Tungareshwar temple trip

Disclaimer: It's a rainy season special offering for nature enthusiasts. If it's not raining you should probably wait for the rains to come and then go.

Places to look here: Tungareshwar temple, tungareshwar hill and Shri Sadanand Maharaj Ashram.

Highlight of the visit: fiercely strong mud filled waterfalls formed due to rain, gushing through the zigzag settings of boulders. Scary, roaring like a lion. You feel like running and getting out as soon as you can, but they hypnotize you and you will stand staring at it more than you think you will.

The reverberation of the running water hitting the periphery of spherical shiny black rocks amidst the lush greenery sets the mood for the entire walk.

To be true the entire hill of tungareshwar temple has a road good enough for a car to drive, so there's no adventure there given any bright sunny day or if it's drizzling. The lush green wild trees and little streams of water, a big well in the field or a road with tree canopies for those long walks. I mean who will want to walk on a road for 6-7 km at a stretch if you are doing nothing but just walking on a road carved out on a hill with naked rocks to cover on one side. You can do that at many places in Mumbai. Still I went there.

How do you get to Tungareshwar?

Get into a train to Vasai. After getting out of the station towards east get to the bus
stand. You can get a bus for tungareshwar from here, or you can hire an auto for ₹100. It will drop you at a bridge from where the gates for Tungareshwar can easily be seen. A km's walk after crossing the gate through the village, you can ask anyone where to for Tungareshwar and anyone will gladly direct you towards it. You can find many people going there as you have a temple and an ashram.

If it has been raining in mumbai decently for a week or more, then this is the best place to be, without putting in any efforts for getting here or after getting here.

It starts with crossing a broken bridge and a moderately paced stream with knee deep flowing water. The flow can get little stronger so you should be careful. Moving forward your will find small waterfalls with milk white water suitable to bathe in.

This trip was more than fun for me. A little more than adventurous and little less than havoc. It had been raining the whole week and the entire hill ranges are painted green now. Rapid streams of rain water had formed miniature waterfalls throughout the route, decorating the already beautiful green walls on one side. The roads have been intelligently made with a canal parallel to it so if it rains and the water flows down from the sides and doesn't comes on the road. Also where the flow of water is stronger they have created a bigger pit and laid large cement water pipes underneath the road for the water to flow down without creating any trouble on the roads. The temple is not too far and you will reach there in 15 minutes of walking. From here on the road gets steeper and you might not see many people going beyond the temple.

I hardly found 10 people throughout the journey coming past the temple, and it felt great experiencing the nature unadulterated by the human presence. The rain was respectable and it did deter and scare us, as we didn't see a soul. But at every turn there are these small waterfalls that keep luring you. There are a few points where you can get a 200° wide view of the hills on other side. You will also see a huge waterfall on opposing hill with the sound of its gushing water reaching your ears. This point should the highest elevation you will attain on this walk and will now move to the other side of the hill.

Now did the fun really start, when the rains got a little more intense, and even though we had our raincoat, it was of no use. We were drenched in water Top to bottom. The canals made on the sides of the roads were overflowing and the water was on the roads, being an indicator that we should hurry now. At places where the density of trees is more and the road narrower, the tree canopies make it dark and due to the fog the visibility is not more than 50-60 mtrs. It was again scary and we did think about going back but no. Moving forward you will see a large field where you can rest. There's also a well nearby. You are now near the Swami Sadanand ashram. From here on it's like another hour of walking and you will get down on a state highway where you can get a bus for Parol naka. Here you can find buses for Vasai or Bhiwandi.

The journey back from here was an another adventure. Instead of taking the bus I took a lift from truck going towards Bhiwandi. Unfortunately, it had rained heavily that day and the Vasai Virar side was flooded. The roads were flooded and the entire fields on both the sides of road field with water too. At some points the road couldn't be crossed with a small vehicle as it would have drowned. For me it was a good decision to take the truck. We did reach bhiwandi safely. But this is a completely different thing and not at all related to the tungareshwar trip. All in all it was a adventurous day trip.

As it was raining heavily I wasn't able to take any pictures.