[manas27587]

How the road on the Aurangabad-aundha nagonath- parli stretch.
Plan on doing a run next week.
Day 1-
Mumbai-Triambakeshwar-Grishneshwar
Stay at aurangabad.

Day 2
Aurangabad - aundha nagonath - Parli Vaijnath
Again back to aurangabad overnight stay
(Please suggest alternatives)

Day 3
Aurangabad - Bhimashankar (Maybe Shirdi on the way)
and back to mumbai or stay in Pune and back to mumbai next day.

[Irish]

Hi All,

Need your inputs on the latest road conditions and route plan for covering few jyotirlingas. My friend is expected to start a journey from Bhopal (MP).



Day 1
Bhopal - Indore - Jhabua - Nadiad - 545 kms


Day 2
Nadiad - Rajkaot - Jamnagar - Dwarka - 456 kms


Day 3
Dwarka - Bet Dwarka - Mithapur- Nageshwar Jyotirling - Porbandar - SOMNATH - 301 kms


Day 4
Somnath - Junagadh - Gondal - Vadodara - Ankleshwar - 548 kms


Day 5
Ankleshwar - Navsari - Vapi - Charoti - Trimbak - 309 kms


Day 6
Trimbak - Nashik - Sinnar - Sangamner - Manchar - Bhimashankar - 235 kms


Day 7
Bhimashankar - Manchar - Ahmednagar - Aurangabad - Grishneshwar - 305 kms


Day 8
Grishneshwar - Aurangabad - Beed - Parli Vaijnath - 256 kms


Day 9
Parli - Gangakhed - Loha - NANDED = 107 kms
Nanded - Basmat - AUNDHA NAGNATH = 68.5 kms


Day 10
Aundha Nagnath - Srisailam - 583 kms

Day 11
Srisailam - Bhopal

Cheers!
Irish

[abhi_tjet]

Originally Posted by Irish

Hi All,

Nageshwar Jyotirling - Porbandar -


Nanded - Basmat - AUNDHA NAGNATH = 68.5 kms

Hey Irish, might be OT:

Isn’t the Aundha Nagnath (MH)and Nageshwar(GJ) Jyotirlingas considered same? I mean , as per belief, some consider the one in MH to be one of Jyotirlingas and some consider the Nageshwar temple in GJ.

Your friend can accordingly shorten his list

[condor]

Has anyone been to Vaidyanath dham at Deogarh, JH recently ?

Need info and contacts for puja at the temple.

[KD007]

Originally Posted by condor

Has anyone been to Vaidyanath dham at Deogarh, JH recently ?

Need info and contacts for puja at the temple.

I am from the place. Will dm you the puja contact.

Any other info needed I can find out and let you know.

Sent you the panda ji contact number

[Rajesh K R]

Hello,

I was planning to do Mumbai-Bhimashankar-Nashik-Trimbakeshwar-Mumbai in Sept 1st week.

I am from BLR and do not know the road conditions of the above places.

If i get the prevailing road conditions in the above stretches - it will be a great help in deciding the trip. I am still in a dilemma whether should i drive my own car or hire a cab for the above trip. I drive a Elite Hyundai i20 Crdi.

i have heard bad reviews about Nashik - Mumbai highway, particularly at the entry points of Mumbai - bad roads, jams etc.

looking for suggestions / reccomendations from the guys who have done this recently.

thanks in advance !!

[shrinz.vivek]

Hi all. Im planning to do a Rajasthan + Jyotirlings trip this month end from Bangalore.
We will be driving our 2012 Innova. We have three drivers including me. So more than 12 hrs of driving/day wont be a problem.
I have drafted the plan as below.
Requesting all of your expert advice to flag any red flags. More importantly I need your suggestions about the time required to complete darshans at the jyotirlingas. We will not take up any special rituals anywhere and we are open for paying for official special/VIP darshans or advance online booking if available.

[ravib]

Originally Posted by shrinz.vivek

Hi all. Im planning to do a Rajasthan + Jyotirlings trip this month end from Bangalore.
We will be driving our 2012 Innova. We have three drivers including me. So more than 12 hrs of driving/day wont be a problem.
I have drafted the plan as below.
Requesting all of your expert advice to flag any red flags. More importantly I need your suggestions about the time required to complete darshans at the jyotirlingas. We will not take up any special rituals anywhere and we are open for paying for official special/VIP darshans or advance online booking if available.

Attachment 2553383

Starting from Pune, it takes 3 hours to reach Bhimashankar and you can special entry darshan and complete it in 1 hour. However, after Bhimashankar , driving to Triambakeshwar and having darshan is not possible/extremely difficult too tight. Budget for 3 to 4 hours even in special entry darshan in Triambak.

