Tungarli Lake / Dam in Lonavala

Tungarli Lake

Lonavala has tons of lakes and ponds; some natural ones and several ones created due to the innumerable dams built in this area. One such lake known as Tungarli lake is formed by a small dam. Calling this a lake would be geographically incorrect usage of the term "lake". At best it can be said to be a pond since it's size seems to be quite small even though the rainy season was just ending. I doubt the water will exist even beyond winter.

It's about 4 kms from Lonavala. The approach road is a narrow one and uphill enough. It's probably tarred because some resort have opened here near the lake. While on the road you will encounter the dam wall. Its quite old and was probably built during the British era.

Once near the lake there is plenty of evidence of human litter, some eatable bags and plates; plastics and all but this was still minimal. The main problem is innumerable glass shards of broken bottles all obviously alcoholic. I think going in the lake barefoot will surely leave you bruised in several places. In case you plan to spend the time here, search for a place not littered with glass for your safety. Better still clean the place for yourself. I think the other bank of the lake could be much more cleaner than this place since this is the first point of contact.
Inspite of all this the place is still not that dirty, still visitable.

Karala Caves: The 350 Steps Climb

A few kms from Lonavala off the old Mumbai-Pune highway lie the twin caves of Karla and Bhaje. When you notice the road sign of Karala, take a turn in opposite direction since the road-sign is actually for the village and the caves lie on the other side.

There is now a road that takes you very close to the caves and the climb is reduced considerably (just 100). However, horsepower issues ensured that we climbed the whole way by parking at the foothills.

Initially the steps are large (I mean large in length) and about a metre or two. Then they start reducing gradually and towards the end become normal sized.