Trip to Velas Turtle Festival

Trek Mates India had organized a 2 day tour to Velas beach for the turtle festival on the 23^rd and 24^th February, 2013. The tour was to start from Mumbai and there were only 4 of us from Pune. So travel arrangements couldn’t be made from Pune. Finally one of us decided to take his car. We were 4 of us – Shantanu, the guy with the car, Piyush, who had informed me about this trip and Laxmikant, a friend of Piyush; apart from me ofcourse.

Day 1: 22 February, 2013, Friday.

The day; or rather, the night of Friday, 22^rd February arrived. We had our dinner and decided to have coffee before we start on our journey so that the caffeine would keep us awake for as much time as possible. We had coffee and started off at around 11:00PM from Pune. We went through Warje and took the Pune-Bangalore national highway. After reaching Bhor taluka, we took the right turn onto State Highway 70 which would take us through Varandha ghat towards Mahad. The Varandha ghat may initially look pretty easy. Till this point, the road isn’t too bad but it was already getting quite cold out there.

At around 1:00 am, we reached a spot where all of us thought of having a cup of hot tea. The owner was obviously sleeping but as soon as heard the noise outside, he said that the shop is open. He then prepared tea for all of us and we were refreshed for the next part of the journey. We had never expected what was to come next. All this while we were all using smart phones and Google Maps to guide us on the right path. But then there was no network so the map wasn’t getting refreshed. Somehow then we missed a turn and we soon realized that we were heading in the wrong direction. When we somehow managed to look at a downloaded copy of the map (that was with the person who had already fallen asleep in the car!!), we realized that we would have been going round in circles. We configured the google maps to show us the right direction and then we were back on track. Phew!!

The Varandha ghat is quite difficult towards its end. Most of us had been to the ghat till the famous ‘Kanda Bhaji’ point. However no one had ever expected the kind of road that lay ahead. There are turns of 270 degrees with radius of hardly a few metres. Negotiation of these turns is extremely difficult and also highly risky since there is not much beyond the road and a slight-misjudgement could take you down the steep cliff. But Shantanu Mahajan, who was driving the WagonR, was quite a pro and we were able to cross the ghat safely. Beyond the ghat, you have to travel around another 25-30 kms where the Mumbai-Goa Highway crosses the State Highway 70. At this point it was around 3:30 AM when we realized that we need a little rest and then our Mumbai counterparts were still far behind. So we stopped at a truck-dhaba at that same crossing and then had rest for almost an hour in the car itself. Needless to say, it was refreshing for all of us, but most importantly for Shantanu. Thereafter, we had some yummy ‘Misal Paav’ and others also had a plate of ‘Anda Bhurji’ at 4:30 AM. After this we left for the final stage of our journey. At around 6:30 AM, we had reached Velas and we were searching for the place where we would be resting. We went right till the very end of the village and found that the Mumbai party was waiting for us. We had some rest and then left for the turtle festival at Velas beach, scheduled for 7:00 AM.

Day 2: 23 February, 2013, Saturday.

Once we had reached the Velas beach, we could see the enclosure where the baby turtles were apparently kept under a basket. At about 7:30 AM, the authorities decided that it was time!!! They quickly gathered the tiny baby turtles and led the way while the curious onlookers followed the person-in-charge. Now what happens next is something that I would recommend the people to go watch themselves because the sight of watching the baby turtles crawl across the sand is absolutely amazing. We were really lucky because we watched as many as 58 baby turtles, which is now the local record!!!

After that, we came back to the home we were staying at. We had our bath and got refreshed and after that we were served hot ‘Poha’ with coconut garnishing which was obviously yummy and that was followed by steaming cup of tea. Once we had refilled our energy reserves, it was time for a visit to the Bankot fort which is within the Velas village itself. The road to the Fort is extremely treacherous and the driver of the bus that had got the Mumbai folks to Velas seemed quite skilled and he managed to get the bus up to the Fort. But then there is not much trek either so in case you are really interested and have time at your disposal, I would suggest take that little trek to the fort. Since I have been to lots of forts and also ones that are way bigger than the Bankot fort, I didn’t quite find it interesting enough actually but the Mumbai folks seemed to be enjoying themselves. However, there is a school in the vicinity of the fort and there were some ‘Kaju’ bearing trees in its backyard and after some enlightening sessions about trees of the Konkan, we enjoyed the fruits there.

