Road Trip to Amboli Ghat - The foot hills of Western Ghats

The Western Ghats which is a Unesco World Heritage site and one of the Hottest Biodiversity hotspots of the world. The Western Ghats, also known as Sahyadri, is a mountain range that runs on the Western Coast of India. On the foothills of Western Ghats lies the small town which is known as Amboli Ghat, which is a hill station in the south of Maharashtra.

Famously known as the heaven among the macro photography circle, Amboli, was on my "must visit" list. While Planning for a trip back home to Delhi in 2016, I took a slight detour and planned my dream trip with two of my friends from work, Jugal and Karan. We finalised the dates and plans were on.

How we reached Amboli Ghat:

Amboli is approximately 500 Km from Mumbai which we covered within 9 hours including 3 breaks in between to eat and drink all thanks to Karan and his amazing driving skills. I was peeing in my pants looking at how fast he was driving and decided to sleep behind as I couldn't take it.

Well, I slept peacefully. I was dead tired as I was travelling since morning. At around 7 am we reached Whistling wood.

Where we stayed:

While I was planning my trip to Amboli and researching where to stay, two names kept popping up. Whistling Wood and Hemant Ogale. Everyone I spoke to about Amboli gave me his reference. Special thanks to Dr Akash Akinwar for giving me the contact details of Hemant and referring him. As Amboli Ghat lies on the foothills of Western Ghats, Whistling Woods lies on the foothills of the Amboli forest where one can feel like home. It's cosy and well maintained. I was told that the place is so near the reserve forest that they have often seen bears and leopards roaming at night. Gaurs (Indian Bison) were seen commonly at night as we ventured into the jungle for our macro sessions.

Special thanks to Jugal and Karan to accompany me to this place and agreeing on doing this road trip.

  

Amboli and Around:

Few photos from Amboli and Around

Macro Photography:

Amboli Ghat is well known for its tarantula's, scorpions and amphibians biodiversity. I wanted to photograph the famous Malabar Gliding Frog among others. To my surprise, the time of the year I visited Amboli Ghat was the dry season and unfortunately, it was the driest time of the year ever. Nevertheless, Amboli Ghat didn't disappoint me and I got plenty to see and shoot. you can imagine if one can shoot so much verity of biodiversity in the driest of the month then what will happen when you visit in monsoon season.

Photos below.