On Day 1 of our Satara Road Trip we were able to visit the following 3 places
You can click on the name of the places in Red colour to read about that places and can be part of our journey right from the beginning.
Day 2:
Last night we checked into a hotel and spent the night there.
The plan for today was that we shall start early, because we have given ourselves the deadline that by 4 p.m. we shall be leaving the Satara city so that we can be in Mumbai by 11:00 p.m. because next day being Monday everyone had to be in their offices.
It was quite dark when we came out of the hotel, I checked my watch and noted that it was 6.00 am I could feel the cold breeze hitting me on my face, in other words the winter chill could actually be felt, Thank god! I had my woollen jacket with me, Feeling the chill Neha quickly jumped into the car and as soon as she was in car she announced loudly “Ab jab chai ki dukaan dikhegi tab hi main neeche uturungi”. Actually with the chill in the air , Tea was very necessary.We drove through the empty dark streets of Satara city ,which look quite deserted during the early morning hours with only the occasional passing motorcycles, nothing could be seen, no shop was open, we were desperately looking out for some tea shop.
Luckily we saw a flame burning at a distance and on reaching near it we were relieved to know that it was a lady who was lighting the stove to make the tea. Aha ! Finally Chai Mil Hi Gayi . Friends you can imagine the pleasure of holding that steaming hot tea cup in your hands in such a cold weather, the warmth that you get is something like Kambal se bhi pyara ehsaas sirf ek Garam Garam Chai Ki Pyali me hota hai.
Another reason to start early was that, there was little bit of trekking involved to reach the Pateshwar temple so we didn’t want to end up doing that under the hot sun. Pateshwar Temple is around 10 kms away from Satara City . One needs to drive on Degoan Road and take right from a fork like junction, the route is well marked on google, we too followed the google map. We drove through Satara town, in the morning mist with RD Burman songs playing on the stereo.
After taking the right diversion we entered a village and roads were very narrow here and the other problem was that there was a pile of rubble, we were wondering now how will we go, because google was not suggesting any alternative route
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Manohar, who was driving felt that it would be difficult to cross over from that narrow space so we waited to see if any other car passes through that narrow space on the damaged road, luckily for us a Maruti car passes and drove through that narrow road without getting struck Bus yeh dekhte hi Hum bhi sher ho gaye aur Bindass gadi nikal li and drove on. Sach bolu toh,Jo abhi dekha tha woh to sirf ek trailer tha because after driving for another few minutes the road ahead was getting worse all the more. Actually the local authorities were laying the new road hence the road roller had to be used on the stones laid out on the road.So you can imagine how difficult it was to drive on that hence we parked our car along the road and started to walk towards the Pateshwar temple, Bola tha na jo pehle dekha tha woh toh trailor tha.
Now this was not on our agenda we had thought that we would be driving right till the top and then just one km of trek. We checked on google and realized that there was still another 3 kms to go to reach the temple. We were dismayed but then as they say Jab okli me sir rakh diya,Toh musal se kya darna (meaning that if you have decided to do a difficult task , then why to worry about the obstacles) We started to walk on that uneven road and soon we were climbing the winding road, it was here that we realised that we have forgotten to carry our water bottles with us, I yelled Saala aaj apna din hi kharab hai .
To create diversion Neha and myself, we started cracking jokes and kept clicking pictures as we were climbing the winding road and finally we reached the point where the Tar road ends. We were shocked to see one car parked in the the parking, We thought they must be some real brave-hearts who ventured to drive on that rough road, in our case it was Manohar’s car so it’s always the prerogative of the owner as to whether he wants to drive or not on that road.
We were tired and thirsty and upon that we had no water to drink.We kept hoping that we may get some water at the top. Manohar being the faster among us had already started to climb the stairs to temple. But Neha and me spent sometime enjoying the valley below, We took few pictures and moved on.
Just from the parking there is a flight of stone stairs which leads to the Main Shiva Temple.
After climbing few stairs on our right hand side we see the Idol of Lord Ganesha with his two wives Riddhi and Siddhi.
A further walk and we reach the ridge section.Walking on the ridge offers you good view of neighboring hills. I would definitely like to come again in monsoon because the hills would look stunning.
The walk along the ridge is a flat walk and after walking for few minutes we come across a water pond,next to the pond is an Ashram.
We circumvented the pond from the Ashram side to reach another flight of stone stairs behind the water tank, these must be 20-30 steps stairs going up and are surprisingly in a good condition , These stairs leads you to the one of the entrance of Shiva temple.
Pateshwar Temple:
One look from the outside gives the impression that it’s an ancient temple. There is not much of information on the history of this temple on the internet.
As you enter this temple from the Water tank side on the left side there is a huge Shivling and When I say huge its indeed close to four feet in height.
We entered from the entrance which is next to this Shivling. On entering the temple complex, the first thing which you see from the door frame is Nandi.
I was simply stunned by the calmness and the peace that I felt in this temple complex.
Though Pateshwar Temple is a Shiva Temple but one can find many interesting sculptures of other deities too.
The smaller temples along the main shiva temple also has some interesting sculptures, so don’t forget to see them too. I am posting one of that below. In fact there were many others which I had clicked, which I am not posting here
The bliss of reaching early is that you can enjoy the place in solitude and take in every minute detail of the heritage. The whole temple complex was empty and with made full use of the same, capturing all possible angles and items. Within the main complex there is a Shiva Temple and ahead of that there was a small Mandap for Nandi and ahead of that there were two Deep stamb.
We spent some time here absorbing the peace within the temple and moved towards few other temples nearby by.
So stay tuned for the next part of my blog and let us see what more Satara has to offer.
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