Yawateshwar

Yawateshwar ranges is a must visit place in rainy season. These ranges are perhaps visible from every house in satara. Here is a view from my home.


On last Sunday, I went there with my friends in a car (thank god, because it was raining like mad & I could take photos from inside the car). To go to this place first you need to reach 'Bogada' (tunnel). I've taken a pic of view of Ajinkyatara from there. You should take a right just before bogada to continue to Yawateshwar. If you pass through the bogada you can take left to go to Ganesh temple or right to go to Sajjangad, Thoseghar fall, Chalakewadi etc. Well of course we took the first right and went to Yawateshwar.







The road is not easy one. You have to be careful when a big vehicle comes towards you. Sometimes it is a bus or some reckless truck, then you've to take care. But even more than that you should keep an eye open for people, dogs, buffaloes & 2/3-wheelers.


But the driving on this road is otherwise very pleasant. You can see numerous small waterfalls on your left side. You can't help but to stop near some mini-waterfall and have some fun (as we did).


Here is a view of Yawateshwar and around when we had stopped midway. Notice a small house in the photo. It is literally built on the edge of the hill-top. It must be hell of fun living there. Must be like living in clouds. (I really envy the owner of this house)





On yawateshwar ranges, you can find a couple of temples. The first one (nearer from satara) is Sai-baba temple. Then as you go ahead, after one or two kms you'll have a huge Shiva temple on your left. It is called Yawateshwar Mandir, so the name Yawateshwar for the ranges. As you keep on going on the road you'll see a small temple on your left (Ganesh temple) where you can park your vehicle and roam around. You'll find huge tableland on both the sides of the hill which is really awesome.






On the left side (west direction), there is Urmodi Dam and Kanher Dam on the right hand side. Here is a photo of Kanher Dam. The water was full. It was displaying beautiful colors.


Thankfully it stopped raining for some time and we could sit on the edge side and relax. The road by which we had come was now in clouds. You can see a couple of waterfalls in the pic if you zoom. It looks amazing. You really feel like not leaving this place. No one can help getting mesmerized by the beauty of nature here. (I could hear lyrics of my favorite song 'Garwa'.)



But of course, you can't have happiness in your life forever. We headed back to satara after sometime. On the way back, Satara was looking beautiful as always amidst the clouds...


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Ajinkyatara Again

6 July Morning

Today I went to Ajinkyatara again with few friends, this time from Maruti Temple side. Recently the Municipality has installed the name boarding on the top of Ajinkyatara. Here is a view of this. You'll be surprised to know that this photo was taken from the terrace of my home (I live near S.T.Stand), with full optical zoom of course. Next photo is taken when I actually reached bottom of the fort at the end of journey. When you see from there bottom, part of letters gets covered.



So, we started at around 9 o'clock. You can hardly see sun these days, sky is always cloudy so you can leave for the fort anytime. This is how stairs to Maruti Temple look like.


Here is Maruti temple and garden near it (which I had mentioned in previous blog also).




The stairs end at a pukka road (see pic). This road will bring you to the front gate of the fort. It is a very nice road, trees on both the side. There is a shiva temple on the way.





On the way I decided to take photos of few familiar places in Satara. So here is Jala-Mandir (where Maharaje lives), Rajwada and New English School (my school!).



This is the front gate. When you enter the gate, on the right hand side you can find this board which gives history of Ajinkyatara. (click on photos to zoom)



After this you follow the stairs for 2-3 mins. You'll reach on the top of fort. There are two temples Maruti (the 1 in back, this is a big one with shed) and Shiva.



If you follow the route on south edge of fort, at one point of time you'll find another ancient shiva temple (Saptarshi) on your left hand side. This is perhaps the most ancient temple on this fort. Now it is renovated so it looks good. A very divine place.