Ujjain is very organized so should not be a problem. Book special entry tickets well in advance in online portal.
Driving from Ujjain to Omkareshwar will take 3 to 4 hours easily , given the road construction work between Indore to Omkareshwar and will slow you down. And on top of it, it is absolute chaos in Omkareshwar and totally disorganized and no queue management at all. So it is highly unpredictable how many hours it takes for you to have darshan. Best case 2 to 3 hours, but again it depends.

Grishneshwar is not difficult and there is no special entry darshan there. Only regular queue is available and may take about 1 to 2 hours for darshan. However, Ellora caves is just a km away and walkable distance from Grishneshwar jyotirlinga. So you should include that in the plan and add additional 2 to 3 hours to see Ellora caves.

I don't think you can cover other 2 jyotirlingas in same day. So would need another day.

On an additional note, even though you are 3 people driving, as the days go , with an average of ~400 kms drive per day, you will be more tired in last few days or after first 5 to 6 days , generally speaking. So it will be even more tiring to cover more and would need more rest. So think about it and plan accordingly.

Safe travels and have great darshan.

-Ravi

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by shrinz.vivek

Hi all. Im planning to do a Rajasthan + Jyotirlings trip this month end from Bangalore.

Entire RJ phase makes no sense. You are just driving from one place to another, except for Udaipur where you are spending an insufficient 1 day.

Udaipur does not have great connecting roads to Jaisalmer. We did onward from Ahmedabad-Palanpur-Barmer-Jaisalmer and return Jaisalmer-Jodhpur-Beawar-Jaipur.

I would say scrap RJ phase and get atleast Somnath in and explore Saurashtra region of GJ. Deoghar-Varanasi seems a bit too aggressive.

Even with your current destinations. I would say start from Hyderabad end and do Parli, Aundha Naganath. Take Samruddhi to Aurangabad for Grishneshwar. Again Samruddhi to Sinnar then Manchar-Bhimashankar. Back to Nasik and Triambak.

From Triambak, you can either go GJ for Somnath via Jawahar-Charoti-Baroda. Or Nasik-Dhule-Dhamnod for Omkareshwar. Omkar-Dhamnod is good, don't attempt any other Google Map shortcut to Indore-Mahakal. Indore-Ujjain is excellent 4-lane SH.

I don't remember special entries in Bhimashankar, Triambak, Grishneshwar, Somnath, Omkar and Mahakal.

Originally Posted by ravib

And on top of it, it is absolute chaos in Omkareshwar and totally disorganized and no queue management at all.

Amen. The mess starts right from parking your car. We went in November 2020 when there was no crowd at all. And yet Omkar was a mess.

For the amount of crowd it attracts. Somnath has been the most organized among the Jyotirlingas I visited. We were in and out in 30 minutes in December holiday season.

Grishneshwar wasn't so crowded on a June weekday evening.

Triambak took 2.5 hours around Xmas time, which is acceptable.

Mahakal too was a breeze.

We were at Bhimashankar at 730 am and surprisingly took 5-10 min for darshan in December holiday season.

[shrinz.vivek]

Originally Posted by ravib

driving to Triambakeshwar and having darshan is not possible/extremely difficult too tight. Budget for 3 to 4 hours even in special entry darshan in Triambak.

Ujjain is very organized so should not be a problem. Book special entry tickets well in advance in online portal.
Driving from Ujjain to Omkareshwar will take 3 to 4 hours easily , given the road construction work between Indore to Omkareshwar and will slow you down. And on top of it, it is absolute chaos in Omkareshwar and totally disorganized and no queue management at all. So it is highly unpredictable how many hours it takes for you to have darshan. Best case 2 to 3 hours, but again it depends.

Grishneshwar is not difficult and there is no special entry darshan there. Only regular queue is available and may take about 1 to 2 hours for darshan. However, Ellora caves is just a km away and walkable distance from Grishneshwar jyotirlinga. So you should include that in the plan and add additional 2 to 3 hours to see Ellora caves.

I don't think you can cover other 2 jyotirlingas in same day. So would need another day.

On an additional note, even though you are 3 people driving, as the days go , with an average of ~400 kms drive per day, you will be more tired in last few days or after first 5 to 6 days , generally speaking.

Thank you for the feedback. Here is what I have understood.
1. Will try to push Triambakeshwar to the next day morning and then head to Udaipur by nightfall
2. Will try to skip omkareshwar altogether and visit grishneshwar by day end. That way i can check out ellora instead of grishneshwar on the next day morning
3. Even I am apprehensive about the 400km/day avg. This will be an endurance test for us. Hopefully our passion for long distance driving will mask the strain.

