Trekking and Photography: Nature

Showing posts with label Nature. Show all posts

Some of my favourite clicks

Moon, the god of romance

A table lamp

Water Photography

The only thing which lightens more in dark

Speed Photography

Our National Flag, Our Pride...The Tricolour

Laddu Gopal

Lights again....

The setting sun...second best scene in the world

Another one....

Free Fall....

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(History)
Sarasgad fort is at a height of 1400 feet. Caves were used for storing food and water. Except for a few steep rocky patches (which can be dangerous during rainy season), the climb is relatively easy. To the southeast of the peak is the wall of Taila-Baila, a series of small peaks, which are often used for mountaineering training and camps. Not much of historic information is available about this fort. A very huge wall of Sarasgad is at the north south border of Pali. This fort was mainly used to keep a check on the surrounding regions. From fort, ‘Pali’ and all surrounding areas can be seen. Shivaji Maharaj brought this fort under Swarajya and spent 2000 Hon (the prevailing currency of that time) for its reconstruction. Till independence this fort was under Bhor Sansthan.

(Reach the Base)
The base village for Sarasgad is “Pali” which is the holy city of one of the “Ashtavinayak Ganapati” namely “Ballaleshwar”. It’s in Sudhagad Taluka of Raigad District in Maharashtra. Pali is about 35-40 KM from Khopoli and 120-130 KM from both Mumbai and Pune. If you are going from Pune then route would be Pune-Lonavala-Khopoli-Pali and from Mumbai it would be Mumbai-Khopoli-Pali. You can do this trek either by public transport or by your own vehicle too. I would suggest you to go by own one (Car or Bike) so that you can also catch the nature and amazing Lonavala-Khandala Valley during the travel. I had completed this trek on bike, so let me describe the way to reach Pali by bike. While going from Pune, when you reach Khopoli, take the first left as soon as you enter Khopoli and move forward till more 6-7 KM and then again take left for Pali. You can see a big sign board showing the way to Pali here as it’s famous place in Maharashtra. From here, you will have to drive along the road without any major turn for about 35 KM more and you will reach Pali. This is the base village for Sarasgad. You can park your bikes to any house nearby Main Temple after asking the owner if they can provide the meal and breakfast to you. Many of the houses near temple provide this service for very reasonable rates. Park your vehicles, order the meal/breakfast/tea according to your needs, put your language and take the blessings from Lord Ganesh (Shri Ballaleshwar and Dhondu Vinayak). You will find a drinking water tank near these temples; its water is very chill and sweet too. You can fill your bottles with this water so that you can use this during trek. Better get your food packed from here and eat that on fort, so that none of you will get any problem (I assume, you know the problem…).

(Ascend)
There are actually two ways to reach the top of this fort. One way is from Temple side and another from MSEB office side. I would suggest you to ascend from Temple side as it’s from within city and take you through better/tough route also. Once you all are ready to ascend the fort, take the road behind the temple which goes from within temple premises and walk along the road for few minutes then you will see a cement road to left hand side. Take this road and start ascending fort. After few minutes again, leave this cement road and take the normal road (Paaywaat), you will be then guided by yourself along this route. After some time you will be able to see the rock patch and steps thereafter. Climb the rock patch safely and see the Cave before starting to move towards steps. You may need torch to see the inside view of this cave, as it’s about 18-20 feet deep. 15-20 people can rest here at a time. After this you can see the rock cut steps, start ascending them safely again and after some 90+ steps you will reach the Main Door (Dindi Darwaja) of fort. You can not resist but take some rest here as the cool air flowing throw narrow Khind leaves no option for you.

