[abhi_tjet]

We have visited Bhimashankar temple quiet a few times in past. This year's Shravan month is extended due to 'Adhik Mas' tithi and we thought of visiting temple during this holy and pious time.

Anticipating the crowd thronging the place, we booked a night stay in Blue Mormon resort near temple which is still around 10 kms away. The plan was to reach resort anytime on Sunday, sleep early and visit temple as early as possible the next day morning. This was our first overnight trip to Bhimashankar.


Day 1 - 6th August, Sunday
With above plan we left from home on 6th August, Sunday around 6 AM. We took the Rajgurunagar route since it generally has less traffic with average road conditions. However, we were pleasantly surprised with roads since it was much better than our expectations and progress was smooth. Our check-in at property was anyways after 12 pm so we were in no hurry.

We reached Chaas Kaman dam around 7:30 and stopped for some clicks.








We were greeted with beautiful views throughout. My significant half had prepared some breakfast and we feasted on it before taking the final climb towards BlueMormon/Bhimashankar.



Spot where we had our breakfast.






Climbing towards Bhimashankar


We reached the resort early and since the rooms were not ready, we headed towards temple.

The only arrangement that authorities had done for Shravan month is that they have arranged for parking some 5-6 kms before the temple premise and no vehicle is allowed to go past that. Buses were there(shabbily maintained) to ferry people to and from the temple premises at nominal fee of some 20 odd bucks.

Since the bus was going full, we chose to walk towards the temple around 6 kms which took us around 75 odd mts.

Few clicks from our walk towards temple




There was no management inside temple and it was a stampede waiting to happen. VIP ticket counter is there at the extreme bottom besides the main temple. There too, no one was sitting to provide pass. Counter was empty.

Now, main temple is at bottom and people have to go down 200-300 steps approx(not sure) to reach temple. Two queues were formed to go down which took around 40% of the space. In the remaining space people were doing shopping from the shops situated at the other end. Whatever was remained was used by people to come down to look for VIP pass/visit other temple as well as going out after completing darshan. It was full chaos.

Since the queue was huge and no way to get a VIP pass, we returned empty handed. This experience forced us to be on toes for the next day, since it will be Monday.

By the time we reached property, the room was ready. Since the lunch time was over, we had tea and some snacks. The property had no network or WiFi. Only Jio worked there which we didn't had. It worked as blessing in disguise since we strolled around the beautiful expansive landscape and slept early after a delicious dinner.

I love such breakfast/snack/lunch views


Property had 2 German shepherd dogs, one of which, named Milo, joined us for stroll


Beautiful landscapes and tarred narrow roads for walk.




Our cottage was second from left.


Took the car out of parking and kept in front of our cottage during night since it was extreme rain and wind for almost our entire duration there


It rained heavily in Bhimashankar with wind blowing in full flow that day. Weather was absolutely chilly!

Day 2 - 7th August, Monday
We woke up around 2:30 AM. Took a quick shower in chilly water(solar geyser during rains?) and were ready by 3:15 AM to leave towards parking.

It was pitch dark with heavy fog and rains. We kept the car in parking and left via bus this time and reach temple around 4am. There was still a long queue and darshan opened only after morning aarti at around 5:30 am. VIP counter as usual was empty with no whereabouts of temple staff who can update on this.

After waiting in queue for around 2 hours and watching queue moving even slower than snail's pace, we check with some staff nearby main temple. We were told indirectly to pay the VIP pass amount and darshan will be done.
We paid them the amount and had a beautiful darshan in under 5 mts.

After praying the to Almighty, we left for parking/property and were back in Pune by 11 am.

Some pictures which we clicked before leaving the area


Road ended in this small hamlet which had hardly 3-5 houses










Few shorts-

https://youtube.com/watch?v=rWmTQadq...ZEJzqLW0FD55OM

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fL8vN79r...Xy3QprsIRbD2cF

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[UD17]

Thanks for the updates. Been to Bhimashankar numerous times (>50 or so). I remember, in jan-Feb season we went there every week for two months, primarily for bird photography but as always darshan was one to one with Lord (No crowd @ around 5am). I use to start from PCMC early and our usual time to reach temple was around 88-90 minutes (PCMC- Chakan- Rajgurunagar- Khed villages (No Manchar)- Ghodegaon- Bhimashankar).

Few questions?

- How is the overall condition of the road?
- I am not keen to visit temple but water falls, does the volume of water in waterfalls significant now?
- What was situation on return traffic (rajgurunagar, chakan)?

Thanks.

[abhi_tjet]

Originally Posted by UD17

Thanks for the updates.
- How is the overall condition of the road?
- I am not keen to visit temple but water falls, does the volume of water in waterfalls significant now?
- What was situation on return traffic (rajgurunagar, chakan)?
.

Thanks for sharing memories from your time UD17

Road condition overall is very good with no major bad sections. Some parts of road at some places is washed away due to rain and that’s it.

Waterfalls were in abundance with huge flow of water during August 1st week. However, rains have decreased a bit, so not sure about current situation.

Regarding traffic, we crossed the Chakan section early morning on Sunday and before 9 am during return leg. No major issues.