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)

A weekend trip to the hills, Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani

Four of us started at 7:30 am from Pune for the Mahabaleshwar-Panchghani trip by car. The weather was cloudy. We had our breakfast at some roadside dhaba and started towards Mahabaleshwar again. Slowly we were in the hills. Before entering Panchgani we gave a toll. And in the entire trip I lost the count of tolls I paid as everywhere people where charging us.

Our first stop was Mapro Garden where we spent some time and continued our trip. We reached our hotel which I already booked. It was a few kilometers away from Mahabaleshwar near Lingamala Waterfall. We entered our hotel room and I was delighted. Our forest view family room at the top floor had glasses all around with some great views. I was happy over my hotel selection :). We just dumped our luggage and left the room to travel around. It was around 12:30 pm by then.

First we went to Arthur's Seat view point. We started enjoying the roads bending through the forests. Slowly it was more cloudy and we were inside the clouds with almost no visibility. We could not even see the nearest car. We got down from our car. We climbed down the steps there to several points. But nothing was visible because of the excessive fog and mist all around. This point is named after British officer Arthur who sat here and gazed at river Savitri, where he lost his wife and children in a tragic mishap. We left it to our imaginations how he must have been sitting here all alone ages back and gazing at the river with chilly winds striking him, at this barren hill.

Then we went to the Savitri View Point which is just next to Arthur's Seat view point. Here also nothing was visible to us since we were in the clouds.

We then headed to Kates point and enjoyed the views of the dam and falls with different shades of green all around.

It was around 3:30 pm by then. We were already very hungry. We came back to Mahabaleshwar town. We started hunting for a restaurant to have good non-veg lunch. We went to Shere Punjab and had a delicious lunch.

We started again and went to the Venna Lake. We took a boat for us and spent some good time sailing in the lake. The chilly winds striking us and the hills around, merged in clouds, made our sailing more beautiful. Even I tried forgetting that I am at Mahabaleshwar and started imagining that I am in Kashmir's Dal lake :). After this we had tea and also played some silly games at the nearby joints which was fun.

We left the place for Lingamala waterfall. It was 6:30 pm by then. We just realized after reaching there, the forest leading to the falls is only open from 8am-5:30pm. So we had to return back to our hotel with a plan of visiting the place next morning. Before entering the hotel I had a short walk around the hill with tress all around. I was amazed by the sound of chirping birds in the evening in an otherwise silent hill. It brought me back some beautiful childhood memories of evening of my small hometown. I found an empty green lawn with some benches, sat there for a while. Also discovered a temple with noone around. I loved spending time at these deserted places with myself before returning to my hotel. From my balcony I enjoyed the evening red sky merging with the hills. It started raining in a while. The occasional sound of rains on our tinned roof and chirping of insects was the melody of our night.

Next day we woke up to chirping birds which we rarely hear in cities. We had our breakfast and hot tea facing the hills in chilly morning. We got ready and headed to Lingamala Waterfalls. Through a forest we reached the entrance. We paid 10 rs as entry fee each and entered the area. We were in a dense canopy of trees with occasional penetration of sun rays through them. We climbed up and down the steps to reach a place which bifurcated into two ways, left and right. First we took the right route and walked around 400 meters in the forest with narrow brooks along our way. Soon we could see the falls surrounded by greenery. We walked through that route till the end and then again started moving back to the same point where we took left. Then we took the right route where we walked around 100 meters and reached a small waterfall where everyone was enjoying the falls by getting wet in it. We did not get wet. We returned back from there.

Next we started for Pratapgad Fort. The road leading to the fort was beautiful with greenery all around and some water falls at places along the road. We reached Pratapgad and started walking through the history with ruins of the fort. But there was a lot of human settlement inside the fort which looked disturbing to me when I was trying to relish the history. We climbed to the top where there was a Shivaji statue. We enjoyed the view from the top half merged in clouds. We returned back and had delicious lunch at a roadside dhaba.

Our journey back home started after lunch. But my last destination was Wai's Dhom Dam which falls on the way back to Pune. We took a left turn and started enjoying the village road to the dam. After sometime we reached Dhom dam. It was incredibly beautiful. Stretches of land with almost noone around, greenish blue water and green hills half merged in clouds, white ducks floating in the water. One of the most beautiful places  I have ever seen in western ghats. Although there was a boating club, but I did not see anyone boating.

It was drizzling by then. After enjoying the beauty and emptiness of the place we started our journey back to Pune in rains with memories of these beautiful places.

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 :).