We went there in March 2017 in a season that still offers a cool stay at Hatgad be though only during evenings. We took almost five hours to get to the resort from Thane. The journey up to Nashik is fast but thereafter the road though good is two lane and thus slows down the journey. En route are wooden sugar-cane crushers driven by oxen to offer local version of cold pressed sugarcane juice. The road traverses through grape growing country and that is another product on sale along the road. Both blue and green grapes are sold fresh apart from as raisins. Onions are also grown and sold in five kg. Bags. The most surprising fruit on sale turned out to be strawberries sold in boxes and transparent containers. At first, I thought the sellers were offering Mahabaleshwar strawberries but turns out the area surrounding Hatgad has strawberry farms. As you drive to Hatgad from Nashik, if the gently rolling hills, vineyards and strawberry farms make you feel you are in California, you can be forgiven.
The Club Mahindra Hatgad (CMH) resort is a small one and a hotel type resort. In fact it is one of the smallest Club Mahindra resorts we have stayed at. The resort abuts the road and is just about 5 km. From Saputara, the only tourist worthy place around apart from the Hatgad fort. The resort offers daily morning walking tours to the fort which take about 1 hour each way. The fort is also accessible through an unpaved motorable road leading from the highway right upto the entrance of the fort allowing for a car ride right up to the top . Parking at the fort entrance has to be done carefully as there is no fencing and little room to manoeuvre a car. The fort has very little to see but spectacular views of the surroundings including of Saputara town in the vicinity. During our visit, work was on for fixing steel barricades at the periphery. There are no amenities at the fort. The sheer cliff of the hills have served as fort walls - leaving the fort’s builders to focus on the entrance and securing it. Unlikely the fort could have been breached by scaling any of the natural rock walls on any side. From a distance the fort looks like a flat topped hill. At the road leading to the fort, a board by local agency has shown the fauna of the area. The area is rich in avifauna particularly raptors or birds of prey. However most animals and birds are unlikely to be spotted in summer.
We depended on Kesar, a vegetarian restaurant at Hatgad and Swad, also a vegetarian restaurant and at Saputara for our food. Being thronged by people ftom Gujarat and to cater to their vegetarian diet, Saputara mostly has all vegetarian dining options and so too Hatgad where restaurants are limited. Kesar is almost walking distance from CMH and offers simple Gujarati food made fresh and served. They use jaggery in most dishes and they take time to serve as all their food is cooked to order. Swad is an air conditioned restaurant that offers views of the lake and also open air seating adjoining the lake. I tried their masala khichadi and like it and ordered it twice during our visit. They also advertise their Thali which is simple and sumptuous.
CMH has very little to do barring indoor and outdoor games on the lawns. An interesting activity is to walk barefoot on the grass early morning. It gives a chill sensation on bare feet early morning as the resort staff water the lawns at night and the low temperature overnight chills the grass. I found several guests walk barefoot on the lawn and did it myself and found it a unique experience.
