bhimashankar-Jyotirling (Karjat)

I, Nitin Gupta and Ashish Negi decided to trek to Bhimashankar. We planned for the first local from Dadar to karjat which leaves Dadar station at 5.37 a.m. on 10th Jan 09 i caught the 4.40 a.m. train from Goregaon station and asked Nitin to meet me at Andheri station. Ashish told he would directly meet at Dadar station since he was at Sion and had not slept for the whole night since he was with his friends. We reached Dadar station on time and Ashish too joined us, however was too tired as I could make out from his eyes and face. We were able to find place inside and asked Ashish to take rest so as to conserve his energy for the trek. The morning was quite chilly and cold. At 7.45 a.m. we reached Karjat station which was the last stop for the train. I decided to start from Karjat west side, since in my last trek (along with my father in Feb 2008) the locals had asked us to catch the auto from West. We moved towards matheran end of the station and got outside the station. There was hardly any shop which was open and we moved inside the town and came to the main market where there were shops which had opened up. There were shops of all kinds, grocery, stationery, sweets, jewelers etc. We took our quota of 6 liters of water. We decided to have a breakfast and one of the locals told us to visit Mayur hotel-which was quite famous. The restaurant was roughly around 7-10 minutes from the station. The hotel was neat and clean and the menu card rate suggested it to be too costly for a place like Karjat. Infact it was at par with Mumbai prices. We ordered 1 misal, 1 vada-pav, 1 medu vada, 1 idli for Ashish and Nitin and I had 1 poha and then we had tea. The total damage was INR 76.00. We started negotiating for auto which started from INR 350.00 and finally we managed to close at INR 275.00.Thus we started at 8.56 a.m. from karjat and started towards Bhimashankar (one of the 12 jyotirlings). The journey towards the point was amazing since we could only see mountains, green fields, and trees everywhere. Nitin and Ashish took a nap on the way, however I couldn’t sleep since I didn’t wanted to miss the nature’s creation and the happiness. The road to the point was in pretty good shape without any issues. It goes through important villages and finally it reaches the Khandas village where I could see the majestic Bhimashankar mountain range in front of me. By this time ashish and nitin has woken up and was feeling fresh. The auto driver was stopping near the village itself. However as per my previous experience I remembered that from this village the trek start point was at least 6-7 k.m. away. I asked him to proceed on and leave us near the start point. Finally we reached the place which was quite, lonely with no one around except us. The point was called Ganpati Ghat, and there was one guide who told to take us via other route which was relatively safe, easy and short. I however sticked to my plan of taking the tougher route via the jungles. Immediately on getting down of the auto we started taking pictures and we spotted one green snake beside among the bushes and we took a nap of it. Finally at 10.05 a.m. we started our march towards Bhimashankar. There is no definite path or route as such, however routes have got formed on account of trekkers and villagers. Roughly after trekking for 20-25 minutes we reached a place where there was a statue of Devi and is a common resting ground. We all 3 were quite energetic and we climbed on, clearing hurdles after hurdles. Finally we reached a flat land where there was a majestic mountain standing in front of us. We took lot of snaps from all angles. Moving further there was this great, majestic mountain standing in front of us to be conquered. It was amazingly huge and challenging. We kept on walking and the surroundings were full of trees of all size, varieties, and forms. We decided to halt at one place which was the place from where the trek was going to be difficult (as per my previous experience). The lunch as usual was full of fruits, dry-fruits and I had my special laddu. Surprisingly at this place we found a local villager who had a stove, and was selling tea. We refreshed ourselves with tea and started our march. This final leg was the most difficult since it started taking toll on our energy levels and sings of fatigue, tiredness could be seen on all of us. In the interim we came across one more group of 3-4 boys who had started the trek at 9.30 a.m. I could easily made out that we were pretty fast and were well on time. They were ahead of us, but we took over them and before the final leg of the climb was to begin, I told ashish and nitin to rest. The other team didn’t have idea and surpassed us and moved further. I knew there was nothing to worry, since the final leg would take a toll on them. After resting for 10-15 minutes we started our march and soon I found the group resting ahead of us and was really tired. We overtook them and finally the moment came, when our amazing journey came to an end and we reached the top at 1.58 p.m. thus it took us 4.00 hours to reach the top. On reaching the top we moved towards the temple which was roughly around 10.00 minutes and by this we could see lot of tourists. The entrance inside the temple is through steps and is surrounded by shops on both the sides. At 2.15 p.m. we reached the temple and took the darshan. There is one more place which can be visited which was called old bhimashankar. We however were feeling hungry and decided to move towards the bus stand since there were hotels around that. Near the bus stand ,infact there is a point where we found majestic view of the mountain range. We took the ST bus (3.32 P.M.) and as told by the locals decided to get down at Manchar. This place was around 65.00 k.m. from Bhimashankar. The bus could have taken us to Pune , however we avoided since the bus stops at all the place and takes 4 to 4.30 hours to reach Pune. At around 5.10 p.m. we reached manchar bus stand. It was a small town however the bus stand was crowded. Outside the bus stand we found SUMO which was going to Mumbai and we decided to take it. The fare per head was INR 150.00 and it took the same route as to pune, however it didn’t enter pune. From Chakan it took the bypass route. At 9.35 p.m. we reached Ghatkopar the last stop for us. Thus our journey came to an end. However the memories will remain with all 3 of us throughout our life.

Key takeaways: Start early, take cap,sufficient water, food.carry medicines.

For photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30002962@N05/