Originally Posted by narayans80

Entire RJ phase makes no sense. You are just driving from one place to another, except for Udaipur where you are spending an insufficient 1 day.

Udaipur does not have great connecting roads to Jaisalmer. We did onward from Ahmedabad-Palanpur-Barmer-Jaisalmer and return Jaisalmer-Jodhpur-Beawar-Jaipur.

I would say scrap RJ phase and get atleast Somnath in and explore Saurashtra region of GJ. Deoghar-Varanasi seems a bit too aggressive.

Even with your current destinations. I would say start from Hyderabad end and do Parli, Aundha Naganath. Take Samruddhi to Aurangabad for Grishneshwar. Again Samruddhi to Sinnar then Manchar-Bhimashankar. Back to Nasik and Triambak.

From Triambak, you can either go GJ for Somnath via Jawahar-Charoti-Baroda. Or Nasik-Dhule-Dhamnod for Omkareshwar. Omkar-Dhamnod is good, don't attempt any other Google Map shortcut to Indore-Mahakal. Indore-Ujjain is excellent 4-lane SH.

I don't remember special entries in Bhimashankar, Triambak, Grishneshwar, Somnath, Omkar and Mahakal.



Amen. The mess starts right from parking your car. We went in November 2020 when there was no crowd at all. And yet Omkar was a mess.

For the amount of crowd it attracts. Somnath has been the most organized among the Jyotirlingas I visited. We were in and out in 30 minutes in December holiday season.

Grishneshwar wasn't so crowded on a June weekday evening.

Triambak took 2.5 hours around Xmas time, which is acceptable.

Mahakal too was a breeze.

We were at Bhimashankar at 730 am and surprisingly took 5-10 min for darshan in December holiday season.

Thank you for the feedback.
1. I agree the RJ phase is not ideal from sightseeing perspective. However we are happy to see one prominent place in one city everyday. Being in a different city every singe day gives us some kind of kick.
2. I have already covered somnath, dwarka, rann of kutch etc in another road trip last year.
3. Taking the samruddhi from Aurangabad is a nice idea. Will include it.
4. Will try to skip omkareshwar to avoid the mess and irritation

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by shrinz.vivek

3. Even I am apprehensive about the 400km/day avg. This will be an endurance test for us. Hopefully our passion for long distance driving will mask the strain.

400 km/day average is easily doable with 3 drivers. I've done it as a single driver with kids. I spend time choosing routes, where I can do good speeds without bad roads and traffic. And off late, I limit myself to maximum 15 hours drive (per Google Map estimate), I roughly did between 750 and 950 km on drive days in a recent trip.

However we are happy to see one prominent place in one city everyday. Being in a different city every singe day gives us some kind of kick.

Given you are starting on Republic day long weekend. I'd avoid all temples and drive on not so prominent routes during these days. Since you have a RJ joyride planned, do it first. However I would say, do Jaisalmer-Longewala-Tanot circuit-Jodhpur and Jaipur and keep Udaipur some other trip. Or just do Udaipur and Jaipur.

Here's my idea:

Day 1: Bangalore-Aurangabad-Nasik (Bangalore-Pune will be crowded)
Day 2: Nasik-Saputara-Chikhli-Amadavad-Palanpur-Tharad-Sanchore
Day 3: Sanchore-Jaisalmer
Day 4: Jaisalmer-Longewala-Tanot-Jodhpur
Day 5:Jodhpur-Jaipur-Kota
Day 6: Kota-Ujjain-Indore-Dhamnod
Day 7: Dhamnod-Omkar-Dhamnod-Dhule-Nasik-Triambak
Day 8: Triambak-Nasik-Manchar-Bhimashankar-Sinnar
Day 9: Sinnar-Grishneshwar-Aurangabad-Manjarsumba-Parli
Day 10: Parli-Nanded-Aundha
Day 11: Aundha-Nanded-Sangareddy-Hyderabad-Bangalore

For day 6, you may also think of staying at MPT Omkar. This would give a more peaceful access to Omkareshwar temple.

Till day 5, the only mediocre road is around Sanchore-Tharad. Please time Ahmedabad crossing, it can be a mess.
Don't expect great roads between Manchar and Bhimashankar.
Dhamnod-Omkar was decent.
No personal experience on day 9 and 10. There was a recent update for day 11 on the Hyderabad-Indore thread.

Visiting a temple a day and staying close to the next temple is a strategy I follow. You'll have a hotel to rest. Gives access to early morning darshans and you have a place to park your car.

Trimming the RJ circuit will give more time for the temple hopping, which is your primary intent.