Tourist Attractions and Places near Pune and Mumbai » drive

Bhuleshwar temple during the monsoons

Rajaram S — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:05:48 +0000

The advantage of being in a place where there are distinctly different seasons is that you can keep going to the same place at different times and see totally different sights. This is the situation in and around Pune. During the monsoons, the whole area gets a facelift and everything looks green. So, on my second trip to the Bhuleshwar Shiva temple, the whole area around the hillock was green and presented a beautiful sight.

To know about the route to Bhuleshwar temple from Pune, check out the post from my first trip.

This time, i went a little earlier in the day around early evening. So, there was sufficient light inside the temple for me to photograph the statues. If you look at most of the statues inside the temple, they would have mutilated heads or legs. It seems that these statues were broken by the Mughal invaders centuries back when there were on an expansion spree.

Akshara was sleeping during the drive up to the temple. But she woke up on hearing some drums being played outside the temple. Even though she was half awake, she was very cooperative with our various photo requests

My new camera, Sony DSC TX5, has a sweeping panorma feature which is pretty cool. Click on the photo below to see a much bigger version.

Drive to Lavasa, the hill city

Rajaram S — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:50:36 +0000

Set over 7 hills, Lavasa calls itself “India’s first planned hill city”. I am sure it will live up to this when the project completes. Lavasa city is in the midst of many mountains and almost every part of Lavasa has its own lakeshore (dam backwaters).

Lavasa is portrayed as the retirement place and it is quite true. I am sure everyone would like to just get up in the morning, go for a jog and spend the day doing nothing amongst scenic surroundings. But, I am not sure whether the concept of a retirement home has still caught on in India.

How to go to Lavasa city from Pune (Magarpatta City): Go to Chandni Chowk. Proceed towards Mulshi Dam. Once you climb down Pirangut ghat, you woul start seeing big blue coloured signboards for Lavasa. After Pirangut, you have to take a left for Lavasa. Once on this road, you would cross Temghar dam. Keep going on this road until you see an arch on the right, which is the official entrance of lavasa. From this point, the road goes down to the dam and the city.

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The distance to Lavasa from the turn on Mulshi road (after Pirangut) is around 30 kms. It is a wonderful hill road to drive on. If the management of Lavasa wanted people to settle down at Lavasa, they realised that they should make this place easily accessible. The road is very smooth (too smooth for indian roads) and the curves on the road make it a biker’s paradise.

The promenade on the lake shore has been modelled on old europe with many stone bridges criss-crossing the waters. This makes the lakeshore an extremely scenic place for photography, particularly in the evening light.

Lavasa entertains casual visitors and it is a good place to go for an evening. You can just walk around the promenade, go for all kinds of watersports, dine at the various restaurants or even stay over for the night at the many hotels inside the city.

Inside their main office, there is a Lavasa experience zone, where you can see about the future plans of Lavasa and other details about the city.

The ekaanth retreat in Lavasa is a good place for an overnight stay or a buffet dinner. Be sure to be at the parking lot of this lodge at sunset. The view from the parking is awesome.

A short drive to Dive Ghat near Saswad

Rajaram S — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:25:55 +0000

It was a beautiful rainy weekend, but work kept me indoors for almost the entire two days. I was deperate to get out and go for a drive. When i got a break for a couple of hours, we decided to drive down to Dive Ghat on the way to saswad. This is a small ghat which one has to cross on the way from Hadapsar to Saswad. Check the post on balaji temple at narayanpur if you are not aware of the route from Hadapsar to Saswad. We spent around 15 minutes stopping at various points on ghat for some photos. Not many photos though, as i was on an official call for most of time and was taking photos with one hand holding the phone!

Drive to Panshet Dam near Khadakwasla

Rajaram S — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 05:56:44 +0000

With the recent boating accident in Panshet dam, most the boat clubs were closed on the weekend we went. But we never had the intention of going for boating. We went for a monsoon drive to enjoy the scenery and we got what we wanted.

While Khadakwasla dam is more famous as an evening hang-out place for most Puneites, who come there to swim and have butaa, Panshet dam has always been famous for its boating scene. The backwaters of Panshet extend for a long distance and has high cliffs on the other side. So, even if you don’t go boating, there are lot of viewpoints of Panshet dam where you can have a nice picnic.

How to go to Panshet Dam from Pune(Magarpatta): Go towards Swargate i.e. on Solapur road vis Big Bazaar. When you reach the end of this road beyond Swargate at a T-Junction, turn left. Take the immediate right (there is a signal and there is a mahalaxmi temple on the left). The road on the right is the Sinhagad road. Keep going on this road crossing Parvati and towards Khadakwasla. You dont need to turn anywhere. This road will take you straight to Khadakwasla. Once you cross Khadakwasla, keep going on this road for another 10-15 kms and you will see signs for Panshet dam boating. Follow those signs and you should be climbing the hills on the other side of Panshet.

