A lovely Day Road Trip from Pune - Weekend ideas

A Great Road Trip from Pune - by Car

Dear Pune People, discerning travellers are always on the lookout for good trips including day trip. In this blogpost of mine, I will tell you about a wonderful day trip from Pune. This trip is about 140 km total from almost anywhere in Pune. 

What to Look for? 

This trip takes you to a rustic village-like environment where you can enjoy buying fresh fruits and Agriculture produce from roadside farmers and vendor. That is besides visiting four beautiful temples.

The Route.

This is a road trip hence one would need a car or a cab. The route will be from Pune to Prati Balaji temple at Ketkawale (in fact the route will take you to this place via the other two stops mentioned later, but going to Prati Balaji directly is a suggestion to optimise the time) and on your return trip, you will make stops at Narayanpur and Bhivari which are the other two places to visit. 

The route map looks something like this. For your destination, search Prati Balaji Temple at Ketkawwle on Kapurhol - Narayanpur road and then add Narayan Pur and Kanifnath Temple as the next stops. Roads are generally OK on this route. 

Your trip starts by taking Pune – Bopdev - Saswad Road. One passes through the Bopdev Ghat and Bhiwari till Amboli where one has to take a turn to Narayanpur (Right turn is taken, the straight one goes to Saswad). 

From Narayanpur you take Saswad - Kapoorhol - Bhor Road. On This road, at Ketkavale one has to take a left turn to reach the parking of Prati Balaji temple. The return route is just a reverse of the route taken from Pune to Prati Balaji. After the visit to Prati Balaji is over, head back to Narayanpur, which is the next stop. Once done with the Narayanpur visit, return on Sasvad – Bopdev – Pune route and go up to Bhivari, where a right turn will lead to the final destination. Kanifnath Samadhi. 

Ok, that was so much so about the road travel part. 

What to see in these places?

1. Prati Balaji at Ketkavale.

 A temple modelled, designed and constructed on the lines of Tirupati Balaji temple, the place acts and behaves like Tirupati. There is a queue for darshan, the Murti is the same as Tirupati, the ambience is also the same, in fact, Prasada(m) laddu also is supposed to be the same (but presently discontinued due to COVID).

Elderly people can skip the line and one member of the family can take them directly to the main gate for Darshan. The ambience is good and the darshans are great. This temple does not allow children below 10 and elderly as per current COVID guidelines in place. 

The car park is about 150 to 200 meter away from the temple. Chapples need to be deposited at “Chapple Ghar” and mobiles and Camera at “Mobile Ghar”. Toilets are available between the parking and “chappal ghar”.

Once one is done with darshan, if tea, etc are needed, there is a small canteen next to “Chappal Ghar” as also one or two restaurants at the car park. There are also some fruit and local produce vendors at the car park. One can buy a few things to eat till you reach Narayanpur where another set of vendors awaits you. Here are few snaps of Prati Balaji. 

 There is a roadside stall of grains and rice between Narayanpur and Ketkawale (Prati Balaji) where many things like Jowar, Ragi, Indrayani rice, etc can be bought. Also around this section, an upmarket(relative to all other eating places in this region) restaurant has just opened (was to open one day after our trip), in case some food replenishment is needed. 

Venkateshwara Temple Premise

Gopuram

2. Narayaneshwar and Ekmukhi Datta Mandir at Narayanpur, 

Narayanpur is situated at the base of the famous Purandhar Fort. In the present day, Narayanpur is known for Ekmukhi Datta Mandir,   However, Narayanpur had been famous from historical times as a place where an ancient Shiva temple exists, called Narayaneshwar Mandir. Some say this temple belongs to the “Yadav” period and the board there at Narayanpur reads “Pandavkalin Narayaneshwar Temple”. The period notwithstanding, this temple is sheer beauty in stone, though not as grand as the Chinnakeshava temple at Belur in Karnataka, that notwithstanding, it is beautiful and grand. 

Narayaneshwar Mandir

Closer View

Side

Garbha Gruh

Bahind the Shanar Syambhu Pind

Ganesh Murti

Another Ganesh Carved at the Back of the temple

View from the Rear  - Majestic

 Ek Mukhi Datta Mandir has been established by Sadguru Narayan Maharaj. The Murti of Shri Dattarya is Ek Mukhi, unlike other places where the Murti is always Trimukhi. This Ekmukhi Pritima is supposed to represent Lord Vishnu’s features. It’s a good temple to visit. The temple ceiling walls have frames depicting Stories from Guru Chatra and one more Granth (name of which I can’t recollect). 

Entrance to Data Mandir

There is also a display giving information about Char (4) Dattadhams established by Sadguru Narayan Maharaj across India. 

There is a Naturopathy clinic run by Sadguru Narayan Maharaj’s organisation at Narayanpur. Those interested may seek more information about this at the temple. 

 Shri Kshetra Narayanpur is the place to visit both these temples as also to soak in a rustic village type environment. There are local hotels and I am sure one gets all that is famous in this belt, Vada Pao, Misal, etc. Also, the fruit vendors are there for you to buy fresh fruits grown in this area. 

Parking can be done on the roadside if the place is not crowded. Actual designated parking is behind the Datta temple. Somewhere there, there is a toilet complex also.

3.  Shri Kanifnath samadhi at Bhivari. 

While Prati Balaji and both the temples at Narayanpur are almost on the main road, to go to Kanifnath Samadhi and Temple on a hillock called Kanifnath Gad, one has to take a short few kilometre detour from Bhivari, on Saswad – Bopdev – Pune road. After a short drive one reaches Shri Kanifnath Samadhi. For those who may not be aware, Shri Kanifnath is one of the Navnath (one among the nine successive heads of Nath or Bairagi sampradaya). 

If you park at first parking, some steps need to be climbed, However, if skip the parking and drive up the hill for a few more meters, you reach another parking just behind the temple. The climb to the temple from here is very small. If you have the elderly or those who have difficulty climbing, parking at the back of the temple is a better option. 

Kanifnath Mandir

Samadhi Mandir. The Board notwithstanding, Photography was not objected to

Story of the birth of Shri Kanifnath

A decorated Tulsi Vrindavan

Pune as seen from Shri Kanifnath gad - a lot of haze though

The place is clean, nicely made and the hill is a great place to watch the sunset and have a birds-eye view of Pune. Enjoy your time there. Once the visit is done, when one is back to the main road junction,  buy local produce in a small market that exists at the junction, have Sugarcane juice, etc, and then it’s a drive back to your place after an enjoyable and well-spent day. 

When this trip is undertaken by some of you, you would come across many fun things that we did not notice. Do add information about them in the comments section of this blog post.