Travel Insight Plus: A road trip from Mumbai to Shirdi

A journey from Sunrise to Sunset....

Shri Sai Baba Devasthan in Shirdi is very famous and holds a strong religious affiliation in India. The most interesting part is that it is equally popular in all religions. Shri Sai baba used to live in this small town of Shirdi in early 19th century. With his powers He helped many humans and animals. Now, Shirdi is the location of holy shrine of Sai baba. Like many, we also are very strong believer of Sai baba. Known for fulfilling the wishes of His devotees, He has never let us down. So we decided to go to Shirdi for a long pending thanksgiving trip.

We usually make plan for Shirdi trip for two days. It is around 250 kms from Mumbai and takes almost 5-6 hours for family one way. But this time we decided to come back on the same day. We planned it on a Sunday and we got up at 6 am. We decided to take the Ghoti route to avoid Nashik city. So the itinery is: Mumbai - Igatpuri - Ghoti - Sinner - Shirdi.

The day was very good and we witnessed a lovely sunrise. We left home at 8:45 am. We knew that we are late by at least by one hour. But it was a very pleasant day as per Mumbai standards.

From JVLR we took eastern express highway and then headed towards Nashik on NH3. The Mumbai-Nashik highway was busy like usual. Around 9:30 we halted for breakfast at a Sai Dhaba located right on the highway.

The journey till Igatpuri was peaceful and we enjoyed lovely weather. Around 5 kms from Manas resort there is a right turn towards Ghoti. This route is scenic though but does not promise very smooth roads. It is a very good option if you want to avoid Nashik city. On the route a new bridge constructed that looks amazing from a distance.

There was a rough patch for around 2-3 kms but the route is otherwise very green and surrounded by Kalsubai range of mountains. There were fruit and vegetable vendors selling grapes and other fruits and vegetables on the road side. We stopped to buy some grapes and next we realise that we were standing next to the grapes orchards.

We passed from Darna river on our right hand side. On our way we saw number of devotees all dressed on saffron cloths walking to Shirdi! We stopped for a the very famous sugarcane juice (locally known as Raswanti) of this region.

We reached Shirdi around 1:15pm. Shirdi was crowded like any other Sunday. There were long queue for the darshan inside the shrine. It was decided that we will go for Mukh Darshan and will not be a part of crowded queue for darshan. We parked the car in one of the parking slots near Hotel Temple View a Laxurious…errr Luxurious Hotel!

To go to the open coutyard for Mukh Darshan,we headed towards Gate No. 3 and entered from the right hand side barricades . There we got darshan of holy statue of Sai baba from the window.

We sat there for around 15 minutes before taking lunch in old favourite Goradia's. Around the temple there are many shops that sells prashad. flowers, toys and pooja items. Now, Shirdi has a mall that has number of shops and restaurants. You will find eateries like Rajdhani and Saibhog.

Locally made artifacts, lamps and statues made of copper and marble are also sold here. There were many food shops and stalls that sells only local brands.

We left from Shirdi at around 4pm. We took the same route. We came across familiar Sai devotees, walking their way to the temple. Driving us through the sunset was again the windmills and grapes orchards of Ghoti.