Lonavla... means Lonavali..A city surrounded by caves...!!!

 A beautiful hill station just about two hours drive from Mumbai. The nearest weekend getaway for every Mumbaikar.. Monsoon makes it as crowded as Kurla station.. But seriously, Lonavla along with its twin Khandala are beautiful places for a visit during monsoon as well as winter. Lonavla was discovered by Sir Elphinstone in 1871 who was the Governor of Mumbai Presidency.

Rising sun for our welcome

We started off from Vashi on our Yamaha Bike.. Husband was riding and I was navigating through the map on the phone. On the way, we came across the Morbe dam.. the dam that supplies water to Navi Mumbai. While I was soaking up that weirdly satisfying intrinsic pleasure of feeling the wind run through my hair, all of a sudden my glares decided to fly off.. Luckily an extremely helpful stranger riding behind us stopped mid way, brought the other vehicles to an halt, fetched my glares and gave them back to me.. What a stunt...!!!   

Our first stop was the temple of Varadvinayak Ganpati at Mahad. A beautiful temple that still shows signs of the old structures.... The new sabhagriha is built around the original garbhagriha maintaining the originality of the temple. Varadvinayak Ganpati temple here is said to be one of the jagrut devasthan and is amongst the Ashta Vinayak temples in Maharashtra. The original temple was built in 17th century.

We filled up on a very light breakfast at home, so were still a little hungry and the mouth watering aroma of the missal pav outside the temple was cue enough for us to stop and devour this famous Maharashtrian dish. With our hunger satiated and our energy level boosted we headed out into what we call the Ghat roads. If you know what Ghat roads are you've probably already pictured a crazy curvy road with gradual upward or downward slope making it super scary for bike riders to go about amidst the honking and chaos of the 4 and above wheelers. It was exactly like that!! We fearlessly charged ahead using the map as sole weapon and blimey!! It lead us to a freakishly scary road  and  I had to get off the bike for the fear of falling.

Finally the destination reached. Serenity Resorts.... as the word describes was serene...oh so very peaceful..

After checking in to the room, guess what?? Hunger pangs all over again!! So we started from there in search of a place to have . But did not find anything good nearby. So had food at a roadside stall and a glass full of sugarcane juice which was deliciously sweet. Our first stop was Celebrity wax Museum wherein we clicked some crazy pics with some of the well known celebrities.  

The Funniest Statue

With the magical wand

Who awarding whom??

Wear helmet ALWAYS..

Ooooohhh...!!! moonwalk..

Karla Caves and Ekveera Devi Temple

From there on, we headed to Karla caves. Caves are situated on a hill which made it terribly cumbersome to ride up as the slope was extremely steep. Coming down though was a piece of cake on neutral gear… Karla caves are Indian Buddhist rock-cut caves dating back to 2^nd century BC to 5^th century AD. The caves are adorned with beautiful sculptures some of which are in ruin. There is a Chaityagruha or prayer hall which is about 45 mtrs long and 14 mtrs high. The hall has several pillars on both sides with different inscriptions and sculptures on each. One can see a colored painting on the wall which is intact even after so many years. The centre of the hall has a stupa like structure.

The ceiling at the entrance is covered with huge honeycombs which almost seem to be protecting the structure. Outside the caves, there is a temple of ‘Ekveera Aai’ worshipped mostly by Koli community. One can also see a Tulsi Vrundavan, a small idol of Lord Ganesha and a pillar which resembles Ashokastambha.  

Ashokstambha Pillar

Tulsi Vrundavan

Elephant motifs

Chaityagruha

Inscription on pillar

Pillars

Ganesh idol

Honeycomb at the entrance

Oil Painting on wall

Yummilicious Choco Fudge

On our way back towards the hotel, we purchased Chocolate Fudge which is like yummmmm… Each time I travel Pune side or I know somebody travelling, I make sure I get Chocolate Fudge. Because it is one of the most delicious things you can make of chocolate.

We then headed towards Lake Tungarli which was not at all what I had imagined it to be. It was quite small as the water had dried up. We gorged on our chocolate fudge enjoying the sunset at the point, clicked pics and headed back to the hotel for dinner and a good night’s sleep.

Sunset

Tungarli Lake 

Lake with the backdrop of mountain range

We woke up the next morning looking forward to our adventure for the day. On the itinerary were Lohagad Ford and Bhaja caves. The day was very hot and it was scorching. We were almost baked by the time we finished with the Lohagad Fort. But the fort is quite a delight for the eyes. Wish we had done the trip during monsoon.  

