Tourist Attractions and Places near Pune and Mumbai

Bhigwan is a small town around 100 kms away from Pune and is also referred to as the “Bharatpur of Maharashtra”, as it becomes a hotbed of migratory birds during the winter. Bhigwan is at one end of the huge Yashwant Sagar reservoir, forming the backwaters of the Ujain dam. One of the main attractions during the migratory season is the arrival of the pink greater flamingos. During the months of early jan – late feb, this place is thronged by bird lovers from all over Maharashtra.

To reach Bhigwan, take the Solapur road and drive for around 95 kms (from Hadapsar) or use the map below to reach Bhigwan (route from Magarapatta city).

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Most of the bird sightings happen around two places, Diksal and Kumbhargaon. The reservoir is dozens of kms long. Maybe, there are more (and better) locations downstream?? To reach the two places, do not follow the map as the roads can be misleading and the water levels depicted on the map could be very different than the current situation. If the monsoon was heavy, roads could disappear or for a bad monsoon, you would see uncharted roads appear out of the water! I went to Diksal last year (Jan 2012) and to Kumbhargaon this year (Feb 2013).

Diksal: Once you reach Bhigwan, you have turn left to go to Diksal. The “bird watching” place i.e. the waterfront is around 5-6 kms inwards. Ask for “Juna Phul” meaning “Old bridge” (photo below). This is the spot where many birds gather and also the place to rent a boat to go into the waterways.

Kumbhargaon: To reach this village, you have to drive ahead of Bhigwan for around 2 kms and look for sign boards saying “kumbhargaon” or “flamingo point”. There are multiple entry points to this village and we happened to choose the one with the “kuchcha-est road”, but the Xylo managed it with ease.

Plan your trip such that you are there before 7 Am. Even though it is winter, by the time it is 10 AM, it gets scorching hot and frustration starts creeping in if you have to wait in patience for the birds. We started from Pune at 5 AM and hence, when we got into the boat, it was around 6.45 AM and it was lovely. The chilly breeze with the rising sun made it a wonderful boating experience too.

If you are having a point and shoot camera or planning to take photo with a mobile, be ready for a big-time inferiority complex (if you are prone to it!). It is not uncommon to see “birders” here with lens longer and bigger than a typical walking stick. Note: My photos in this post are not so great due to various reasons including an old/unclean lens, typical touristy approach etc. When i was browsing around for photos from Bhigwan, i found a set which had amazing photos. When i looked at the EXIF data, the lens used was a 600 MM f4 and that costs 9800 USD !!! Many cars cost less! Anyway, whatever be the equipment, the photography is fun and it requires patience. When patience runs out and when birds dont come within the zoom range, guys (my friends who came along) started using me as a prop along with the birds.

The boating part from Kumbhargaon was fun. We were approaching a group of flamingos on the other side of the bridge and suddenly all of them took off. We watched them for a couple of minutes and once they settled down on the other side of the lake, we (both the boats) turned around and the chase continued. Boating costs 100 Rupees per person. Leave alone the birds, you get more than your money’s worth in just the boating experience.

The flamingos were very wary of approaching boats. But, probably they knew to differentiate between the locals and the ooh-aah noisy tourists with bazookas. They didn’t seem to mind the fisherman coming near them (he was using thermocol sheets sticked together as a floating device). As you can see from the second photo below, we had to be at quite distance to avoid disturbing them, but good enough to the naked eye to catch the details. The other boat had a guy with walking stick lens and a bazooka tripod. They tried to get closer and closer and at one point, the entire flock just flew off. It made a good sight, from our boat!

If you happen to catch a flock of flamingos landing, it is poetry in motion. See this series of photos of a group landing. The photos below don’t do justice to watching it for real

The boatman also throws dead fish in the water to attract gulls. The gulls don’t seem to mind our company and you can get to see them pretty close this way. I also tried my hand at rowing, but gave up after the boatman gave a slight hint that my car parked at the distance seemed to mysteriously keep shrinking by the minute. One advantage of going in early was that the light was just awesome if you managed to get your subjects in the right position.

The way i classify birds are as follows: Big bird, small bird, colourful bird and very colourful bird. Of course, this is apart from the crow and the pigeon. We saw lot of birds during our two trips and i put a collage of them below with letters against them. If you are one of the elite knowledgeable birder kind, please do name them in the comments section. The ones that i know. The first photo (also ‘d’): painted stork, j & n – Brahmini Duck, K – Pond Heron? , t – bee eater?

You don’t have to get lost at Kumbhargaon finding help. Contact Sandeep Nagare (9960610615), a kumbhargaon resident. Any non-localite entering Kumbhargaon seems to ask for Sandeep Call him up a day before and ask him to arrange boats for you. We found him (and his brother) to be extremely helpful and cooperative. He is knowledgeable too to help you go beyond “small bird” and “big bird”. After you finish the boating, you can have breakfast/lunch at his place.

written by Rajaram S

It was a typical summer weekend. Our last trip out of Pune, to Sangameshwar temple, was in February and it seemed ages ago. We just wanted to go to some place. So, i started browsing my Pune folder, keeping in mind that most of the scenic places would not qualify for a summer trip. Then, i stumbled upon Baramotichi vihir, an ancient step-well near Satara. This place had turned up in the search results when i was researching about step-wells in Rajasthan. The fact that a google search for this place brought up less than 5 results made this very intriguing. So, this was how the conversation went:
Me: So, do you want to drive 2.5 hrs to see a well?
Vidhya: (after few seconds of thinking). Ok, let’s go.
What we also did was to visit the Mapro farms in Panchgani on the way back (ok, a little extra diversion) to make it a nice road-trip.

