The trip was planned for visiting our family deity at Jejuri and covering monsoon blessed Lonavala for couple of days.
Trip Plan
Trip members: Karthik and family
Trip date: 21-24 Sept 2022
Trip Plan : Chennai - Pune - Lonavala - Khandala - Magad - Shirgaon - Ranjangaon - Theur - Pune - Jejuri - Moregaon - Pune- Chennai
Day-1
We started by 9 AM flight to Pune. We had our regular Pune based driver Mr.Somnath pick us up at 10:45 AM and what else first - Vada pav, Batata vada and some chai enroute to Lonavala.
We reached Lonavala at 1:30 PM through the drizzling weather and checked in at Hotel Girivihar. We had booked hotel Girivihar for 2 nights. The hotel had spacious rooms with balconies and an pure-veg inhouse restaurant serving Gujarathi, Rajasthani and Jain food. We had sumptuous lunch and started the trip around. The hotel had enough parking space, play area and relaxing area for spending time with family.
The plan was to visit view points around Khandala - first being the Khandala view point. The Khandala view point was beautiful with the lush green hill all around and Kune waterfalls at a distance. We could enjoy the richness of the monsoon through the green cover, clouds, innumerable monsoon fed waterfalls and the drizzle! We spend about 20-25 minutes enjoying the weather - the first feel of the trip.
We then walked down a little to the Rajmachi garden. The garden provides a mesmerizing walk providing beautiful views of the Pune-Mumbai highway plus the green cover we saw from the Khandala view point, but at different angles. A best place to click some photographs and enjoy the weather. We walked all along the walkway and spent about 30 minutes.
Next stop was the famous bridge called Amrutanjan point. This is a bridge on the interiors Khandala roads connecting to the Mumbai highway, providing another great view of the green carpeted hills around and most importantly the hilly railway line - we had a chance to see few trains pass through as well.
We enjoyed the weather as we munched some roasted corn and some chai.
We returned back to the hotel room, and had dinner at Hotel Shanshrusti - primarly was we had dosas as well in the dinner. The food was little costly and good at Hotel Shanshrusti. The place has parking space too.
Day-2
Breakfast was part of our room booking and we were served with idlies, sambhar, chutney, hot piping upma and some breads. The food was quite good and were served in portions based on our need.
The plan was to go through the various view point of Lonavala like Lion's point and then Bushi dam; and in second half visited the Baja and Karla caves.
Enroute to Lonavala sight seeing
It was almost 9:30 AM, but, the visibility was as low as 4-5 feet. Though we enjoyed every bit of the chill weather and fog all around, the thought of not able to see the beautiful views was always on our mind.
We reached the Lion's view point, parked the vehicle and walked down the view point with no idea of what is in store. We spent close to 30 mins walking around in the thick fog and clicking few shots.
Lion's View point
Meanwhile, we saw that the fog started to raise and in few minutes, the magnanimous view of the Shivling like view point, the Lonavala lake spawning into multiple water falls and many such waterfalls all across the hills and the valley.
It was doubly worth to wait so long and end up seeing heavenly views.
Bushi Dam
Then. we stopped at Bushi dam. Bushi dam is a small dam, however, during monsoons, the water overflows into a small waterfall across man made steps. This makes it an interesting place and for people to spend time on the waters. The catch here is - one needs to walk across knee level water and should be prepared for it. There are traders who charge for shoe/chappal keeping and renting rubber slippers. We rented the rubber slippers and walked through the waters - one can even carry the shoes with you- not a big deal in walking across small segments of waters.
The monsoon-ic view is definitely attractive and makes the dam a happening place for all types of people. We spent around 15-20 minutes on the waters. There are so many tourists who plan to spend lot of time, taking bath and playing in water. There are several small eateries in Bushi dam. We had some pakoras and chai at Bushi dam.
Lonavala Lake
The clouds started gathering and heavy rain was looming around. We stepped by the Lonavala Lake for some beautiful views and snaps.
