Trekking and adventure is my passion. I hate being cooped up in a room unless its with an interesting book. And some of the places I have visited are just upon the spur of the moment decisions. Going to Bhimashankar was just one of them. One fine Saturday morning I had this sudden urge for adventure. Thankfully I was able to motivate 3 of my friends. So without any preparation we started off for Bhimashankar. We took the Pune-Nasik highway and turned off at the road leading to Bhimashankar. The mountain road is quite a steep climb. The distance is about 160 km from Pune.
As we had started off at 12 noon we made it there by 4:00pm in the evening. There is a temple there, rumored to be thousands of years old and dedicated to Shiva. Around this temple there are numerous shops selling the Maharashtrian favorite foods like “vada-pav” and “kanda bhajji”. If you want wholesome food it’s a bit of a problem. Bhimashankar is right between deep forests, which surround it in a 10km radius.there are also a few resorts along the way.
Taking a guide at a nominal fee of Rs. 80/- we started a fascinating trek through deep forests to a ’’gupt Bhima’’ or Shivling on the river bed. The river here is the Bhima river which is quite full during monsoons.
It was towards dusk and without the guide that we started off for the Nagfani peak. There is a temple at the base and a few sadhus were in meditation. The whole atmosphere was quite still and an old caretaker of the temple warned us of wild animals. We started a climb towards the peak through the forest and the way had a steep gradient. It was enough to get our lungs to the bursting stage, but the path kept on continuing. Slowly the vegetation receded but the gradient did not. Suddenly there was nothing before us except space. The path stopped in an abrupt cliff which overlooked a splendid valley surrounded by hills. On one side along a narrow ledge was the Nagfani peak. There, we felt almost on the top of the world.
Had an amazing experience while returning: it was already dark (7 p.m.). We had just started off when a Tata Sumo came along side our bike and the guys said something excitedly in local dialect. Not able to understand we went ahead. It was pitch dark, with the only light being our bike headlights. Suddenly we saw two eyes gleaming as the light fell on them. Ahead was a full grown panther. Right in the middle of the road. It stared at us for a while; its eyes luminous while we stared back. Finally it walked off into the jungle.
We continued our ride through the starry night and reached Pune around 11 pm. It was one of the most memorable trips I have made.
There are a few pictures too. You can view them at: https://mobilewizard.tripod.com/saurav/id12.html