Tungareshwar and Ghodbunder Tour

Mode of transport: Bike
Travel date: 25-Mar-2024


    Every year on the occasion of Holi, we go for a walk, visit placess near Mumbai. This year too, we decided to go, but the place was not decided. The day before Rangpanchami, Shailesh Dada and I decided to visit Sanjay Gandhi National Park, so we left home at 7:00 am on our two-wheeler. In just twenty minutes, we reached the gate of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. We were disappointed to see the gates closed. When we asked the security guard, he said that the park was closed today because it was Monday. The park, which is always open on public holidays, was closed today, so what other place should we choose?

        Sitting at the gate, we decided to visit the Vasai Fort and headed towards the Vasai Fort, but on the way, we remembered that today was Rangpanchami day. The people in the settlement near the fort would be celebrating today, so we decided to go to Tungareshwar as we did not want them to bother us and they did not want us to bother them. We reached the forest department post of Tungareshwar around 9 am. Since it was Rangpanchami , the post was closed. However, you have to pay the forest department entry fee to enter. It took us 35 to 40 minutes to cover such a short distance from the forest department post to Tungareshwar temple because the road here is unpaved and we had to be very careful while riding a bike.

    We parked the scooty in the parking lot and reached the temple of Mahadev. The aarti had just finished, due to which there was a big queue for darshan, so we decided to go ahead and come when the crowd had thinned. There is a deepstamb (light poll) at the entrance of the temple, looking at this lamp, it is clear that it was built in the 21st century. The beauty of the lamp in the ancient temple was not visible in this lamp. This lamp was small and looked like a chimney built on a mill. Many new constructions have been done in the Tungareshwar area and the natural beauty here is destroyed due to the tiles installed in the name of beautification. We continued climbing the mountain on the newly built footpath, crossed the bridge built over the stream and reached the temple of Goddess Durga. We took the blessings of the goddess and spent some time there. 

    Tungareshwar is a collection of five mountains, where Lord Parashurama is said to have killed a demon named Tunga. This temple was built in honour of Lord Parashurama. Lord Parashurama performed penance at this place. It is believed that Adi Shankaracharya meditated at a place near Shuparaka, which is now called Sopara or Nalasopara.

Tungareshwar Mahadev Temple

    While resting, Shailesh Dada said, when he came here a few years ago, there were many Veergals (hero stone) placed on the banks of the stream, now they are nowhere to be seen, I thought they must have been taken away while beautifying. Some tourists were seen going to the back of the Durga Devi temple, we also went to see what was behind the temple, and when we saw that the Veergals we were discussing about had been brought here. We went down to see the Veergal and had darshan of Mahadev. Veergal means a stone built in memory of a soldier who achieved heroism in war. Many battles must have taken place here and it is mainly remembered how important this place was in the past.

Virgal

    We had darshan of Mahadev and set off to visit Sadanand Maharaj's monastery on the top of the hill. We originally wanted to do a short trek. When we went further, we saw a forest department board and barricades there . It was forbidden to go further, so we were disappointed here too. We sat there and decided to spend some time, but just then, Shailesh Dada's mother called and came to know that he had forgotten to take his morning medicine! So, without wasting much time, the goal was to reach the chemist and buy the medicine. We rested there for ten to fifteen minutes and then started our return journey.

    While returning , we saw a path on the left, we parked the bike there and continued along that path. After going some distance, we saw a stream, there was no water in the stream. We got into the water steam path, spent some time there and saw a surprising thing, a tree on the bank had fallen, but the vine on its side was holding the fallen tree tightly. It was as if they were inseparable .

 

Love for nature - A bond for lifetime

    We spent some time there taking photographs and eating the puranpolis that had been brought from the box. We took pictures of some flowers there. Due to the sudden gust of wind, the dry leaves on the trees started falling, but we missed capturing this moment on camera. While coming out of the forest, we saw small red ants' nests. Shailesh Dada gave me valuable information on how to use these nests as a guide, which is as follows.

    "When ants build their nests, the soil is wet, and they need plenty of sunlight to dry them out as quickly as possible. Therefore, when building nests, the flat areas face east and west, so that the sun's rays fall on the nests throughout the day. This helps us find the right direction if we get lost in the forest".

 

Ant Hill

    We came out of the forest and sat on our two-wheelers and came near the forest department post. There was a watering place there, filled our empty water bottles and headed towards the main road. When we reached Virar Mumbai highway, we saw a chemist but the medicine we wanted was not available there, so we headed towards Mumbai. When we reached near Fountain Hotel, Shailesh took a left turn and turned the scooty towards Ghodbunder Road. He wanted to see Gaimukh Bandar and Gaimukh Temple, but before that it was very important to find a chemist.

The colors of nature seen on a Rangpanchami

    While going towards Gaymukh Port, we saw a chemist but the entrance was closed. While we were looking for a way to enter, a local person came and called the boy in the chemist and asked for medicines. Shailesh Dada also asked for medicines and took his share of the medicines. Both of us were now relieved. Within the next ten minutes, we reached Gaymukh Port. It is now very well decorated. There is proper seating available for tourists. We spent some time there and walked further to see the two statues of horses erected by the Thane Municipal Corporation. As we were walking, our eyes fell on an ancient structure on one side. There, the Archaeological Department had written that no garbage should be thrown here. Later, we came to know that this is an ancient post resembling a fort to keep an eye on Gaymukh Port. The Deadwood officers of the Archaeological Department had completed their work by putting up a board, and Its conservation and beautification have been left to fate. A restaurant has been built right next to the ancient structure, how did they get this permission? We went ahead and took pictures of the horse statues.

Newly built Gaimuk Port

Ancient Gaimukh Chowki (Fort)

    In the past, high-quality Arabian horses were traded here, so this place was named Ghode Gaon, later it was renamed Ghodbunder. The statues of horses erected by the Thane Municipal Corporation are in memory of that. This was an important route on the trade routes through the Arabian Sea, from here all the goods used to reach Junnar via Kalyan, Vasai, Naneghat. It is recorded in history that the Portuguese built a total of 11 forts and outposts around this trade route to protect it. One of these 11 forts and outposts is Gaimukh Fort (outpost). Today, due to political interests and the neglect of the Archaeological Department, this structure is counting its last elements. As a reminder, we took a photo of this outpost and went in search of Gaimukh Temple.

Horse statues

    The location of Gaimukh Temple was shown on a hill on Google Maps, but we did not know the way there at the time, we reached there with the help of local people. Gaimukh Temple is on a small hill and the current temple is newly built and the remains of the ancient temple are no longer visible. From this hill, the area of ​​Ulhas River is completely visible. We had darshan of Mahadev in Gaimukh Temple and started searching for an old knowledgeable person to know the history of this temple and the place, but we realized that the person with the information we wanted was not here and we started towards our return journey. We reached home around 2 pm.

Gaimukh Shiva Temple