Bhimashankar 2005

Bhimashankar is one of the most beautiful places i have been too. And the beauty of this place increases by a hundred fold during the monsoons.
This is a 2 day trek as the duration of the trek is about 6-7hrs from the base to the top village. On the top, there is a Shiv Temple and it has one of the 12 sacrede Jyotirlings of Lord Shiva the water fall is about 2hrs away and the peak Nag Phani is about 1hr away from the temple.
We started from mumbai on friday 8th July to go to karjat. Took the last train to Karjat and spend the night at the Karjat bus depot. In the morning at about 5am we took a tuktuk to reach the base village Khandas. At the village near the river we took a halt to eat breakfast. U need to have a proper meal as the trek is a long 6-7hrs. We took the route via Ganesh Ghat.
After about 2hrs of trekking we reached at place called Ganesh Khind, which has a small Ganesh Temple. We rested here to replenish our energy. These two hrs of trekking is the Stage1, which can be counted under good trekking.
The next 2hrs from here is the Stage2, which is just hiking through the dense jungles. The walk here would remind you of scenes from the movies, with deep lush green jungles, fog all around such that visibility is just a few meters and slight drizzing. The flora is so thick that you can hardy see any sunlight and the fog goes ahead to help it. I remember walking these 2hrs all alone as i had gotten separated from my group. I got left behind by the group ahead of me and i had no clue as to where the group behind me was. I must confess that walking alone in those jungles was damn scary, but i couldn't help admiring the breathtaking beauty all the same. I was chilling as i was soaked to the bone. In these two hrs i sped up my pace and tried to catch up with the group ahead of me and i did too.
Before Stage3 began I had caught up with the people ahead of me. Stage 3 is also of about 2hrs and has steep climbs. This is the most tiring part of the journey. You have already lost a lot of your energy in the past 4hrs and this stretch requires a lot of stamina. We reached the top at 1pm.
After you finally get out of the jungles, there is a big lake on top. You can freshen up at the lake. The water is chilling cold and really helps to ebb away all the tiredness. From the lake it is about 20mins to the village. At the village there are many restaurants and also sleeping arrangements. Here we hired 3 rooms for our group. After relieving ourselves of our backsacks, we decided to go down to the waterfall. We have to climb down the mountain to reach the waterfall, which is about 2hrs away. The waterfall is also named as Bhima kund. After spending an hour or so at the water fall we decided to get back to our rooms. By now, our walking hours in a day has become 10hrs and still counting.
After getting back we had our lunch and got ready to go to Nag Phani, which is the highest point of Bhimashankar. Nag Phani is about an 1hr away from the village, but the trek is very steep. The view from Nag Phani is one that you can never forget. At a height of 3250ft, your legs are sure bound to shiver. But during the monsoons you get to seen the view only if you are lucky, because the clouds tend to hinder your view and all you get to see is a pure white screen in front of you, which was the case with us.
After Nag Phani we went to a Hanuman temple nearby, which is about half hr away. On the way back it was getting dark and we lost our way. All of our group hadn't gone to the Hanuman temple, only a handful. After an hr or so we managed to find our way back. Our leader Amol Patil has the credit to that. So now counting, total walking hours is 12.5, which is incredible considering it is half the day. And I had done this trek with a fever of 102 the previous day.
After getting back we had our dinner and decided to rest for the night.The next morning we went to the waterfall for a bath and then went to the temple. After getting back from the temple, we packed and started out journey back home. The trek down was also of 7hrs.

How to get there:
Take a train to karjat
Karjat to Khandas village - by bus or tuktuk - 1hr
Khandas to Bhimashankar - on foot - 6-7hrs

Best time to visit:
In the monsoons i.e. July to October