Wow, Life is so happening. Yesterday I went to Purandar fort and the details I have already shared. Today, 2nd August I went to Bhandardara, a place on Nasik highway around 160 km from Shivajinagar, Pune. As always my team has got changed again, this time again with a new team. We booked a 16 seater tempo traveler. We knew that a lot to travel so started our journey as early as possible. We had our breakfast in the bus again to save time. In between we stopped only once to get the breakfast packed. In the bus as usual we were shouting, singing, dancing and jumping in joy. Now I had so much of small trips these things are quite regular for me.
Bhandardara is a place where one can have everything, trekking, huge waterfall, dam, boating, fort and temple. We knew that covering all the places will not be possible, so we were selective. First we went to Umbrella Water fall. On the way we saw Wilson Dam also. We did not get down from the bus. The Umbrella waterfalls is nothing but a huge round shaped rock and when water comes down from that rock, it takes the shape of umbrella. Unfortunately the day we went there it was not raining at all and for the last entire week there was no such rain. So not much water was there in the dam, as a result the huge rock disappointed us. That area was restricted also, so we were not able to get inside. The guards were saying we should have issued gate pass from Nasik/ Aurangabad/ Akole/ Rajur. We did not know this fact so without gate pass we were unable to see the Dam from close. It was appearing to be interesting for me. After that we took our lunch break in MTDC restaurant. The cost of food was not too much. In Rs 75 they were serving Veg Thali. From there we had a boat riding in the Arthur Lake. It charged Rs 30 per head. Once we returned from the dam, was bit confused where to go. Near to Bhnadardara there is peak Kalsubai which is the hieghest peak of Sahyadri. We planned to go there, but once we reach at the bottom of it, realized we won’t make it in a small trip like this. So we came back from there. Then we headed towards Randha Waterfalls which is around 11 km from the Bhndardara. This water fall was really gorgeous. It’s big in size and full of water. So we spent a lot of time there. Clicked snaps. This was the last point we visited there. After that we started journey back to Pune. We missed the Ratnagadh fort which is by road 22km away from Bhnadardara. So anybody is willing to go there please plan to have enough time on your hand to cover all the things. And one more suggestion at the end, do not go there if there is not enough rain. Otherwise you are gonna find most of the places so boring. This trip was not at all successful. There are few reasons behind, but let’s not discuss that. I know in coming days some more lively trips are waiting for me.
Showing posts with label Waterfalls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Waterfalls. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Purandar Fort Trekking on 1st August
My venture continued…. I planned not to waste a single weekend in this monsoon and to cop up with that plan 1st of August I went to Purandar fort, this time with a huge team from my office. Actually this trip was planned by the office HR team. I just nominated my name there.
Purandar fort figures repeatedly in the rising of Shivaji against the Bijapur kingdom and the Mughals. Purandhar fort stands 4,472 ft. above the sea in the Western Ghats, 20 miles southeast of Pune. It actually consists of two forts - Purandar and Vajragad (or Rudramal). The latter is the smaller of the two and is on the eastern side of the main fort. The village Purandar takes its name from this fort.
We started our journey from office at around 7:30 after a handsome delay of 1 hr. we were 40 in count, had our breakfast in the bus itself and after a 1.5 hrs journey we reached the bottom of the fort. There was a formal road also to go up, but we planned to trek all the way to the top. So without wasting our time we started the trekking. Now what is trekking? If you say climbing up through the rocky surface of a hill 
is trekking then yes we were trekking. We had this kinda trek before also, however this one was different from all of them. This is because normally we were following the path which was marked by the footsteps of others who came here before, but some times we were encountering position where nothing can be decided where to go and how will we climb up. So we were making our own path. It was a real fun. Climbing up with the help of thorny bush and the muddy-slippery rocks made our lives tough, though we enjoyed because that is 
what we wanted to taste. We formed human chain to climb up helping each other. That day it was not heavily raining, so did not get enough natural water falls. The more high altitude we were reaching the more cloud covering we were getting. When we were about to reach Bini Darwaza, got a tiny water fall. Better late than never, we jumped into it and started enjoying the chilled water coming down from the hill top. It was so refreshing; we overcame all the fatigue we had to reach till here.
