Places Near Pune – Food. Travels. More.

This was a long-awaited day trip for us after installing a dog box on our bike and we were very excited to take our dog “Jenny” on the bike. Since it was the very first ride for Jenny to ride in a dog box, we decided to go for a short ride to gain some confidence and her comfort for the longer rides later. For this destination, one side distance was 45 – 50 km.

This time the place we decided to go to was Necklace point. Necklace point is near Bhatgar dam in Bhor area, it’s a location where Nira river and Gunjawani river embrace each other at a prominent place and create a Necklace shaped meander. That’s how this scenic viewpoint got its name as the Necklace point. It’s a maximum 2 hours drive from Pune that can be reached via two ways – one through Saswad road and another is via Pune – Satara road.

This time we went there along with my biking club “Avenger Motorcycle Club – Pune” and all my biking friends were also very excited to see the dog box and meet Jenny over the ride. We started early morning at 6:30 am and reached the place by 9:00 am. We got a little late due to the big biking group but distance can be easily covered in 1:30 hours by bike or car. Roads are not bad and there is no off-roading, it’s a complete road till the scenic view.

There are many Bollywood and Marathi films which have been shot at this location. This is a place where you can go for nice photography, can also get a chance to see peacocks and different birds. If you are travelling with family, carry plenty of water and food as you will be tempted to spend an entire day in the lap of nature. You can also park your vehicle closeby and go for hiking as well.

You can also go to Bhoreshwar temple, which is near to necklace point. It’s a very old temple dedicated to Lord Shiva which is carved out of stone with a huge Nandi Idol. Other areas of interest are in Bhor area – Kalubai Mandir Jogwadi, Bhatghar Dam, and Ketkawale Balaji temple. If you are coming from Saswad road then you can cover Narayanpur temple as well. The temples attract many tourists throughout the year and are also very popular among the locals. The Kalbubai Mandir is said to be especially auspicious and people go there to seek blessings, making it an interesting tourist places near Pune.

250 KM ROAD-TRIP ON OUR DESI CRUISER AVENGER 220.

We got to know from several posts about Bhigwan for migratory birds, so we also planned to visit this place. Bhigwan is well known as a sanctuary for migratory birds. It’s a small village which is approximately 110 km away from Pune and located on Pune – Solapur Highway. The exact name of the bird watching place is Dikshal. You can ask local villagers for this place once you take a left turn from the highway if coming from Pune.

Dikshal is just 2 km away from Bhigwan. The backwater area of Ujjani dam is spread across the town of Bhigwan where migratory birds come every year starting from late October till mid of February. One of the main attractions during the migratory season is the arrival of the greater pink flamingos. This place is crowded by bird lovers, photographers.

Pune – Bhigwan – Pune

It was an 110 km stretch from “Pune to Bhigwan”. We started early morning at 4:30 am from Pune. Since it was December, the wind was very cold but we were prepared with our jackets. We faced very less traffic due to early morning and reached Bhigwan at 6:00 am. Google map helped us to reach there. Once we entered the village, we asked the locals where we can see the migratory birds. But they do not understand Hindi or English. So we asked for “Pakshi” 😛 or Rohit bird (Marathi name of Greater Flamingo bird).

I would recommend people to visit at the same time as we reached at the golden hour. Sun was rising, villagers were preparing for fishing, very peaceful and such a refreshing atmosphere.

Backwaters in Bhigwan.jpg — Sun rise at Bhigwan

You can rent a boat for 200 rs per person to see the migratory birds. You can do photography while you are on the boat. For photography, I would suggest being geared up with zoom lenses to capture flamingos. Because the boats are always kept at a distance as they might fly away. The boat-man took us for a good scenic view quite inside the backwater. It was just water all over and lots of birds. You can see many types of Ducks, Strocks, Waders, Egrets, Herons and many other species of birds along with a group of pink flamingos which attracts photographers for wild life photography.