Planning Weekend Trip to Bhimashankar - Maharashtra

[droidcar]

Hi Guys,

I am planning a Weekend trip to Bhimashankar near Pune.
I will be traveling from Mumbai.

Looking for suggestions, Tips, recommendations and warnings w.r.t route, stay, site seeing, places to eat .. etc.

Any one of us have any experience please share.

Thanks,

[amiti]

Bhimashankar is a nice place to visit during this season.

Well en route, you will come across manchar, enter ST stand and there is small hotel inside ST stand that serves very nice misal pav. Rest the place is nice and you can walk a little to see Nagphani Point.

Rest do not go in the interior of jungle on your own.

[Surfer]

Avoid Monday, Check tyre pressure and return before evening.

[droidcar]

Thanks guys for replying.

Originally Posted by amiti

Bhimashankar is a nice place to visit during this season.

Well en route, you will come across manchar, enter ST stand and there is small hotel inside ST stand that serves very nice misal pav. Rest the place is nice and you can walk a little to see Nagphani Point.

Rest do not go in the interior of jungle on your own.

No I will not venture into Jungle alone. Planning only to visit "Gupt Bhimashankar" and Nagphani Point as u suggested.
I am not worried of getting lost or something since I have GPS and cached Google Maps with me, still I would take some guide along.

Originally Posted by Surfer

Avoid Monday, Check tyre pressure and return before evening.

Surfer, thanks for ur tips. Planned to stay at Bhimashankar. Already booked rooms at Blue Mormon Jungle Resort. We will return back on sunday afternoon.

Regards,

[droidcar]

Duration 2 days
Hotel Stayed at : Blue Mormon Jungle Resort (BLUE MORMON - Jungle Holiday resort)
Route Taken: Mumbai – Express way – Talegoan Exit – Chakan – Rajgurunagar – Manchar – Godegoan – Bhimashankar.


DAY 1:
We started early morning from Mumbai. We had planned to leave at 6.30 AM but managed to leave by 7.00 AM.
Reached Kharghar by 7.40 and took a 5 mins break waiting for a relative to join in. Soon we started our journey towards Bhimashankar. Within 5 minutes were on Express Way. Next we breaked at Food mall which is just after the toll booth. We had our home made sandwiches, kids enjoyed the break at the play area having chips. After having coffee/tea we agained joined express way until Pune Toll Booth. At pune toll both we took extreme left exit towards Talegoan. On express way it was easy cruise @80 kmph – 100 kmph. After Express way had to maintain slow speed mainly due to narrow lane. At Chakan we joined Nashik highway which gave us opportunity to increase our speed again.
We reached Manchar by 12.00 PM decided to have lunch in Manchar as we were not sure of any good restaurant en-route Bhimashankar. After looking out few resturant we had lunch at some pure veg resturant (forgot name) just before taking left for Bhimshankar. Food was good but only Punjabi dishes available we were hoping some local dishes will be available. After filling our stomaches, again started our journey towards Bhimashankar, looked at watch it was almost 1.00 PM.
Roads started to detoriate from here, with couple of bad patches. But soon we were out of Manchar town roads improved. Road until Godegaon is being widen and was almost complete leaving apart few patches. After Godegoan again bad patches started to apear. We could maintain average speed of 40 – 50 kmph. Even at 1.00 PM climate was quite cool and pleasant. Soon we were sourrounded by greenary everywhere. After driving for 1 1/2 hours, saw a sign board to exit main road and take a detour for Blue Mormon. Road was preety small almost a single lane. I was worried how to manage to give way if another vechile comes from opposite. Luckily no other vehcile came up. Even after driving for few minutes hotel was no where to be seen. Everyone was worried whether we were on right road. I was sure we were on the right path as I trusted my GPS enabled phone and the Google maps cached on it showed that we were on right track. After a few turns and again driving down the hill we could see the gates of Hotel. A siegh of relief for everyone. First view of Hotel was simply amazing.
We had booked 4 rooms @1800 which were part of 9Rooms vila that was recently built. At reception cofirmed by booking and were given directions to reach our vila. From reception it was 5 mins walk. Room were spacious and well maintained, bathroom were clean. There was to TV in the room as mentioned on the site. So here we were cut from world with no TV and no mobile reception. Yes that right you read it correctly no mobile signal unless you are on BSNL network. If you have BSNL network I would just leave it at home. Got freshen and had tea and left for the Temple. Temple is just 10 Kms from hotel and took us around 20-25 mins. Drive was very scenic. To reach the temple, we had to climb down 228 steps. There was no one there so in just 5 mins we finished our darshan. It was getting late and mist started to form our the hill it rained a bit. At parking lot we could feel as if we were in the clouds covered by mist. Started our journey back to hotel driving slowly through the thick fog that was already formed. Just after few minutes roads were clear again. Reached hotel and spent remaining day at hotel, had dinner at 8.30 and went to sleep. Dinner was good buffet @ 150.



DAY 2
Next day morning after having our snacks visited the pond which is present in the hotel premises. Pond had crystal clear water, spent few minutes there before heading to Bhimashankar temple again. Me and my brother in law wanted to visit “Gupt Bhimashankar” and nagphani point, but looking at watch which was ticking past 9.00 we could visit only one. So we decided to visit “Gupt Bhimashankar” while others visited the temple again. Being Sunday there was crowd at the temple. We hired a guide to take us to the gupt bhimashankar. Its almost 4-5 kms through and fro and took us 1 ½ hrs to complete the treck. We were lucky enough to see “Giant squirrel” (SHEKAROO as its called in locally) which is the state animal of Maharashtra . Its also endangered spices and found only at Bhimashankar.
It was 11.30 AM as we started our journey back to Mumbai. Enroute stopped at few places to take photos. View of Dhimbe dam was spectacular. At Manchar had dinner at the same place and continued our journery. Reached our place at 7.30 PM. Over all a good experience. Ok enough of talk let the pictures do some talking.

[Surfer]

Excellent snaps buddy, yes you are lucky to see SHEKAROO!
Also that butterfly snap is awesome. Thanks for sharing.

[Thetraveller]

Great pics buddy! It must have been a nice relaxing weekend for sure taking you away from the hectic work life

[mukeshus]

@ Droid: The pics are so lively, have been captured well.
I liked the photo's of those rare Butterflies/Moth.

And i am seeing this Shekaroo and hearing this word 1st time .

Does these species belong to the family of Flying squirrel by any means?

So how far is this place from Hadapsar?