Our next venture was Bini Darwaza. This is one of the rarest things in Purandar fort which is still in good shape. Near to Bini Darwaza there was one statue of Murarbaji Deshpande, we clicked a lot of photographs there also. After that again we started trekking for the next destination, which was Delhi Darwaja. We climbed up th
ere in very quick time then took a long break. There we sang songs, thanks to Sidhharth, Rahul and DD. Sidhharth was carrying his guitar and DD his bongo.
From Delhi Darwaja we started for our final destination, Kedhareshvar Temple, which is at the top of the fort. This final part of the trekking I found the most interesting. The weather also was awesome. The rain and cloud was playing hide and seek at its leisure. Walking down the jungle roads covered with fog and the only sound that one could hear was our footsteps…. Oh this was the experience of our lives. It looked as if we were flying through the clouds. The clouds covered us like
blankets in the wintry afternoon. The temple was not so gorgeous with its architectural prospect but the surroundings made that temple so special. When the cloud was full on, nothing was visible around and it was like we were sitting in the heaven.
We were so amazed with the scenic beauty did not even notice how time went past. No one was bothered about lunch or anything else of the materialistic world. We were hungry and the only thing we had was biscuits. But no one was having any complain on that. Everyone was busy in posing in front of camera with their innovative ideas.
Finally we started our journey back to the bus. This time we decided to take an easier route however ended up following some weirder narrow path. A healthy competition was going on for finding the shortest path to get down. The more we got closer to the bus the more people started feeling hungry and thirsty. Eventually it became the motivation factor to get down quickly. Once we all reach safely, took a long tea break. While returning back we had our lunch in a road side dhaba on Pune-Bangalore Highway. As soon as the break got over, we started our journey back to Pune, with a good experience in memory.
At the end some important information for all the trek lovers and whoever wants to go there.
The place is very near to Pune, so if you want to go
for a trek please start your journey as early as possible. Do not expect much to see in the fort, you won’t find any actually. There is no hotel/restaurant/tea stalls at the top of the fort and anywhere near to that. There is only one tea stall at the bottom of the hill. So be prepared with sufficient water/dry snacks/fast aids. One more important thing is, the rocks there is very loose so be careful while trekking. Do not get over excited. Your safety is in your hand.
What else????? Happy Trekking
P.S. During this trip only we planned tomorrow also. Tomorrow we are going to Bhandardata. So have to take rest. Till then Good Bye.
Purandar fort figures repeatedly in the rising of Shivaji against the Bijapur kingdom and the Mughals. Purandhar fort stands 4,472 ft. above the sea in the Western Ghats, 20 miles southeast of Pune. It actually consists of two forts - Purandar and Vajragad (or Rudramal). The latter is the smaller of the two and is on the eastern side of the main fort. The village Purandar takes its name from this fort.
We started our journey from office at around 7:30 after a handsome delay of 1 hr. we were 40 in count, had our breakfast in the bus itself and after a 1.5 hrs journey we reached the bottom of the fort. There was a formal road also to go up, but we planned to trek all the way to the top. So without wasting our time we started the trekking. Now what is trekking? If you say climbing up through the rocky surface of a hill 
is trekking then yes we were trekking. We had this kinda trek before also, however this one was different from all of them. This is because normally we were following the path which was marked by the footsteps of others who came here before, but some times we were encountering position where nothing can be decided where to go and how will we climb up. So we were making our own path. It was a real fun. Climbing up with the help of thorny bush and the muddy-slippery rocks made our lives tough, though we enjoyed because that is 
what we wanted to taste. We formed human chain to climb up helping each other. That day it was not heavily raining, so did not get enough natural water falls. The more high altitude we were reaching the more cloud covering we were getting. When we were about to reach Bini Darwaza, got a tiny water fall. Better late than never, we jumped into it and started enjoying the chilled water coming down from the hill top. It was so refreshing; we overcame all the fatigue we had to reach till here.
