It has been almost 60 days since I am in Bhandardara and while staying here I have seen all the places situated around this place. For many days Raghu bhai has been saying that we will go to Harishchandragarh for a trip and finally today that day has come when we are leaving. After having breakfast in the morning we leave by bus at 6 am. It took us 4 hours by bus to cover a distance of about 96 km. There is also a walking path from Bhandardara to reach here but for this we will have to cross the Ratangarh mountain and we will reach there in 2 days, for which we were not at all prepared.
Collage created in adobe photoshop
The bus drops us at Kheereshwar village, in Kheereshwar we have tea at Raghu bhai's friend's house and then set out on foot towards our destination. Although there are many ways to reach Harishchandragarh but we are going through the ancient path which reaches the temple via Kheereshwar village. We start the climb on foot at around 11 am. The total walking path from the village to the temple is 8.4 km in which we gain an elevation of 620 meters.
After 1.3 km we reach the forest section where the tree line ends, we stop here to take a breath and admire the surrounding scenery. As we move ahead from the forest section, we see an uncle who is going to the temple for darshan. The amazing thing is that when I talked to the uncle, he was 68 years old and he was taking his grandson to the temple by sitting him on his back. The uncle further tells that this is my grandson Raghuveer who gets tired after walking a short distance, so I have to carry him, otherwise he is very naughty at home.
Going ahead we meet another person who like the 68-year-old uncle is also taking his small child to the temple by sitting him on his shoulder. When I talk to him a little, I come to know that this person is from Kheereshwar village and after visiting the temple, he will also go to Konkad Kada to take his son for a tour. After 3.1 km, we cross Tolar Khind and reach close to our destination. It has been one and a half hour since we started walking. After sweating a little, it is a beautiful feeling to see the hills visible in the distance.
After Tolar Khind, we walk for another 6 km. It is now 03:30 in the afternoon. We get the first glimpse of the Harishchandragad temple in the distance. We cross the temple and go straight to Konkan Kada. Kada is a Marathi word which means face. It looks like a very high wall when seen from above. Every year, tourists gather here in large numbers to see it. The drop of this rock has been measured to be 30 feet.
From Konkan Kada, we saw the setting sun among the clouds and felt ourselves being caught in the strong wind blowing here. It is instructed here that going near Konkan Kada is prohibited. The punishment for a mistake here is death. Many accidents have happened here in the past. Tourists have lost their lives many times in the pursuit of photos.
Watching the view spread over 180 meters at a height of 1442 meters is really a wonderful experience. Talking about a historical fact, this place has been mentioned in Agni Purana which was written 3000 years ago. If the weather is clear, then we can see the highest peak of Maharashtra 'Kalsubai' from here, whose height is 1646 meters, Taramati Peak, Ajoba Peak, Ghanchakkar Peak, Vajrasana Peak, Nane Ghat Peak and Jivdhan Peak.
Although this place is a religious place and tourists come here throughout the year, but the number of tourists is more in winter. Apart from winter and summer, tourists come very less in monsoon but if someone comes at this time, he will get to see seasonal waterfalls. Well, now that's all for this post, in the next post I will show you Harishchandragarh Temple. See you in the next post.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to tranlate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from Canon 77D (18-55mm) and edited in Lightroom/photoshop.