Bangalore To Shirdi Route

[mukeshus]

Naganand its better to go to Pune, and deviate to Ahmadnagar Highway.
As you will be travelling all along GQ, and can save lot of time

When you enter Pune ask anyone for Hadapsar bridge .
While going to Shirdi you will not go to Ahmadnagar, you are going on Ahmadnagar Highway.

And i usually filled diesel where lorries were queuing.
I had bills but could not relocate those bills.
The fuel cost was 10000 exactly.
Toll would be ranging from 25-60 Rs max.

You can leave Bangalore early say at 5 am, have break fast at Kamat Dobaspet.
Then lunch at Davangere, followed by refreshment @ Ayodhya Hotel in Hubli.
Then hit the GQ and travel further.
You can halt at Pune.
You wont feel tired, most of the times i used to put hawk in cruise mode and sat simply.

If i were in your place: Bangalore-Tumkur(Kamat)-Davangere(Lunch)-Hubli(Refreshment)-Nippani-Pune(Halt)-Ahmadnagar Highway-Pimpri-Chakan-Sangamner-Shirdi-Nashik-Ajanta-Ellora.

Shirdi is in between Nashik & Aurangabad.

 

[mukeshus]

Wish you Happy & safe Journey.

The urge to drive more continues, when you start driving.

My tips to long drive, eat less drive more...

Buddy eat light food, with constant replenishment of tea.

As you are lone driver, take power naps at well lit bunk.

I used to fill the diesel @ COCO bunks, where there was more of trucks .
Its better to fill the diesel in cities than highway.

On highways it was Reliance , Shell, i used to fill it most.

Do stop @ Ayodhya Hotel in Hubli, ask anyone they will guide you, as that is the last stop where you can get good food.

And check whether the correct change is returned after paying the toll.

Drive Safe.

 

[white-rhino]

Thanks for @Mukesh, @Surfer, @350Z.
Completed this trip as planned with fantastic drives and good darshan's of these temples. Will update the trip log this weekend.

 

[mukeshus]

Thanks for @Mukesh, @Surfer, @350Z.
Completed this trip as planned with fantastic drives and good darshan's of these temples. Will update the trip log this weekend.

Congrats on your successful trip , will be looking forward to your experiences and pics.

 

[white-rhino]

The idea of starting road trip to Shirdi started 4 weeks back when my parents were eager to go for Shirdi by train. Somehow we did not find train tickets in short notice and were contemplating on different options like KSTDC bus package etc.
As usual, I started getting info on routes and road conditions earlier before making this road trip idea work. It took 1 week to convince my family and elder parents to agree the road trip in my scorpio. They were worried as I was the lone driver. My brother's family could not make it due to other commitments.

With the help of fellow TAIians and other forums I started getting info on places of interest, road conditions, hotels etc. Made hotel bookings before 10 days on specific dates. All were mentally prepared for the trip.

The plan was to visit 2-3 Jyotirlingas, Shirdi, Shignapur and Kolhapur within 5-6 days. Prepared the routes, hotels, contact numbers, places to visit, kms, normal driving duration etc. All set with the trip logistics. My parents, MIL, wife and kid were all super excited for the next 6 days trip.

On the other hand, I had asked SKS to fix the LHS orvm. Got it fixed just the previous day and complete body wash my scorpio was ready for the long haul.
Just around mid-night the central locking started buzzing loudly and got up to see what happened. The wash guy had not closed the bonnet properly and the central locking was giving 4 chirp sounds. Somehow did not notice this till this buzzing thing happened.
Just got enough sleep of 3-4hrs and got up 5am on Oct 27. As planned we were not able to be ready by 5am and we left home only by 7am.

DAY 1: Oct 27 - Bangalore to Satara
BLR-NICE Road-Nelamangala-Tumkur-Sira-Chitradurga-Davanagere-haveri-Hubli-Dharwad-Belgaum-Sankeshwar-Kolhapur-Karad-Satara - 780kms. Reached Satara by 7.30pm. This road was awesome to drive. Only some sections of around Davanagere have some deviations.
Stayed at Hotel Mahendra Executive just on NH 4. Very decent hotel and courteous staff. Food was very good as well.

We had some packed foods for breakfast and directly hit Hubli for lunch.
Had a good lunch at Hotel Ayodhya. For light snacks & tea we had at place just before ghat road that reaches from Sankeshwar to Kolhapur.

