....

Making those patchwork quilts with grandmom with old sarees, taking lunch to the fields and eating with our uncles .. food just used to taste great there in the middle of the field .. bhakri with simple subji .. again .. just heavenly ...  Kite flying , sleeping on the terrace under the stars ( no electricity then ), sometimes being allowed to go to the field with my uncle to "guard" it ... and ending up learning devotional songs while we stared at the moon while lying in the middle of the field ..... :) Being careful of snakes .. considering I almost stepped on a cobra .. I should mention it ! :)

Swimming in the well with that "bhopla" kind of thing attached with a jute rope  , eating green green imli plucked from tree ... walking behind bullock carts from village to village for weddings ( I hated sitting in them ... so slow I used to think ) ... and the best part .... using catapults to down mangoes en route .. and confirm that our mangoes were the sweetest ... !!! Ha ha ha .....

Anywayz ... too many things to list now but yes I have had the pleasure of simple village life and know just how tough life in a village is ..... it always made me admire my grandmother. She was about 60 at that time and had enough energy to put me to shame ! :) Diwali time was another feast altogether ! :)

For all that I had fun - I consider myself an urban city gal ! :)

So nothing new for me there really ... but for my child it was interesting. We have made couple of other agro-tourism type of trips before but this was different. I don't foresee my child having the kind of joys I had [ nor do I see a reason to 'make' her enjoy them ... ] but an exposure to the way rural life is ; was our idea and it was fulfilled.

Food : The food is made in the village homes and I found it fresh and good. My child also had it with no problems. Even though I hate "sheera" I could admit it was well made ! :) They should not offer tea though .. it is too too too sweet !!!!! Phew ! :)

Directions : The directions from Pune seem wrong. There is a left to be taken after the ST bus stop and not right before the bus stop as mentioned in the directions pdf they sent across. We checked in with the local people and they said the same. So this into needs to be updated.

Organizers : I was very annoyed with the organizers. I had made my booking way back and yet I felt like I was treated like a 2nd class citizen.

Before thinking that I am fussy .. consider that I have taken umpteen treks where the only sanitation has been taking a "lota" , going to a specific place and getting the business done !!! Hell even in my grandpa's place I had to do that first couple of years before they installed toilets ....

We have gone to camping trips with our child, where there was no toilet as such ...we all managed b'cos everybody  had the same conveniences.

What I did not like about this trip was that I was treated one way and another set of travelers got better sanitation benefits for no reason at all. If I had stayed in the dormitory - okay ... but .. not otherwise.

When I booked I saw in the brochure it was mentioned that western toilets and I was pleased. The ground reality was that our tent was pitched near the school grounds far from the main tent area.

The main tents region had clean bathrooms (health faucet, soap too !!! ), step out of the tents and you get a view of the valley, dustbins outside the tents,  there is a big tree under which you can sit and watch the fireflies in the night and led lights for the night so you can see where you are going.

We were instead ..... shunted off to a place where I got to see the school grounds ( seriously ?? ) away from the main camp, the toilet was unclean  when I came ( there was not much water either ) and there was a set of Indian toilets that if I wanted I could share with the people from the dormitory which stank from 10 feet away !!!

To be sure - I was told there could be two reasons for this - that I booked last minute ( which was not correct ) and that the villagers did not get the instructions correct.

And yes they apologized and said they would make up for it and we could go to another one of their village programs elsewhere. I was wary though. Why ? Mistakes can happen of course but correcting it is important.

You cannot tell me on one hand that the villagers do not always get the instructions right and then after telling you twice that there is no water in the bathroom - you do not ensure it is taken care of !!!!  You know very well .. telling them is not enough then why did you not ensure it was taken care of ?? All I can say is -  I am glad they at least cleaned the toilet !!!! We managed to scrape the bottom of the barrel of water in the toilet allotted to us the next day !!!

I am not even going to mention that I had asked for hot water for bathing even before I landed in the camp as a special instruction !!! :)

I would give them credit for working with the villages / villagers and that this is a commendable pursuit.

Villagers : Very very friendly people and very nice. I felt they did a great job in welcoming us, showing us all the activities. In fact they seemed disappointed that I was not ready to dunk myself in the river ! :) Very courteous. Full marks for their behavior. They also ensured we got solar lamps for the night and when it started raining a little more they came and told us that they were nearby and if water came in to call them. Like I said - very very nice people.

Tips :

1. Take a tripod if you want to be able to take snaps ! :)
2. Stay in the main tent area ( 5-6 tents are pitched here ) especially if you are with a child. Make sure you ask about that specifically and cross check once you reach there.

For more information :  www.grassroutes.co.in

Freshly washed by the rains 

Rural charm

Tent - really spacious - could accommodate 5 people

Main tent area

Flint Stone

Cloudy day so no sunset view but loved the views anyway

Lovely Bajra fields

Our desperate attempts to capture the thousands of fireflies ....

Sowing paddy

Rural charm

River where you can have a swim

The narrow bridge to Purushwadi

See the numerous weaver birds nests ??? 

Way back .... :)