Ashta Vinayak - Feb 7th, 8th and 9th

The driver suggested that we cover four Temples the first day and the other four the next day. In addition to these 8 Vinayaka Temples, we wanted to visit a Venkateswara Temple in Narayana puram. I will write about it separately. We were excited about this ashtavinayak trip more as we sat in the taxi early in the morning. The first four were Chinthamani in Theur, Sri Moreswar in Morgoan, Siddhivinayak in Siddhatek and Mahaganapathi in Ranjangaon. Being a muslim, Shakeel did not enter any of the temples, but the respect and reverence he showed was superb. Rao offeredhim prasad from each of the temples and he took it with great devotion. I teased him by asking whether he took it as prasad or it was just that he had a sweet tooth. He smiled and replied 'both'.
Again, Shakeel advised that we stay near Mahaganapathi temple vicinity and also gathered the information that to complete our 8 vinayak tour, we were supposed to visit Chintamani again. Nirmala and I thought it was too much timewise and moneywise. But we had no choice. We obeyed with some reluctance. The hotel was simple with hot water etc. to bathe and cost was only 400 rupees. Meals were available in a restaurant, only few feet away.
On the 8th we continued on our journey at 7 a.m. to go back to Chintamani. The western ghats were a beautiful sight. We felt very safe with Shakeel's driving. The hills and valleys were never ending. We had lunch at a highway Dhaba and it was excellent (even for Nirmala) and including the tip, we spent only 190Rs. for the four of us.
This time, we crossed four rivers and I remember the names only of two. Bheema and Velu. Two large towns I noticed were Narayangaon and Khandala.
The other four Vinayakas were Girijaatmaja in Lenyadri, Vighneswar in Ozur, Ballaleswar in Pali and Varadvinayak in Mahad.
On the 9th, we re-visited theC hintamani Vinayak and the Bheema Shankara, one of the Jyothir lingams. It was a very long walk to reach the temple - but was well worth the walk. Along the path vendors were selling fresh sugarcane juice with a touch of lemon juice.
Please click on the links to learn more about those temples.