Before we left from home


Nearing chitradurga and the wonderfull view of windmills












Just after Sankeshwar


Sad incident on the way:
From Kolhapur to Satara it was a night drive. Most of them were doing 120+ speeds with no discipline at all. For some reason, two wheelers were driving in opp. direction near to median. At one instance, the median was curved with no markings/reflectors. The MH intercity bus was driving pretty fast followed by Bolero and Ritz. I was just following them on the right side of the left lane road. The bus just deviated suddenly and moved fast. Same with Bolero. The Ritz guy just tried to avoid something. Damn!! What I saw was, a guy was bleeding like hell with legs soaked in blood and his yamaha bike in rubbles.
I did not dare to stop at that moment and moved on. All this happened in front of our eyes. I just avoided that guy and the bike in the nick of the moment at those speeds. He was trying to get over the divider. That was the last scene I saw. I hope he has survived.

 

[mukeshus]

Naganand, i guess that's the garland you would have got in Shirdi.
Even we were given a garland that was on Baba.
Even we had put it on the car.

 

[350Z]

Nice start and pictures are so beautiful. Though it is unfortunate to know about that accident. Now we can only pray for the best of that person to the almighty. Keep those pictures and the story coming.

Drive Safe,
350Z

 

[white-rhino]

DAY 2:
Plan for this day was to visit Bhimashankar and move on to Nashik to visit near by places.
As usual, we got up late at 7am and left for Bhimashankar only at 8.30am with good breakfast.
Route:
Satara-Shirwal-khed-New Katraj Tunnel-Pune Bypass Road-Dehu Road-Right turn to Talegoan road-Chakan-Manchar-ghodegaon-bhimashankar - 240kms
The tunnel ride was very good and exciting for my kid and family. Very rare in south.
Road was good from Satara to Manchar. From Manchar to ghodegaon was driveable with occassional potholes. I think we took Talegarh road. The roads were pathetic in few sections for few 25-30kms.
There was one location where on right side we were driving along a small water stream. It was pretty good. And on the way we also saw a huge dam full of water. I assume it was Dimbe Dam. Not sure though. Just before talegarh roads became very good with lush paddy fields and brown mixed grasses(dharbe) all through. Absolutely brilliant views till we reached Bhimashankar.
We reached Bhimashankar by 1.15pm. Huge mess with parking again. Got a spot with shade. The parking folks said we need to climb 300+ steps and better to opt for dholy. And asked us 600 per person. We rejected and went straight. And to our surprise the steps was going down and not up. We managed to go down and we had huge queue for darshan. We got darshan only at 3.30pm. All were very much exhausted. Took 10-11 glasses of nimbu pani sold there. Had hot pedhas which were very good and tasty. By the look of the gopura and the carvings of scripts the temple is pretty old and maintained well. The temple had its own aura surrounded by the hills.

Bhimashankar Temple



Lush grass enroute


My Butch Rhino


Good view of the Dam


This is a must visit place during monsoons. Just like our own Chikmagalur/Kudremukh range. Not sure if Bhimashankar has any Wildlife.

Left Bhimashankar at 4pm. At ghodegoan there was a left turn for Junnar. Asked the locals, they suggested to go over Manchar - Nashik. Hence went to Manchar and left turn to Nashik. On the way had some snacks at Balaji restaurant after Manchar. And headed to Nashik.
Route:
Bhimashankar-Manchar-Narayangaon-Sangamner-Sinnar-Nashik - 220kms
NH50 is a single lane road with vehicles coming on pretty fast. During nights, lot of trucks on the way to Nashik as well. I remember we passed through 2-3 ghats before we reached Nashik. I had a company from one more KA vehicle enroute. It was KA-17. He took a deviation to Shirdi at Sinnar.
We reached Nashik at 9.30pm. Halted at Hotel Samrat near CBS circle. Had decent dinner and went to sleep.
Rooms were very small than expected. Food was good. Went straight to bed. Before bed I made our family aware that we need to have early darshan at triambakeshwar. Else it will be a very tiring journey.
Due to late start from Satara, we were not able to see any places in Nashik like Panchavati/Mukthidham.
Enjoyed every bit of the drive. The butcher is really strong for such long journeys. And I never felt fatigued. Really impressed. My Osram nightbreaker and Hellas came to use during these highway rides. Awesome throw.

 

[mukeshus]

Naganand, i could see the tyres of hawk have bulged, was the ride bumpy.

Nitrogen would have made a lot of difference.

 

[white-rhino]

@Mukesh:
Good observation. I had asked IG Service folks to remove Nitrogen and put Air. Instead they had filled air on top of Nitrogen. I found after having my ride bumpy. Anyways, I got it removed after Chitradurga. And filled with Air.

