With the monsoon behind us and the October heat fading, Mumbaiites can look forward to one of the best times of the year. The season abounds with cultural activities but there’s also an uptick in exciting outdoor activities. Time Out rounds up some of the best. Just don’t catch cold.

Gaze at the stars
City smog shouldn’t stop you from spotting  constellations and planets this winter season at the Akash Ganga Centre for Astronomy at Badlapur. Participants of the stargazing programme will spend the night looking through telescopes and poring over sky charts as they struggle to find constellations shaped like a hunter, a pair of twins and a bull’s head.

In November, one can see Leonids or falling stars from the Leo constellation. This green-yellow meteor shower is caused by the Comet Tempel-Tuttle leaving debris in the earth’s orbit. “It looks like the star has broken and fallen down,” said Bharat Adur, director of the AGCA. In December, you can see a brighter bluish-white meteor shower called the Geminids.

You can also learn to photograph heavenly bodies at AGCA’s astrophotography workshop. One does not even have to invest in an expensive camera since “normal cameras are good enough to see the stars”, explained Adur.

Pedal across the city
Depending on your stamina, you can opt for a 20-km cycling tour or Woodside Inn’s 10 to 12-km Old Mumbai Bicycle Tour. Both are organised by Odati Adventures and follow a similar route; however the Woodside Inn tour has fewer stops. Odati provides participants with a cycle, a helmet and sends two guides. Both tours start at Eros and take you past iconic buildings like Metro Cinema, Asiatic Library and the National Centre for the Performing Arts. “Architecture is an important focus of our cycle tours,” said Bianca Mendonca from Odati Adventures.

The tours take place on Sunday mornings to avoid traffic and also because it’s interesting to see these usually bustling areas on that day. “When you cycle through Ballard Estate, you usually see a shoot going on or these kids playing cricket which adds to the ambience of the ride,”
said Mendonca.

Both tours stop at Irani cafés, so participants can get a taste of a bygone era. The Old Mumbai Bicycle Tour ends with a sumptuous breakfast at Woodside Inn that includes waffles and eggs, while the longer tour ends with lunch at Café Mondegar or Leopold Café. Odati also has an evening tour that ends with dinner at Light of Asia, famous for its Chicken Titanic curry.True to its name, the curry sinks to the bottom of your stomach as quickly as the unlucky ship.

Go birdwatching
There are plenty of options for avid birdwatchers this season with flamingo watching tours at Sewri and birding expeditions to Elephanta, Vashi, Airoli, Vikhroli, Talawe and Vasai fort. Asif Khan, the associate programme officer at the Bombay National History Society, said his favourite spot to see waders or birds that flock to mudflats is Sewri because “you can see the conflict between humans and birds”. Braving polluting factories and chemicals, flamingos, egrets, sandpipers and herons throng there. The BNHS will organise a day-long Flamingo Festival in Sewri after January.

At Elephanta, one can see the beautiful Asian paradise-flycatcher with its long party-streamer-like tail and the lesser and greater sand plovers. Like most waders, sand plovers are brown and blend in with the mudflats but they are striking when they fly in a big group. “Their topside is brown and their bellies are white,” explained Khan, “so when they all turn together it looks like flickering lights.”

Dig into the soil
Community farms are back in action now that the monsoon is over and volunteers can help plant the winter crop of beans, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots and radish. These farms were set up by Urban Leaves, an organisation that promotes urban gardening, inNanaNaniParkat Chowpatty and theMaharashtraNatureParkat Dharavi. They are meant for people who would like to grow vegetables at home but don’t have the space. Volunteers can visit the nature park on Sundays and the Chowpatty farm on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 7.30am. “Whatever I’m growing is not going to sustain me and my family,” said Purvita Kapadia from Urban Leaves, “but I understand a lot more about how food is grown.”

Besides planting, volunteers will also prepare a nutrition-rich soil called amrut mitti using dry leaves, jaggery, cow dung and urine, said Kapadia. For those who want to start a terrace garden, Urban Leaves will conduct soil-making workshops and a three-day long seminar in December on urban gardening.

Set sail
In just three days you could be paragliding solo after  taking Templepilots’ beginner’s course. The co-owner, Anita Malik, claimed that out of a hundred students, 98 manage a tandem flight from a height of 170 to 200 feet. The course, which is held on weekends and weekdays, helps students get comfortable with the equipment. According to Malik, even people who have a fear of heights manage to fly without a problem. “You are gently lifted off the hill side,” explained Malik. “There is no falling involved.”

If soaring in the sky is not for you, try Aquasail’s Discover Sailing package. It is great for busy Mumbaiites who cannot spare an entire day but just have a few hours free, said Zia Hajeebhoy, director of Aquasail. For those who want to take up a hobby, theAquasailYachtingAcademyhas a 10-day sailing course, an eight-day cruising course and a three-day windsurfing course. “You are with the breeze, you are close to the water and you feel one with nature,” said sailing enthusiast Hajeebhoy.