Once we were back, we had our lunch which was again awesome!!! After a full-stomach, people decided to rest a bit and most of us dozed off immediately. At about 5 PM, we had another round to the beach scheduled. However we were not lucky this time and there was no turtle this time. But people had obviously come prepared and everyone decided to have a blast around the beach. While some people were enjoying the cool breeze of the evening sea, some of us started playing ‘Kabaddi’!!! This was followed by a small video session that is prepared by the ‘Sahyadri Nisarg Mitra’ and the locals and they showed how they have tried to conserve the nature in and around Velas. The videos are quite interesting and informative and this was followed by a small performance by local kids.

We were really tired by this time and so when we came back, everyone wanted to have dinner first. So all of us sat down in a ‘pangat’ – all people together on the floor in a single file. After dinner, we had a game of ‘Mafia’ which everyone found extremely interesting and we were so involved in playing the game that we didn’t even realize that most of us were shouting and that it was past 11:00 PM. So the host requested us to go off to sleep and play the game the next day so that other local people do not get disturbed. But we were so excited that we couldn’t sleep so soon. So some of us decided to take a walk past the beach. This was a unique experience as we listened to the high tide waves crashing against the rocks and there was enough moonlight around!!! How romantic, eh?? But here is the twist; we decided to sit on the rocks and all started a narration of the horror or supernatural experience of themselves or their close friends. Eventually as each one started to lose his or her adrenaline, we realized it was time to go sleep.

Day 3: 24 February, 2013, Sunday.

The next morning, we all got up at around 6:30 AM and ran towards the beach to spot the baby turtles once again. However this time too, there were only 3 baby turtles. We felt a little disappointed so we decided to do a little ‘bird-watching’ on the beach while we strolled on the beach for a while!!!

After a little while, we returned home, had our bath and filled our stomachs with tasty ‘Upma’ and hot tea. Now it was time for us to go to Harihareshwar. After a group photo of all the troop members, including the hosts as well as their kitten (!!), we had to take the ferry for reaching Harihareshwar. However, life is not always so easy. First, a local guy decided to block all vehicles taking the ferry since some tourists had inadvertently caused some damage to the mango trees along the road side. Solving this problem took around 1 hr but problems for us were far from over. We had to get 2 buses of 35-seater each onto the ferry and this seemed to be a herculean task but the ferry crew seemed to be up for the challenge and they made the task look easy.

At Harihareshwar, we visited the temple of Lord Shiva and then we took the small trek toward the beach on the backside of the temple. The view from the top is breath-taking!!! We descended the steps toward the beach and spent some time in photography at the scenic spot. By this time, everyone was thirsty and luckily for us, there were plenty of options to quench our thirsts, right from ‘Kokam’ and lemon juice to the coconuts. After this, we had a short stroll across the beach of Harihareshwar and then we had our lunch at the Harihareshwar beach resort, located right next to the beach and the temple.

It was about 3:00 PM and we thought it was time to return and since we had faced some difficulties in Varandha ghat, we decided to take a different route this time. We had 2 alternatives; 1 was to come back to Pune via Mahabaleshwar where we had the opportunity to spend some time and buy Mapro drinks whereas the other route was through Tamhini ghat. We decided that the latter option seemed more lucrative. We had our suspicions about the road conditions but the road was actually in very good condition. After we cross the Ratnagiri district, there is almost no straight road, only ghats!!! But now Shantanu was getting fatigued so we stopped at Maandgaon and took some refreshments. Even after this, the road condition was unexpectedly good and moreover, the Tamhini ghat proved to be much safer and easier to drive on. We were back in Pune by around 7:30 PM.

This was an amazing trip for me – I covered both Varandha Ghat and Tamhini Ghat and also visited a beach in addition to watching baby turtles live!!!  If you read till here, I must say you have a lot of patience. Thank you.

Trip to Bhuleshwar

I had been planning to visit the temple of Lord Shiva at Bhuleshwar since quite some time now; might have been months since I first thought about it. I was able to finally make my thoughts transform to action and I decided that Saturday, 11^th August, 2012 was the D-day. Let me first give an introduction of Bhuleshwar. 

