Tourist Attractions and Places near Pune and Mumbai » river

Waterfall after Tamhini Ghat near Kundalika river

Rajaram S — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:25:28 +0000

Tamhini ghat is famous for its waterfalls and endless greenery during monsoons. (See this post for photos). Some of the waterfalls are very tall that you may not even be able to see the top of the fall. The one above is not so tall, but very grand in everything else.

This waterfall is actually beyond the tamhini ghat stretch. Once you cross tamhini ghat, you will come to a fork where the road on the left goes towards Mangaon & Raigad, whereas the one on the right will take you to Kolad. take the one towards kolad (right) and keep going until you reach the village of Sutarwadi. A small right in this village will take you to Hans adventure resorts. Park your vehicle near the resort and you have to go behind the resort. Then, you have to cross the river (may not be possible when the river is in full flow – ask for any local to guide you) then climb down a narrow path and you will see the view in the photos. I went with a local – paid him 50 Rs. the river crossing is tricky as the water may be more than knee-high and the path down to the fall is very narrow and the slope is steep on either side. It seems that there is waterfall rapelling arranged here in the post-monsoon months when the water flow reduces. if you keep going along the road , it ultimately reaches to a dead-end at a small village. From this village, you can have a jungle-walk down to the Kundalika river (We did this!).

if you have Google earth (any wanderer worth his salt should be using this), use this kmz file to see the exact location of the waterfall on Google Earth. I spent a lot of time near the waterfall enjoying its force and trying out various shutter speeds for the photos.

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.

View Larger Map

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.

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).

View Larger Map

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..

Picturesque wai village near Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar

Rajaram S — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:58:51 +0000

On the way from Pune to Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar, a casual traveller can easily ignore Wai as just another dot on the map. But, if the little effort of deviating around 3km from the main road is made, you are assured of getting enough natural beauty to your heart’s content.

Route to Wai from Pune (from magarpatta):

View Larger Map
Go to Solapur Road, Keep driving towards swargate. At the swargate signal, turn left towards Katraj. From here, it is a straight road to Katraj. Once you reach Katraj, you will pass the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological park (a.k.a. Pune Zoo or Katraj Zoo ) on your left. You should see a Ghat section in front of you. On crossing this road, NH4 will “arrive” from the right. Join it and enjoy the drive for around an hour. After around an hour, you will come across a mountain cutting across the highway leaving you wondering on how to cross it. This is the Khambatki Ghat. The best part about this Ghat section is that it is one-way leaving you freely to overtake slow vehicles even on a blind curve. The ascent on this ghat is wonderful and if you can, do stop for some beautiful photo opportunities. No, don’t plan for a photo session on the way back, as the way back doesn’t have a ghat section, but a long tunnel! Once you cross this Ghat, you will see signboards for Wai/Mahabaleshwar (go under the bridge to the right). This is a nice single lane road with lot of banyan trees for company.

After around 8-9 kilometres, you have to turn for Wai (Going straight will take you to Panchgani/Mahabaleshwar). After around 3 kms, you enter Wai village. Maybe Wai was a village long time back, but it is a bustling town now and you will surely ave a strange look on your face as to why so many sources on the internet called Wai a beautiful village (just as i did!). But, what you have reached is the town centre. The real beauty of Wai is beyond that.

The village centre too has interesting spots. There is the Maha Ganapti mandir (the first photo of this post) and some nice small temples/bridges to photograph! But, the real reason why many visit Wai is a further 3 kms away, in a place called Menavali Ghat (or Menavli). Btw, it is pronounced “May”navali and not “Mee”navali. I confused quite a few locals by asking for directions to “Mee”navali Ghat.You just have to keep going a further 3 kms on the same road you entered Wai. Do not take the left (near the Ganpati mandir) crossing the bridge. We shall go there later

Menavali Ghat, the place which contains – as people would like to say – the temple appearing in Shah Rukh Khan’s Swades. This was the place which the movie referred to as Charanpur. Of course, they must have spent a lot of time cleaning up the temple’s surroundings to make it look so good. Nevertheless, the place is calm and serenely beautiful. You don’t see people by the hundreds like in Lonavala, just the few who have taken the trouble to drive over to this remote area. We spent close to half an hour taking lot of photographs.

Akshara was quite interested in the buffaloes, as she was seeing such an animal for the first time After the Shaniwar Wada trip, Akshara has taken a liking to the umbrella and it is very difficult to pry it away from her once she takes it.

I also read somewhere that the big banyan near the banks was the one used in the movie Swadesh for the Panchayat scene. So, we took some photographs near it for posterity’s sake

Right neat to the place where you park for Menavali Ghat is the Nana Phadnis Wada. This is the place where Nana Phadnis, a minister in the Peshwa era built a wada (house) for himself on the banks of the Krishna river. We didn’t have time to go inside and explore the house, but the wada looked very photogenic in the light drizzle that was on.

Not many who visit Wai take the trouble to drive another 9 kms in the single lane road until Dhom dam. You have to come back to the village centre from menavali Ghat and then cross the bridge next to the Maha Ganapathy Mandir and take a right. This road will take you to Dhom dam. But, it seems, dhom dam is closed to public and there are also signs that photography is not allowed. But, we drove a little ahead and asked people to point us towards any place where we can get close to the water (backwaters of the dam). We were shown the way towards a boating place. It is a narrow lane which opens up once you come close to the water and the view was AMAZING!

The pictures definitely don’t do justice to the beauty of this place. Vidhya even started comparing it to the views near lake thun in Interlaken, Switzerland! There were just 2 other groups of people there and they were also about to leave. The view was such that you felt the need to immediately take a panorama.

There was this strange formation on top of the mountain nearby (Second photo below). We thought that it may be the remnants of a fort, but the locals said that there was no fort there and it was just some rock formations. They looked pretty impressive from far and i am surprised that i never saw any information/photo of this online. If you have any info on this formation, drop in a comment.

We spent close to 15 minutes at this place enjoying the solitude. We left as we wanted to be back in Pune before late night. Some more photos…

On the whole, it was an enjoyable 7 hour round trip –> 2 hours from Pune to Wai (1.5 hrs if you leave early in the day), 1.5 hrs back (time saved because of the tunnel through Khambatki ghat) and the rest spent in photography and a south indian snack at gandharv dhaba (just before the Wai exit on the road from NH4 to Panchgani).