Our next venture was Bini Darwaza. This is one of the rarest things in Purandar fort which is still in good shape. Near to Bini Darwaza there was one statue of Murarbaji Deshpande, we clicked a lot of photographs there also. After that again we started trekking for the next destination, which was Delhi Darwaja. We climbed up th
ere in very quick time then took a long break. There we sang songs, thanks to Sidhharth, Rahul and DD. Sidhharth was carrying his guitar and DD his bongo.From Delhi Darwaja we started for our final destination, Kedhareshvar Temple, which is at the top of the fort. This final part of the trekking I found the most interesting. The weather also was awesome. The rain and cloud was playing hide and seek at its leisure. Walking down the jungle roads covered with fog and the only sound that one could hear was our footsteps…. Oh this was the experience of our lives. It looked as if we were flying through the clouds. The clouds covered us like
blankets in the wintry afternoon. The temple was not so gorgeous with its architectural prospect but the surroundings made that temple so special. When the cloud was full on, nothing was visible around and it was like we were sitting in the heaven.We were so amazed with the scenic beauty did not even notice how time went past. No one was bothered about lunch or anything else of the materialistic world. We were hungry and the only thing we had was biscuits. But no one was having any complain on that. Everyone was busy in posing in front of camera with their innovative ideas.
Finally we started our journey back to the bus. This time we decided to take an easier route however ended up following some weirder narrow path. A healthy competition was going on for finding the shortest path to get down. The more we got closer to the bus the more people started feeling hungry and thirsty. Eventually it became the motivation factor to get down quickly. Once we all reach safely, took a long tea break. While returning back we had our lunch in a road side dhaba on Pune-Bangalore Highway. As soon as the break got over, we started our journey back to Pune, with a good experience in memory.
At the end some important information for all the trek lovers and whoever wants to go there.
The place is very near to Pune, so if you want to go
for a trek please start your journey as early as possible. Do not expect much to see in the fort, you won’t find any actually. There is no hotel/restaurant/tea stalls at the top of the fort and anywhere near to that. There is only one tea stall at the bottom of the hill. So be prepared with sufficient water/dry snacks/fast aids. One more important thing is, the rocks there is very loose so be careful while trekking. Do not get over excited. Your safety is in your hand.What else????? Happy Trekking
P.S. During this trip only we planned tomorrow also. Tomorrow we are going to Bhandardata. So have to take rest. Till then Good Bye.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Bushi Dam, Zenith Waterfalls and Kund Mala trip
Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.
We did it. We discovered ocean of merriment, ocean of exuberance when we shown enough courage to lose the chance of taking rest in a lazy Saturday as usual. You got it right; once again I went for a trip this weekend. Monsoon season never let me down at least in this part of India. Every time it appears in front of me with its huge treasure of natural beauty.
This time we went to Bushi Dam, Zenith Water Fall & Kund Mala. Bushi Dam is a very common place in Lonavala, so huge crowd was expected. Just to avoid the crowd our plan was to reach there early. Executing the same plan I got the first pick up sharp at 5 in the morning. Maloy was with me. From my place we went to pick up didi from Bund Garden. After that we took Abhishekh from Aundh and all the others from Nigdi. With everyone’s successful contribution (being on time) finally we departed from Nigdi at around 7:45 am. Let me first tell you about the members of the group. Most of the people are from my Didi’s office. Out of them Abhishekh,
Ruchi, Seema, Anmol, Anirban; I met them before also during trip and other activity. This time I got few new friends in form of Karthik, Gaurav, Chiru, Piyusha, Reshmi and Himadri. In the bus I was as usual sitting on the last seat with a complete view of the entire team. I remember the first thing we discussed is the language barrier. We started in Hindi but ended in an embarrassing position realizing that Karthik does not know hindi at all and Even Chiru is also not comfortable. We are five Bengalis in this bus, so some Bengali chit chat was also going on here and there; all of a sudden Maloy shown his skill in Tamil being a Bengali and started talking with Karthik. Everyone was confused which language can bridge us. Ultimately we decided to help Karthik and interpret everything in English. The main reason behind this is we were about to start Antakshari, which cannot continue in English.
