Bhimashankar trek
Info
Bhimashankar is located about 100 km from Pune and 223 km from Mumbai, is a popular temple town. It is among one of the twelve traditional 'Jyotilingam' shrines of Lord Shiva in India.It is situated at a height of 3250 km .It is considered to be one of the holiest places in India because of the jyotirlinga. Bhimashankar is also a popular destination for trekkers.
One of the best trek experiences I have had so far!
May be it was also the timing which made it absolutely perfect..Mahashivratri :p
Plan Hatching
I'll walk you through it. I was in Mumbai for a short trip and Mahashivratri happened to be around that time so being a 'Shiv Bhakt'... :) I asked my friends if we could go to some temple . We came up with an even more exciting plan- To trek on the evening before and reach Bhimashankar by midnight (Mahashivratri Night)...Woaahh that was a good plan on paper I thought and we three got quite excited to do this.
(PS: Except me none of the two had any trekking experience and from the little experience that I had after reading how to reach the top I knew it was not that easy..But who wants to miss company so shhhhh... :p)
Plan
The plan was laid.. Ghatkopar(6pm)---Neral(7.30 pm)---Bhimashankar Base(9 pm)---Trek.
But the difficulty began long before trek catching a train from Ghatkopar to Neral during peak hours proved very difficult..#Mumbaikars would relate to me.. :P
So we managed to reach Neral about 1 hr late than we had decided, that is around 8.30 pm .
The itenary to carry was also very imp:
Torches
3Ltrs at least water
Enerzol
Very light snack not heavy at all(this is very imp.. i regretted)
From Neral there are sharing cabs to the base village. It took around 30 mins to travel there. The name of the place is 'Kashele gaav'.From there another 20 min travel is to the foot from where the trek starts Khandas.
We finally started around 9.30 pm in the name of Lord Shiva Har Har Mahadev!!!
Routes
There are two routes to reach the top - Ganesh Ghat and Shirdi route. The former is long but easy.This route takes around five hours.The second route is short but, is not for beginners. The slopes are steep and therefore difficult. This route takes around three to four hours.
So we definitely went for the former one...:p.
Through the Ganesh Ghat Route
Through this route you will pass a Ganesh temple people pay homage there first and then continue. Since all of us were very beginners we just wanted to go slow and make sure we reach the top.(Yeah...we realised we would miss the 12 midnight epic mark which we had set).
Passing on there is a very scenic view from a lot of places and a lot of path is plateau to walk through not very difficult, the night makes it much more fun as you could lie down and see a whole star studded sky view its totally enchanting and very much memorable. To add to this there were a lot of people who had come due to the occasion of mahashivratri . We befriended a local group so that it would be easier to get the route . Do this if you are new to the place and planning on night trek few places are tricky there.
Final Strech
The trek is divided basically into four parts first three are quite easy the last stretch is a tiring one having some steep steps and plus the energy being low so plan accordingly.
The top : Conquered :p
We were finally able to reach the top at around 2.30 pm and very tired but we decided lying down is not a good idea as we might go to sleep and the main purpose would be amiss.
Bhimashankar Temple entering
The place at the top is in itself a settled one every thing is available there. So one does not need to worry after reaching there about resources.
But one thing was worrying for us . The queue for the darshan. It was infinitely long . We stood in the queue and slowly and steadily we reached the were able to get darshan by around 6.30am in the morning.
The energy was just awesome there till the darshan were full of zeal and it was all worth it.
Bhimashnkar Temple leaving
We decided to eat some snacks before leaving , there a lot of places where one can sit and have snacks and they are open all day and night plus the place where we had food was really tasty(and yes this is not because we were hungry) .
Finally we decided to go back now this is very tricky part.
There are different ways to get back
Treck down and follow the route which you came.
There are bus services to go to places like pune and mumbai(both places take around 8 to 10 hrs).
If you have a personal vehicle you can use that.
So this totally depends on you how you wanna head back. We decided to take the bus back to mumbai.
And the next day as they say was sleepyyy...:p:p
In the End
In the End it was all worth it the NightTrek+ Mahashivratri+ Friends + Experience +Another blog:p.
Hope if you get a chance you guys will definitely drop by Bhimashankar to take blessings of lord Shiva.
