It was a long weekend and we decided to make trip to Thoseghar/Chalkewadi/Sajjangadh and Kaas near Satara. Thoseghar is famous for its big fall and few minutes away are the huge wind mills set up by Suzlon. We started off from Pune and headed off straight to Satara via the old Katraj Tunnel.
At this time of the year, the entire stretch of this road is made beautiful by small yellow flowers on both sides of the road.
We reached Satara in few hours and asked for directions to the ST stand in Satara so that we can get good directions to the Thoseghar falls from there. On reaching the ST stand, we inquired for the direction to Thoseghar and an autowallah asked us to follow him as he claimed he is going the same way. However, at a major junction, I felt like taking the right and and it turned out to be the right way. This road is along the base of Ajinkyatara mountain that overlooks Satara. Upon inquiring a couple of times more we reached a small tunnel. Immediately after the tunnel is a T-junction. There was a board telling the direction to Thoseghar on the right. There was another board declaring that the road to Thoseghar is not good !!
We continued in the direction of Thoseghar anyways. The road from here is narrow and typical village road in Maharashtra. There were a few more signs indicating that we were headed in the right direction. when we reached another diversion, we thought it better to ask the people for the right way. They told us that the road is not good ahead and advised us against going to Thoseghar. We decided to try Sajjangadh instead which is close by. We asked for the directions and headed to Sajjangadh.
View from the base of Hill
In a few minutes we reached the base of the Sajjangadh hill. The road is good and motorable upto the top of the hill. We reached the parking place by 5:15 in the evening. After climbing up a few hundred steps, we reached the Samarth Ramdas temple over there.
Sajjangadh is the place where Swami Samarth Ramdas, the spiritual guru of Raja Shivaji spent a lot of time and went to Samadhi. The temple has display of articles used by Swami Ramdas. There is a small cave beneath the main mandap of the temple where Swami Ramdas used to meditate. The temple is home to lots of pupils who live and study there. This temple also has a place to stay overnight. If you intend to stay it will be better to call them in advance.
View from top of the Sajjangadh
After offering the prayers we were headed back, when I though of checking the backside of the temple. And it turned out that the view from there was just awesome. It was time for SUnset, so I went back to the temple and asked Deepal and Kalpak to come on to the backside to enjoy the view. The windmills can also be viewed from here, but from a far distance !!
We waited for the Sunset and enjoyed the fantastic atmosphere over there. There is a spectacular view of the Urmodi dam from here. After the sunset we headed back to the car. The main entrance to the fort is closed from Sunset till Sunrise. So, it is best to reach there only during the daytime.
very beautiful thank you for sharing!
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