fulltankers: Day - 33 Strawberries & Mahabaleshwar

01.11.2022

Day 33

Today we are driving to Mahabaleshwar, the strawberry capital of India. It’s a hill station and grows strawberry in an estimated area of 3,000 acres and produces more than 30,000 metric tonnes annually.

The drive from Aurangabad is more than 320 kms and over 8 hours. We started at 7.45 am and took NH160 and NH965D. Some sections of highway was not good but luckily traffic is light today and we covered good distance.

For sure we are in sugarcane country as we see vast areas of sugar cane fields on either side for almost throughout the journey. We also see roadside vendors selling Custard Apple and Guava - probably secondary crop in this region.

We have booked our stay at White House a modest homestay in Panchgani, about 14 kms before Mahabaleshwar. We checked in at homestay at 2.45 pm and went looking for strawberry trail.

Mapros (Mahabaleshwar Products) is a big name locally. We had Strawberry with Whipped Cream in Mapros restaurant - must say, it tasted yummy!

Unfortunately we could not visit their production unit as it was closed for the day and they open tomorrow only after we leave.

We also drove to Mahabaleshwar and toured the town. It has a nice lake and good sunset point. The place was very crowded despite being a working day. Diwali euphoria still in the air!