Hathni Mata wateralls, Gujarat, India

There is something about Champaner I believe or as it is the nearest hang out spot from Vadodara, we keep going there often. When we visited Champaner this time, we targeted couple of places that we missed during last visit. One among them was "Hathni mata waterfall".
Google maps catches the location of the waterfalls at least till the parking lot, and people around parking lot can help you out in reaching the falls.

On the way

On the way

The place has couple of small hills and there are 2 temples at this place. One (Hanuman) on top of the hill and other(Hathni Mata) at the bottom of the hill. Both the gods are self-born. It is such a way that on hill top water falls on Hanuman and travels further down and falls on Hathni mata and further goes travels down to the village.
Way to Hanuman mandir is slope, steep (at some places) and broken steps.

On the way to Hanuman mandir

On the way to Hanuman mandir

Hanuman temple from outside

Self-born Hanuman 

Hanuman inside a small rock and you can get down and see the god closer. In the above picture, right next to hanuman there is a small hole (visible through naked eyes from outside) and I believe that when water level raises water even passes through that hole to bottom of the hill or falls directly on Hathni mata
On the top of the hill, there is a pool of water and water flows through rocks. During monsoon or when it rains, pool or even the Hanuman temple will submerse inside the water. But by the time we went, it was thin stream of water flowing from top to bottom.

Pool on hill top

When you came back down and take the route to visit Hathni mata temple, the route is absolute bliss.

On the way to Hathni mata temple

Hathni in hindi means 'A Female Elephant', there is a small elephant in the form of rock and small tortoise next to the elephant rock inside a cave. And the cave is in such a way that water falls directly on top of the Hathni mata :)

Tortoise next to Hathni mata ji

The place is worth visiting at least once, but people pollute it by trashing plastics everywhere. It was like a mini trek covering both gods :) And you get local Gujarati foods on the way near parking lot especially super hot 'Keechu' :P which I love it all time ;)

Distance from Vadodara: approx 80kms
Distance from Champaner: approx 20kms
Mode of transportation: by road, local buses/jeeps are available
Best time to visit: Monsoon and winters

Targol dam, Gujarat, India

It all started when we planned to get away to Champaner, Gujarat sometime at the end of July 2015.

Since then I was googling all about the places to visit. All I know was to get inside Jambhughoda wildlife sanctuary. On the way to Jambhughoda (of course with the help of Google maps), noticed there are couple of other places which grabed my interest.

One among them was Targol dam. As soon as i noticed the place in maps, i got into Google images to check how the place is actually. Such a lovely place to be, trust me.

Since then bugged my husband to take me there, he was kind enough and took me to that place

If you ever wish to visit targol, you can trust on Google maps. But maps stops a km or two before the actual destination. So follow the road Google maps took you and proceed ahead.

Regarding the roads to Targol, Gujarat. Roads aren’t that bad, but couple of kilometres would be rough. Any ways its manageable. From Gujarat state highway, it was 12 kms approx to reach the destination. It covers around 3 to 5 villages. After around 9/10 kms you would be entering Jambhughoda wildlife sanctuary. Felt it is safe to travel by car, but not sure suv types  would pass through at some places roads are narrow.

Just before the destination, there would be a very low lying bridge. Once you climb that bridge and get down of your vehicle, there was a absolute calmness completely out of this world. All you would hear is birds and water stream is sound.

Place looked very alone which created a bit of fearfulness too. But all we had in mind was get a look at the dam, even though we had seconds thoughts about it as the place was creepy and no one was around for help as well.

Managed to climb those stairs, on taking that last step you could witness breathtaking view of mountains surrounded and vast pool of water.

You can sit all day there (government has built few benches around the dam having that in mind I suppose) watching the calmness of the water, mountains and few birds. Mother earth is still undisturbed by people, pollutions and garbage. May be as its deep inside the woods, public dint travel. And there was no much information about the place on-line too.

Hence its still close to nature or the place wasn’t promoted much as tourist spot.

Either ways must visit if you visit Champaner/ Halol/Vadodara/Ahmedabad.

Happy travelling!!!

Nearest hub by road: Champaner, Gujarat

Nearest city by road/rail/air: Vadodara/Ahmedabad

Distance from Champaner: Approx 30kms

Travel time from Champaner: 60-90 mins

Best time to visit: Monsoon(if it drizzles, not heavy rain) else winters definitely

Who would like to visit: one who loves to travel and explore, nature lovers, some place to get your head off with nature and silence