{"id":305799,"date":"2010-02-11T03:27:39","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T08:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.team-bhp.com\/forum\/travelogues\/75327-memorable-trip-bhimashankar.html"},"modified":"2010-02-11T03:27:39","modified_gmt":"2010-02-11T08:27:39","slug":"memorable-trip-to-bhimashankar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/305799","title":{"rendered":"Memorable trip to Bhimashankar"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hi Folks,<\/p>\n

I am a member of this wonderful forum since 2007 and have been keenly reading all the travelogues posted here.<\/p>\n

This is my first post about my visit to Bhimashankar in 2006. Here it goes…<\/p>\n

Eversince acquiring a new car (wagon R vxi) in 2004, I always dreamt of going for long drives. However a 6 day working week coupled with work pressure leaves me exhausted and so Sundays is "sleep"day for me.<\/p>\n

I got married in 2006. Soon after, wifey dear started demanding outings almost every Sunday . One fine Sunday in 2006, I gave in and decided to visit Bhimashankar Temple in Pune District. It’s one of the Jyotirlings of Lord Shiva and is 180 Kms from my place.<\/p>\n

Started from my place at 7:00 AM with wifey and parents. Decided to fill petrol and so drove in to my regular petrol station. I casually asked the attendant to fill in Rs 2000\/- worth petrol and in order to save time, I immediately made the payment of Rs 2000 by credit card. After filling in Rs 1000 worth petrol the attendant shouts "Saab<\/i>, is me aur nahin bhar sakte<\/i>" <\/p>\n

Later realised that the wagon R already had 10 Lts in the tank. It would not take in more than Rs 1000\/- worth petrol. The petrol pump owner was good hearted so paid me back Rs 1000 in cash <\/p>\n

After all the drama, left the petrol station at 7:30 AM. Route followed was Kalyan – Murbad – Malshej Ghat – Junnar – Bhimashankar. Reached Malshej Ghat in quick time and wifey dear announces that she wants to take some snaps. I plead that we can have the photography session on our return journey. Stopped after Malshej Ghat for some home made sandwiches. Thereafter the journey was uneventful and finally reached Bhimashankar at 12:00 (4.5Hrs for 180 Kms). The roads in Pune district were pathetic to say the least.<\/p>\n

Started from Bhimashankar at 2:30 PM and reached Junnar by 4:30 PM. Enroute wifey and mother shopped for sugarcanes, onions, vegetables…… The wagon R took it all in it’s huge boot. Now comes the twist, we stopped on a hilly incline around 1 Km before Malshej Ghat for some photography. While wifey was busy clicking away, I was sitting in the car and suddenly I could smell something burning. Chose to ignore it thinking that it could be due to a heated engine (I was maintaing 80 Km\/hr average throughout in order to save time and cover Malshej Ghat before sunset).<\/p>\n

We resumed our journey after 10 minutes and just as we were reaching Malshej Ghat, the car stops suddenly. It was almost 5: 30 PM and we were in a desolate spot with only a liquor shop nearby. The nearest service center was in Junnar 25 Kms back. I tried calling a towing agency whose number was given by a telephone booth owner but to no avail. <\/p>\n

Few kind hearted people stopped by and tried to figure out the problem with the car but were left with no clue. The car refused to start. We were advised to leave the car there and take a ST bus to Kalyan and return for the vehicle later alongwith a mechanic\/towing truck but we thought it was risky to leave the car there for fear of thieves.<\/p>\n

Finally one truck driver stepped in and agreed to help us out. He was reluctant to tow the car as he knew that all new generation cars had engine assisted braking and if the engine is not working , the braking would be affected and this was risky since we had to cover Malshej Ghat. <\/p>\n

After much debate, search for rope, wire ( I was stupid not to be carrying a nylon rope), the truck driver declares he will piggy back us to Kalyan. The problem was to get the car on the truck.<\/p>\n

The truck was carrying half load of onions and was on the way to Ulhasnagar (near Kalyan). The driver and his cleaner started to stack the onion sacks one above the other in such a manner as to create space for the wagon R. After 30 minutes of toil, he alongwith the cleaner declares there is enough space for my car. Now he comes with an ingenious idea to load my car in the truck. Luckily, parallel to our road, there was a dirt track at a lower level. He drove the truck into the dirt track, reversed it and brought it closer to my car. Now we had to push the car into the truck. <\/p>\n

I had to manage the steering as there was very less gap on both the sides. The truck driver took out the spare wheel of my car and placed it as a cushion between the truck and my car. I got onto the wheels of my car while the rest (parents, wifey, the truck driver and cleaner) pushed it into the truck. Finally the car was loaded in the truck. We packed tarpaulins on both the sides of the car to avoid scratches. Wifey decided to join me in the car and came in through the window while my parents settled in the truck cabin. <\/p>\n

After all the labour, the truck driver and cleaner decided it was time to have some refreshment (read liquor). By the time we left, it was almost 9:30 PM. Sitting inside the car on a truck I was thinking how do we get the car down while wifey dear was enjoying every moment of it. We reached the outskirts of Kalyan city at 1:30 AM and the truck driver halted the truck outside the shop of a conctruction material supplier. There was a heap of sand outside the shop and the truck driver suggested that we should push the car into the sand to avoid damage.<\/p>\n

While pushing the car, the tarpaulins got stuck underneath the front wheels and the car refused to budge. Luckily a group of young men stopped by to ask directions. We requested them to help unload the car and they reluctantly agreed. After one hour of pushing and pulling, the car was finally unloaded onto the sand. While unloading the front bumper gave off. <\/p>\n

Thereafter the truck driver decided to tow us to our place and took out his nylon rope. While being towed, I realised the headlights and horn had conked off. After passing a speed breaker, the truck driver used to accelerate while I used to break. Result – broken tow rope. With no horn, I had to get out of the car and wave frantically hoping my parents were keeping a watch. This happed on two occassions and the truck driver started to plead " Saab, iske bad kabhi break mat karo"<\/i><\/p>\n

With a broken tow rope, we finally reached our place at 2:00 AM. We thanked the truck driver and the cleaner profusely who went out of the way to help us. He accepted only Rs 1500 towards his services.<\/p>\n

This trip still haunts me even today when I decide to go for a long drive. I will never forget it. Sorry folks for not including any photos as you can understand the situation we were in.<\/p>\n

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Hi Folks, I am a member of this wonderful forum since 2007 and have been keenly reading all the travelogues posted here. This is my first post about my visit to Bhimashankar in 2006. Here it goes… Eversince acquiring a new car (wagon R vxi) in 2004, I always dreamt of going for long drives. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5606,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5606"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}