(NO)Icecream@Kolad

I had been told about this place for a very long time. The place where you can eat all the yummy ice cream you want, cheap… the ice cream factory at Kolad! The thought of travelling a 120Km to eat ice cream seemed rather silly, but we went ahead with it anyways.

7 of us, 5 in my car and 2 on a bike. The fact that I will have to drive through tamhini ghat had me scared a little bit (or rather more than a little bit as I had never actually driven through a ghat before and I must admit I am bit scared even if someone else is driving through it) but, I decided on facing my fears, (with a lot of inspiration from the others) and managed to convince my father that we’ll be fine.
We took off early in the morning,.. around 7.30. drove 10 minutes and realised I’d forgotten the CD player home. Since getting the player or singing my way through the trip were the two options available, we sent the bikers back home to get it. After 2 phone calls and 30 more minutes (and of course some brain-storming with regards to the reason for the extra 20 minutes they took ;) ) we finally set off for the trip.
Being a rather over-cautious driver, and having 4 innocent lives at stake, and mine too, of course, I drove at 60, period. I did not realise how frustrated they might have been till I managed to reach 80 on a relatively smooth and straight road, and they made a great fuss of congratulating me on my record so far. :) :)

We took just 2 halts; one at a small road-side hotel, to have breakfast of misal and pohe and chaha, and then at the devrai near tamhini. The devrai is a beautiful spot. Butterflies we saw… but nothing else (of wildlife), as it was a Sunday, and there were (too) many people and much noise. The trees there are huge, and old, and untouched, as in any devrai, and the peace gets into you even if u resist. Kunal went off on his own, for a photo-shoot, while we enjoyed the cool shade, and managed quite a few ‘orkut-photos’ :D . Chai and Girija followed a ‘blue mormon’ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_polymnestor] in hopes of a rare photo, but came back hot and tired, and empty handed. But got lucky when an ‘oak-leaf’ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kallima_philarchus] posed for them. We needed to get back to pune before sundown, and hence I had to hurry them all against my will to stay. The ride was fun, many silly songs, too many jokes, some sleep (not for me, that one) and Girija took out the puran poli to top it all. :)

We reached kolad around 1, and behold!!! We found the Icecream factory, complete with the advertisement with photographs of yummy icecream … Closed… for ever and forever. The hopes shattered, and we blamed the world for making a tasty venture close down.
Hot, hungry, and saddened, we went in search of a hotel. We found one in a relatively good condition and ventured inside, found a table to fit all 7. We ate lunch to our full, and realised, that the factory being closed did not necessarily imply that we could not eat icecream. So we stubbornly made ‘Icecream we wanted, and icecream we shall have’ our motto and called for any available icecream in that roadside hotel. We ended up finishing around 30 ‘Kwality walls’ chocolate icecream cones, and choco bars. :D
The ride back was uneventful, unless you call I driving at 100 on the expressway an event. :D, and of course the rather awkward moment before the toll post, where I inadvertently drove in a wrong lane, only to find it closed, and had to ask a truck driver to allow me to cut in the long line.

All in all, it was a fun trip (in-spite of the sad fate of the factory, and my slow driving). I, more confident about my driving abilities, and they, happy about having reached home safe and sound. :D