This is a Shiva temple, believed to be first build around 1200AD but destroyed by invaders and then rebuilt around 1600AD. Its located at around 60kms from Pune. Reaching there is pretty easy: Take the Pune – Solapur highway, pass through Hadapsar, Loni-Kalbhor, Uruli-Kanchan on your way and about 2 kms before Yavat (Highway signboards can help you here), take the Right turn and drive for around 10kms to reach Bhuleshwar.

One of my friends agreed to accompany me this time and so my friend and I started on my Honda Twister at about 2 PM. Since it had been raining for the previous few days, we had anticipated that we could be drenched by the time we reach Bhuleshwar and so we were mentally prepared for it. However, it seemed, God had other plans for us J. Crossing the traffic of Hadapsar seemed hectic so immediately after Hadapsar, we decided to stop for a cup of tea. After a plate of ‘Kandaa Bhaji’ and a hot cup of tea, we started again on our journey. Once you cross Uruli - Kanchan, just about 5 kms before Yavat, there is Punjabi dhaba on the Right side of the highway while you are going from Pune to Bhuleshwar. This can be regarded as a landmark to decide where to take the right turn. This is because the sign board indicating ‘For Bhuleshwar, turn right’, is pretty small and could be ignored easily and this turn is pretty easy to miss too. Another important point to note, as I have read from some of the other blogs, is that when you take this right turn is that you travel on the Eastern banks of a canal after you turn right. Also, there is a large enough gap in the divider of the highway exactly where the right turn is to be taken.

I had expected that the ride beyond this point would be a little bumpy but instead it turned out to be a pleasant ride; the road was smooth and because there were not many buildings around, the wind blew freely and we felt refreshed by it already. On your way, you could find a different variety of sparrows (with very short legs and small neck too but I don’t know what this is called since I am not much of a bird-watcher). These sparrows are also different from the normal variety in the cities because they can be usually spotted in groups of around 5-6. As soon as you have turned right from the highway, you will find plenty of small Jaggery and the pleasant aroma fills your nostrils. From this point, the temple can be spotted easily on a distant hill.

The temple itself is situated on a hill and you have to cross a moderately difficult ghat section. We went there in August and yet the roads were in great condition so riding wasn’t too difficult for us. A lot had been written in numerous blogs about this ghat; that it is difficult or dangerous but I could not find enough photographic information about this. So I was not able to judge exactly how difficult is this ghat. So I decided to help other poor folks, who might think of visiting this place. Here are some snaps of the ghat section and depending upon your control, expertise and experience on your bike, you must decide for yourself, how difficult this ghat is. These pics will give you an idea about how high the temple is located from base.

Once the ghat is complete, the wind blowing atop the hill is so strong that I felt my bike moving laterally. Then there is a small patch of around 2 kms of rough road and finally you reach the foothill of the temple. At corners, you could find remains of a fort-like structure, actually believed to be the fort of Mangalgadh. 

The temple itself is situated on a rectangular platform built of stone. At the entrance to the temple, there is a large bell and its sound is loud to enough to ring your ear-drums. An interesting feature of the temple is that the lower half of the temple is build from black stones whereas the upper half is from yellow colored stone (which I think could be sandstone). As soon as you enter the temple, one can notice that there are numerous writings engraved inside the stone floors as well as pillars. The pillars inside are so majestic and beautiful that one immediately feels like having got ‘Timelined’ to 1600 timeframe. The sculpture in stone is miniature in some places and the carvings, accurate and equally beautiful. After climbing a few stairs on the right, we enter a room that seems full of pillars. There is also a huge ‘Nandi’ that is placed inside a separate chamber-of-sorts, which I believe is a rare sight since I have never seen a separate chamber for Nandi. And then Lord Shiva’s ling is absolutely amazing. In ancient times, it was believed that if you place sweets beneath the ling and if they vanish, then your wish would be granted. These days, however, people are not allowed inside the chambers – ‘Gabhara’ in the local language.

