Bhimashankar Trek

With the arrival of monsoons the trekking season has started. The true beauty of nature around Pune can be seen during this season. Our first trek this season was to Bhimashankar. The place was suggested by Sandesh. We started our trek in the morning from a village called 'khandas', some 35kms away from Karjat. The foothills started some 3kms from this village.

We could see the hills of Bhimashankar from the base and knew that it would be a long and tiresome trek. We stared the trek around 10:30 and soon realized that we have lost. It took us some three hours and considerable efforts (both physical and mental) to reach to the marked path again. Sandesh called a friend for directions and he said that the spot (Ganesh Temple) we had reached by climbing for three hours was actually a 45min climb from the base. Keeping the past behind us we now started afresh to the top. On the way to the top the view was amazing, not to mention the rich flora and fauna of the Bhimashankar Wild Sanctuary.

After much efforts and some anxious moments negotiating the steep path we reached top around 7:30 in the evening. It was already dark then and there was no transport available to go back, so we decided to stay for the night

On the way to the top I saw one of the most amazing and dramatic sunsets of my life (others agree with me on this).

Not many people live at Bhimashankar, but we somehow managed an accomodation for the night. We had a tasty dinner and slept off with every part of the body aching. The next day we visited the temple of Bhimashankar (one of the 12 jyotyrling's of Shiva). I had heard that in the sanctuary of Bhimashankar a wild squirell is found called 'shekru' in marathi. This is the State Animal of Maharashtra and comes under endangered species. We decided to try our luck to spot it and followed people's advice that they can be seen enroute to Gupt-Bhimashankar temple, situated downhill. We didnt go long from the temple when Kailas spotted the squirell on a brach of a large tree. On close examination they turned to be a pair. One of them came very close to us, giving a nice photographing opppurtunity. It was simply beautiful. I dont have the words to express the feeling i got when I saw the animal in wild, in its natural habitat.

We left soon after seeing the animal and reached Pune around 3:00 in the afternoon. The trek was a success and the feeling I got when I saw the sunset and the 'shekru' will always be close to my heart.

(P.S: We had actually trekked on 17th June, but im posting it late, due to some problem in the internet back home. Meanwhile I also did one more trek last sunday , this time to 'Chanderi fort' . Will post the experience soon.)

Happy Monsoons!!