[pjbiju]

As the name suggests, this is a place dedicated to Lord Shiva. There is a temple atop the hill dedicated to him. Not many visit this place. So there is no crowd. Shivratri sees all the nearby villages coming to this temple. The best time to visit this place is during and immediately after the monsoons.

The views from the top are beautiful. The place itself will be covered in mist during the monsoon.


The path going up to the hill temple all covered in mist.

More photos to follow.
-Biju

[ASHISHPALLOD]

This is the place where i have not gone till date.
I hope, you have visited this place by varasgaon dam route.
Post the pics of sculptures at that place.
Looking forward.

[MX6]

That's a beauty! and the teaser pic is grand. I've been thinking of Neelkanteshwar for long. Guess the time has come now! Will be following your thread like a shadow.

[ampere]

This is news! AP a place you have not visited in Maharashtra!
Waiting for more.

[pjbiju]

View from the top


One of the sculptures dotting the temple.


View of the mist covered hills while trekking up the hill


People vanishing into the mist. The weather was to die for.


Green grass, mist covered foliage and the twin trees.


Mist engulfed walkway. How I wish to wake up to such scenes every day.


A large tree guarding over the mud road.


Eucalyptus trees dotting the path up the hill.


More ecalyptus trees and more mist.


The guardian tree. Would have been a nice shelter if it had rained.

-Biju

[ampere]

Do you mean, you need to trek up to the temple? If that is so, man you must have had a wonderful time!

[prateekm]

As soon as I saw the title, I remembered that I had heard about Neelkanteshwar somewhere. Later realised that we had a chapter on this in the State Board English Text Book (Balbharti).

Your teaser pics are great, waiting for the write-up. BTW, is it ahead of Khadakwasla Dam? (Trying to remember some things from the chapter taught 6-7 yrs back )

[ASHISHPALLOD]

wow,
the place is as expected.
are there any food stalls present.
please, give details of road condition, parking etc.

[pjbiju]

Please name the sculptures. I did not get the names of all.


Who is this? Krishna?


Sant Gnaneshwar


Sant Tukaram (I hope I have got that correct)


Who is this? Someone has to tell me.


Lord Vittal


Lord Krishna. The flute was missing.


Shiv, Parvati and Lord Ganesh inside the main temple.

-Biju

[himavanth_m]

Looks like an awsome place
Please share some info about the route details/distance etc

[crossroads]

The 4th one is Lord Dattatreya.

[MX6]

I believe there are three approach routes. One is where you drive through panshet to varasgaon dam. There's a small mud road with a sign board which is motorable to a village at the foot hills. The climb is short and easy here it seems.
Second route is through Pune-Khadakwasla-Donje Phata-Khanapur-Rule village. We are supposed to take the boat across the river from rule village and from the other side it's a 2 hour trek to the temple.
The third route runs from behind the Khadakwasala dam before connecting to Warje, from where a small rural route takes you to the base of Neelkantheshwar.
I'm not sure of the 3rd route. Varasgaon dam route is the best and most scenic and has minimum walk to the temple. I shall attempt it this weekend. Thanks to pjbiju's amazing photos, the motivation is very high now.

[pjbiju]

The view of the rivers from the top


View of the mountains and the green rolling hills


The river snaking its way through the greens


Green canopy and mist covered hills


Water body down below


Another view of the water snake


More green


The path to the temple


Another view of the river


The green valley

-Biju

[pjbiju]

Brimming with life


Can you spot the water droplets?


Getting back to the earth


The path that we came from

Finally the parting shot

With a promise to come back later.

-Biju

Some irrelevant information
All the snaps are taken with my Samsung Galaxy Spica 3.2 MP mobile camera. I had to restrict the urge to shoot since I had very little control over what I could shoot. The urge to get a digital SLR is overwhelming.

Route information to follow.

-Biju

[MX6]

It looked more like a point and shoot camera you used. Very decent job with a mobile cam! Seems like you drove through varasgaon dam and all the way to base of the village, left your car there and decided to walk up. But the road does look big enough to motor further (the places where you've walked). How did your children take up to the walking? They'd have loved it to the hilt I guess!