 

[white-rhino]

DAY 3:
Got up early at 4am. Left to Triambakeshwar by 5am. It was a good 30km drive early morning. With lot of joggers enroute. Reached Triamb at 5.30am. Found one guy who took us to Godhavari ghat. Visited Gupt Godhavari and came back to main temple. The temple security were eager to give us good darshan for a good amount. Myself and dad visited the santum sactorum with dhotis. Performed abhishekam to the lingam. Enlightened feeling inside with those godly manifestations. Finished the good darshan by 8.30am.

On the way, we also visited Anjaneri temple. We did not go to top of the hill but visited only the Hanuman temple beneath.

Hills around Triambakeshwar:




Anjaneri Hills & Hanuman Statue:




Jai Hanuman!!


We came back to Nashik by 9.15am. Had ok ok breakfast at Vittal Kamat Hotel. Interesting thing is, anywhere you order one plate idli/vada; they give only 1 idli and 1 vada. Normally in south we get 2 idlis and 1 vada.
Anyways, we had breakfast and took rest till 12pm. Checked out at 12.30pm to depart to Shirdi.

Nashik- Sinnar - Vavi - Pohegaon - Shirdi. Initial 50-60kms were pretty good. Very wide roads and lots of sugarcane juice right from the farms. Very sweet.
Enroute to Shirdi we stopped 2-3 times for Sugarcane juice. After 60kms, it was all single lane roads and very bad roads. Reached Shirdi Entrance by 2pm.

To our surprise, there huge rush of buses,cars, motorcycles, autos. Absolutely no traffic rules and police had given up sipping chai. To reach my hotel (Sai Sahavas just behind Baba Mandir near Sai Complex which was around 700 mtrs) took 2 hrs. We checked into the hotel at 4pm. The rush was much more than Tirupati guys. Unbelievable!!.
At 4.30pm, there was one Andhra mess where we had good lunch.
All of us dozed off. Got up by 7pm. Went to have darshan. Saw there was huge rush in most of the gates. We had Hanuman darshan, Mukh Darshan, Dwarakamai darshan and other small temples near by. Checked out few things in Sai Complex. Most of them are commercialized. Very pity.

DAY 4:
Got up early at 3.30am. Went to darshan queue at 4.45am. Again huge rush. Police were not even bothered to control the crowd. Pathetic. By 6 am we had a good darshan of Baba and his samadhi. We were having tears nothing else. Such is the aura of the place. We stood there for 15-20mins before we were pushed outside. To our bad luck, we missed our MIL near gate no. 3. Again contacted Police. They were least bothered to help. I visited Gate 3/1. No luck. After that, I demanded I would like to announce. Then I was took to Admin Office where they announced the missing persons names. The list was around > 50.
One of the policeman said, these missing persons would be found by evening. They cannot go out of complex. Luckily my MIL had come out and had reached hotel during this time. We left the temple and went to hotel. To our surprise she was waiting for us. All settled.
We checked out Shirdi by 12pm.

Sabka malik ek hai!!




Sri Sadguru Sai Ram!!

 

[white-rhino]

DAY 4:
After very good darshan at Shirdi, we checked out at 12pm. Left for Aurangabad.
Shirdi - SH 10 - Circle right turn to Vaijapura- Nagpur-Aurangabad highway - Kanhegaon-Vaijapura-Lasur- Aurangabad - 110kms. Road was from bad to worst. We reached Aurangabad by 3pm. Had booked Hotel Janki Exec near 7 Hills Flyover. Good rooms as well. Had good lunch and dozed off. By evening my daughter was having fever. Luckily the hotel Manager (Ranjeet) was very helpful in getting a doctor nearby and checked by kid. We went to MGM & Hedgewar hospitals to get the medicines. The auto folks were helpful.




All night our parents were pressurizing me drive back to Bangalore immediately.
They were kind off fed up with food. I was like scratching my head till 12am and had decided to drive 1200kms next day.

DAY 5:
In the morning, we got up at 6am. All of us got ready by 7am. To our luck, my kid was active in the morning without any fever. Suddenly everything was falling in place and I had things going as planned.

We drove to Grishneshwar. Had very good darshan and abhishekam. On the way, I wanted to visit Ellora. But, somehow none of the elders were ready. Hence left the place to visit Shignapur. We found a veg hotel called Hotel Laadli. Very good food and must visit in Aurangabad. Filled diesel at BP bunk.
Left for Shignapur.
Aurangabad - Dhoregaon-NevasaPhata - Godhegaon - Shignapur - Turn right. Roads are pretty good. Surprisingly, there are lot of Ghodegaon in Maharastra.

