When we had to pick a day picnic destination for an office outing, we were looking for a place that would be within 2-3 hours of Mumbai and would give our group multiple options for fun activities. Someone suggested Saguna Baug and we were quite excited when we saw its website (www.sagunabaug.com) … A farming and fishing outfit, it promised to be a escape to nature. For the urbanized like us, it sounded like the perfect retreat.

It took us over 3 hours to get to the place. It might be a good option to take the train for people travelling from the central suburbs as it is a mere 30 mins from the Neral station. The place is quite rustic and if it weren’t for the uncharacteristic heat of early October, we would have had a good time trekking up the stony paths to our huts –cum – dorms. The dorms, a tad basic, were clean (that’s if you don’t take having frogs on the bed as a sign of uncleanliness!) Lolz… Apparently the place has many and we had quite a time watching the farm boys chasing the frogs all over the room and having to deal with a bunch of terrified loud women!

The owner of the place is a young foren returned types who inherited the farm and was really enthu to down load our large group with all the fun things his place had to offer. Fishing, swimming in the river, taking a tour of the rice fields, riding buffalos, milking cows, watching locals make wood products, he had a full day planned for his… but the heat was already getting the better of us and we decided to head for the bliss of cool waters.

Fishing and the river bathing were our choices and anything that required us to walk in the sun was straight out! Having never done fishing before, I was apprehensive about having to hook worms to lure the fish. But hey, these fish were vegetarian and were happy to be hooked for some wheat dough. The fishing lines were simple cane rods with a thin wire attached to them, at the end of which a small hook hung. One had to wrap some dough around the hook and throw in the line and watch intensively to spot the slightest tug on the wire, which indicated that the fish were nibbling on the dough. And wham, you jerked the line out and there, dangling and withering was the poor fish. The first and the only one I caught gave me quite a scare! I yanked the wire out and all the wriggling just scared the hell out of me! I couldn’t bear to watch and kept dipping it into the water until one of the farm boys rescued the poor fish, unhooked it and asked me whether I wanted to eat it. Jeez, after that show I was ready to become a vegetarian… so obviously I asked him to throw the fish back into the water.

After everyone had tried their hand at fishing…and surprisingly, almost everyone got a catch, we were happy to head to the river to cool off. The river was a narrow one and they had cordoned off a little area of the river for the bathing pleasures of the visitors. It was a weekend and there were multiple other groups at the baug, so it felt more like standing in a pool full of people. None the less, the water was cold and we could have stood in it for hours just to cool off. We actually did have a good time, until the buffalo decided to join us. Apparently the buffalo rides we were promised were to be with the buffalo in the water. The buffalo clearly was not a happy one… all the crowds and the happy shrieking was clearly pissing the poor chap off… so were asked the helpers to take him to dry land to save us the scare and him the pain.

Hunger finally got the better of the heat and we decided to head back to our dorms for a bit. Bathed in clean water, dressed and voraciously hungry, we were happy to sit in the sweltering heat to eat the simple village food. Dal, chawal, Sabzi, roti…the food was tasty and wholesome. A quick snooze and some group games later we were ready to leave for the long drive back home at 5.

All in all the place is worth a visit if you’re looking for a fun day out. It would be even better if you plan to do this during some pleasant weather. Also if you book in advance, you can book the beautiful lake house for your stay (it’s bang in the middle of a small lake and looked like fun to stay in).