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Saturday, March 12, 2011

Bedse caves - a long waited ride

Day : 12 Mar. 2011

Bedse caves

Bike : Thunderbird twinspark (me - alone :) )
Distance :
Kothrud Stand to Bedse caves(Kothrud stand => ChandaniChowk => NH4 => Kamshet => Bedse village => Bedse caves) : 60 Km
Bedse caves to Kothrud Stand (Bedse caves => Talegaon => took wrong turn and landed in Pipri => Kothrud stand) : @ 70 Km
Note : 
There are no boards before Kamshet on NH4 indicating turn for Bedse village, even after Kamshet I did not see any boards showing "towards bedse caves" etc.
Do park your bike near Bedsai Devi temple, road after that is in very bad condition (rather it is not a road for vehicles)

My journey started looking at accidents on the highway.
Ice truck
Till Kamshet I could drive mostly @ 75 to 85 kmph. After Kamshet the road goes through village and it is not in very good condition. You will have to drive @ 40-50 kmph on this road.
You can visit temple of KedarNath (Shiv temple) on your way to Bedse caves, the temple is exactly on the road! 
KedarNath temple - on the way to Bedse caves
Inside the KedarNath temple
Shiv Pindi

The scenery around the road is quite beautiful, particularly if you reach little early in the morning you can enjoy  the nature's beauty in this area.I tried clicking few photographs on my way to Bedse caves -
Salunki
Probably kokil


Trees
I had little bad day today, for some unknown reason one of the screw supporting Thunderbird's front leg guard fell somewhere, being in little remote area and unable to listen to that noise I tried something simple to fix this problem :)
Temporary fix for Front leg guard support
When I was about to reach Bedse caves I thought of parking my TBTS near Bedsai temple (which was THE RIGHT THOUGHT), a villager told me that you can go further on your bike. Somehow I stupidly believed him and overconfident with my driving skills decided to go further on bike
What is seen in the image is just a little glimpse of this BAD ROAD,
ahead it is feels like mountain biking :(
I tried controlling my TBTS on this dirty road as much as possible. The front leg guard was already irritating me with noise. Finally when I almost reached there, I lost my balance :(. I did not have even minor injury but to add to driving pain, my TBTS's foot rest for gear shift was broken :(.

Broken foot rest

Now I was in dilemma "Whether to go up stairs and visit Bedse caves or should I return from here itself". Finally I thought after all this pain it is not worth going back without visiting these caves. So finally I went upstairs to see these caves. It was worth that effort!!. No usual crowd, at the most 4-5 people, clean caves and beautiful nature. That is almost perfectly what I like. Sharing here few photos of these caves -

The lonely road, My Lonely :) TBTS - near Red mark, and the stairs for Bedse caves

Stupa
Another view of same stupa

Carvings - taken from inside the caves
Couple on horse
Couple on Elephant
Another carving
Carvings on walls
Inside Vihar - where monks meditate

Sun rays and water
Pune-Mumbai Expressway - taken from Bedse caves

I am sure these hills must be looking very beautiful in rainy season

My return journey was not so good. Saw few more accidents while coming back. With broken foot rest I really tried best out of me to control bike down the hilly area. I had never tried such driving before, to add to it while going down I tried to follow another villager and came down from a more difficult to drive road. But finally I loved this experience. Near Kamshet I could get a mechanic, who did not have foot rest for my TBTS, but I suggested him to use one of the pillion foot-rest and make it work for now :).