The literal meaning of Lohagad Fort is Iron Fort. The actual date of construction of this fort is not known but certain additions were made to the fort in about 18^th century. Lohagad rises to an elevation of 1,033 m above sea level. The fort was under the Maratha regime for the majority of time, with a short period of 5 years under the Mughal empire. The fort was occupied by several dynasties during different periods of time: Satavahanas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Yadavas, Bahamanis, Nizams, Mughals and Marathas. Shivaji Maharaj used it for keeping his treasury. This fort was used to keep the loot from Surat. Later in Peshwa time Nana Phadnavis used this fort for living for some time.

Strong wall of Fort

Steps to fort

The climb to the fort was breathtaking with a beautiful view of Pavane Dam and Sahyadri mountain range. The Fort was under restoration process as steps at the base were being rebuilt. A gang of monkeys was the first to greet us at the entrance followed by cows. The trek upwards was quite tough owing to the afternoon sun. Looking at the fort, one can see its vast expanse and the sovenir of Maratha empire, a Saffron Flag hoisted atop. Also, what we noticed was that the original steps were in place while the ones constructed later of concrete and cement were already withered. This shows the sorry state of redevelopment and heritage protection works taken by our government.

Fort as seen from the base

View of Pawane Dam

The Fort has 4 main doors, the first being Ganesh Darwaja, second is Narayan Darwaja, third is Hanuman Darwaja and the last is Maha Darwaja. There are several canons on the fort. My husband tried to lift one of those but seeing the effort he was putting I could imagine how heavy it must be. It made us think how many people were required to operate those. We also came across Cellars for storing grains on the way to the top.

Upon entering the fort, first you get to see the saffron flag waving in the clear blue sky. There is an old Darga on the fort which was supposedly a tomb of some Mughal. There are several water tanks on the fort one of which is octagonal and another is hexadecagonal. The hexadecagonal tank was used to bathe the elephants. Also, there are several fresh water reservoirs. 

Steps 

Gate

Cellar for grain storage

The peak of the Fort

Narayan Darwaja

Ganesh darwaja

Sahyadri mountain range

Effort to lift the canon

Vinchu Kata

Dargah

View of  the Fort from above 

Shivling

There is a small temple of Lord Shiva in the Fort area outside which there is a Shiv-Ling. Lastly, towards the other end of fort, there is Vinchu Kata which is named so because of its structure that resembles scorpion tail. By the time we reached its starting point, we were very hungry and it had become so sunny that we thought of returning back. We reached the base of the fort and entered the small food stall where we had hot maggi and nimbu paani. Hot maggi can be a sweet relief for people whenever hunger attacks, or when you don't know how to cook, or when you don't have anything handy. We also bought Lays (Cream n onion only) to munch on the way. 

We had another place on the list to visit: Bhaja caves. These caves are on the way towards Lonavla but on a different road. The road actually was what it looks in the map... 

Soon, we reached Bhaja caves and we were so tired walking that we had to drag ourselves up the steps to reach them.The caves are 2nd century rockcut Buddhist caves belonging to the Hinayana Buddhism sect in Maharashtra.

Bhaja caves

Chaityagruha

Rooms

Stupa

The cave has a Chaityagruha with a stupa at the center. There are several inscriptions and carvings in the Chaityagruha. These caves have several rooms like structure on ground level and above. At the other end, there are 14 stupas which are relics of resident monks who died at Bhaja. The stupas have the names and titles of those monks carved on it.  Bhaja caves are in a ruined condition and some part of it is non accessible. 

From Bhaja caves, we rode back to Lonavla main area. By the time, we reached back, again hunger took over and we went straight to Mcdonald's to hog burger. This is in the main market area. I also found fresh chocolate fudge here which was tastier than the packed ones. But these are available only in the market area. 

From then on, we went back to the room as our legs were aching terribly. The rest of the day was to rest. We simply relaxed in the room, watched movies. Late in the evening, we strolled in the resort. My favorite place in the resort was this swing... I decided then and there to ask my husband to gift this one for me. Hehehe..

Next morning, we left back for Mumbai and this time we did not miss the road and reached home safely.

 

Through the pages of History...

Through the pages of history

On the impulse, we headed to Diwar after cancelling the plan to watch a movie. And the decision was superb. Wounding our way through the Old Portuguese style houses at Ribander, we went all the way to Old Goa as we did not know about the ferry from Ribander. It was afternoon and the small fishing boats were anchored at the jetty while their occupants enjoyed afternoon nap in the breeze.

A fisherman with his net

We crossed the river and went on the straight road xahead covered with paddy fields and small lakes on both sides of the road. Some people were fishing at the roadside with their fishing rod while some were spreading their net in the water. We waited here for some closer look. Up on the hill, we spotted a church and made our way towards it. The Church of Our Lady of Compassion is located on a hillock and can be seen from the Ribander-Old Goa road. Church has a beautiful Corinthian structure and one can see Old Goa, Ribander, Chorao, Narvem from this place. The Church has a cemetery to the right hand side and a cross at the front and a huge banyan tree at the left side.