(About Fort and Sight Seeing)
Once you pass the Dindi Darwaja, you can see the place to live for soldiers called “Chowkidaranchya Devdya”. Walk few steps ahead and you on the fort; here you can see the remains of fort such as “Sadar”, a water tank and ruins of palace. Again walk up few steps and see the bigger water tank called “Moti Haud” and few more caves where food was stored. You can also notice the watch points/towers here which were used keep watch on the nearby area. Come back to left side from here and you can see the way to reach the top most point of the fort called Bale Killa (in Marathi) meaning Citadel (in English). On the Citadel you can see Kedareshwar temple and a lake nearby. Two bastions are there to keep watch on surrounding areas. The place to hold the flag is also here on citadel, in front of Kedareshwar Temple, called Dhal Kathi (in Marathi). We proudly installed our flag (Bhagava) here and roared Shiv-Garjana. From citadel we can see the mountain of ‘Tin Kavdi’. We can locate Sudhagad, Taila-Baila, Dhangad and Korigad. You can of course see the Pali, River Amba along with hot water reservoirs of ‘Unhere’, Konkan and Jambhulpada. On Vaishakh Poornima (full moon day), the villagers celebrate the festival of Shahapeer. Many people go to Kedareshwar temple on ‘Maha Shivratri’.

(Descend)
Once you are all done with sightseeing, eating (keep in mind not to leave your waste material behind) and feeling the old era, you can then start descending fort. I would again suggest to descend via same way as that goes from behind the temple in Pali. It’s very easy while descending just be safe while crossing those rock patches and you can reach the Pali village in an hour. Reach the home where you parked your vehicles, take the blessings once again from Lord Ganesh if you wish and have time, take some refreshment and start heading towards you respective places with sweet memories of Pali and Sarasgad. I am posting some of pictures taken by me when I visited Sarasgad on 7th march 2009.

Sarasgad, while descending

Rock cut steps

Steps to cave

This is awesome view

Ruins of fortification

Look at the Cricket Ground

View from the top

Steps on the way

A Cave on the way

Sarasgad, first view

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Some Old Clicks - 1

My THE Fav, Raajgad

A click in Pune Market

While I was on the way to Purandar

Teach India....School Chale Hum

Miramar Beach in Goa

Havan at Home

Highway on my plate

Lohagad

A beach in Goa

Shivgarjana Group, in Ganesh Festival 2008 at Pune

MSRTC's Bus

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Kille Purandar

Note : For more information about how to reach the base and top of fort and what things to see there along with measures to take while trekking Purandar/Vajragad, please visit - This Page I am posting some of the pictures taken by me on 03 Jan' 09.

Sunrise captured in Dive Ghat

Fatte Buruj and Vajragad (in background)

Mastani Talav in Dive Ghat

The steps on the way to Bale Killa

Way to Dehli Darwaja

Dehli Darwaja

Kalyan Darwaja

Kedareshwar Temple and Rajgad (in background)

Nishan Darwaja

Bhaje Caves

Main Cave

One of the cave

Inside one of many caves

Wall of Visapur from Bhaje Caves

Harihareshwar, Shrivardhan and Dive Aagar

(History)
There is not much history available about these places except that Harihareshwar is the place of temple of Shri Harihareshwar which is “Kul-Daivat” of “Peshwa” and there is birthplace of “First Bajirao” (one of the Peshwas) very close (about 5 Kms) to “Shrivardhan”. You can see some old temples at all these places and the beach at these places is just awesome as it is still untouched by flood of humans.

(Reach there)
These places are about 200 Kms from Pune and the tour can be completed in one day very easily. If extended to one more day, one can visit “Murud-Janjira” also which very famous sea fort. It would be better to go by a hired/owned car as there could be many spots in tour that one can not resist to stop and watch. If you are leaving from Pune, Plan the trip in sequence of Pune-Harihareshwar-Sheivardhan-Dive Aagar (and Murud-Janjira for 2 day trip)-Pune. I would suggest, leave very early in the morning (about 3-4 AM) so that you can reach the destination before sun raises too high and you can have best view from Tamhani Ghat also. The route is quite simple as follows – Pune - Chandani Chauk - Paud - Mulshi - Dongarwadi - Tamhini Ghat (here you can have a break and catch some pictures as it might be foggy climate all around) – Vile (turn left from here) - Nijampur – Mangaon (it is NH-17) - Lonere Phata (after Mangaon ST Stand, go about 500 meter towards Mahad, you will reach Lonere Phata, here, turn right to go on SH-97 for Mhasala) - Goregaon – Mhasala (turn right to come on SH-98) - Arathi Road Junction (from this junction, you can either go to Harihareshwar or to Shrivardhan. I would suggest, go to Harihareshwar first as these places are in one line and Shrivardhan is in middle so you would then move upside.) – Harihareshwar. Watch and read the sign boards installed on road throughout the tour as they help to find the destination a lot.

