AWAY FROM MUMBAI CITY (Maharashtra).

 With the name MUMBAI CITY ,we often associate ,its happening lifestyle, Bollywood, big shopping mall culture, bustling traffic & lot of difficulties during rainy season...But ,still I say ,"its the best place in India to LIVE Life on your own terms".... People coming to mumbai ,stick to the city's inner circuit ...But as one drive out of the island city of mumbai ...

Kharghar International Golf Course(Navi-Mumbai).

Navi-mumbai is awesome place----planned well & spreaded across. As one drive out of Navimumbai , Alibaug is the nearest beach town that welcomes everyone to its shores...Nagoan beach,Mandwa beaches are too good.............Further down as U move on towards Murud & Rewdanda.......one will be left spellbound to witness the untouched beauty of the Konkan coast. Before ,one enters Murud ,they'll come across the white sand beach -Kashid beach( now-adays ,lot of watersport activities are taking place there)....its quite a flat beach................. Murud is a tiny town ,living in peace with the beauty of the sea. The Janjira fort in the midst of the sea , is also great to visit in tiny boats that sail across the sea.... Further down,one can visit Harihareshwar & Shrivardhan....At Harihareshwar,there's the famous Shiva temple & welknown as Dakshin Kashi....After Raigad distt. ends ,its the land of the Alphanso Mangoes(RATNAGIRI)............The famous, GANPATIPHULE BEACH,should always be in everyones itenary ,if intending to visit Mumbai.Since, I had been to Bondi beach( Sydney-Australia)...I felt , Ganpatiphule beach is far more better than Bondi , only it doesn't have a company to publicise; There many good hotels for those who intend to explore Ratnagiri ,which is complimented with high western ghats range as well the Arabian sea coast.

Ratnagiri beach.

Ratnagiri sea front.

Ganpatiphule beach.

GANPATIPHULE BEACH.

Khandala ghat.

BHIMASHANKAR JYOTHIRLING (Maharashtra).

Bhimashankar Jyothirling.

As we planned to visit Bhimashankar jyothirling, our first concern was the route/road & about the drive off to the region. This Jyothirling  is situated in Maharashtra but the route is offbeat( better to avoid during heavy rains)....

The drive across the Khed ghats.

Narayangoan.

Mancher

Salgaon-the  last village after which the Bhimashankar ghats begins.

    We started off for the place quick early in the morning from our home in Navi-mumbai,because we wanted to avoid the truck jam atChakan phata...It took us almost 6 hrs drive to the place...On the way there 3 imp. temples (Ashtavinayak),which we didn't include in our Itenary....But one mistake we made was we didn't take along sufficient food items for the journey ... There's hardly any good eatteries on the way ; So, need to be prepared before visiting the place orelse ,will have to continue hungry....The drive is just awesomethru' the Shadydri range ....but road conditions are not that good; & onces ontop of the range ,its better to drive safely as we came across lot many accidents on the range(just smashed vehicles)..There's 2 jungle resorts ontop of the range( but requires prior booking).....After reaching the temple site ,its 300 steps downhill to the shrine & quite slippery...But the surrounding is too good to enjoy,before standing on the line for the Darshan. Now a days Pujas are restricted except darshan only. On the way, Bhimashankar Dam is also a beautiful site to enjoy.

The view from top of Bhimashankar ghats.

The drive continues thru' the Bhimashankar ghats.

Bhimashankar Dam

The beautiful Shadydri range (Maharashtra).

***** Better to be here ,soon after the rains are over in this region.