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. :-)






P.S. Click on respective photo to zoom it and view. Please do comment.
You can see all the photos on this blog at my picasa album