[neoonwheels]

Hi,

I had been to a place called "Bedse caves" near Pune. Its about 45 KM on old Mumbai - Pune highway near Kamshet. Its a beautiful place and less crowded, thanks to the fact very few people knows about it.

I started at 10:30 and took old Pune-Mumbai highway. I will not say it was a good drive till I reach end of Nigadi. After that it was fairly good. Typical 2 lane highway tarmac road. I spotted Indica V3 on this route while driving in opposite lane. After driving for about 40 KM I reached Kamshet. You have to take a left turn under arch to reach Bedse village. Its about 9 KM from this arch. Road in Bedse village is almost non existent. Had to do off roading of about a 1 KM to reach the base of the hill where the caves are situated.

Finally I reached at the base of the hill and started trekking. It has got well built stairs to reach the caves. There are 2 caves, one is meditation hall and the other is well I dont know. Following is an extract about the Bedse caves from Wiki.
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Wiki:
The caves can be traced back up to 1st Century BC. There are two main caves. The main cave which is the Chaitya (prayer hall) has a beautiful Stupa. Both the caves have some carvings also. The caves are facing eastwards. So it is recommended to visit the caves early morning, as in sunlight the beauty of carvings is enhanced.


A very famous incident is told about the caves. Until around 1861, the carvings on the walls and the Stupas were in proper condition. A British Officer, after hearing about this arranged his visit there. When the local officer came to know about this, he urgently employed labor to clean and paint the walls of the caves.
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Also while returning back saw an upcoming Ganesh temple built by Birla. The idol is 80ft tall and is a good sight from NH4 highway. It took 2 years to build the idol as per the people working there.

Following are few pics I have taken of Bedse and ganesh idol:

[deepaktpatil]

Seems to be a good place for weekend visit. Had never heard of it, thanks for posting log.

[Sidz]

Wow....I never knew this even after being in Pune for so many years now.

Thanks for sharing this!!

Can you upload some more snaps??

Cheers,
Siddharth

[neoonwheels]

Following are few other snaps. I guess Shiv-Parvati pair is also carved. If it is true then even 1st century people were worshiping Shiv-Parvati.

[alpha1]

Cool visit.

You may consider Bhaja Caves the next.
Bhaja/Bhaje caves are next to Malvale village.

How to reach:
Travel further on the NH till you reach a milestone which says : Lonavla 7 km.
Further up there is a right turn which lead to Malvale station.

Cross the railways station, cross the expressway, and you will reach the Bhaje village.
Climb up the Bhaja caves.

If you want more fun, you can pick a trail to Lohagad fort and/or Visapur fort.

Karla caves are also nearby.

[snaronikar]

Nice pics. IMO, the narration could have been more little better if you had included the details of the road conditions, FE and the directions etc.

[neoonwheels]

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Nice pics. IMO, the narration could have been more little better if you had included the details of the road conditions, FE and the directions etc.

My bad. I was a bit lazy . In a couple of days, will post road conditions, directions, etc etc

[nfs250]

Got inspiration from neo and headed straight fot Bedse caves this morning after picking up kids from the 26Jan function in their school. Our mode of transport Maruti Omni. Important info: Please carry sufficient eatables and drinking water as no water is available near the caves except from the village at the base. also carry caps, sunglasses and wear proper fitting shoes (Ladies - sandals with heels are not suitable - wife climbed up and back just on a pair of socks and carried her sandals in her hand!). Loose fitting trousers are best!

Had planned to leave Karve Road, by 8.45 but could do so at 9.45 a.m. Still we were there within an hour. We went the NH4 route via Chandni Chowk - Balewadi till Kamshet . Neo's directions were an excellent guide. From the left turn at Kamshet through the metal arch it was a straight drive for around 7 kms, where a small board to the right says :Bedse Vilage. Another 2 km+/- drive got us to bedse village. a small hamlet of say 20- 30 houses. Then after parking near the village temple we walked through fields to reach the base of the hills.There are stairs (375+) right up to the caves well made (Need to thank the contractor!) and having a comfortable gradient and little incline. There are no trees to provide shade while climbing but the weather being cool it didn't matter.
The caves are worth the climb.

We were pleased to see the entire place totally bereft of any plastic litter, gutka pouches, plastic bags and other human litter.
Bedse caves not being a religious place (Karla :( ) get few visitors who are careful to collect all their litter (offspring included) when they leave.
The structure is still in pretty good shape and a good camera will serve well. we were there for about an hour. The description of the place is already well documented above by Neo so I have skipped that.
Will upload today's photos soon.

We returned to Pune via Paud (longer by 10Km) couples with bad single lane road till Paud and reached Kothrud around 2.45 p.m. So round trip coupled with sedate driving too us 5 hours. So going back via Kamshet is a better option (will save atleast 30 min. and you can do the return faster without having to put up with the paan spitting SKARPIO (Mahindra Scorpio) crowd! . Take a return ticket at the toll plaza (dehu road -dehuroad) 35 Rs.

It was rather hot upon the return journey. The bad road and heat resulted in a headache which prompted me to take a looong siesta after reaching home.
The overall trip was quite enjoyable and came as a good break from everyday life! Recommending this place as a good option for an outing with a tight time budget.
Thanks for reading.
/Shri