      

        

Cross in front of the church

     

Church of Our Lady of Compassion 

Shaktivinayak Ganpati Temple

From the cross, one can see some temples below. The temples are at 2 minutes walk from the church. There are 3 temples, two devoted to Shaktivinayak Ganpati and one to Maruti. The temple can be reached from road via a flight of steps at the bottom of which is a Banyan Tree. The land for the temple is donated by Mario Gomes Pereira. The history says that the place where the Church is located was a site of Ganesha Temple which was destroyed to build the present church. Under such circumstances, the land donated by a church follower sounded somewhat funny to me.

Maruti Temple

The entire place is surrounded by big trees. Next to the temple, we found a Jamun tree and we sat under the tree eating jamuns and enjoying the breeze. Most of the houses here are Old Portuguese style and they are all well maintained. There are numerous old constructions in this area; most of which belonged to catholic community. I wish I could have a look in these houses only to see the architecture and the interiors of olden times.

From there on, we headed towards the village. We came across another temple of Ganesha. The road wound through paddy fields on one side and beautiful old fashioned houses with big balcaós on the other side. The ladies of the house were sitting on the balcaó enjoying their evening tea chatting with neighbors. There were some boys playing soccer in the field hooting to the passerby people. There was a small road which led to a lane with all the colorful houses and lovely gardens. The lane ended with a jetty like structure which was used to dock the fishing boats of the residents. Some people were getting ready to put their boat out into the river while kids were playing in the nearby area. There also stood an abandoned Prawns factory. Yummmm....!!!!

              

Pond at Paddy fields

     

Kids playing on the road

A jetty

We took a u-turn and came back to the village where we found a bakery and stopped there to enjoy some Goan delicacies. The bakery served various Goan sweets such as Bebinca, Pinaaq, Balls and so on. After giving a little joy to our tummies, we headed towards some River side Garden. But not able to find a thing, we went still ahead towards Devayaa- Ayurveda & Nature Cure Center. It is 60 rooms Alcon Victor property located at the river and has scenic views. The road ended at a ferry point and the ferry had just arrived at the jetty and once again on the impulse, we boarded the ferry.

A beautiful Portuguese style house

A scenic place with Devayaa Resort in the backdrop

An uncle parked his bike next to us and no knowledge about our destination compelled us to ask uncle where the ferry was headed to. Uncle gave us some precious information about the place we were at. We were headed towards yet another island Wanshim. Also known as Vanshir, the name struck as something that’s similar to border. As if Vanshir was the border of Diwar. Uncle is a Deputy President of the Shaktivinayak temple and he reconfirmed the saying of the history that there existed a temple of Ganesh at the present site of the Church Cemetery which was demolished. The idol of Ganesha was moved to Khandola near Marcela back then because of Portuguese destruction of Hindu deities. The idol has now developed some cracks due to withering and hence can be found kept separately at the Khandola Ganesh Temple.  Before conversion, Navelkar & Kamat families were prominent in Diwar. Mario Gomes Pereira was a converted individual belonging to the Kamat family. He never visited church in his entire life. He had frequent dreams wherein he could see Shri Ganesha sitting on a rock and asking him for something. Finally, he donated his land right next to the church so that Ganesha Temple can be erected near its original place.

Vanshir ferry jetty and a cross in the river

Church at Vanshir

Uncle also told about his village Vanshir which housed approximately 30 families altogether. Upon crossing the ferry, we found 10 houses towards left and 20 houses towards right. We also came across some abandoned houses occupants of which might have shifted to a place better equipped with all the necessary amenities. The village has a chapel & a beautiful church located on the riverside.  The entire village got over before it even started. The people of the village of Vanshir saw Tar road in 1995. Before 1995, instead of road there was a way made from mud and it came to me as a surprise that people of this village are very well educated. In olden times, kids made way through this mud-stricken road with their clothes, slippers and books in plastic and swam across the river or travelled in small canoes to get to school or college. Ferry services started fairly recently. People travel to faraway places such as Panaji in search of job and they have to cross 2 ferries..one from Vanshir to Diwar and Second from Diwar to Ribander. It’s a real tough task for people staying here. 

                               

                                                                                        

We also heard that the entire land of Vanshir is being purchased by one of the business tycoons by fooling the old people and taking their thumb impressions. He is planning a build on shore casino on the said land. The people of this village are fighting a case in the court to save their land.

We left Vanshir with proud hearts thinking about our Goan brothers & sisters who stay so far and are more educated than many others who do not study although provided with all the facilities. We coursed back through the roads of Diwar searching for the way to go back to the ferry.