The Lone venture for Solitude...Weekend Expedition Continues...Destination Baje Caves

    Past few weeks(late March and early April) have been a bit different, its not been very calm, neither very disturbing but still there was something that made me feel very restless. Also to add up a prior weekend expedition to my regular place, Diksal, turned out to a disappointment specially due to the absence of the sighting of Flamingos and may be also becoz of the few other things that's been happening around me which might be the reason for uneasiness. So in a way to get away from the unknown worries, I wanted to get off to some unknown place hoping to return back with some form of surprise or atleast an experience worth remembering.
     But 'What spot do I go'...was the biggest question. A trek would be ideal as it always, atleast for me, turns out to be a remarkable experience. But trekking any place in the scorching Sun in the month of March-April would be THE Stupidest thing I could go for, and then it struck me, and this was specially while returning from Home towards Pune. Long time back when I had went for a trek to Lohagad we came to know about some caves on the foothills of the Visapur Fort and it seemed to be pretty close to the Malavali station, atleast thats what it seemed from the edge of Vinchukaata of Lohagad. Also since it being not too high from the ground and being an enclosed form of structure, after all how much of scorching sun would you have to face when u r around/ inside a cave, it seemed to be an ideal place to visit without breaking into a sweat-ball.

    So immediately started off the plan for the expedition. Shared it to my friends within the first few days of the week but rather didn't get much of the enthusiasm for joining me in. Well for me my friends/colleague's ignorance turned out to be a boon as this led to a thought 'Why not venture out to some unknown place all alone'... Just imagine the amount of time I shall have for just myself and my love 'photography'. And so kicked off the planning phase and off I went to look around for what exactly is this cave and where exactly is it located. Thanks to the 'Google god'  identified its name and located the position of it. It turned out to be Bhaja/Baje caves which was situated just about 2kms from Malavali Station and pretty close to the Mumbai Pune Express highway near Lonavala.

      And so came the day of the trip, kicked off early in the morning and took a 6:52 local from Pimpri, hardly taking an hour's time to reach Malavali station. So by 8 I was off to track out the route for the caves. Well the route is very simple and straight forward, just get off the station, check out for a path that connects to the road, towards the Pune end of the station and once you catch up with the road, which immediately connects to a fly-over bridge, you are right on track. Just keep following the straight route and you shall start spotting few houses along the road. After almost a half an hour walk u come across a junction or a chowk where you can avail a Pay and Park facility as well as few small time hotels just in case u wanna fill in with few snacks or cold drinks. Once done with it follow the path way that heads towards the hill. After a few meters there is a series of steps which leads to the Caves and what a beautiful path way to the amazing monument. The early morning hike graced me for witnessing the early morning birdal activities. This place, though in a small region, is rich with various forms of birds. Atleast I could spot the Indian Robins, Red Whiskered Bulbul(very rarely spotted), Red Vented Bulbuls, Laughing Doves, Pied Bushchats, Shikras, Sunbirds, some Ioras, yellow eyed babbler, and a few unknown birds (I have never seen them earlier). I did tried to capture as much of them, atleast the ones that is very rarely seen due to the urban Jungle, but could not capture one particular bird. Seemed to be a shorter for of a normal fowl but was way too gracious and slightly bigger than the Francolin. It was too fast and by the time I could get my camera out and follow it want into the dense thorny bushes.

     Well back to the expedition, I almost reached to the caves by around 0845, but since this being a protected National Monument, the whole cave's area was properly fenced and the gates were locked. It turned out that due to it coming under the protected category you have to buy tickets to get into the place. But since it being too early for any normal visitor's to visit the ticket counter was closed and had to wait just out the gate. This ofcourse helped me in buying some more time capturing the beauty all around the caves. The sight of the Visapur fort right in top of you and the gorgeous view of the Lohagad on the other side in the backdrop made the place and the experience one of a kind. After a few more minutes finally two guys came in who turned out to be the caretaker of the caves and they did lend me the ticket and let me in. The moment u get inside and look at the main area, called Chaitya, along with the other small double storeyed meditation rooms, completely excavated out off the huge rocks of the hill, you get taken aback by the shear presence and the beauty of the whole place and ofcourse there was the calmness the serene-ness that the place carried along with it.

The Chaitya, Baje Caves
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Baje Caves
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Brief History

The view from Inside
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The village just before entering the steps to the caves
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The Stairway to the Caves
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Inside the Chaitya, Baje Caves
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Ribbed structure
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Ribbed roof
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Few of the resting places
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Locked up temples
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Few structures
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Few wall sculptures
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Few more
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The overall marvelous sight
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Well someone had to take my photo as a proof that I actually had been there...Thanks to the remote :)
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Rock sculpted Shiv Ling
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 Well as mentioned earlier, apart from the mighty caves, the area around it is rich with loads of natural beauties and here are few captures around the place

Dried
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Yellow Beauty
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White beauty
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Delicate
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Indian Robin Male
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Indian Robin Female
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The predator
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Red Whiskered Bulbul
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The Micro White
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The sweet smelling flower, filled the atmosphere with a beautiful smell making the whole experience a sweet one
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Well overall the whole expedition was real fun and best part of the Lone expedition was it gave me the confidence to carry thru and execute a plan by myself and also the guts or the foolishness to roam around all alone with a few expensive stuff along with you. And ofcourse was the peace of mind after spending hours in such a serene place, along with the quench of the thirst for photography...Overall a very successful one especially in the scorching heat of April and ended up being a lot less worry-er than before and could feel much more calmer right from inside me, Mission Accomplished I suppose...but for how long???


Few things I need to seriously looks after is procrastination for Phloging...well work on this phlog started very early in this month yet it took me more than 3 weeks to complete all the stuff and publish the phlog...well I hope with some reviews, critics from you guys shall seriously help me in negating the delay and killing the Procrastinating me...
So thats it for this phlog, hoping to come up with something interesting pretty soon, Till then bubye :)