Gharapuri..popularly known as Elephanta Caves

Gharapuri is the name by which Elephanta caves were known prior to the arrival of Portugese. The present name can be attributed to the the stone structure of elephant which was carved out of stone. From then the island came to be known by the name Elephanta caves.

How to reach

This historically rich place can be reached from Gateway of India in a ferry. The ferry services starts around 8:30 - 9:00 am in the morning and costs 150 per person for to and fro.
Wiki page provides the major details..historical details.

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View of Gateway of India and Taj hotel

Maheshmurti cave

The sculptures of Gharapuri are larger than life form and are fascinating.

Nighoj and many more..

Potholes..pandavas..hot sun..bairavanath..U might be thinking what is the relation between all these..our trip on a single day..:)

Route Plan

From Pune: Pune-nagar road ->Ranjangaon->Nighoj->Ganeshkind->bhairavnath->Daryadevi->Dokeshwar Takale-> Pune.

If you are travelling in mar-April season you can skip Ganeshkind to Dokeshwar part. These places are worth visiting in monsoon, but it is your choice. We visited all of them in April.

The other plan will be

Pune-nagar road->ranjangaon->nighoj->spend till evening in Morachi chincholi

I think the second plan is best for Mar-Apr and the first one in monsoon.

Nighoj

Nighoj is less famous for its natural potholes and more famous for the miracle

Parvati Darshan

Parvati Darshan is a good option for short trip within Pune. You can spend a evening at nearby Sarasbaug and then visit the temple. The sunset from  the temple terrace will be great. We have already visited Sarasbaug so we directly when to Parvati temple.

Parvati temple is near to Swargate. The temple is on top of a short hill, there is a path of steps to reach the temple. The steps are large and made slant inline will the slope of the hill, not a place for high heels. The temple area is maintained very well with good greenery. One can find trees with there scientific names and local name. 

Devdeveshwar & Parvati temple

Main temple of Devdeveshwar and Parvati

I was sweating by the time i reached the temple, I shall vouch

Land of Strawberries

Mahabaleshwar, much awaited place. I have been waiting for an year to visit this place. We visited this place a month after visiting Trimbakeshwar, in Jan..thanks to my brother's visit.
Mahabaleshwar is famous for many scenic points, temples and mouth watering strawberries hence the name Land of strawberries...
We started from Pune and reached Mahabaleshwar via panchgani around 11:00 am. Enroute we found many industries thriving on Strawberries.

Kates point

Supporting a Marathi saying "Santh vaahate Krishnamaai" which means "quiet flows Krishna", the river here appeared very calm. The view from Balakwadi dam is spectacular. The serene blue water competes with sky in colour..

Balakwadi dam view from Kates point

 Needle hole point

Elephant head..view from needle hole point

From Kates point we went to needle hole point, i would prefer it as Elephant head point :)

Trimbakeshwar

Famous for: Jyotirlinga and starting point of river Godavari

How to reach: From Pune, the travel will take around 4.5 to 5 hrs. From Nashik it will be about an hour. Good way is to stay in Nashik for a night or opt for night travel as the road between Nashik and Pune will not allow you to even overtake a vehicle  Start from Pune in the evening you will reach Nashik by night. Start for trimbakeshwar early in the morning, as the day proceeds the visitors may increase. After Darshan you can spend the evening in Nashik, visit all the places near Panchvati and return to Pune.

i think this will be my shortest blog..as it is more of religion than of nature..

Bhramagiri, the starting point of river Godavari

We started our journey early morning in Nashik, we reached Trimbakeshwar around 8:00 am. The rush was very less..we planned to have darshan and head for Bhramagiri(starting point of river Godavari). But our friends opted to have special pooja as it was the auspicious day that too the last karthika samovar.
The pundits where very helpful.  Whoever wishes to perform special puja(we did abhishekam) has to wear traditional dresses. Since only men will be allowed

Panchavati (Nashik)

Famous for: Panchavati and Godavari ghat, Dudhsagar waterfall, Trimbakeshwar and Anjaneri


How to reach: From Pune, the travel will take around 6 to 8 hrs depending on traffic. Good way is to stay in Nashik for a night or opt for night travel as the road between Nashik and Pune will not allow you to even overtake a vehicle  Start from Pune in the evening you will reach Nashik by night. Start for Trimbakeshwar early next morning, as the day proceeds the visitors may increase. After Darshan you can spend the evening in Nashik, visit all the places near Panchvati and return to Pune.