This well was completed in 1646 by Sahib Sau. Virubhai Bhosale (Thanks Kaustubh for the correction) and was meant to be a water source to all the farms around. The well is octogonal in shape and was built to look like dug-out shivling i.e a vertical column with an arm extending to the side. It is 110 ft deep and 50 foot in diameter. This was not a traditional step-well like the ones in Rajasthan. A step-well is just a well with steps all along the sides which lead you to the bottom of the well. Of course, the design of the steps range from “just steps” to “intricately carved designs”. This one had steps from one side leading to the middle of the well from where there were look-out galleries.

How to go to Baramotichi Vihir: There are absolutely no boards or directions inside Limb village. The advise given by one of the villagers was for us to ask at every turn and then carry on. You have to go on NH4 towards Satara, cross the Mahabaleshwar turn, then before Satara, you will have an uphill section where you should see rows of modern buildings on the right. This is the Gourishankar institute of management sciences. If you fail to notice these building on the uphill section, you are better off not driving in the first place. As soon as you cross these buildings, you will see a very clearly visible board on the left marked for Limb Village. Do not take that! For some strange reason, there is a board for a kuchcha road into the village, but none for the proper road a hundred metres ahead. Take this left turn towards Limb village. After that, follow the map below or keep asking and proceed. I have marked the map right until the tree under which you have to park and walk to the well

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If you notice in the map, i have marked a point B. This is somewhere inside Limb Village. For some reason, we took a right at this fork and ended up in the narrowest of lanes ever possible, right in the heart of a rural village setting. The road was just wide enough to accommodate the Xylo. The tricky part was to avoid the open gutter on either side of the road. Imagine the situation: I was at the driver’s seat with the open window and trying to avoid the gutter on the right. Vidhya was looking out on the left and giving directions to avoid the gutter and the extended family of the village hen and its chicks. Akshara was between us in the front row alternating between “Appa, what are you doing?” and “Amma, what are you doing?”. And, with the gutters and the hens, we head into a marriage party! it took us over 30 mins to cross this narrow stretch, but it was fun!

Once you climb down the stairs, it leads to an arched opening through which you can reach the well. On top of this arched opening, there is a gallery which opens out to both sides. This was built to accommodate the throne of the king, but i have no idea what he would do sitting here. The gallery can be reached by a narrow “chor-darwaja” from the side (on ground level).

We were there on a summer day around noon, so not the best possible time for photography. But this well is “photogenic” and if you there in the monsoon/evening time, you can get some good photos.

We were tired by the time we finished and wanted some good refreshments. So, on our way back, we took a diversion to Panchgani and went to the famous (strangely, i had always driven past it to Mahabaleshwar, but never stopped!) Mapro farms. On the recommendation of a friend, we tried the sandwich and it was awesome. So, i am forwarding the recommendation! We had a good break there as the weather was a bit better in Panchgani

written by Rajaram S

Harihareshwar, also known as Devghar (House of God) or Dakshin Kashi (Kasi of South India), is a small temple town on the Konkan coast. It is not only a popular pilgrimage destination, but also popular for its beaches and the famous pradakshina marg around the temple. Themost popular place to stay at Harihareshwar is the MTDC Hotel, but the beach next to the hotel is rocky and not good for having fun. In fact, the harihareshwar beach is itself not recommended for swimmers as there are strong currents close to the coast and the general public are advised against swimming. We stayed at Diveagar and drove over, a short wonderful drive on the coastal road for around 30 mins.

How to go to Harihareshwar from Pune: Harihareshwar is around 190 kms from Pune. Irrespective of whether you are staying at Diveagar or Shrivardhan or harihareshwar itself, the easiest route to take would be through Tamhini Ghats, then Mangaon on the goa highway, then the road to Mhasala (it is called as Masla and not as masala as we were referring to, when asking for directions!) and then onwards to Diveagar (turn right at a fork) or Harihareshwar (turn left). The stretch from the goa highway down to the coast is also a ghat section and pretty remote. So avoid a late night trip on that.

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I had heard a lot about the pradakshina marg and was more interested in that rather than the temple. So, the religious/tired among us decided to stay back at the temple and the rest went on this tour around the temple. The steps start right behind the temple. Check with anyone around the temple about the conditions of the tide as it is quite dangerous to go on this train during high tide. The trail starts off with around 60 steps – 60 long steps and then you have to climb down around 140 narrow steps (a beautiful cut in the cliffs) down to the sea.

We were there at the wrong time of the day, just after noon and hence it was not good both in terms of energy as well as good photography. Otherwise, the 60 steps are not much of a hassle and they offer great views of the harihareshwar beach. The coastal rock formation just at the bottom of the stairs are amazing. We had to pull ourselves out of the place ( as we had a long drive back to Pune) , otherwise we would have spent the entire evening monkeying around on the rocks. Also, my research about the pradakshina marg was incomplete. I thought that it would be from within the temple and photography would not be permitted. So, i left my SLR back in the car and took along a compact camera, which doesnt work that well in such conditions.

As you go around the cliffs, you see lot of interesting sea caves. The waves were quite strong and the splashing of the waves against the rocks was wonderful to look at. I definitely want to go back in the monsoons and see how bad/beautiful the conditions are here. The whole Pradakshina should take around 30 mins with minimal stops and comes back in front of the temple on the beach. If you do visit the temple, don’t forget to go on this trail

written by Rajaram S