Bhimashankar

I have been wanting to visit the Bhimashankar temple and its surrounding forest area for many years now, finally I managed to go there last weekend!

Along with some friends I went to Pune on Saturday and started early on Sunday for Bhimashankar. We started our hike near the Blue Mormon Resort some 9 kms away from the temple.

Sadly when we got there we couldn't find a local guide and for almost two thirds of the way we had to walk along the main road leading to the temple to avoid getting stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Although its was quiet hot (and probably the worst time of the year to do this trip) the walk offered some great views of the surrounding hills and the few densely forest patches we passed by were delightful.

So after a few stops and over four hours in the sun we finally arrived at the famous temple.

The Bhimashankar temple is one of the 12 original Jyotirlinga temples in India and is a major pilgrimage site. Strangely, though heavily visited the small town around the temple offers almost nothing in terms of facilities - a decent restaurant/hotel is almost none existent here.

The temple itself is a very modest structure built over the years, but none of it seems to be really old.

By the time we finished seeing the temple the heat had gotten to us and we decided to head back to the city.

I've heard that this place is wonderful in the rains may be I need to plan a better trip during the Monsoons and next time I would like to try the Karjat route straight from Mumbai rather than the route we took this time!