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There wasn’t much water in the dam backwater because of the poor rain in June and July until now, but the greenery was very much visible all over the place. We stopped at a place where we could walk over to the edge of the hill sloping gently towards the water. There was few house strategically built on the edge and i can imagine the kind fo view they must be having during the monsoons

We had been there with few friends and their kids. The kids had a gala time posing for our photo requests. The photos with the visibly darker green colour are from Sunil’s camera. All my photos are little bit on the overexposed side.

Akshara wandered all over the place and was up to her usual antics. It was difficult explaining to her that her request to go “keezha” (down the slope) was not something that can be done

Most of the time was spent on experimental photo sessions with us and the kids. It was a good day, could have been better with the Neelkanteshwar visit if only we had been prepared for the rains. More on neelkanteshwar in a separate post.

Visit to Baneshwar shiva temple

Rajaram S — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:11:21 +0000

“Ban” – Forest and Ishwar – God i.e. God within a forest. This is the origin of the name of the Baneshwar temple. The name looked inviting and looking it up on Google Earth, i saw that the temple was in the midst of a dense green patch. Not the size of a forest, but quite an expansive green patch. So, off we went on a Sunday afternoon to Baneshwar Temple, around 45 kms away from Pune.

How to go to Baneshwar Temple from Pune(Magarpatta): Go on Solapur road (towards Big Bazaar). Keep going towards Swargate. At the Swargate junction, turn left , towards Katraj. Keep going straight. This will take you past the Pune zoo towards Katraj Ghat. Once you get down from the ghat, you will meet NH4 coming from Mumbai. Join the highway. You will come across the first toll gate. Approximately 11 kms after the toll gate, you will come to a junction. On the right side of the road (strangely), you will see a green board with markings in Hindi for many places, the first three of which are for Shree Baneshwar – 3 kms, Rajgad – 20 kms and Torna Fort – 30 kms. You have to go inside this road to reach the temple.
On this road, you have to cross the Nasrapur marketplace which can be a mess during the evening (as we found out). it was almost like the Hadapsar market and it took at least 15 minutes to drive through this crowd. After the market, you will see an arch on the right and this road is the entrance to the temple complex. The two photos below will give you an idea of the surroundings of the temple (with the river and waterfall nearby). The second photo will give you an idea on where to turn on Nh4. Searching for Baneshwar will on Google maps will give you the wrong “baneshwar” which is located much further down on te NH4.

The temple has nothing much to write about. It is a small temple with a shiv ling inside. You can buy flowers outside to offer to the god. The dome of the temple is colourful and is a pretty sight in the evening light.

The gardens around the temple seem to be the main attraction rather than the temple itself. There are plenty of walkways created through this jungle with ample resting points and open areas for a picnic. Of course, there were lot of people practising the Maharastrian State Hobby of spitting (apart from the other hobby of trekking) in spite of the fact that there were inside a temple compound. The dense greenert is an excellent place to spend the evening with the family.

One of the trails will lead you to the river where there is a waterfall. This path is muddy and can be quite “yucky” to negotiate after the rains. This is a walk of around half a km. The waterfall was not quite spectacular as was writen in many blogs. Maybe, the monsoon is yet to arrive completely. The area around the waterfall was like a mini-Nighoj (because of less water) and people were climbing into the canyon which made for some good adventure.

Trek to Purandar fort – in the rain

Rajaram S — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:29:47 +0000

Purandar fort near Saswad/Narayanpur is one of the easier hill forts to trek to. It takes around 45 minutes to 1 hr to get to the top of the plateau and a further 30 min walk would take you to the remnants of the fort. It was monsoon time and one saturday morning, we (Parthipan, Rajesh and I) decided to go to this fort. Though it was drizzling, we started from Pune at around 5.30 in the morning.

How to go to Purandar fort from Pune(Magarpatta): The route is pretty straightforward. Go towards hadapsar. Take a left on the Solapur road. Go to the side of the flyover. At one point, you will see the bus stand on the right. Here, you have to go on the wrong side (legally), then come around the bus stand. This will take you to the road to Saswad. Keep going on this road until you reach Saswad. At Saswad, take a right towards Narayanpur. Once you are on this narrow (but smooth) road for some time, you will see a hill prominently on the left. There will be a small lane (marked by a board in Marathi with Shivaji’s photo). This is the road towards Purandar fort. It doesnt take more than an hour to reach Purandar from Pune (even under regular traffic conditions). Once you cross Hadapsar, the road to Saswad is relatively traffic free.