We had our breakfast in the bus itself, bread-butter and jam. Then we started singing. The theme was decided “Vehicle”. Everyone contributed with their knowledge and signing skill. Me, Abhishek and Anmol we even danced. Mhmmmmm lets be fair, most of us danced in the bus. Don’t know how time went past and we reached to Bushi Dam. Reaching there it was just matter of time when we all got wet in spite of having umbrella, wind cheater and every pre cautions of not getting wet. I don’t know why we carried so many things when we all knew this trip is all about to enjoy the monsoon, rain, and waterfall. When we reached at the Dam, there were not many people around. We started clicking snaps in wildest of pose. In the Dam there were steps for free flow of excess water; Anmol started climbing the steps fighting against the water stream coming down. Everyone followed the leader. Didi took the safer route to climb up. I wanted to climb up through the water, however for the camera’s safety, had to take the dry steps. Most unfortunate thing is I could not save the camera also after this. Its display got damaged because of water.
After enjoying the Bushi Dam, we started conquering the water fall which is filling the dam. We spent there more than an hour. We climbed up the rocks. It was bit risky, still we did it. I was not in very good mood that time because of my camera. But how could I have my off bit mood with so much fun around. Soon I forgot all about my camera. Once we finished our exploration in that water fall we came back to the tempo traveler.
We had our lunch in Kamat hotel. I don’t want to talk anything about the food. Just one suggestion to everyone, DON’T GO TO THAT HOTEL EVER.
Our next venture was Zenith Water Fall. This is not a very famous place in Lonavala. This is actually in Khopoli Village near a company named Zenith. We had to do a lot of R&D to reach there. Once we reach there, got down from the bus and almost walked 1 km to reach at the bottom of water fall. Ohhhh….. My………. God. What a view it was. I can’t explain how gorgeous the waterfall was. Till date all the water falls I have seen here, in most of them water shutter down on rocks. But here a little pond is created at the bottom with a depth of 3-4 feet. This is what made it different from other waterfalls. Since this place is not so famous, there was not a huge rush, which made the atmosphere more soothing. We have shown all our jumping, diving, swimming skill there. Unfortunately almost everyone was in water so not much snaps we could take with the camera, but permanent snaps have been taken into the memory, no doubt in that.
Our next target was Kund Mala. In between we changed our wet cloths in a road side hotel and a good tea break. When we reached Kund Mala, the sun was ready to end his shift for the day, so we were running out of time. Lot many plans are already made to be executed. Kund Mala is basically a series of pond as I read on the internet. Kund means pond and Mala means chain. I drew a picture of the place based on this information; however in reality I hardly identified any series of Ponds. But the place was cool and that is what it matters most for me. We spent almost an hour on the rocky bank of the so called pond/river. As per plan we prepared bhel and had it. Along with that we had lot more photography also as usual.
As soon as the sun disappeared with its last ray for the day we started our journey back to Pune, with a good experience in memory.
At the end, a special thanks to didi and Abhishek to arrange the trip and including me. A special thanks to all the other members to make the trip so memorable. We are from different part of India, talk different language but it’s our culture which teaches us to stay together, enjoy together and that is what creates the bond.
If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.
Definitely this is not the end of the season. A long monsoon is waiting for us; I am not going to miss a single weekend. So… next plan is on its way.
