Above – Jill and me at a cave temple on top of a hill on the way to the Big Ganesha in Lonovla.
Our Sunday outing with Nana started out as a trip to see a BIG Ganesha quite a distance out of Pune. As usual, this outing turned into an adventure with many things to see along the way.
Here are some makeshift homes along the side of the road.
Here’s a look down a street along the way.
Another drive across the Mutha River and a look at a bridge running parallel.
Some of the tropical landscape along the highway.
Bonus … a BIG Hanuman on the way to see the BIG Ganesha! You can see by the building behind Hanuman, he stands several stories high.
A post is not complete without cows.
… and horses!
… and sheep!!
This sheep herder was gathering his sheep to cross the highway.
It rained along the way and much of the day.
Roads were getting muddy.
Before we reached our destination, Jill and I spied a stairway going up a mountain so we asked Nana to pull over to see where it went. As it turned out, there are two temples in caves at the top of the mountain. Jill and I decided to weather the storm and take the hike. Nana opted to stay near the rickshaw and have a chai.
This photo is for the grandkids because this is the kind of thing that makes them happy, and I’m that kind of Amma …
This cow and I decided to take a selfie together.
Then the others got jealous.
At the foot of the hill …
Here’s where we’re going. Actually, we went up the closest hill, not the one in the distance.
Here’re are some views from about half way up. Top photo, center, is a stray dog.
That’s the Indrayani River in the distance. This is the river that runs through Alandi
As usual, we attract a crowd wherever we go outside Pune. At this lookout point we got a lot of stares and requests for photos. Of course we obliged. It’s so much fun! The first two photos are of a group of college students.
This family was so sweet.
You can see a portion of the stairs behind us in this photo with these two nice young men. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again … The people here are absolutely beautiful, warm and friendly.
We made it! It was raining btw …
I didn’t take any photos inside either temple. Since Nana wasn’t there with us I couldn’t ask him if it’s ok and I didn’t want to disrespect anyone or anything. We went inside both caves that were carved into the stone. The first one was fairly large and the second one was very small.
Outside the first temple.
This small garden was planted outside the second temple.
Selfie in front of the garden.
Here’s another photo from the top of the hill.
Me and “The Sheikh.” I was wearing the very cheap (but cute) rubber shower sandals I bought on Amazon for this trip, and coming down a muddy and slippery rock portion of the trail. The Sheikh was heading up the hill and telling me to be careful and to watch my step. I figured this warranted a photo.
This photo is also for the grandkids. Bugs. Very exciting. This was a very big ant.
Here’s the slippery portion of the trail I was talking about. The good thing about shower shoes is they’re designed to not slip in the shower. Well guess what? They don’t slip on rocks either!
A zoomed in photo of this man from the stairs above.
Here’s me and Jill with a portion of the stairway behind us on the way down. They were steep.
Back at the bottom of the hill. We (me in my rubber shower sandals) made it!
That was really fun and a great hike to an unexpected gem of a find along the way. Even Nana didn’t know about this stairway to heaven. When we got to the bottom of the hill we had chai before heading to the BIG Ganesha which will be saved for tomorrow’s post.
This morning was a 7am Prashant Pranayama class, breathing for the different areas of the body (no area was excluded, btw). After class I did an inversion practice in my bedroom while waiting for Sudhir, the Dimpex man, to bring the finished OBYoga t-shirts I brought to be batiked. They turned out great – red, blue, purple and green, with Om symbol, heart chakra and Ganesha.
My day didn’t end there. Nana picked us up at 3pm and took us to his house for dinner. He moved since the last time I was there to a stand-alone house alongside very green farmland. The evening was lovely, dinner was fabulous, and the ride in the rickshaw was an incredible adventure. Stay tuned … I have photos.
Blogged on Amma’s iPhone and MacBook from iNdia with LOVE!