memoirs of traveller lost in nature!: Into the Clouds- A trek to Bhimashankar!

Everyone loves weekends, the break from work. Weekends are time to chill. But weekends can be boring too if you have nothing to do on a weekend. So, to escape this boreness, people go out on picnics, trips or do something productive at home. And an awesome trip with the onset of monsoon in regions near Mumbai-Pune is to go for a trek in the wild forests of Sahyadri hills. Below is an account of the trek to Bhimashankar that we undertook:

When did we go- 8th of June, 2013

How much time is the trek- 4.5 to 5 hours (by the route we took!)

We were a group of 6 people, 3 from Pune and 3 from Mumbai. So, we decided to meet at Karjat, a mid-point from Mumbai and Pune and at a distance of 30 kms from the base village, Khandas. We reached Karjat at around 9 pm and took a 10-seater auto to Khandas (as there were no 6 seater autos and buses from Karjat to Khandas were after 10-30). After reaching Khandas in 75 minutes or so, we started out trek at 10-30 from Khandas village. At the start of the village, there is a shop which serves tea, biscuits, etc. So, its recommended to have light breakfast before starting trek, in order to keep up the energy for trek.

After walking through the village, after about 20 to 30 minutes, you will reach a bridge. The bridge diverts into 3 ways, leftmost one leading to some village; centre one leading to trek to Bhimashankar through difficult and highly risky path; and rightmost leading to trek through a longer but comparatively safer route. It is recommended that safer route be taken as the risky path is highly dangerous for trekking in rains. So, we took the rightmost path and started our trek.

The trek is relatively simple in the start. It is up the terrain and look out for the way to Ganpati Ghat. There are sign-posts at 2 or 3 places specifying the direction towards Ganpati Ghat (which is pretty simple if you follow the trail of the path up the terrain). Keeping the mountain on left, you keep on going till you encounter a plateau and a cave like structure below the plateau. The path can be real slippery in monsoon (specially if you take any shortcuts) and so, keep cautious. While holding the branches of trees, ensure that they are not weak and also, keep a firm hold of feet on the ground. The route is through jungles and so, it is beautiful view which accompanies for major part of the trek.

Reaching on the plateau, you get to see awesome scenery as is expected from top of hills and the surrounding peaks form a beautiful view. After reaching on the plateau, we took a 5-minute break and then again started the trek (you can get network on the plateau and so, it turns out to be a break to call family and frns! ) After this, the route is through the relatively plane terrain for quite some time. The route also leads to a trail which goes through between the mountains. The path is epic with valleys and mountains on side and also has jungle for several time of the trial. There are signs pasted on trees on the route (signs are few in number, but seeing the signs gives a relief as it shows that we are on correct path!). Keeping on the trial, you will soon reach huts (which are constructed by the villagers for the trekkers to rest!). There are several huts built in vicinity of each other. These are ideal place to rest as there is a steep trek of 1-1.5 hours more after this. You have to take a right turn into the mountain (steep climb) from the last set of huts. (to identify the last set of huts, you will encounter a small village with few houses after the last set of huts)

From this point, the trek is mostly climb for 1 hour. During this climb, you can witness the awsome scene from the edge and it looks beautiful. Enjoying the view, keep climbing up the hill to reach a jungle patch. When we reached the jungle patch, it had rained a little and the atmosphere made the jungle patch just heavenly. You could seriously attain inner peace in this jungle! This was easily one of the best part of the trek and we enjoyed walking through that jungle! After the jungle patch, you reach the plain, just besides which lies the destination- Bhimashankar!

On reaching Bhimashankar, we went at the view point just besides Ram Mandir (I still don't know if that point has a name, so lets just call it X-point!). The view from there was awsum. Looking below from there, seeing how much distance we had walked in the last 6 hours, we were simply amazed! There were clouds and little drops of rain and the atmosphere and the view and Pink Floyd music, it all made the place so heavenly! We sat there for few hours, just soaking ourselves into the calmness of the place and finding the inner peace! (and obviously clicking the photos!)

We stayed at Bhimashankar for the night in one of the few guest houses available there. The place becomes serenely quite at night. In the light rainfall and in midst of fireflies (yes! the lighting bugs!), we sat and listened to music and talked and enjoyed the quiteness!

Next morning, after a visit to Bhimashanakar temple (yes, most people come there for temple visit and so, to avoid long queues, go to temple early in morning!), we left to take a visit to Gupt Bhimashankar! It is a cave kinda place located in the jungle, 30 minutes of walk from the Ram Mandir, which is located near the bhimashankar temple. Taking the first right from Ram Mandir, we entered the jungle on the path to Gupt Bhimashankar. The way is quite awesome with epic jungle scenery. Singing songs and taking photos, we walked through the jungle (which surprisingly seemed to be downhill during both times, journey to & fro Gupt Bhimashankar!) The way is quite simple but is full of beautiful scenery! Gupt Bhimashankar is itself quite a beautiful place, with huge rocks creating a plateau kinda place within the forest. The view of the valley and far mountain peaks is awsum from there and we just sat there for an hour enjoying the view! We also spotted a Giant Squirrel at this place, which was a delight to watch (Giant Squirrel is the state animal of Maharashtra and main animal of Bhimashankar wildlife Sanctuary!). After taking few photos, we were on our way back!

After reaching the main Bhimashankar temple, we decided to venture into the forests and discover some place. So, we went into the jungle and started climbing uphill, not following any trail or path. And ya, by this time, a dog was following us, which to our surprise, started leading us once we entered the uphill jungle path. Following the instincts of the dog, we kept on moving uphill and crossed three trails till we reached the top of the hill. The top of the hill was a big plateau and it offered a phenomenal view. There were clouds surrounding us and strong wind blowing (wind which could have uprooted few trees if it had been little stronger!) and green grass and forest surrounding from all sides. It was just looking awesome and we wanted to just stay there forever! But yesh, we had to return back! So, after half hour or so, we started climbing donw, this time through a different jungle path. And the path we took was steeper than one we came through. It took us more time and effort to climb down as the clay was wet and there were chances of falling down, but atlast we reached back!

Eating a few bhuttas and enjoying the view again from theX-point, we decided it was time to go back. We hired a taxi, which dropped us down the mountain to a bus depot in Manchar. The journey in the cab was fully entertaining as the driver was little high and kept on talking about random stuff all the way! After a journey of 1.5 hours, we reached Manchar, from where, we took buses for back to Pune and Mumbai!

This was the end of an awesome weekend in Bhimashankar, a memorable and worthy trip!

Below are some of the pics of the trip, mostly in order of the above account of trek!