Yamai Devi Temple Kanhersar near Rajgurunagar

If you are visiting Bhimashankar temple or Natural Potholes near Takali Haji or Lenyadri caves at Junnar or Ozar Astivinayak temples or Shivneri fort or Ramling Temple at Shirur, You can also include visiting Yamai Devi Temple at Kanhersar (Kanersar) near Rajgurunagar. 

If you are coming from Aundh, Wakad, Pimpri Chinchwad or Hinjawadi side, you have to reach Rajgurunagar via Chakan first, then take the turn which goes to Shirur. You will see Yamai Devi Temple at road-side only at Kanhersar. [60 KM] 

If you are coming from Wagholi or Lonikand side, take turn at Koregaon Bhima which leads to Chouphula and then Kendur, after few KM you will reach Yamai Devi Temple at Kanhersar. [36 KM] 

The temple is quite clean and you will for sure get peace of mind here. It has Main gate and Mangal office gate which leads inside temple. Compound has a small beautiful garden, Sabhamandap, temple gallery. Inside the temple, There is quite unique old water-well point, where people used to draw water from multi-pulley system. 

Once you are in the temple, I am sure you will love the place. There are many beautiful paintings in the temple. We had taken few photographs at the temple, and stayed there for 25-30 minutes, then we moved towards Bhimashankar. 

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Flamingo and Bird watching at Bhigwan near Kumbhargaon, Maharashtra

Quote of the Post: "This place is treat to eyes and heaven for bird watchers and photography lovers." - Quote about Bhigwan near Baramati by Sachin Kumar Gupta

The place is also known as 'Bharatpur of Maharashtra'. If you are bird lover, you are at the right place. The best month to visit Bhigwan, at the backwater of Ujjani Dam built on Bhima River is Nov-Feb, and peak time are Dec and Jan months. People come from all across India to see these migratory birds during the winter. Early morning and evening is the best time for bird watching. Try to reach by 6 or 6:30 strictly, if you really want to see sunrise and listen chirping of beautiful birds.
Morning: 6 A.M. to 10 A.M.
Evening: 3 P.M. to 6 P.M.

Bhigwan - Kumbhalgaon Bird Sanctuary - Birds Collage

Bhigwan - Kumbhalgaon Bird Sanctuary - Group Flight Mode

Best time for getting some nice and unique shots is early morning as sunlight doesn't disturb the camera lens at this time of the day. Although we knew all of this but sleep took the priority over photography and we started bit late in the morning i.e. by 6:00, and saw sunrise on our way to Bhigwan. Luckily we got to see few birds flocking in the morning itself. 

Bhigwan - Kumbhalgaon Bird Sanctuary - Painted Stork Flight Mode

Bhigwan - Kumbhalgaon Bird Sanctuary - Single Birds

Bhigwan - Kumbhalgaon Bird Sanctuary - Single Flight Mode

Bhigwan is 100 km away from Pune, approx 60 km from Satara, and approx 100 km from Solapur. The place is also known as 'Kumbhargaon Bird Sanctuary'. We reached a point where very few cars were parked. There are two main famous points - Kranti Flamingo Point, and Agnipankha Flamingo Point, which offer boating services, accommodation, and overnight packages too. One can also opt for overnight stay in lakeside tents. I got to know that Kranti Flamingo Point India is registered to Maharastra Tourism in 2014 under MTDC Bhigwan. Boat service varies from 10-20 people, ranging 100 INR to 200 INR per person depending upon the location from where you start. Watching sunrise and sunset over the lake from boat would surely be a wonderful experience.
As against the earlier plan, we reached to a less crowded place, parked near the bridge and headed for photography with our armor - Nikon D5100 and Canon :) We started taking few snaps of birds flying over the bridge. At the same time few birds were flocking from one end to another. There are many locals who offer boating for 2-4 hours. We booked a boat with a local person from this place only. We also luckily got a team of 3 people who knew a lot about birds, their features, habitats, and more. They were more than the guide to us. They were even discussing and explaining which ones were male, and which female. We didn't follow other boats and went ahead to chase idle and undisturbed birds. Try to avoid Saturday and Sunday as because of crowd, birds fly quite far off at times. If you are a bird watcher, go in small group and maintain silence to enjoy treat to eyes. Its really bird heaven on earth for those!