P.S.: My camera has started working when it dried up. So next time more photographs I can click.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Malshej Ghat & Bhimashankar Trip
It has been quite a long time since my last post. Last time it was on Bengali New Year. This time I am going to share my experience about a short trip to Malshej Ghat and Bhimashankar which was scheduled on 15th of August, 2008.On this day, we planned for a memorable trip to taste
our freedom in our own terms, close to nature, away from the routine life we are more familiar with and not spending it like a normal weekend. The day was a Friday. So I and my roommates planned for a long weekend, full of fun and unforgettable enjoyment.Monsoon is the perfect time to go to Ghats, to see nature bathing in the showers of rain like Goddess Diana in her alluring lure. The question was where we should go. The options that we had were Lonavala, too close to Pune and 3/4th of Pune habitat spend their weekend there. The other was Malshej Ghat, which is around130 KM from Pune and it’s on the Pune-Nasik Highway. It all started with conveyance, then accommodation. We all were very much keen to make a night halt. So, we booked a 14 seated bus for our trip. But, to our surprise we found that there is hardly any hotel in Malshej Ghat. There is the MTDC (Flamingo) resort in the Malshej Ghat, but it was already overbooked. This, I will say was growing like a big impediment in our trip. But we were inexorable. We kept our composure and altered our plan and included Bhimashankar in our trip, hoping to get a hotel, and craft the plans for a night halt there.Then came our much awaited morning, even the Sun felt new as if it was greeting us on this wonderful day. We were all set to go. We started our journey by 6:30 AM, full of energy and enthusiasm, and exhilarated and expecting to meet up with lots of fun and activities awaiting us there. We were a group of nine musketeers. Sourav, Arindam, Somenath, Maloy and me from Pune. Subhamoy, Devjyoti, Mainak and Raju joined us from Mumbai. This was our second trip.
We took a short break for breakfast on the Nasik Highway. Then we started off for Malshej. Our first concern was to get a suitable accommodation for our trip. Luckily we got one (the Monika Lodge) in Junnar which is around 30 Km from Malshej Ghat. We took three double bed rooms, kept our luggage and started for our final destination for the day. Our first spot of interest was a dam. The dam was on the lake Kukdi. The Bus waded through the clouds over the dam for about 1 KM and halted for us to unboard it from its confinements to the vast expanse of nature.. It looked as if we were flying through the clouds. The clouds covered us like blankets in the wintry morning. Driver said that this dam is 4 KM long and on the other side there is village called Harishchandragad.
It seemed that the route would be really perfect for trekking. But we were not ready for trekking. We stopped our bus on the dam and went down to the water and had lots of fun. It was continuously raining and the whole area was under cloud cover. Then we came back from the dam and on the highway we found one waterfall. There was a huge crowd enjoying the beauty of the waterfall. We joined them and spent quite some time in the water. We had our windcheaters on 
but Maloy could not resist the temptation of taking a dip in the freezing waters, he went directly under the falling water and had a wonderful icy experience. Even for a second I thought to join him but….. any way still we 
were 20 KM away from our final destination, Malshej Ghat. When we reached Malshej Ghat the scene was fantastic and none of us had any words to describe it. What I thought about Malshej Ghat is that it might be a hill point where we can park our bus and then we may have to climb up/down to reach the water falls, something like that. But the fact was that Malshej Ghat is not at all like that. It is just a chain of water falls finding its way through the roads.
our freedom in our own terms, close to nature, away from the routine life we are more familiar with and not spending it like a normal weekend. The day was a Friday. So I and my roommates planned for a long weekend, full of fun and unforgettable enjoyment.Monsoon is the perfect time to go to Ghats, to see nature bathing in the showers of rain like Goddess Diana in her alluring lure. The question was where we should go. The options that we had were Lonavala, too close to Pune and 3/4th of Pune habitat spend their weekend there. The other was Malshej Ghat, which is around130 KM from Pune and it’s on the Pune-Nasik Highway. It all started with conveyance, then accommodation. We all were very much keen to make a night halt. So, we booked a 14 seated bus for our trip. But, to our surprise we found that there is hardly any hotel in Malshej Ghat. There is the MTDC (Flamingo) resort in the Malshej Ghat, but it was already overbooked. This, I will say was growing like a big impediment in our trip. But we were inexorable. We kept our composure and altered our plan and included Bhimashankar in our trip, hoping to get a hotel, and craft the plans for a night halt there.Then came our much awaited morning, even the Sun felt new as if it was greeting us on this wonderful day. We were all set to go. We started our journey by 6:30 AM, full of energy and enthusiasm, and exhilarated and expecting to meet up with lots of fun and activities awaiting us there. We were a group of nine musketeers. Sourav, Arindam, Somenath, Maloy and me from Pune. Subhamoy, Devjyoti, Mainak and Raju joined us from Mumbai. This was our second trip.
