Travelogue - Trip to Nashik - Day 1

Travelogue - Nashik Diaries - Day 1

At the beginning of the year, we are often asked to choose between a few optional holidays, so this time around I chose 8th March 2024. It was Mahashivratri as well as it was International Women's day. It had been a while when just me and my family had travelled to a place to stay and explore.

By the time it was the month of March 2024 and the date of 8th March approaching I had to get the booking done for the hotel stay. Usually before going to bed I used to search through some good hotels and locations which would suit out travel. On the night of 5th March we booked the Ensrise by Sayaji Property - https://sayajihotels.com/our-hotels/enrise-nashik/ 

This is a 4 Star property in Nashik and the location of the hotel is convenient to the tourist places nearby. It was a 2 Nights and 3 Days stay with breakfast included. Overall the stay cost us around 12K.

Vroom Vroom we were all set to leave for Nashik on the morning of 8th March 2024.

Travel Day - 8th March

I had discussed of my travel plans with my office colleagues and one of them was a native of Nashik and had suggested a few places. The 1st place to visit on our list was Bhagur. This is the birthplace of the great freedom fighter Swatantra Veer Savarkar or to us known as Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. For breakfast we were going to stop at a place which I knew from my trekking days and it was a place ahead of Khed Ghat on the Pune-Nashik Highway. If you are travelling from PCMC area it would be better to take the route through Talwade as it will get you to the Nashik highway early and ahead of Chakan so that you can miss a lot of traffic.

We took our first halt at Panchratna Hotel just ahead of Khed Ghat. There we ordered some South Indian breakfast of Masala Dosa, Uttappam, Chai and Sandwich. Since we had the kid along everything moves at the pace that they want. Usually my kid is up for travel and exploration as well as he likes to visit hotels with us to have food not home made. We spent about 30-40 mins there, my wife gave the necessary feedback on the sandwich which was extremely dry and inedible and the hotel staff obliged and reduced the amount from the actual bill.

With the expansion of the Nashik Highway, it has become easier and faster to travel on the route which was earlier marred with traffic snarls, accidents and delays due to heavy truck movement. The govt has thought through the route and had craved out various by-pass along the route which freed up traffic happening at crticial junctions like Rajgurunagar, Narayangaon and further.

Veer Savarkar Wada @Bhagur⚡🏠🚩🚦🚶

Our first destination was Bhagur. We reached Bhagur at around 1pm in the afternoon. The loaction is easily identifiable on Google Maps.

Board Showcasing the location of Veer Savarkar Wada

This is a small town but the location to the Veer Savarkar Wada is well directed.

Board showcasing the Veer Savarkar Wada

As soon as we entered the Wada, we see a large and very lively portrait of Veer Savarkar. The eyes still speak to you even though the photograph is timeless. I asked for permission whether we can click the photos within the Wada and the management in the Wada obliged.

The poem written by Veer Savarkar

 We explored through the house and took a lot of pics which we would not be able to see in our lifetime. Some of the images displayed put us back in time and I was trying to visualize what it would have been during the time of struggle of independence.

Family picture of Veer Savarkar

Place where Veer Savarkar Pledged his life for Bharat

Goddess before whom Veer Savarkar took the pledge

A very young stoic Veer Savarkar

Various portraits of Veer Savarkar through his life-time

The clan tree of Veer Savarkar

He was sentenced to 50 years in prison but he came out victorious

Seeing through the eyes and visualizing some of the images raised hairs on my hand, the emotions of being there was a different feeling. Its a freedom fighters place who selflessly worked on the single goal of independence by hook or crook and he meant that.

The official wada which was Veer Sawarkar's residing place had a lot of architectural geniuses to keep anyone intending to arrest him would end up in the wrong floor and long places and this would give him time to escape.

Small Doors to Escape into the oblivion.

Post visiting the birthplace, we were off to Nashik City. We had booked ourselves in Enrise by Sayaji where we were to stay for 3 days and 2 nights. We were to check-in anytime after 12pm. We reached Nashik City around 3pm in the afternoon and were off to the room for some rest. Kid and me were up and Wifey was fast asleep. Kid wanted to have some snack so we travelled few kilometers to a snack center and had Masala Dosa. There I saw a scene out of the Night Manager series on Hotstar. Rungta Shopping Hub was the name of the large property, here is the pic for reference.

