Tourist Attractions and Places near Pune and Mumbai

The buddhist excavations at Bhaja, also known as Bhaja caves, date almost to the 1st century AD and are believed to be one of the oldest buddhist religious centres in this area. it is also a big tourist draw as it is near Lonavala, but thankfully, because of its classification as a national monument, it is relatively well maintained compared to many other tourist attractions here.

How to go to Bhaja caves from Pune (magarpatta city): Bhaja caves are very easy to locate , as the exit is located right on the old Pune-Mumbai highway. Take the Nh4 (old mumbai-pune highway) towards Mumbai, few kilometres (6-7) before lonavala, you should see an exit on the left towards Bhaja/Malavali (and one on the right towards Karla caves). Take the left, you should reach Malavali village (there is a railway crossing to cross – a wait not more than 10 minutes). 2 kms from Malvali, you would reach the base village of Bhaja, where ample parking is available. On any monsoon day, you would see lot of trekking/walking grps walking towards Bhaja from Malvali railway station, but the likes of me drive over as much we can and then walk the remaining distance. On the day i went, the old highway was blocked because of Palkhi, so i was forced to take the expressway. So, if you too have to take the expressway for some reason, drive upto Lonavala (central point), take almost a U-turn onto the old highway going towards Pune, drive for 6-7 kilometres and then turn right towards Bhaja. During the non-monsoon seasons, there is a shortcut from behind the food court on the expressway (before lonavala) to reach the malvali village road without having to go to Lonavala and then come back.

The base village of Bhaja has its typical share of chai/Pakora shops and the garbage dumps. Once you cross all this, it is just you and nature all the way. There is a waterfall just at the base which is used for bathing as well as washing clothes. But, if no one minds, who cares? There were many buffaloes grazing near the fall and Akshara wanted a snap with them. A little later, she found another dirty cow to get photographed with!

To reach the caves, it is a short climb of around 20-25 minutes on a properly laid out path. There are steps for most of the distance, but at some places, it may get tricky. The steps were a little too big for Akshara to climb on her own, but it wasn’t a tough climb even with carrying Akshara most of the way

The best time to visit Bhaja caves would be late evening, as the caves face west and the late evening light would be great for photographing the caves. It was cloudy/raining for most of the time on the day we went, but the few minutes that the sun came out, the light was magical. The caves officially close around 6 pm and they dont allow anyone to enter beyond 5.45 pm, so time your visit leaving around 20-30 mins for the climb. We took it easy going up , spending lot of time taking photos of the amazing greenery around and also using our standard prop (nowadays), the umbrealla.

You can actually spend a lot of time at the top exploring every nook and corner of the caves. We went close to the closing time and it was also starting to drizzle. With just one umbrella for the three of us ( and no jackets), we spent just around 10-15 mins walking around and doing a brief survey of the caves.

The caves are right next to the Lohagad fort. You can see the fort from Bhaja village as well as from the caves. If you walk to Lohagad from the base village, it is a walk of 2-3 hours. If you have a good vehicle, you can drive along for most of this distance almost upto the base of Lohagad fort. Visapur fort is also closeby. To go to Visapur fort, you have to climb up to the left of the caves. There is no clear path marked, but just keep going up and you should reach Visapur Fort. If you intend to walk to Lohagad from Bhaja, don’t come towards the path to the caves, instead walk across the fields (next to the temple). This should save you a km or two.

More photography on the way down. It was a good half-day trip with a mix of nature and history

written by Rajaram S

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.

View Larger Map

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.

written by Rajaram S

Two weeks back, i was driving from Lakshmi road (had been to Chitale Bandhu) to Rasta Peth. On turning around a corner, a huge wall came into view. it didn’t look like a normal city building. The wall continued on and on as the road went around the complex. It looked like a fort and it looked very photogenic. The first thing i did on returning home was to research about this and i found out that this place was called Shaniwarwada and it was a fort mansion built in the 18th century.

In all my research on places to see near Pune, i had missed something so big right inside the city! So, i visited the place the following saturday. “Saturday” – this place is called Shaniwar Wada, because the foundation stone was laid on a Saturday and “wada” comes from the fact that it was a residential complex. Peshwa Baji Rao built this mansion as his personal residence.

Route from Magarpatta: (the route that i know of ) Go towards hadapsar signal, turn right on the road to Kroma/Big Bazaar, after you cross the race course (on the right), you will get a small turn to the right (one-way), taking this road and continuing on straight will take you to M.G.Road signal, go on M.G.Road , turn left at the end (near the statue) , keep going on this road until you reach a major traffic signal (ask for rasta peth if you get lost), turning left on this signal and turning left again at the t-junction will take you to Rasta Peth (statue of a fisherwoman on the roundabout). Take  right at this roundabout (towards a small Hanuman temple on the middle of the road). Keep on going straight until you hit Shaniwar Wada (you will see the huge walls). Drive around the fort to find the parking lot.

I had modified the above photo in Photoshop to blur the areas other than the statue to emphasize the statue! Shaniwar Wada, in spite of being at the centre of the city and having an almost negligible 5 rupees entrance fee, is very clean and well maintained.  You don’t see the plastic junk which has become characteristic of almost all forts and tourist spots in Pune.

It had just drizzled just before we went there and the greenery inside the mansion/fort was appealing to the eye. So, what is to be done or seen inside Shaniwar Wada? Nothing much. Walk around, enjoy the calm, the greenery ,read about the history of the place and of course, take lot of photographs!

There is also a fountain (was not operating the time i was there). I have read a lot about the splendour of the fountain. Opposite the fountain, there was a place with lot of depressions on the ground. But, there were no signs explaining them. So, we assumed that it was community bathroom with lot of bath tubs

There is a huge wall surrounding the place. You can climb on the wall and walk the entire circumference. You get a different perspective of the whole place and also the surrounding areas. But, if you are a little horizontally prosperous, getting up the stairs could prove a challenge.

At the front of the mansion, you can climb one more flight of stairs to go to the front porch. The view from here on a clear day extends far into the city.

There were lot of eagles over Shaniwar Wada. Actually, Pune seems to have lot of them!

written by Rajaram S