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When we reached there, we were only ones at the base of the trail. There is a 7 km long kuchcha road which you can take to reach the plateau (to avoid the 1 hr climb). Since it was drizzling, we were standing at the base thinking of which option to choose. Then a couple came in a Pajero and started preparing to trek up. Then i told them that i was thinking as it looked like it would rain heavily. The guy cheerfully said “So what? if it rains, get wet and enjoy!” Hats off to this attitude. Maharashtrians do really love getting wet in the rain as i saw in Lonavala and at Bushi dam. So, my decision was made, we were to trek up. But, i had a camera to protect too. So, in the pretext of protecting the camera, i borrowed the raincoat from Rajesh. So, i was all packed up while Rajesh and Parthi were exposed to the elements. But, they enjoyed it.

The above picture is the start of the trail to the top of the hill. Since this was our first time in Purandar, we had no idea of how long it would take or how difficult/easy it would be. There are actually multiple routes up the hill. As long as you keep going up and your orientation is ok, you should manage to reach the plateau. Our climb up the hill was pretty slow as i would stop every other minute to say the conventional “wow”s about the scenery about us. This was the first time i had ever trekked in the rain (apart from being caught in an expected cloudburst on the Kalidonia waterfalls train in Cyprus) and i loved every minute of it. it was tricky trying to get photos fast enough so as to not wet the lens. You can also see my Xylo (and the other Pajero) parked at the base of the hill.

We got lost somewhere mid-way and started drifting towards the left and going on pretty narrow tracks. Then we met a villager coming down and he asked us stick on to the rocky sections and keep following the trail. With the rain causing a continuos cascade of water on the trail, it was pretty slippery at times, but it was fun. At the end of the trek, my clothes were a slushy mess! At one point, the trail goes through a thick maze of shrubs, which was pretty cool.

The villager asked to keep going ahead until we hit a wall. At this point, we had to turn left to reach the plateau. As we neared the wall, structures started becoming visible through the heavy mist.

Once you take the left from the wall, it is a steady climb to the top. This path is full of rocks and can be quite difficult in the rain. It was particularly slippery with the flow of the water. We still didnt know where we were heading as the mist was quite thick. There is also a small waterfall on this route where you can get wet if you feel that rainwater is not enough.

Once you climb the last stretch of rocks, you reach the top of the plateau and enter through a door called the Dilli Darwaza. You can actually drive up to this point by taking the road, but it definitely is more fun to walk up.

Once on the plateau, you will find an abandoned church and lot of other structures. The end of the road is actually a place maintained by the army.

You will also see a small temple dedicated to Purandeshwar deity, after which the fort/hill takes it name. We spent some time walking around the temple and photographing the awesome “green”. You have to climb the steps and then go beyond the temple to actually go to the fort. it is a another 30 min walk from here. Due to some time constraint, we decided to turn back and decided to visit the fort some other day.

On our way back, when we reached the wall, we were surprised to see dozens of people starting the trek. There were few organised groups, few individuals and even a family with a small boy. It is really fascinating to see the interest in trekking in this part of India. We spent a total of around 4 hours on this trip and it was worth every minute of it. If you have never been on a trek before, this is a good place for that “first” trek.

Thoseghar waterfalls, Chalkewadi windmill farms near Satara

Rajaram S — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:40:13 +0000

I love waterfalls, whatever size they come in. Whenever i plan to visit a city, the first thing i google for are waterfalls near the city. I once saw a poster of Thoseghar waterfalls in my office kitchenette (taken during the monsoon) and made up my mind that i had to visit this place. So, off i went, late last september in search of Thoseghar falls. Many blogs mention this as the third highest waterfall in India, but i didn’t come across any veritable piece of information on the same. Nevertheless, this waterfall is high, tall enough to easily feature in the list.

UPDATE: I visited Thoseghar again during the monsoon season. Lots more water and greenery. Check out a video and more photos here.

How to go to Thoseghar waterfalls from Pune(Magarpatta): Go on the NH4 (towards Bangalore). Cross Khambatki ghat, go beyond the right turn to Mahabaleshwar/Panchgani. Enter Satara on the right. Keep going inside the town of satara. At the other end of the town, you will come to a fork. The road to the left goes through a tunnel. This is the road you have to take. The road on the right goes to Tapola/Mahabaleshwar. Once you cross the small tunnel, you will come to a t-junction. Take the road on the right. The scenery immediately changes from a town to beautiful slopes (depending on the season!). After you climb a little, you will come across the exit to Sajjangad fort. Keep going and you will see a board for Thoseghar falls right on the main road. It’s a pity that a fall as majestic as this has a poor looking board befitting some roadside dhabha.
Google Maps doesnt have the road which goes from Satara to thoseghar. Given below is a map to reach Satara. After that follow the directions as i have mentioned above.The exact location of Thoseghar falls is 17°35′47.84″N, 73°50′44.98″E. Use this on Google Earth to have an idea about the route.