One of the main attraction is to adore pink greater flamingos. We kept moving till the point we finally had glance of flamingos. At few points our boat-rower had to drag the boat standing in the water. We were lucky that flamingos didn't fly off by that time. We were so close to flamingos that we could take reflection images of flamingos too but all were sleepy heads by then. One thing to observed that flamingos stood on one leg and slept in a very unique manner. My Nikon D5100 with 55-300 mm lens were good enough to capture few of the flamingos. Flamingos were so lazy that they were rarely moving their neck. We waited for long for their movements to get different posture photographs. Go for higher range cameras, if you wish to take more closer photographs. We saw many people having bigger cameras and binoculars for long distance bird watching. Many people rent bigger lenses for this purpose. 'Patience' is the key, which will help you take good photographs.

Out of all the birds, I like Painted Stork the most, and they were my main models for the day. I had many reflection and flight mode images of different birds. I created few birds collages as shown above. We saw many birds, few of them were:
Asian open-bill stork
Bar headed goose
Black-crowned night heron
Black-winged stilt
Bronze-winged Jacana
Brown Crake
Common Pochard
Eurasian Spoonbill
Eurasian wigeon
Forest Wagtail
Garganey
Glossy ibis
Greater Flamingo
Green Sandpiper
Grey Heron
Grey Wagtail
Indian Pond Heron
Knob Billed Duck
Little Egrets
Northern Pintails
Northern Shoveler
Painted Stork
Pheasant Tail Jacana
Purple Swamp Hen
Red-naped ibis
Ruddy Shelduck
Small Pratincole
Spot-billed duck
The cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis)
The demoiselle crane (Koonj)
The Eurasian coot
The little cormorant
White Breasted Waterhen
White Wagtail
Wood Sandpiper
Woolly Necked Stork etc (go on and on..)

Boating in itself was fun and worth, and chasing birds adds more fun, if you really have patience. Many of the birds were seen swimming in open water or walking across waterside grasslands. Many a places the color of grass was a mix of green, light red, yellow, brown while having sunlight and cloud shadows on it. Few other smaller birds can also seen flying at time to time like Kingfisher etc. Few of them were found in small groups. A few of them were spotted romancing and a few were busy catching fishes and insects with their long beaks. Many boatmen threw fishes in the water to attract more birds nearby.
I just can't believe that we have such an amazing place to visit near Pune. It is really a paradise for a variety of native and migratory birds around the picturesque lake. Do visit before they leave i.e. before mid March. Hope to come again and chase birds during sunset.

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Treasure temple Neelkatheshwar in Kondhur

Quote of the Post: "This hilltop is one of the best treasure for temple and nature lovers" - Quote about Neelkantheshwar Temple near Pune by Sachin Kumar Gupta

One can reach Neelkatheshwar temple from Pune via either side of Kadhakwasla Dam. There are two ways to reach Neelkantheshwar Temple (in Kondhur) from Pune. One covering one side of the Khadakwasla Dam, while another covering other side of Khadakwasla Dam.
Route1 (dam being on your left side) - On this route you'll find beautiful resorts and waterfronts alongside the dam. (~50 KM)
Swargate - Anand Nagar - Khadakwasla Village - Kudje - Mandvi - Jambhali - Neelkantheshwar Road - Temple
Route2 (dam being on your right side) - This route gives a closer look of dam and Khadakwasla Chaupati road. (~60 KM)
Swargate - Anand Nagar - Khadakwasla Village - Sinhagad Road - Khanapur - Sonapur - Velhe Panshet Road - Cross Mutha River by Bridge - Neelkantheshwar Road - Jambhali - Temple

It was Independence day, when we finally started for this much awaited trip. We started late morning from Pune and wanted to spend sometime at Khadakwasla dam, so we took Route2 while going, and Route1 while returning, so we covered whole circumference with monsoon views of Khadakwasla Dam. Neelkantheshwar road is in little bad condition for nearly 5-6 kms, but Ok to move with 2 or 4 wheelers. It goes straight at the base of Neelkantheshwar. We also saw few autowalaas from Jambhali to temple base point. It took approximate 2 hours (approx 50-60 kms) to travel from Hadapsar Pune to Neelkantheshwar Temple near Kondhur. It’s a very pleasant and scenic drive till Neelkantheshwar parking point. Lush green surround the place specially during monsoon.

This hidden treasure temple is situated at hilltop of triangle dams:
Khadakwasla Dam
Panshet Dam
Varasgaon Dam

Notes and important points while visiting Neelkatheshwar temple:

• From the parking point, you have to climb up the steep hill approx 1.5 KM, so plan accordingly. Wear sports shoes or floaters and plan well, while being with toddlers.
• The climb is really steep at few places (though wide) and this can prove to be a good exercise for all ages. :) With all high spirits we were gald to see many old age people climbing up the temple. 
• During summers plan to climb early in the morning when it isn't too hot and while returning, walk carefully else you may skid and fall.
• Bring water bottles and other snacks as per your choice.
• During monsoon, don't forget to bring an umbrella as there are no shops on the top except for a small restaurant.
• It is a huge temple, with lot of open space to sit and enjoy the beauty of exquisite sculptures that tell different Hindu mythological tales, located between lush green hills and breathtaking views. 