It was almost noon and we headed for lunch enroute to rest of the segment towards Bhaja and Karla caves. We stopped at Hotel Vrindavan. The lunch was prepared post order and the food was quite good - we had rotis, paneer mix veg sabji, dal, papad and jeera rice. It rained almost like a cloud burst and we were so fortunate to start the days in cloud earlier, still see everything and escape for lunch during heavy rain.
Bhaja Caves
Around 2:30 PM, we are reached Bhaja caves. Bhaja caves is a 230 steps climb, not easy for elders, but comfortable for adults and children.
Bhaja caves, dated back to 2nd century, is a set of 22 caves - but, not all are accessible. The one most important one is the Buddhist stupa - resembling the one in Ellora. This is Cave 12.
Because of continuous rain, it was difficult for us to walk and see every cave in detail. Another cave has a cluster of Stupas of different sizes. It was interesting to see such a cave.
The Cave towards the end had amazing sculptures of Lord Surya on a chariot driven by horses and Indra on his elephant.
We spent close to 20 minutes here and returned back to parking area. There was a beautiful monsoon special waterfall at Bhaja.
Karla Caves
Next, we drove to Karla caves. The caves is more popular than Bhaja caves for the fact that it hosts a temple - Ekvira Devi Temple. Karla caves has 300+ steep steps laden path with many shops all the way from the parking to the temple area. It is comparatively crowded too as local pilgrims visit the Ekvira Devi temple.
Like Bhaja, the Karla caves are also Buddhist caves. Karla caves are 15 in number and the most impressive and the biggest is Cave 8. This biggest cave hosts a big Buddhist stupa along with the prayer space called "Chaitya". This is the largest rock-cut chaitya in India, measuring 45m (148 ft) long and up to 14m (46 ft) high. Definitely massive! The sides of entrance hall are ultimately sculpted with massive elephant figures and artistic arches all along the height of the cave.
We could not visit the temple inside as it was raining and we could not let our shoes open in rain.
We then entered cave 6 and 7, which were multi-tiered and hole structures were made along with carved steps to reach one level. Wow, what an amazing architecture thousands of years back!
Post Karla caves visit, we stopped by the highway side shop and had piping hot vada pavs, pakoras and chai as the clouds were getting intense for a massive rain. We reached back rooms, spent time at the game space at the stay.
Today, we had dinner at Hotel Annapurna - we had some Dosas, Veg Keema and rotis. All were delicious. The place has parking space too.
Day-3
We had breakfast - Kanda poha, besan cheela, chai and started the day. The plan was to visit 2 or three Ashtavinayak Temples and then reach Pune.
Mahad Ashtavinayak - Varada Vinayak
We first reached Mahad Ashtavinayak Temple. Mahad is around 20 kms from Lonavala - and 3 kms from Khopoli off the Mumbai-Pune highway. Lord Ganesh is worshipped as Varada Vinayaka, the giver of bounty and success. The temple has an oil lamp that is burning since 1892. Pilgrims can go closer to Lord Ganesha and offer prayers in this temple. The temple is open across the day.
From Mahad, we set course towards Pune on the highway, with plans to visit Shirgaon (Saibaba temple - recommended by our driver), Ranjangaon and Theur before reaching Pune for overnight stay.
Shirgaon - Saibaba Temple
Shirgaon is around 37 kms before Pune. Shirgoan is the second home of Saibaba after Shirdi. The temple is replica of the Shirdi temple and called Prati Shirdi. The temple was not crowded as it was a weekday and we had a very good dharshan at leisure. We visited the temple around 11:30 AM.
Next, the plan was to visit Ranjangaon. Post very good dharshans at Mahad and Shirgaon, we stopped for lunch at Hotel Stonewood just closer to Ranjangaon after crossing the Shikrapur junction. The food was really very good and well served - great service. Highly recommended! We had rotis, dhall, sabji and jeera rice - all were very good with fine quality and ample quantity.
