Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary trek - Day Trip

It was the 1st week of June and we were awaiting monsoons eagerly in Pune. The weather was cloudy and breezy signifying the onset of monsoons. A perfect Saturday morning for a day trip to Bhimashankar, which is known for the ancient Jyotirlinga shrine located in the Ghat region of the Sahyadri hills surrounded by the Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary.  Am not a religious person, so my main interest was the forest. My friend had booked a car with Zoomcar.

The three of us started from Pune at about 9 am. The GPS showed 105kms from my home. We took the Alandi road to Pune Nashik highway, crossed Pune and stopped by a little restaurant to have breakfast with Vada Pav and tea. We started again, crossed a crowded town, took a left turn and soon we were surrounded by the beautiful landscapes. We started enjoying our ride through the narrow empty roads(in good condition), sliding up and down through the beautiful valleys. We stopped a few times to click photos. On our way there were dams to our left, though the water was scarce since it wasn't monsoons yet.

On our way towards Bhimashankar (Pic by me)

We then entered the Bhimashankar forest area. There was a check-post where we paid some 20rs around. We were loving the winding road through the hills surrounded by the forest. We stopped at a little tea stall hut for tea. There was a hotel called Blue Mormon Jungle Holiday Resort nearby, where one can stay overnight. But ours was a day-trip. We then drove towards the temple entry point where all the vehicles were parked.

We parked the car and started walking towards the temple. Throughout the walkway there were villagers selling different materials like flowers, coconuts etc. which are offered to the deity. Also some of them were selling sweet corn, some were selling sweets, some medicinal herbs. It was around 12:30pm by then and we wanted to have lunch. There are many small eateries along the walkway serving veg meals. They are not fancy eateries, but will serve the purpose of satiating your hunger. We had veg meals with rice, dal, papad and freshly cooked super tasty little brinjal.

Flowers along the walkway towards the temple (Pic Courtesy : Shakti Nanda)

Flowers along the walkway towards the temple (Pic Courtesy : Shakti Nanda)

Sweet corn seller near the temple (Pic Courtesy : Shakti Nanda)

Selling medicinal herbs outside temple (Pic Courtesy : Shakti Nanda)

After lunch we started walking towards the temple. There are stairs leading down to the temple. We started descending.There were lots of cows around and devotees were touching their feet for blessings, since cow is worshiped as one of the Hindu Gods. At the left, there was a long queue to get into the temple. As I am not religious, so did not get inside the temple, instead climbed down the stairs and reached the old temple.

Bhimashankar Temple (Pic by me)

Hanuman Puja just outside the temple (Pic Courtesy :Shakti Nanda)

We asked the locals about the Gupt Bhimashankar trek route, which is around 1.5kms from the temple. We took a right towards the backside of the temple and the green forests were welcoming us. Soon we entered the narrow pathway between the forest, stepping on the colorful forest foliage of different colors of dead and fresh leaves. It was just the 3 of us accompanied by the chirping of birds and insects. We saw trees of black plum, mangoes with their respective fruits hanging all around. The sweet and sour fresh smell of these fruits were intoxicating. We saw a troop of monkeys playing in the branches of the tall trees, throwing mangoes here and there. The forest is quite deep. There were small brooks, which were mostly dried up since monsoons did not arrive yet. We saw numerous butterflies and insects. Some tree trunks were blocking our walkway. We kept moving by climbing through them. Soon we heard a shrilling cry from the trees up. We looked up and yes we spotted a giant squirrel. After sometime we reached the little Ganesh temple inside the forest and then soon reached the end called Gupt Bhimashankar . There is no shrine here, but shiv lingas in the rocks. The place was fully dried up. We spent sometime there and started moving back. Again we encountered those shrilling cries and we could spot three to four giant squirrels up on the trees. We could also spot some languors. We reached back to the main temple, bought some local sweets and started our journey back to Pune.

Forest foliage (Pic by me)

Wilderness of the forest (Pic Courtesy : Shakti Nanda)

Lord Ganesh shaped on tree trunk (Pic Courtesy : Shakti Nanda)

Giant Squirrel up above (Pic Courtesy: Shakti Nanda)

Giant squirrel up above (Pic Courtesy : Shakti Nanda)

Indian Leaf butterfly (Pic by me)

Blue Mormon butterfly (Pic Courtesy : Shakti Nanda)

Blue Mormon butterfly (Pic Courtesy : Shakti Nanda)

Ganesh shrine in the forest (Pic by me)

We enjoyed the dusk surrounded by the beautiful ghats, having our evening tea and snacks before reaching Pune.

Somewhere in the ghats while returning back home (Pic by me)

Day trip to Malhargad Fort from Pune

I was looking for a place nearby from our Pune home for a very short trek. After some research I found that Malhargad Fort is around 35 kms from my place. A short trek from Sonori village near Dive ghat will take me to the fort.

On a Sunday noon after an early lunch the two of us started at around 12 pm by bike for Malhargad. We carried a lot of water as there is no water at the fort.  Through GPS I searched Sonori Village and started our journey. After crossing dive ghat, from Pune-Saswad road we took a left turn to reach Sonori village as per GPS. The road was in a very bad condition in the village. We could see the fort from this village at the top of a hill. We were looking for the base where we were expecting to see more vehicles parked being a Sunday noon. We knew fellow travelers like us must have parked their vehicles somewhere at the base so that we can follow them and start trekking from there. After following the directions given by the locals we reached a place which was the base of the fort hill. We saw just another car being parked there. So we were kinda sure that we can park our bike there and start climbing :). We parked our bike beside the lone car. It took us around one and a half hour to reach to the base from Pune home. We could see noone around, also none climbing the fort. The place was very much deserted. We started our climb. We climbed for around 15-20 minutes towards right just to realize that there is no route there leading to the top. We again climbed back and started climbing uphill through another route. There was no defined paths. So we had to climb with our own routes. We finally reached the top in another 20-30 minutes and it was the entrance to the fort. There were some 10-15 people there. There was nothing much in the fort other than some wells and two temples. We enjoyed the magnificent views from the fort, the breeze, the valley. After spending sometime there we started our trek downhill from the back side of the fort. We saw from the top that this side there are more cars and bikes parked at the base and also other people were trekking downhill through this way. We realized that normally people take this route. This route was easier. But then our bike was parked at the other direction. So we gradually started moving to the other direction downhill. We reached the base and started our way back to Pune.

After reaching the Pune-Saswad road from the village, we stopped at a restaurant called Garva Family Garden to have some snacks. There were quite a few dhaba kind of restaurants at this road towards Pune. We reached home by 6 pm.

It was a short weekend trip and we loved it more because it was a place free from commercialization and exploring our own ways to the fort was fun :).