It was quite a lucky day, as we could capture many beautiful photographs throughout the day, specially from the hilltop. Unfortunately, there is not much promotion or maintenance done by Government. I hope someday, there will be motor-able road right up to the temple.  Two big idols welcome everyone at the temple entrance and the walls of the temple are decorated with many other Hindu Gods. We saw backwaters of Panshet, Varasgaon and Khadakwasla dams. The views were just amazing and this was pure rendezvous with nature. Neelkantheshwar temple is full of beautifully crafted cement sculptures depicting various Indian mythological stories from the great Indian epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. 

Few sculptures are of:
Ashtavinayakas
Shiv Parvati Family
Ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu
Sagar Manthan
Royal Court of Indra
Fierce battle between Bhim and Duryodhan
Mace Battle between Vaali and Sugreev
Waking up Kumbhakaran from his sleep
Sant Dnyashwar, Sant Ramdas, Shivaji Maharaj stories
Many stories depiction, unknown to my knowledge

I have never seen so many sculptures in one place, this is one of the best temple I have seen. I couldn't cover all the pictures to tell the complete story. Enjoy some of the photographs to get a sense of what you are missing, if you haven’t been to this place yet. We visited this during the month of Shravan, this temple of Shiva attracts thousands of devotees in this month and on the occasion of Maha shivratri. If you are a temple or nature lover and looking for a weekend retreat near Pune in the lap of nature then Neelkantheshwar is your place. You can visit Neelkantheshwar at any point of time during the year but monsoon would be the best time.

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Prati Shirdi Sai Temple, Kiwale, Shirgaon near Pune

Quote of the post: "All actions result from thoughts, so these are thoughts that matters."

Across different regions of India, there are numerous God and Goddess and their dedicated temples in Hindu religion. Everyone can't always visit the main sacred place. So some of the Indian states are building the replicas of major Hindu temples such as:
Replicas of 12 Jyotirlingas at Siddhesvara Dham, Sikkim
Replicas of Char dham at Namchi, Sikkim
Replicas of 51 Shaktipeeth at Ambaji, Gujrat.
Replica of the most famous Tirumala Venkateswara Temple (Tirupati Balaji) at Narayanpur village near Pune.
Other replicas of famous monuments and major places of pilgrimage such as the Taj Mahal and Replica of Angkor Wat Temple in Bihar are under construction.

 

Near Pune we have replica of Shirdi Sai Baba temple named "Prati Shirdi Sai Baba Temple" near Kiwale, Shirgaon. If you have limited time and still want to visit Sai temple near Pune, this could be right place. For us, It was a short and half day trip from Pune. The way to reach to temple is pretty easy, it is near to Somatane toll plaza on NH4 (Mumbai Pune old highway). From Pune, It is reachable within 1 hour and from Mumbai within 2-3 hours depending on starting point.
Address: Prati Shirdi Sai Temple, Kiwale, Shirgaon, Maharashtra

At the time when we visited, there was not much crowd at this temple unlike Sai Temple at Shirdi. Even during the weekend, there were limited people, and within 5-10 minutes we got to see the replica of the Shirdi idol inside. No photography is allowed inside the temple, though Sai Idol is pretty visible once you are inside the temple.

After the visit don't forget to have prasadam at Anna Chatralaya. It is being served around 12-3, we had the same here as well. This place in itself is beautiful, and all the color carvings are pretty amazing all around. The temple follows most of the rules and procedures like in main Sai baba temple, Shirdi.

We were with Amit and Paresh's family during this trip, We had few photographs during the 'Parikarma Marg' & children also enjoyed this place. We relaxed here for an hour. Near the back door of the temple, there are few shops, where one can buy souvneirs and also have snacks. Just outside of the temple, and near to main entrance there are quite many shops, and small market, that make this place more lively. As per current situtation, parking space seems to be good enough. After that we proceed to "Birla Ganpati Temple" which was pretty visible from the NH4 expressway toll.

Other World Famous Replica Visit: We have visited "Mini Siam" - "The miniature world", place with most of the wonders at one place named "Mini Siam" in Pattaya, Thailand. We had a couple of hours around Mini Siam with a quick tour of most of the landmarks of Thailand and replicas around the world.

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