Ashtavinayak in 24 Hours

    Here is a plan for those who love to race against time & try something new even on old routes.. this rainy season we took challenge of Ashtavinayak in 24 hours & we completed entire trip starting from kandivali & reaching Kandivali back within 24 hours.
    Usually people plan Ashtavinayak in 2 or 3 days, but here is a plan which can help you achieving it in a single day.But try this only in group. Dont do it alone or with family & I wont recommend it on bike.

    Assuming you are staying in Mumbai, I will refer Thane as a starting point. So Start from Thane at 2:45am and head straight to Kalyan - Murbad - Tokavade - Malshej Ghat - Ganeshkhind - Lenyadri. If you go without break and drive at good speed, you will reach Lenyadri base at 6:00 am. Climbing Lenyadri will take around 20 minutes. So visit the temple spend some time there & descend down Lenyadri base & start for Ozar by 7:00am.

    Ozar is just 12kms from Lenyadri. You should reach Ozar at 7:20am. Visit the temple, you can have breakfast here & start for Ranjangaon at 8:00 am. From Ozar go to Narayangaon - Take right & head to Chakan - On traveling around 30kms you will reach Rajgurunagar - Take left for Shikrapur - On reaching Shikrapur - head to Shirur - you will see Ranjangaon Temple besides highway to your right. It should take around 2:30 hours to reach Ranjangaon, So you will reach Ranjangaon at 10:30am and after visiting the temple start further at 11:00am.

     Next destination is Siddhatek, head to Shirur, just after crossing 5 kms. You will see huge tree to your right and a small road passing by to your right. This is MIDC pipeline road which is a short cut, & will take you via Nirvi - Nimone - Inamgaon to Kashti. (If you ask road to Sidhhatek people will tell you Shirur-Belwandi route but ask specifically for route going through villages mentioned above.Avoid travelling on this route after sunset.) You will Reach Siddhatek before 12:30 pm. via this route.

    You can enjoy Zunaka bhakar lunch at Sidhhatek but dont waste too much of time. Start ASAP, but latest by 1:30pm. Head to Duand - Patas - Chaufula - take left from petrolpump at Chaufula & travel 23 kms to reach Morgaon. This will take you 50 minutes max so, by 2:15pm you will be at Morgaon. Visit the temple & start further journey.

    Start latest by 3:00pm. Head to Chaufula, then take left turn & head to Pune. After travelling 20 kms. Take a right turn which will take you to next temple Theur, just 8 kms away from this junction. You will reach Theur by 4:00pm. Visit a temple, have a tea break and head for further journey.

    Start latest by 4:30pm. Head to Hadapsar - Katraj - take Mumbai -> banglore highway & then Expressway. Travel on Expressway till Khopoli - Take Khopoli exit & travel to mahad which is just 6-7kms from exit. This entire route will take around 3-4 hours depending on traffic from Hadapsar to katraj to Expressway.

    Reach Mahad by 8:00pm visit the temple & then head to Pali. Start latest by 8:30pm to reach Pali which is 38kms away by 9:30pm. visit Pali temple & then come back till Khopoli to take expressway and then head back to your home.

    Please note: if due to some reason you reach Khopoli late, then head for Pali first and then go to Mahad, because Pali temple will shut down at 10:30pm whereas temple at Mahad is open till 12:00 midnight. I have assumed some buffer in every destination considering queue at some temples or any other unanticipated events. So try to be as quick as possible and enjoy your trip.

    I wont recommend Chaturthi / Ganesh Janma etc. to plan this as you will lose so much time in queues that the plan will fail,so plan it in offseason.

    Total distance travelled: 825kms Kandivali - Ashtavinayak - Kandivali.

    Travellers: Karishma Patil, Shruti Joshi, Vikram More, Mayur Patil, Prasad Chavan, Prasad Kargutkar, Nilesh Jadhav & Kaustubh Khare.
    Vehicles: Hyundai Santro & Ford Figo.

   Drive safely, enjoy your trip and you can contact me on 9820031162 or write me to kaustubhkhare@gmail.com if you need any help in planning the trip.