Previously I had talked about Southern Entrance (Dakshin Darwaja). Well, there are actually two gates here and stairs in between. One of the gate faces west and other one faces east. (For first pic, you'll probably have to zoom by clicking it to notice the gate/dwar)




After this I went to Untachi Path hill range while climbing down. We were sitting there for sometime when I noticed something. Far away on the other side of Satara it was raining. (click photo to zoom). Actually it was raining at two places/hills. At one of them (right one) it was raining although there was sun. I have also captured a small insect and a flower. Really nature is truly amazing and beautiful at micro as well as macro level. :-)






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Exploring Ajinkyatara

28 June, 2009

On a fine morning of Sunday I decided to go to Ajinkyatara. It is my favorite place since childhood days. I used to go here with father every now and then. Ajinkyatara is particularly beautiful in Rains (so is Satara). This season rains are delayed but still this place is looking nice.

I started walking from the side of Guruwar Bag (Park). There are few stairs and then a small road which leads to back side of Ajinkyatara where I would join the Road coming from Char Bhinti Side. Before I reached there I realized that how green and fresh Satara looks in the morning. Here is one pic of Satara and one of Ajinkyatara.




Also, on this way there are two small temples. One is particularly nice due to its shape. It is a Shiva Temple and so, has the shape on 'Pinda'. Another good view of Satara city from here.








I visited the famous Maruti temple (as I wanted to cover all the temples). Everybody will know this temple because it is on the standard path. This is a nice area as there is small park behind the temple. Just at the end of this park, there is a small Shiva's Pinda. The Nandi (Bull) was previously not there. My father and his friends brought it to this place some time back.







On the back side of Ajinkyatara there is Devi Temple of Magali Devi. It's a nice, spiritual place. There is also a renovated temple of Ganesha near it. Devotees pray to Devi here every morning and evening. A must visit temple. Landscape is also nice here. They call it 'Khalachi Magalai' meaning Magali Devi temple near the base since there is another one on the top. We'll see that also soon... From the back side of this Devi temple, you can start climbing the fort.








The way is somewhat steep and many trees along the way. So, it gives a good feel. This will lead us to 'Dakshin Darwaja' (South Gate). On the way you can find trees with colorful leaves. Thank god, the Sun was not hot that day. I was very comfortable and not exhausted. You'll find a small hill range to your left as you travel on this way. This is called 'Untachi Path'- Back of a Camel since it looks like it :-) I have been there once. Little adventure. People who love trekking can like going there. Doesn't take much time. Sky and clouds were also spectacular.









This is how the Dakshin Darwaja looks as you approach it. It's a road known to fewer people. People usually arrive from front Gate/ Dwar. This could be a nice change sometime.




Ajinkyatara has in all 7 lakes on the top. Here is one of them. There were these reptiles roaming around there. Interesting creatures.




This is the Devi Temple I was talking about. It's called Magalai Devi as I had said. At the back side you can see the big boarding of Ajinkyatara (in Devnagari) written. It looks very nice from the city. Magalai Temple was renovated some time ago, now this area is very nice. Oh yes, and you can see many colorful and beautiful flowers on the fort.




This is one of the two Shiva Temples on the top of fort. I think this one is called Ratneshwar, not sure. Interesting part is you can see colorful clothes hung on a rope in the back. This is a part of ritual by Tibetans (who live in the city). They come here and hang this colorful clothes between two trees.

It feels awesome to roam around on the top of fort. See this one particular tree I noticed. It's growing horizontally.





From the South side of Fort top you can see Chalkewadi (Wind mills) and Sajjan gad also. In the photo, notice the shadows of the clouds which looks so fantastic. I used zooming capacity of my cam to to take a pic of wind mills. By the way, here I have really compressed the pics as I had to upload so many of them. But believe me all this pics are amazing when I view them on my comp since they were taken at full resolution on 10 Mega pixels.


Also, there are two main towers on the fort. I guess they are for radio and TV. There is security around them. And believe me, they are quite huge and tall.



These are the final photos on the way back. I love this photo of Satara. You can see every part of Satara from here. It is a great time pass to come here and hang around. This view of Satara and the hill ranges around makes climbing all the way up here worthwhile. :-)






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