We took a short break for breakfast on the Nasik Highway. Then we started off for Malshej. Our first concern was to get a suitable accommodation for our trip. Luckily we got one (the Monika Lodge) in Junnar which is around 30 Km from Malshej Ghat. We took three double bed rooms, kept our luggage and started for our final destination for the day. Our first spot of interest was a dam. The dam was on the lake Kukdi. The Bus waded through the clouds over the dam for about 1 KM and halted for us to unboard it from its confinements to the vast expanse of nature.. It looked as if we were flying through the clouds. The clouds covered us like blankets in the wintry morning. Driver said that this dam is 4 KM long and on the other side there is village called Harishchandragad.
It seemed that the route would be really perfect for trekking. But we were not ready for trekking. We stopped our bus on the dam and went down to the water and had lots of fun. It was continuously raining and the whole area was under cloud cover. Then we came back from the dam and on the highway we found one waterfall. There was a huge crowd enjoying the beauty of the waterfall. We joined them and spent quite some time in the water. We had our windcheaters on 
but Maloy could not resist the temptation of taking a dip in the freezing waters, he went directly under the falling water and had a wonderful icy experience. Even for a second I thought to join him but….. any way still we 
were 20 KM away from our final destination, Malshej Ghat. When we reached Malshej Ghat the scene was fantastic and none of us had any words to describe it. What I thought about Malshej Ghat is that it might be a hill point where we can park our bus and then we may have to climb up/down to reach the water falls, something like that. But the fact was that Malshej Ghat is not at all like that. It is just a chain of water falls finding its way through the roads. 
There was no place for parking even. There were a chain of eight to ten waterfalls one after another. Each one had its one beauty. The most amazing one was the last one. Eventually for an awkward bent of the mountain the water was coming down at the middle of the road. Cars were passing through the water. This experience was really cool. When our bus was moving underneath the waterfall we were all spell bound. The weather also was awesome. The rain was playing hide and seek at its leisure. We got down from the bus wrapped with our windcheaters except Maloy. But this time I also joined Maloy and went under the falling water. 
It was a marvelous experience al together. No one from our group was ready to get wet. They chose to be within their windcheaters’ safe custody. The people there were laughing, jumping, and singing in
joy. One point I would like to mention is that, the place is not a good one day trip spot for the families, especially for the ladies. Even we felt little odd among the drunk crowd. I am not saying they where doing something harsh to anyone, but apart from the scenic beauty, crowd was not good, at least for me. From Malshej Ghat we took a u turn and came back to the hotel for our lunch. We did literally nothing in the evening. As Olympic was going on, saw some events in the TV. We got to know that three boxers of India had qualified for the quarter finals. Next day morning we started our journey to Bhimashankar. We had our breakfast in a roadside hotel. By road Bhimashankar has the same distance from Pune as Malshej Ghat. But this road is not that good, so it took quite a long time to reach there. Bhimashankar is famous for a Jotirlinga of Lord Shiva out of the twelve. Apart from the Temple, the scenic beauty and the jungle experience is a special tourist attraction. While we were heading to Malshej through the national highway 222, the road was wide enough and did not have many deadly turns. But the road to Bhimashankar is quite narrow with plenty of sharp turns. When we started our ascent, the weather started changing. We took a break in between, a photo break. We clicked lot of photographs there. After reaching Bhimashankar, we parked the bus 2 km from the temple and started walking. 
Walking down the jungle roads covered with fog and the only sound that one could hear was our footsteps…. Oh this was the experience of our lives. 
I have never been to any jungle before, so this was a first experience for me at least. When we reached the temple we saw a huge queue of people waiting to worship the Lord. We preferred to pray from outside as we were running out of time. After visiting the temple we came back to the bus and started our journey back to Pune.
Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.
I enjoyed the trip so much that my words may not suffice my thoughts and experience.Here is the contact no for the hotel (The Monica Lodge) if anyone needs it.New Monika Lodge Ph: 02132-264343 Cell Number: 9730367445.
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