Reached Shignapur by 3pm. On the way I did not stop for normal toll. Then some guys surrounded the vehicle to take the pooja items only from their shop. With lot of altercations, we fixed a price and went for Shignapur. There was not much rush. Finished darshan by 4pm. These days they are not allowing anyone on the platform. We need to fill the til oil in the steel containers. And these gets pumped above the Shani black stone.

Left Shignapur to reach our destination Kolhapur for night halt.
Drove past Ahmednagar. Decided to take a shorter route to Kolhapur through Daund-Baramati-Satara. Turned out to be BAD Decision in another 2hrs.

All SH roads. Roads were pretty pathetic with less traffic and only village roads. Surprisingly there were toll to be paid Rs.25 only to cross a bridge 2 times. Reached baramati by 8pm. Only roads nearing to Baramati was good. Otherwise, the roads were not worth it. I repented that I should have taken Pune route. Stopped at Phaltan to decide what to do as we were sure we cannot reach Kolhapur which was another 130kms.

Luckily I again called Hotel Mahendra, Satara for any room availability. Fortunately they had and we said we will reach Satara by 11pm. Please book them. They were kind enough to oblige. After Baramati, reaching satara was like full of confusion. Pitch dark roads, very few vehicles doing this route. Occassional trucks. Wherever we see some people, we would ask for Satara route. To our luck, we were driving in the right direction. We reached Satara exactly at 11.30pm. Had light dinner and slept off.

250 kms took us 6hrs. Absolutely pathetic. All of us had back pain due to bad roads. My people were cursing me.

DAY 6:
Took sufficient rest. Got up at 7am. Had breakfast and left at 8am.
Satara - Valase - Vathar - Toap - Kolhapur - 130kms. Reached Kolhapur by 10.30am. Had very good darshan of the Mahalakshmi. Surprisingly there were lot of mercs/benzs in Kolhapur. Did some shopping and left Kolhapur by 12.30pm after lunch.



Kolhapur - Nippani - Sankeshwar - Belgaum - Hubli - Haveri - Davanagere - Chitradurga - Sira - Tumkur - Nelamangala - Bangalore - 650kms.
Enroute we had chai breaks 2 times. Road was awesome.

Finally reached Bangalore at 11.15pm. Thanked god for all the beautiful journies we had these 6 days.

Total kms: ~3000kms
Total Diesel - 230 ltrs. Diesel Cost - Rs. 10350
My mhawk gave consistent 13kmpl.
Total Food expenses came to Rs.9000 for 6 people for 6 days.
Hotel Room Expenses - Rs. 24000.

With all the ups and downs the folks had the happy ending; sound and healthy.

 

[mukeshus]

@Mukesh:
Good observation. I had asked IG Service folks to remove Nitrogen and put Air. Instead they had filled air on top of Nitrogen. I found after having my ride bumpy. Anyways, I got it removed after Chitradurga. And filled with Air.

Why did they fill air on top of Nitrogen?

Well then it didn't serve your purpose, and the air should not be filled when the tyres have heated.

And that was the reason i suggested you to take the Pune route all along GQ , what i did was covered maximum places on the way.
In 5 days.
In tryambakeshwar it took us 2 & half hours for darshan.
You would have seen Mahindra's Igatpuri plant in Nashik, on the way to tryambhakeshwar, where your beast was manufactured, all the cars are parked in scorching hot sun.

Nashik to tryambhakeshwar was absolute bliss to drive road in scorching sun, with lots of nice Up & down road.
In Shirdi around 11 am we entered and got darshan in 30 minutes, once you come out there was a Muslim's temple.
And i cant forget the tasty Guvava's in Shirdi, farm fresh.

That was a great coverage.

 

[hemantp]

Hi TAI'ers,

Planning to drive to Shirdi from Bangalore coming Saturday.

Rough itinerary:
Day1: Start early morning and halt at Satara
Day2: Reach Shirdi (if possible, go to Shani Shingnapur first)
Day3: Sai Baba temple, start return

Now, the question is, which route should I take for Day2 to reach Shirdi (or first Shani Shingnapur)?

Anybody has idea about road conditions? I would prefer lower traffic, good quality roads and don't mind if it adds even 100 KMs.

Thanks.

 

[TripFox]

Bangalore To Shirdi: Route Help

Guys,

I'm planning to do a Shirdi trip from Hosur coming long weekend of Aug 15. Planning to go via Pune. Still not sure about best roads available. Would really appreciate anyone who gives heads-up on the routes, stays and best catch-ups on the journey.

Car: Ford Figo Tdci (New gen)
Members: 5 Persons (Adults)
Duration: 3 Days