Thoseghar waterfalls, Chalkewadi windmill farms near Satara

I love waterfalls, whatever size they come in. Whenever i plan to visit a city, the first thing i google for are waterfalls near the city. I once saw a poster of Thoseghar waterfalls in my office kitchenette (taken during the monsoon) and made up my mind that i had to visit this place. So, off i went, late last september in search of Thoseghar falls. Many blogs mention this as the third highest waterfall in India, but i didn’t come across any veritable piece of information on the same. Nevertheless, this waterfall is high, tall enough to easily feature in the list.

UPDATE: I visited Thoseghar again during the monsoon season. Lots more water and greenery. Check out a video and more photos here.

How to go to Thoseghar waterfalls from Pune(Magarpatta): Go on the NH4 (towards Bangalore). Cross Khambatki ghat, go beyond the right turn to Mahabaleshwar/Panchgani. Enter Satara on the right. Keep going inside the town of satara. At the other end of the town, you will come to a fork. The road to the left goes through a tunnel. This is the road you have to take. The road on the right goes to Tapola/Mahabaleshwar. Once you cross the small tunnel, you will come to a t-junction. Take the road on the right. The scenery immediately changes from a town to beautiful slopes (depending on the season!). After you climb a little, you will come across the exit to Sajjangad fort. Keep going and you will see a board for Thoseghar falls right on the main road. It’s a pity that a fall as majestic as this has a poor looking board befitting some roadside dhabha.
Google Maps doesnt have the road which goes from Satara to thoseghar. Given below is a map to reach Satara. After that follow the directions as i have mentioned above.The exact location of Thoseghar falls is 17°35’47.84″N, 73°50’44.98″E. Use this on Google Earth to have an idea about the route.

View Larger Map

The route to Thoseghar from Satara was very scenic (even in September). The road goes along the edge of the cliff giving you wonderful views all along the way.

You have to climb down a short distance before you reach the view point from where you will be able to see the thoseghar falls. The walk is short, but the climb back can be tough in summer. But, why would you go to this place in summer. The falls are dry in summer. So, the best time would be right in the middle of the monsoon.

There are actually many falls visible from the view point. The biggest one is to the right and not completely visible. The one straight ahead is also big and has two layers.

I checked on Google earth and there seems to a earthern path to go to the other side of the cliff. One can get a frontal view of the main falls. That is the plan for this monsoon :-). From thoseghar, we proceeded to Chalkewadi windmill farms. I saw that this was one interesting place to see around Thoseghar, but i never realised that the whole area would be infested with huge, reallu huhe windmills. Easily, the biggest i have ever seen, you can see hundreds of them all over the hills.

You have to continue in the same direction for another 4-5 kms until you reach the top of the mountain where the road seems to end at the windmills. if you proceed further, you will reach the koyna backwaters, but you better have a 4WD to do that.

The windmills were much bigger than what i thought would be. Akshara enjoyed the windmills a lot and didn’t want to get back in the car. Overall, it was a very good one-day trip covering Thoseghar waterfalls, chalkewadi windmill farms and a drive up to the parking lot of Sajjangad fort.