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The route to Thoseghar from Satara was very scenic (even in September). The road goes along the edge of the cliff giving you wonderful views all along the way.

You have to climb down a short distance before you reach the view point from where you will be able to see the thoseghar falls. The walk is short, but the climb back can be tough in summer. But, why would you go to this place in summer. The falls are dry in summer. So, the best time would be right in the middle of the monsoon.

There are actually many falls visible from the view point. The biggest one is to the right and not completely visible. The one straight ahead is also big and has two layers.

I checked on Google earth and there seems to a earthern path to go to the other side of the cliff. One can get a frontal view of the main falls. That is the plan for this monsoon . From thoseghar, we proceeded to Chalkewadi windmill farms. I saw that this was one interesting place to see around Thoseghar, but i never realised that the whole area would be infested with huge, reallu huhe windmills. Easily, the biggest i have ever seen, you can see hundreds of them all over the hills.

You have to continue in the same direction for another 4-5 kms until you reach the top of the mountain where the road seems to end at the windmills. if you proceed further, you will reach the koyna backwaters, but you better have a 4WD to do that.

The windmills were much bigger than what i thought would be. Akshara enjoyed the windmills a lot and didn’t want to get back in the car. Overall, it was a very good one-day trip covering Thoseghar waterfalls, chalkewadi windmill farms and a drive up to the parking lot of Sajjangad fort.

Visit to the Bhuleshwar Shiva temple

Rajaram S — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:15:35 +0000

Every hill/mountain/hillock in Maharashtra must be having something on the top. Be it a fort or a temple. The shiva temple in Bhuleshwar is on top of a small hill in the middle of nowhere. There is also this TV tower right next to the temple (like the one at Sinhagad) spoiling the atmosphere.

The temple was once within a fort, the remnants of which are visible in the vicinity of the temple. This temple gets huge crowds during Mahashivratri. The priest told us that there is a decent crowd on almost all days in the mornings. An unique thing about the shiv-ling in this temple is that the top portion of the shivling opens up and you can put offerings (usually pedas) inside it. If you are really devout, these offerings are gobbled up, not by a rat, but God himself. The priest told us that such miracles do happen even now, albeit for the rare devotee.

You don’t need to go to Bhuleshwar temple as a devotee. You can go there as a casual tourist to relax in the absolute calm surrounding the hill. You can take photographs anywhere in the temple and for the pious, the priest also does archanas. The priest also doubles as the guide and if he is not busy, he has lot of interesting stories to tell. This would make a good trip for the evening. We started from Pune at around 6 pm, we reached there close to 7, just in time for the sunset. The wind was blowing like crazy and Akshara enjoyed it.

How to go to Bhuleshwar temple from Pune(Magarpatta): Go to the Pune-Solapur highway. Turn towards Hadapsar and proceed in that direction i.e. away from Swargate. You have to travel around 35 kms on this road. You will cross a toll booth where you pay a strange fee of 22.50 Rupees. After the second toll (close to village Uruli), you have to take a right. This right turn is 3 kms after the second tool and 2 kms before the village Yavat. There is a sign on the left side of the road pointing to the right lane (marked as Bhuleshwar). You will also see another sign on the right (next to the lane) which has directions to many other places like Sasvad, Narayanpur etc. You have to go on this road for a further 8-9 kms before you reach a ghat section. This ghat is pretty bad, it is like driving through an open quarry! The problem with this ghat is that the whole surface is of loose rocks and gravel and can be quite tricky if vehiles come in the opposite direction. Update: The entire ghat section has been relaid and it is a good tar road to drive on. After you reach the plateau on top, Bhuleshwar temple woul dbe visible to the right. You have to take a right and then climb upto the temple’s parking. The last 100-150 metres was incredibly steep with me having to stay in the first gear the entire stretch. If you don’t want to try this, park it before this steep stretch and climb up on the stairs. I couldn’t find this village road on google maps nor could i do a visual identification of the temple on google earth, but the map provided below should give you an idea of the location where you have to take a right from the Pune-Solapur highway.

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There were many disfigured statues in the temple. The priest told me that this was done by Aurangazeb’s men in an attempt to destroy and mutilate Hindu art.

Another interesting thing in this temple was the statue of Ganesha. It seems that this is the only temple in the world where Ganesha has a female form.

A very interesting place to visit and just relax.

Drive to tamhini ghat during the monsoon

Rajaram S — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:33:23 +0000

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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Potholes (Kund) in Nighoj village

Rajaram S — Tue, 18 May 2010 10:15:19 +0000

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..