Touring in Maharashtra

As you all know I love traveling. After touring Madhya Pradesh in Dec, 2008, I did not travel for next two years due to severe backache. In Dec 2010, I planned a family vacation to Maharashtra after 2 years of no travel. It served the dual purpose of testing my back as well as family outing. The entire journey was done by train in the night to maximize site seeing as well as to avoid travel by road.

We boarded the train at Bangalore in the afternoon and reached our first destination Pune on the next day morning. We traveled extensively across Pune for two days. One of the place we visited is Shinde Chatri, the Samadhi of Shrimant Mahadji Shinde. The architecture of this is marvelous and remains unaffected by the passage of years. On the two days we stayed here, we also visited the Sinhghad, the fort captured by brave warrior Tanaji. The mountain fort is a beautiful place where one can spot various fauna and birds.

On the second day at Pune we boarded the evening train to Shirdi. We reached the the place late in the night. Next day (3rd day) after offering prayers at Sai Mandir, we reached Aurangabad in the night. Next day (4th day) was exciting as we covered two more important places. In the morning session we conquered the powerful Daulatabad Fort. It was a adventurous as we had to climb around 600 steps to reach top most point in the fort.

In the afternoon we headed to Ellora caves. The World Heritage Site is the epitome of Indian rock-cut architecture. The 34 caves excavated out of the vertical face of the Charanandri hills. Again here we had to climb walk a lot to see these marvels in the rock. Below is the image of Ellora Caves.

On 5th day we headed to Ajanta which is 120 kms from Aurangabad. The World Heritage Site has 31 rock-cut cave monuments dating back to 2nd century BC. The caves include paintings and sculptures considered that are masterpieces. Below is the image of Ajanta Caves.

On the same night we boarded the train to Mumbai, our final destination. Next three days (day 6 - 8) we rested, toured, rested here as I had my relatives here. The rest was very much essential for my back by now. Here we mainly visited Kanehri an Elephanta caves apart from local site seeing. Below is "Gateway of India" with Taj Hotel in the background.

On the ninth day we headed back to Bangalore, very much content and happy.