Our Journey to The "Wine Capital of India"- Nashik

Our Journey to The "Wine Capital of India"

When you are not planning god is planning for you, which is always better than our plan. Our ride was same as the sentence unplanned but as beautiful as I ever imagine.

On Saturday around 1 pm Shankar called me and said “Chal Nashik chalate hai, Imran and Sutta are also coming.” ‘NO’ is not in my dictionary.

“Pyass sabako lagti hai, gala sabaka sukhta hai” And tell you what we hit Nashik all the way from Mumbai, just to satisfy our thirst.

We meet at Bhandup pumping around 4.00 PM. Then we turned our heads towards Nashik, “Sula Wine”. Around 8.00 we reached Sula Wine, a wine factory surrounded by Grapes fields. Even in dark it was looking awesome, no light till sky line only grapes, grapes and grapes hiding soil. We had red and white fresh wines over there, and bundled two extra for night. Someone truly said.” Test of quality wine is as memorable as first kiss, you can not forget it.”

Again we came to the Nashik city and hired a room for night stay.

We were broke all rules and table manners and drunk wine like water. As usual Sutta and Imran were in form and Shankar was in defensive.

Nashik: Lord Rama, made Nashik his abode during his 14 years in exile. At the same place Lord Laxman, by the wish of Lord Rama, cut the nose of Shurpnakha and thus this place was named as "Nashik". Nashik in 150 BC was believed to be the country's largest marketplace.From 1487-1818, the city was under Mughal rule and was known as Gulshanabad (City of Gardens).The city got its present name in 1818 when the Peshwas got control of the city. Nashik, which has been referred to as the "Wine Capital of India"[2], is located in the Western Ghats, on the western edge of the Deccan peninsula on the banks of the Godavari River. In addition to supplying the name to the famed Nassak Diamond, the city is known for its picturesque surroundings and pleasant climate. The Godavari River flows through Nashik from its source, which lies to the southwest of the city, in Trimbakeshwar.

Morning we left the room by 8.00 am and moved towards, Trimbakeshwar.

Trimbakeshwar is a one jotirling out of twelve jotiling’s of lord Shiva, and one of my favorite spot. I have been there couple of times. Trimbakeshwar, which is 28 kms. (18 miles) from Nashik. We went to Mandir to take blessings of lord Shiva. The extraordinary feature of the Jyotirlinga located here is that it has three faces embodying Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu & Lord Mahesh (Shiva). All other JYOTIRLINGA have Shiva as the main deity. The temple is known for its appealing architecture and sculpture and is at the foothills of a mountain called Brahmagiri. There are three mountains behind the temple. Bhramhgiri is the highest among them; also it is the origin of Godawari River. Godawari is also known as Ganga of Maharashtra. Two years back I have done trek of Bhramhgiri and I tested water of Godawari’s ugam strot. Kusavarta, a kund is considered the symbolic origin of the river Godavari, and revered by Hindus as a sacred bathing place. That was the sweetest natural water I have ever drunk. The existing temple was built out of basalt after it was commissioned by Peshwa Nanasaheb. It so happens that the Peshwa made a bet on whether the stone surrounding the Jyotirlinga, is hollow from the inside or not. The stone was proved to be hollow, and on losing the bet, the Peshwa built a marvelous temple out of it.

Then from Trimbakeshwar we moved towards Jawhar, Jawhar Lake was our next destination. The road from Trimbak to Jawhar was awesome, it was winter season.

God sprayed green color everywhere. I think monsoon and starting period of winter is god’s favorite periods of painting. He sprayed all beautiful color free handedly on all corner of this area.

We had hardcore non-veg lunch in Jawhar. (Sorry Shankar is pure vegy.) Had swim in lake, thrown out what ever we had in lunch. Then we moved towards our home.This was funniest, enjoyed ride. Even we didn’t cover the large part earth, but ride was awesome. I was just a spectator as I riding on my Supersplender, Shankar on Karizma and Imran, Sutta on Unicorn, and they were going like wind. As I couldn’t compete them on straight roads, I was just following them.

We reached Mumbai around at 5.00 pm.

Journey ended, but we couldn’t satisfy our thirst, it is still there inside us.

Bikes:
Shankar: Hero Honda Karizma
Imran: Honda Unicorn
Prasad: Hero Honda SuperSplender


Distance Covered: 420 KM
Evg Speed: 70 km/hr
Total Expense: 2000/- Rs (Include Fuel)
Photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/prasadmhatre120036thBikeRideMumbaiNashikTrambakJawhar#