We went to Nashik via shirdi, we started from Shirdi in the afternoon, en-route to Nashik we found many road side stalls selling onions(it was a time when prices were high!!)...You can find many wind mills harvesting the wind energy. The road from Shirdi to Nashik is a single lane and the traffic was horrible after crossing Sinnar. (Later i found a site with alternate route http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/96581-pune-nashik-alternate-route.html)
To avoid heavy traffic our driver has routed through the camp area in Deolali(near Nashik). It was nearly evening by the time we reached Nashik. We wanted to cover the areas in Nashik on that day itself, so we went directly to Panchavati

Bhimasankar..revives your senses

Bhimasankar is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga. Route to Bhimasankar is a diversion from Pune-Nashik highway.Till rajgurunagar(from Pune) the road will be good after that you can't expect a smooth ride..
We did google a lot to know what are the places to be visited. One was hanuman point and the other was gupt bhimasankar. We started early on a Saturday  The route was very beautiful, the road side ground was covered with yellow flowers and small

it's yellow everywhere...

streams of water flowing from the hills...
The temple of Bhimasankar is on a hill, there is ample parking spot provided. Bhimasankar is listed mostly in the south indian tours along with Shirdi. We found many tourist buses in the parking and thought that we may not get darshan soon..may be there might be long queue..!!!But it was destined otherwise.

Purandhar..walk in clouds..

Purandhar is one of the good weekend getaway near to Pune.
We started on Saturday morning for purandhar...it was the time when palki procession has just left hadapsar..

...when we reached near to saswad we found that we were traveling on the same route taken by palki..we met the procession midway..the massive organization of the procession amazed us...we diverted our bikes through the village lanes...the villagers were very friendly & helpful...
The diversion towards Purandhar can be identified with the help of the Shivaji statute at the junction and a petrol pump on the opposite side...it being monsoon season as soon as we have taken the diversion to Purandhar we found the mist engulfing the hills..my favorite sight..

misty hills

we traveled hoping that it won't rain

Bhigwan...tyrst with the birdies

history was replaced by ornithology...

we planned to visit Ajanta and Ellora last weekend but it didn't work, but we headed for Bhigwan.

We started at 6:00 am in the morning..I felt a bit cold but waved it off thinking that within half an hour through the journey i would be fine. But i was wrong..i was shivering till i reached Bhigwan...i had a tough fight with the weather to have some photographs..Even at 7:45am in the end Feb one could see mist hovering over the ground.

Bhigwan is on Pune-Solapur highway. It is an easy route, no diversions till Bhigwan village. After crossing the village take a left turn(if u r coming from Pune) go straight may be for 3 or 4 kms..then you will find the two roads, first on left and then on right. Take the right road. After a km or 2 u will find kutcha road leading to the lake. 

I saw only few birds and was disappointed. we went a bit late..good time to visit is in Dec and Jan..we went to bid farewell to the remaining birds ;-). We were not sure

Rajgad, the mighty one..

one thing we generally hate to do is to wake up early on a weekend..but that became necessary when we planned that on the entry of monsoon we shal visit nearby beautiful places. 
..all we thought of was to have a change on weekend but we didn't expect to be awestruck...
Since we didn't keep up with our aim to wake up early we searched for all kinds of shortcuts to reach the destination...having a smart phone is sometimes helpful..:). we traveled through all kinds of roads highway, local, ghat, even kutcha roads..we found peacocks in the fields nearby

road less travelled

we were enthralled by the beauty of the hills and the greenery. we slowly began our journey towards 'chor darwaja