Ranjangaon Ashtavinayak - Maha Ganapati
Ranjangaon is 50 kms from Pune and the temple is a vary famous one. Lord Shiva is believed to have worshipped Lord Ganesha before fighting the demon Tripurasura here; the temple was built by Lord Shiva. The temple is quite big when compared with other Ashtavinayak temples and has facility for long queues around the temple. God Ganapati seated on the lotus blesses the pilgrims along with Siddhi and Ridhi. The temple is open across the day and we visited around 2:30 PM. Almost, we were the only one to be inside the temple at this time.
Theur Ashtavinayak - Chintamani
We reached the Theur temple around 3:30 PM. The road from Lonikand (highway from Shikrapur to Pune) to Theur was terrible and it was a bad stretch of road (no road). The temple is called Chintamani Temple and the temple is open across the day. This is the closest Ashtavinayak temple from Pune.
Lord Ganesha recovered the precious stone - Chintamani jewel for Kapila muni. However, Kapila Muni gave it to Lord Ganesha and hence the temple is called Chintamani.
Post visiting these temples, we reached Pune by 6 PM. We had booked our rooms at Hotel Shreyas at Deccan Gymkhana.
Maharashtrian Thali at Hotel Shreyas
The hotel is quite old styled and is in the heart of the city. The rooms were spacious, clean and most importantly, their restaurant served perfect Maharashtrian Thali for dinner for Rs.300 per thali. The Thali was quite big for us for dinner, so, we had the option of choosing few items from the thali in small portions to share and eat. We had poori, sabji, rice, pakoras, kadi and curd. Though they are typical portions of Thali, we had one bowl of each and shared between us - which itself was sumptuous and very satisfactory.
Day-4
The plan was simple - visit 2 places - Jejuri Marthand temple - our family good and Moregaon Ashtavinayak temple.
We had breakfast at Hotel Shreyas - Upma, Puri and Sabji. The food was too good again and then started the day towards Jejuri at 8:30 AM. We had our flight back to Chennai by 5:30 and planned to be at the airport around 3:30 PM.
Jejuri Temple
The road to Jejuri was quite bad all along from Pune to Saswad - 75% of the journey. It took almost 2:30 hours for us to reach Jejuri because of bad roads. Jejuri is the place of Lord Kandhoba, also called Malhar Marthand - our family God; a form of Lord Shiva. The temple is present inside a fort over the Jejuri hill. The temple is also known for using Turmeric and one can see the hill walkway and the temple in yellow colour - courtesy Turmeric.
We have to climb around 350 steep steps to reach the temple. The steps are laid of stones and is well-laid. For elders and people requiring assistance, there are dolis on payment basis - starting from the foothill. One can walk through multiple entrance arches and in 20 minutes, you can feel home reaching the top.
There is free and special dharshan. The time we went in, it was almost free of any crowd and we just walked in to the temple had a very pleasant dharshan. We took turmeric with us and offered the same to Lord Khandoba through the priests. We spent some time visiting all sanctums and also made one more dharshan again as there was no crowd.
With utmost satisfaction, we climbed down leisurely, buying some mementos and local fruits - guava and fig - fresh ones.
The last pitstop for the trip was the Moregaon Ashtavinayak temple.
Moregaon Ashtavinayak - Moreshwar
The temple is close 80 kms from Pune, around 24 kms from Jejuri. The temple has four minarets, unlike other temples. Lord Ganesha is seen in the form of riding a peacock and hence the name Mayureshwar. Another unique thing is that the temple also hosts a Nandhi and Tortoise in from of the main sanctum. Like other temples, again, we had amazing dharshan with almost no crowd here too.
We started back towards Pune and had lunch at Jai Mata Di dhaba - the food was just ok - unlike many other restaurants we had in the trip. We reached Pune around 3 PM and for one last time in the trip, we stopped at Joshi wadewale at Viman Nagar, packed few Vada pavs and reached the airport.
It was great mix of amazing colours of nature of monsoon blessed Lonavala and spiritual blessings of Ashtavinayaks, Saibaba and Lord Khandoba.
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