Once you exit the temple ‘Gabhara’, you can spot carvings in stone on all walls of the temple. These carvings are so intricate that even after all these centuries, these master-pieces are still intact. Another special feature of the temple that can be noticed here is that the actual Shiva temple is surrounded on all sides by another structure and there is gap in the roof left, probably for some sunlight to enter and this gives us an opportunity to click some wonderful photographs in natural light.

Once outside the temple, I was a little surprised to notice the top structure of the temple. This top side of the temple is probably influenced by Mughar architecture since, in my opinion, the Hindu temples do not have rounded tops, but instead sharp triangular top. Plus the minarets-like structures accompanying the main temple roof is also not seen in Hindu architecture. But this seemed to be the case only for the upper half of the temple, which was build in yellow stone. Probably this indicates that this temple was rebuilt by some Mughal emporer!!!

Once we left the temple and started on our descent towards the highway, it started raining and we felt we were granted our wishes. I must say that if you live near Pune, this temple is a must-visit, at least over the weekend. If you read till this point, I would like to thank you for reading this completely.

Trip to Nighoj and Taakli Dhokeshwar

Date: 13th November, 2011.

It was one of those cold (although not chilly) winter mornings of Pune. We started off at about 8:30 in the morning and after having breakfast at a food joint on M.G. Road, Pune, we set off along Nagar road towards our destination of Nighoj. We had read about it on Google and with GPS enabled on our mobile, we did not have much difficulty in getting to Nighoj. The route is something like this:

Start from Yerwada - State highway (SH) 27 – nagar road. You will find Kaaregaon, Shikrapur, Ranjangaon on your way. Then you must bypass Shirur and shortly after that, turn left onto SH51. On this road, you will find the villages Manjur and Jawalaa and finally you reach Nighoj village. The road to Nighoj is not that bad and also not many vehicles on this road. So it felt good riding our bike on the road. We reached Nighoj at around 12. When we got there, we were initially confused because the local villagers refer to the place as ‘Nighoj Malganga Kund’ and we were not sure what we would find there after hearing the word ‘Kund’. However, once we got there and after initially getting surprised to see the sight of a suspension bridge there, we prepared ourselves to watch something astounding.








As we parked our bike and reached the bridge, we were overwhelmed by the sight that greeted us!!! We saw that the river had literally cut through the rocks and created a gorge’ous’ path for itself by creating and further cutting the pot holes. That confirmed the fact that this is Asia’s largest pot holes site. We crossed the bridge and started to examine the site as if we were some historians but the sight was just so breath taking that in spite of the Sun overhead, we had spend an hour there but never realized how the time went by! We had finished one complete circle around the site and then decided to visit the temple nearby.

After taking rest for a few minutes in the ‘samaaj hall’, we started our road journey to Taakli Dhokeshwar, which we learnt was about 20 kms from Nighoj. The route was something like this from Nighoj – Head straight back on the road you came and at major cross roads you come across, where the right turn takes you to Parner, left continues on SH51, you need to head straight to Paadali Darya – Kaanhur ghat and plateau – SH50 – NH222 – take left at NH crossing and after just about 2 kms, you need to take the internal road to the Taakli.



The Kaanhur ghat that we drove on is something that will take you by surprise. We had not anticipated that kind of ghat section and it was a good bike-riding test for me as I tried to take the vehicle up the ghats upto Taakli. The road after the NH crossing is also pretty good and you can get to the Taakli pretty easily since there are not much crossings and so without much help, you can get to Taakli Dhokeshwar. After parking the bike, you need to climb about 20-25 steps and you can see the 5th century caves and carvings for which you get there. The main cave temple, located another about 10 steps higher, has good strong 2 pillars at the entrance with carvings of Gods guarding the entrance like is usually the scene even today. There is a Shiva Linga inside the cave temple in the ‘Gabhara’ and the ‘Sabha Mandapa’ is aptly supported by some more large pillars with great carvings in stone. You can find numerous statues there of Gods and Godesses. Outside the main cave temple, there is a small well where you can also spot an ancient method of water collection. Also there is another cave located a little higher with stone-carved steps.





By the time, we were about to leave, it was almost sunset. We were able to catch great glimpses of the Sunset from the height of the Taakli as well as on our way back. You can come back via the ‘Ralegan Siddhi’ village that is famous, courtesy Anna Hazare. We then ended the day with great views of the Moon rise and finally had a great dinner at one of the Dhabas on the highway.

