Weekend getaways in Western Ghats around Pune: October 2013

.....Do you want to enjoy and spend a relax time with your family? Do you want to get your grandparent / parents at religious yet enjoyable and relax place? Do you need to visit a scenic place and see waterfall? If you are college students and you want to spend time together with your friends? Then Baneshwar is the right place for you to visit.

What a Baneshwar is all about – It’s a place situated in Nasarapur on the Mumbai Banglore highway. Its basically old Shiva temple surrounded by dense forest and sanctified with natural beauty. It’s a calm yet refreshing picnic spot near Pune situated in western ghats. The advantage of visiting this place how I see is, this place is reachable without any hurdle, no trekking required to enjoy the waterfall, can be visited anytime throughout the year and provides opportunity to see the nice architecture. And believe me, if you want to spend some time alone when you are stressed or need break, this is the best place for you. No noise, no disturbance just the sound of singing birds, sound of wind and sound of quietness.

You may be wondering why I am praising this place so much. To be very honest may be because I personally had noticed and experienced uniqueness of this place. And yes this is very near and around pune. One day picnic for any age group / all age group.

Now how to reach at this place from Pune. Instead of writing down much, I am putting below the Google map which guides you perfectly to reach at this place. If you have your own car / bike / bicycle, just follow the Google map direction and you reach at the place. If want to come by bus, there are MSRTC buses run at regular interval from Swargate bus depo to Nasarapur village. You can come to Nasarpur and from there by local transportation by Jeep you can reach at Baneshwar. It takes maximum 1 hour drive from Swarget.

Driving Direction –

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Whats this place is all about –

Just to be very specific on historical details, I am putting down some historical data from WIkipidia. It is a pleasant and calm place amidst a jungal. It was recently discovered and hence declared as a small bird sanctuary hosting a decent amount of rare birds with maany Crowned Hornbills seen. Baneshwar temple architecture is from the medieval period. The temple was constructed in 1749 by Peshwa Nanasaheb, son of Peshwa Bajirao I.The total cost of construction was 11,46 Rupee, 8 Aane, 6 Paise. The temple hosts an important bell which was captured by Chimaji Appa after defeating the Portuguese in the battle of Bassien in 1739. The bell has the year 1683 and a cross on it, which depicts that the bell belonged to a church and was transported as a token of victory. Same kind of Portuguese bells can be found at Bhimashankar Temple too.

Apart from this as historical place, its situated in Jungal. At the back of the temple, dense trees make a pleasant Jungal to roam around and spend relaxed time there. Many seating benches are provided below the tree shadows to sit and experience the natural Air conditioning during summer season. Also just one minute walk from there you reach at the flat surface where you along with your family or friends, can play some outdoor games. Because of dense shadow you will feel relaxed during summer too. And yes please carry your food to eat there since that will be nice experience too. There is no hotel at Baneshwar for lunch. You can get some snacks though.

For kids there are some slides created by authorities near the parking.

During Monsoon season, or post Monsoon, you must visit the beautiful waterfall flowing with full speed. This is just behind the temple. 5 minutes walk from the parking. Specialty is you can enjoy that waterfall but be careful of the potholes which are naturally created there. The waterfall sound can be heard at the parking itself, so you can imagine it flow and beauty as well. If it’s flowing full, don’t try to go other side of it from the water that could be risky. Just a caution note.

After spending your relaxed time here with friends, family, special ones you will walk awaye with refreshed mind. During return journey you pass from Nasarpur village where you can purchase fresh vegetables at reasonable rate.

Best time to visit this place is during and post monsoon. But as I said above, there are few places to visit during summer and this is one of it.

With this blog just want to appeal please do not throw any of the plastic or disposables in Jungal. Use dustbins provided and keep area clean.

Putting down here few pics, during my various visits here.

Nearby places -