[Photo Feature]: Malshej - Chawand - Kukudeshwar

I have been out for a long time since monsoon and could not get a chance to compose and upload my roadtrips/rides to XBHP. Now that I am back, I am going to share my experience with you guys. This one for the people who ride and hike.

I Started off from Home and picked up Shantonu and fueled up the bike and headed towards Kalyan, where Ashwin picked up Sundeep, Prasad and Shreejith and chased us towards Kalyan. It was a nice misty morning, where I was supposed to stop for Ashwin to arrive at Tabor Ashram near Kalyan. But I did not.. The surroundings and the curvy roads just tempted me to ride more towards Murbad, where I stopped somewhere between Kalyan and Murbad and started taking photographs.. Meanwhile they arrived and started shouting at me and then they realized that they would have done the same thing, if they are on bike.


We reached Murbad and had our Morning Breakfast. We then continued the journey towards Malshej, where we started clicking photos at every beautiful curvy roads and every scenic spots. Overall ride experience through Malshej Ghat was very nice. Not to forget the huge rock boulders fallen from the mountains and blocking the roads.. Then we reached Pimplegaon, where we had a Gaon-ka-chai and had a walk towards the dam and relaxed for sometime.


About 30 minutes we relaxed, then we headed to Chawand Fort. With two people down with some physical challenges, we (Shantonu, Shreejith, Sundeep and Myself) climbed the fort, where we walked through the fully grown bushes and found only the ruins of the fort. I would say, it was a tough climb, since it has been years that we had not got a chance to trek/hike any of the mountains. But we did finally reach the peak point of Chawand fort, which is Chamund Mandhir(Temple). It took us more than an hour to climb,but only took 10 minutes to descend.


Then we went to Kukudeshwar temple, which is located 2kms away from the fort and we clicked some photos over there. The temple should have been taken by the ASI(Archaelogical Survey of India). Unfortuately, it was not under ASI. The restoration work performed on temple completely spoiled the ancient looks, since they used cement to fill the joints and there is totally a different structure that is under construction, which is again brick and cement. One cannot expect the roads to be nice, since the fort as well as the temple is located in remote village near Junnar. It was a complete off-road experience to people in the car as well as bike.


As the time passes, we felt hungry and we headed towards Junnar in search of the hotel that serves both vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian food. Even though the food was good, I had a different experience, where they stuffed my food with Honey Bee. I only realized it after swallowing a part of it. It was a nice protein diet that I had and then we are all set to return to Mumbai. We took some breaks in between and we reached home by 8PM due to heavy traffic and immovable 'Swift Dezires' on the roads. Again, I would say to any biker, the road is worth riding and the curves would ask you to throttle more...

Machines: Honda CBR250R & Toyota Etios Liva


Rider - Jegan
Pillion- Shantonu
Driver - Ashwin
Passengers - Shreejith, Prasad and Sundeep


Camera/Gadgets used:
Jegan - Nikon D5200 18-105mm & Apple iPod Touch 5G
Prasad - Samsung Galaxy Nexus
Sundeep - Google Nexus 4
Ashwin - Blackberry(BSLR :P)

Attached Images