Ride to Bhimashankar

Every ride has its own story, own roads, own riders and unforgettable memories
~ Ghumakkar

Most of the rides I had with Rudra, has been planned and executed within a day or two. Way back in August, it happened in similar way; we did the reconnaissance, finalized the ride to Bheemashankar, asked a few mates, and got on to the road. We were 4 guys on 3 bikes, me on my TBTS – Achtung, Rudra on his Pulsar 220, Palzor on his RE Bullet Standard with CMS as pillion.

Rudra on Pulsar220, Palzor on Std 350, Me on TBTS-Achtung

Bhimasahankar is some 200 kilometers from Mumbai and about 120 km from Pune. The Temple is located in the Bhorgiri village, near Khed, Pune. It is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas. Interestingly, three out of twelve Jyotirlingas are located in Maharashtra at Bheemashankar, Trimbakeshwar and Grishneshwar. Bhima River originates at Bhimashankar and flows south east to merges with the Krishna near Raichur. This region falls under the Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary, which habitats the Indian Giant Squirrel.

View Larger Map

Though the town is easily accessible by road from Khed/Peth, there’s a trekking route from Karjat too. This time we rode to the Temple; may be some other time in Monsoon or post-Monsoon period we’ll trek the Shahydari to the temple. One can visit the temple anytime in the year, but the best time surely would be post-Monsoon or Winters between August and February. We saw a ruined MTDC resort just before the Temple site. There are though a number of lodges and a few resorts, especially health-resorts, located on the way to Bheemshankar.

Bheemashankar Temple

Well, about our ride; we started at about 10:00 AM. Through NH 4 we reached Talegaon and took Talegaon-Chakan road towards Nashik. We preferred this road over the NH-4 up to Dehu, to avoid probable traffic at Dehu. At Chakan we took the NH 50 – Pune-Nashik road. We were to take the left turn at Khed, but we missed the turn in the city traffic and realized the gaffe only when we reached Peth. We checked it in Google and also local guys, and took the left turn at Peth towards Bhimashankar. Rudra had earlier rode on Khed-Bhimashankar route, so this Peth-Bhimashankar way was unknown to ever body in the team.

NH 4

NH 4 / Mumbai-Pune ExpressWay

Mumbai-Pune ExpressWay

Light at the other end of Mumbai-Pune ExpressWay Tunnel

Refreshing mountain waters! Hell with the Mineral Water!

Peth to Bhimashankar was the best part of the ride, on the serpent roads through the ghats, valleys and a big lake associated probably with Dambhe Lake. Palzor and CMS were on their first ride with us, and in mood to enjoy every bit of it. Every now and then one of them starts posing against the scenic background, and the other holds the command of camera. Somewhere near Ghodegaon, CMS took Rudra’s Pulsar to ride on the ghats; and that was the time when we witnseed a rare scene on any bike. Pulsar’s chain slipped off the sockets. Rather interestingly, without any tool we’re able to get it done too. Riding slowly onwards, to avoid any more slippage, we passed beautiful serpent roads through the godly green valleys and silent jungles. It was already 4:30 PM when we reached the Temple. That means, we took over 6 hours to ride just about 200 km.

CMS, note his Trishul-designer Tilak

After darshan, it started raining when we kicked to ride back. Visibility was too low because of rain and mist. So, we planned to stay anywhere en route Peth. All the guys wanted was some booze and spicy-non veg. I was the only vegetarian guy in the team. To our luck, it was a dry day their due to some local festival. And by the time, we could settle in a decent lodge, all the non-veg shops, well countable on fingers in that region, ran out of stock. Tired to bones, all finally agreed to have whatever-available sort of vegetarian dine. Night at the lodge itself can constitute a short-stories book, mostly authored by CMS that cannot be talked about here! Men’s talk! ;)

Next morning, geared up with cameras, light snacks, we started the ride back to home. This time, we bathe too at the lakeside. It was sort of entertainment for the local villagers watching sheheri-pipul (city-people) bathing in lake and raving their machines engines to ‘foolishly’ burn the tires.

Men's Machines

The Achtung "Solitaire"

After Trimbakeshwar and Bheemashankar, we are planning to ride to Grishneshwar this year, and probably a trek to Bheemshankar too. Till the next riding post, vroooooommmm……

Ganapati idol near Lonavala naka on NH4