The Monsoon Nature Retreat: One-Day Trekking Trip to The Polo Forest
31 Jul 2023
Away from the city traffic, crowd and busy routine, Team NITSAN planned a mind-refreshing fun trip in the jungle rains. The memorable journey started from our office where we all gathered at around 11.30 P.M. on 28th July. It was Friday night and the bus took off at the strike of midnight.
The Journey
Our excitement was at its peak, the best part of our trip was of course the journey! So, we decided whatever might be, we won't sleep a wink. We all combined this night's travel with all sorts of horror stories. Each one sharing their unique experiences. It was terrifying but so much fun!
The Refreshment
At around 7.30 AM and after crossing 321 KM, we finally got to our destination - Polo Forest (Vijaynagar). It is spread over 400 square Kilometres and situated in the foothills of the Aravalli range and on the banks of the Harnav River. So we knew, our nature retreat has everything in store for us: Indian heritage, tall trees, rivers, waterfalls, sceneries, animals, birds, and so much more.
The morning was beautiful there with a misty, green and clean atmosphere. We reached The Polo Lion’s Resort where we freshened up and got ready. We were super energetic and looking forward to starting our forest trek. But before that, a delicious breakfast of upma, poha, and aloo parathas with tea and coffee was ready and waiting for us. We all had a full breakfast and took off.
The Polo Forest Trekking
We started to go towards the green lush forest on foot at around 10.30 with a guide leading our group. Polo Forest is famously known for the ruins of numerous Hindu and Jain temples from the 15th century.
Sharneshwar Shiva temple
Our first visit was to such historic Sharneshwar Shiva temple which is believed to be from the 15th century and for the exclusive worship of the ruling queen or the frequently visiting saints. It must have once stood tall in all its glory with beautiful carvings and patterns. It has various ancient characteristics with a touch of tribal influence. We gazed in awe at the ancient walls and everything took us to those royal historic times.We stayed there for a while, feeling the positive aura, calming our minds. We restarted our walk and as we advanced, we reached the Harnav Dam site.
Other Sightings
We continued and came further close to nature. We watched deer, unique types of plants & flowers and small and big waterfalls here and there. We wished we could stay there forever and never come back to the city. Then we reached Echo Point and spent some time there, played with our echoes and took a lot of selfies
The trek went on for 3 hours and ended at 2 P.M. We had a beautiful time and came back to the resort. Lunch was waiting for us and we were tired and hungry too. We had a wonderful full dish of multiple items such as Mix Vegetable, Chole, Chapati, Gulab Jamun, Dal Makani, and Rice.
The Journey Back From Polo Forest
On our way back, we had planned to visit a few other places. We went to Vireshwar Mahadev Temple 12 KMs away from the Polo Forest. It was a beautiful place around the temple giving us a super divine experience. We worshipped and had the blessings of Lord Shiva. After that, we also went to the Pavapuri Jain Temple and experienced pure bliss and calm here.
Akshardham Gandhinagar
This was our last and one of the most memorable visits before we head back to our hometown. We entered Akshardham and went inside the temple & worshipped Lord Swaminarayan.
And To Bhavnagar
For our dinner, we stopped at the Honest Hotel near Bawla. The bus tour started again now to Bhavnagar. How can we not play Antakshari on a trip? So we started singing songs on our way back home.
Finally reached Bhavnagar at around 3 AM.
This was our one-day trip with countless memories stored successfully in our minds and camera rolls.
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