In the evening we had plans to visit the Swami Narayan Temple as well as visit the Kalaram temple. It was Mahashivratri as well as International Women's day and I had a plan for us three to celebrate that in a good restaurant in Nashik. Next stop was Swami Narayan Temple.

Visit to Swami Narayan & Kalaram Temple🛕📿ॐ🙏🙏

Sir please go back, 3/4ths are not allowed into the temple, thats what the guard said and told my wife and kid to go ahead and go inside the temple premise by the time I travelled back to the Hotel and get changed.

Kid and Wifey at Swami Narayan Temple

The temple premise was very pleasant and we also offered milk and water to the Shiv Lingam as it was the night of Mahashivratri. The temple also has a small garden in the backyard and has some visuals of various Hindu beliefs like Samudra Manthan & Ram Sita Lakshman Vanwaas.

Ram Sita and Lakshman depiction of Vanwaas

Post this we visited the Kalaram Temple.

Kalaram Temple

Post the temple visit we were off to a small family celebration as it was Women's day, I had searched through the day to check out places which would be cozy for all of us. The place we visited was Tales & Spirit Bristo. https://www.talesnspirits.com/order/nashik/ Comfy place for couples, family and friends. One of the best ambience I have ever visited.

With this we ended the Day 1 in Nashik. It was refreshing. Stay tuned for Day 2 and Day 3

Travelogue - Trip to Nashik - Day 3

The plan for the day was to visit 3 places - Trimbakeshwar, Anjaneri and HAL museum and then return back to Pune.

Drive to Trimbaskeshwar🚗🚦🚩

The checkout time at the hotel was 10.30am and we called in the reception that we would be late by 30 mins. After the morning breakfast at the hotel we checked out of the hotel. We first drove to Trimbakeshwar. The distance between the hotel we stayed and Trimbakeshwar is 30 kms which can travel within 45 mins. While on the way we saw the Harihar fort on the way which has been famous with trekkers as well as instagramers :) 

The fort Harihar seen at a distance

A Little better view of Harihar

Further on the way to Trimbakeshwar you also see a famous place of Anjaneri. It holds a lot of historical & religious significance. As per the Hindu mythology, Anjaneri is the birthplace of Lord Hanuman. We reached Trimbakeshwar at around 12.30pm. There is a entry fee for vehicles and opportunist people approached us saying, the current road is one-way, in case you want to go till the temple then you can pay some amount and go wrong side. We were not interested. We then reached the parking spot and it was shabby and unclean. The premises outside the temple was very unclean & shabby and that was the state of 1 of the 12 Jotirlingas. We decided to take mukh darshan and leave soon as the heat was unbearable and the crowd and the shabbiness of the place outside made us not wait for a long time there, kid too was a little cranky as well. There was rush to visit the temple and couple of days ago it was Mahashivratri.

At Trimbakeshwar

Drive to Anjaneri🚗🚦🚩

Anjaneri foothills is 10 kms from Trimbakeshwar. Its a climb and the vehicle can reach the foothills of the temple. The road though is for offroad vehicles as it is not yet complete and is dusty road.

Anjaneri Mountain

The drive to the foothill is challenging but for someone who loves driving, you will enjoy and in sometime I believe the road would be completed with tar. Anjaneri is a forest area and protected site. We reached the foothills at 1.30pm. As soon as we parked the car we were surrounded by a group of curious Macaque monkeys. How apt that you are at the foothills of Anjaneri the birth place of Lord Hanuman and you are greeted by monkeys. The monkeys were curious to know if we had any food and were also interested in the toy that the kid had in the hand.

We checked with the Forest Guard as to what would be the time taken to trek and reach the top, the guard mentioned around 2-3 hrs if we keep walking non-stop. He also mentioned that there are no water places on the way and with kid, it would take a little longer. Listening to the experienced words of the forest guard we decided not to trek to the temple atop and visit the next time we come to Nashik. We had lemon water at near by store run by young kids and then we were on our way, driving down the Anjaneri hill. 

Anjaneri Temple beyond this mountain

Trek around the hill to reach the temple

Wife mentioned to me that at the start of the road there is a Praati Hanuman temple which we can visit. So we decided to wait and visit the temple.

So it was a wrap and we then headed to the HAL museum which was on the Agra highway, but after reaching the place we realized the place was closed after 2pm. So after spending 3 days and 2 nights in Nashik, it was a wrap of the small yet fulfilling trip. Thanks for you time.