Tourist Attractions and Places near Pune and Mumbai

When i decided to come back to India (pune) one year ago, i heard zillions of stories about the pollution in Pune, the traffic , the bureacracy at work , all trying to convince me not to take such a decision. But no one mentioned about the abundance of natural beauty around Pune. A drive to any such place near Pune is enough to free your mind from the stress caused by any of the above factors. Eventually, the sight-seeing options near to Pune took preference over all other issues and helped me make the decision to come to Pune. .

One such place is the Tamhini Ghat just beyond the Mulshi Dam. Though the roads through this ghat are at best bad, the scenery around would make you forget the bumpiness of the ride. A ride through this ghat is good even during the summer. But, this place opens up in the rains. Waterfalls all around, greens of the like rarely seen, you have to go there to experience this. I drove through Tamhini ghat late last August on my way to the Hans adventure resort. The other members of my team were in a bus and i was following them in my Xylo. The temptation was too much to stop at every corner and click a photograph of the panorama. Below are some photos from that drive.

How to go to Tamhini Ghat from Pune(Magarpatta): Go to Chandi Chowk. Take the road going towards Mulshi Dam. Cross Mulshi dam and climb into the ghat. The bad road usually start here. This is Tamhini Ghat. You can go beyond the Tamhini Ghat towards Mangaon (Mumbai Goa Highway) to reach the konkan side. Btw, it is not advised to go through Tamhini ghat late in the evenings. If you have to cross the mountains in the night, use the Bhor/Varandha Ghat instead.

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written by Rajaram S

Nighoj village comes alive during Janmashtami when lakhs of devotees throng to witness a miracle, that of an earthern pot of water coming out of a well in the village. The rest of the year, it is just another sleepy village in the rural belt of Maharashtra. So, it is but obvious that the villagers find it surprising that tourists (mostly the ones with cameras on their necks and not the drunken ones who go for the waterfalls on the ghats) come to this village all year round.

The tourists are not interested in the village, but in a riverbed 3 kms away from the village. The river kukadi flows near the village. At one particular point , near a temple , the river forms a deep canyon which has resulted in huge pothole like structures carved in the rockbeds because of the natural erosive action of the water and the rocks carried by the river.

Route to Nighoj village from Pune: Go to the Nagar road, travel towards Ahmednagar. Cross Shikrapur, then Ranjangaon. If you have time, stop over at Ranjangaon and visit one of the Asthavinayak temples. After a while, you should see en exit for Shirur. Do not take that road into Shirur village. The Shirur bypass (the highway) goes towards the right. The moment you cross Shirur, you should cross a bridge over Khod river (Khodnadi or Ghodnadi). Immediately after the bridge, there is a junction where you take the first exit (left) which kind of looks like going back in the same direction you came from. Keep going on this road for around 18-19kms after which you will reach Nighoj. Just as you enter the village, you will see an arch on the left. Take the road under the arch and keep going for another 3 kms when you will hit a river (with a temple). This is the place you are looking for. In case you get lost within Nighoj, as for Kund (which is what the villagers call the potholes).

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Summer is the best time to see these potholes as the water level goes down in the river. But i am sure that it will be equally impressive in early winter with many mini-waterfalls forming between the potholes. Have to plan a visit sometime in June/July for this.

There is a temple on the banks – Kund Mahuli Devasthan. You can even buy stuff to offer to the god at the only shop at this place.

Akshara seemed to like the place a lot and wanted to play in the smaller potholes. In fact, in the first pic below, we had to watch our step and take care in getting to that place as there were deep crevasses on either side. But, Akshara was not satisfied with this location and kept on mentioning “keezha” (“down”) asking her to take her further down!

Some more photos..

written by Rajaram S

A famous village in the midst of non-descript villages! Morachi Chincholi village – the names means peacocks and tamarind trees. This village is famous for its tamarind trees (which no one is interested in) and hundreds of free-roaming peacocks and peahens (which everyone is interested in). I like watching birds and was very curious when i heard about this village as almost every peacock i have seen before was in a zoo, apart from the few which roam around the BITS Pilani campus.

How to go to Morachi Chincholi village from Pune (Magarpatta City):

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The route is pretty straight-forward. Go towards the Nagar Road, turn right on it (i.e. opposite to the direction of the airport and towards ahmednagar). Keep going until you reach Shikrapur. There, you should see large signboards advertising the homestays and eco-tourism in Morachi Chincholi. You have to take a left there and keep going for another 15-16 kms on a not-so-bad road until you see an arch (with peacock statues on the top) on the right. This is the entrance to the village.

The village is not very big i.e. the one road which runs through it is probably a 2-3 kms long. But, the peacocks are everywhere. You have to drive long the road, stop somewhere and then wander on to the fields. This is the best option to find them. Just staying in the  car and hoping that one would land in front of you car can happen, maybe in your dreams Having said that, we did get one which crossed the road ahead of us!

We ventured into the fields a bit and managed to see quite a few peacocks. But the problem was that they were extremely fleet footed and often went into the tall grasses literally becoming invisible. Once, we were just looking around standing near the edge of the road and suddenly a peacock rushed out of the bushes just a metre ahead of us. He was there all the while and we hadn’t even noticed him. Probably, a sudden movement by us startled him.

Morachi Chincholi is not just about Morachis, but also chincholis! There were lot of tamarind trees around and we picked up a few seeds to take back home.

When i and Parthipan returned from our scouting inside a field, i saw that Akshara had two nice peacock feathers in her hand. It seems that a villager had chatted up Vidhya while we were away. She was the one who told Vidhya that there were hundreds of peacocks in the area and that the best time to see them would be early mornings and late evenings. She had also gifted two feathers to Akshara who looked very happy with her new toy.

There is also a small temple in the village where it seems bhajans happen in the evenings. There are many “resorts” and eco-tourism centres within the village which offer overnight stays (along with guarnteed sightings of the peacocks!). They also arrange bullock cart trips into the village. We just requested one such parked bullock cart for a photo-op and he was kind enough to oblige.

written by Rajaram S