(Harihareshwar and sightseeing)
Harihareshwar is known as Kashi of Southern India. The hill near the seashore at Harihareshwar is also known as 'Harihar' or 'Pushpadri'. Once you reach Harihareshwar, anybody can guide you to show the way towards Harihareshwar Temple. Park the vehicle and get yourself ready for feast of Konkan. I would say, have some sun skin lotion so that tanning can be avoided. The temple and beach are standing face to face. Take the blessings from Kal-Bhairav, Harihareshwar, Hanuman and Ganesh idols as these all temples are in one campus only. You can see the strange shape of Shiv-Pind here, the wooden work on the polls of temple is just amazing and Dipmal is also quite different than the usual one. Before going to beach, its better to review your plan for the day and order the breakfast or lunch in any hotel or home. Note that you can get good sea food both in hotels and homes too; there are many families who run this as their business. The water in the beach of Harihareshwar is not safe for swimming and playing too. Plan the day, order the meal and go to the rocks around beach. You can see some strange shapes formed naturally on this rock, the rock is huge and spread in huge area, you can walk along on it and enjoy the scene. There is nothing other than this group of temples and a beach in Harihareshwar. I would suggest, just an hour and half is sufficient for this place.

(Shrivardhan and sightseeing)
Shrivardhan is 18 Kms from Harihareshwar towards Mumbai/Dive Aagar. A curvy but simple road would take you here in about half hour. This is a Tahasil/Taluka place in Raigad district. The city is small but very cool and calm in the lap of nature. You can visit Somjai/Sonjai Temple and another Shiv Temple here. You can again ask anybody for the way to go to these temples and beach. Also ask the localites about the way to go to Dive Aagar in advance, so that you can take the road from beach itself. The beach is real blasting place, totally untouched by outer world, its clean and long one. One can not resist but go in the water and have some great time with friends and family. It is a C shaped long beach. There is also boat service between Harihareshwar and Shrivardhan so one can get this experience also. After this beach you can visit the birthplace of “First Bajirao” which is 5 Kms from Shrivardhan.

(Dive Aagar and sightseeing)
The best way to go to Dive Aagar from Shrivardhan runs along the seashore and one would never want to miss this opportunity, so even if you go to birthplace of first Bajirao, come back to Shrivardhan and take this road too go to Dive Aagar. There would be some small towns coming in the way. There is no need to ask anybody about the direction and turn for destination as it’s a single road without any subways and all. In an hour you would reach the Dive Aagar. While you enter the city, you will see the Suvarna Ganesh Temple and Kedareshwar Temple (these temples have their stories, ask it to the local peoples so that the secret is not out here only). After this, you can reach the beach. It is about 6 Kms long beach and the cleanness around the beach keeps our mouth open. On the other end of beach, there is Rupnarayan/Sundarnarayan Temple which is a best piece of designing. The idol is the best example of sculpture. The four hands of the idol along with their accessories Shankh (Shell), Chakra (Wheel), Gada (Weapon), Padma (Lotus) are carved in such a manner that when seen in clockwise direction, it shows 24 different appearances of Lord Vishnu. The long beach continues at the back side of this temple.

(Come back)
While coming back to Pune, one has to come to Mhasala (ask somebody from Dive Aagar as there are few right-left turns while going to Mhasala from Dive Aagar), then to Mangaon and so on as per earlier route (but in reverse order and directions). See to it that you have some companion while coming back via Tamhani Ghat in night because it is said that, It could not be so safe traveling alone through this Ghat (we had few more cars around us and found some two wheelers too, so I am not sure about this but lets be cautious) I am posting some of the pictures taken by me when I visited these places in October 2008.