We had travelled around 270kms on bike that day and it was a fun, excitement and adventure filled trip. Indeed these are great places to visit for a 1-day return trip near Pune and if you wish to get away from the hustle of the city crowds, then definitely this should figure high on your list of places to watch!!!

Book Review: The Lost Symbol

The Lost Symbol
Author: Dan Brown



Hello friends,
I have been thinking for a long time about writing my blog posts and publishing them but I was not able to come up with a topic good enough for me to do so. Finally I decided that after reading Dan Brown’s all the books, I should probably write about my reading experience. So here I am with the review of ‘The Lost Symbol’, the latest of Dan’s novels. Kindly note that there is no intention to bring any defamation or harm to Dan Brown or to the sale of the book or his sentiments, or for that matter, anyone’s sentiments.

The book starts with great action surrounding another large organization (this time it is the Smithsonian museum and Capitol building in the Washington D.C.). Robert Langdon is called to Washington D.C. by his old friend and mentor, Mr. Peter Solomon (who happens to be the central character of the central family of this story). Langdon is under the impression that he is at the Capitol building to deliver a lecture on some symbology but it turns out to be a horrifying experience for his as he discovers Mr. Solomon’s hand arranged in particular symbolic way. He is then asked by the unknown villain of the story to follow the path of the ancient symbols to uncover an ancient portal. This portal forms the central idea of The Ancient Mysteries surrounding the FreeMasons. It is believed that the ancient Americans and Freemasons had access to great wisdom with the potential to transform humans and give them God-like powers. And that the secret to unlock the ancient portal lies with a pyramid. However this was claimed to be just a myth until the time Langdon discovers that the Capitol building does have a pyramid hidden beneath its floors at secret location that is known only to the ‘Architect’ of the Capitol, who holds the highest powers there. The antagonist, called Ma’lakh in the book, shown to strongly believe that Langdon is the only one who can understand the ancient symbology enough to unlock the portal, threatens Langdon that if Langdon does not obey him and unlock the portal for him, Langdon will eventually find his mentor dead. Just when Langdon is about to decide to help Ma’lakh, the CIA director, Inou Sato, intervenes and declares that this is a National Security threat and that Langdon is supposed to help CIA. What follows from here is that Langdon, along with Katherine Solomon, Peter’s sister, sets on course to unravel the mysteries of the Pyramid, travel across the National Mall, discover secrets in the Washington D.C. and finally try to find the Portal of the Ancient Mysteries for Peter’s sake. In between, there is a lot of flashback around the Solomon family which also includes a mysterious character, Zachary, Peter’s son. Sure there is a lot of research that was probably done while writing the book, as is evident from the book.

If you have read any of Dan Brown’s previous novels, especially ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Angels and Demons’ which are claimed to be the prequels of this novel are here for disappointment. I have written the word ‘claimed’ here because I noticed on Wikipedia that ‘The Lost Symbol’ is claimed to be the sequel of the those 2 novels but apart from the presence of Robert Langdon, there was little similarity between the first 2 books and ‘The Lost Symbol’. The first 2 novels were based on symbols and myths related to religion, specifically Christianity whereas this 3rd one is based on FreeMasonry. Moreover, you would notice that there is a stark lack of action and suspense in this novel as compared to the previous ones. This book laid too much of undue importance to the past of the antagonist (like we had one in each of ‘The Da Vince Code’ and ‘Angels and Demons’ doing all the killing work in the name of God !!!) and less of symbology. Also the Solomon family flashbacks seem to be a bit boring. So I found it difficult to hold onto the book for long. Although, for the readers in India, there is something in the book for them to be proud of. There is a lot of reference to the Indian mystics, manuscripts, Vedas, etc. that treat the humans differently and have reference to Indian rituals and spirituality that help enhance the power of the human mind.

To sum up, this book may not match up to the expectations created due to our existing image of Dan Brown’s books. So if you are reading Dan Brown for the first time or if you are not one to compare the prequels with its sequels, then you can surely go ahead and read the book.

Kindly provide comments, suggestions for more improvement in my writing.
I would be back soon with review of another book. Stay tuned. Good bye till then.