TheFreeBird
From the moment I saw a mind boggling picture of a plunge waterfall ( that’s what the Devkund waterfall type is ) I was excited. Immediately I googled Devkund waterfall blogs and found some 1000 blogs of half baked information in it. After my awesome Devkund experience I will put down all the tips, tricks , how to reach devkund, devkund waterfall status and everything else you need to do this beautiful Devkund trek. More adventures like this one at the end of the post.
Devkund Waterfall Status
| Month | Waterfall | Access |
| Jan – June | NO waterfall till rains | Open |
| Jul | Muddy & Heavy Flow | Closed in Rains |
| Aug | Muddy & Heavy Flow | Closed in Rains |
| Sep | So white & pretty | Might open by Sept End |
| Oct | So white & perfect | Open |
| Nov | Lucky to see waterfall | Open |
| Dec | Do you call this waterfall ? | Open |
How to Reach Devkund waterfall from Mumbai & Pune
By Personal vehicle
Let Google Maps be your best friend. Set the location to Tata Hydro Power Plant, Bhira if you cannot find Devkund waterfall.
From Pune: Swargate- Chandni Chowk- Paud- Mulshi-Tamhini Ghats- Bhira Village
From Mumbai: Mumbai- Khalapur- Pali- Bhira village
By Public Transport
Nearest Railway station to Devkund from Pune & Mumbai : KHOPOLI
( You can change trains from KARJAT station to reach KHOPOLI).
From Khopoli > Take a ST bus to Pali ( Rs 40 ) > Take ST bus to Bhira ( Rs 20)
Bus from Khopoli to Pali are abundant. However frequency from Pali to bhira are limited (06:15, 08:45 , 10:15 , 13:45, 15:15,16:15,18:40 hrs). Even if you miss these buses there are shared auto available to reach Bhira.
For Return journey the last bus from Bhira to Pali starts at 5 pm 17:00 hours , make sure not to miss it. ( please cross check time with after reaching Bhira, i dont remember this correctly)
You can either go here early morning ,do the Devkund trek & return the same day or you can reach Bhira in the evening , camp by the Bhira dam and start the trek early morning. The camping option also helps you to avoid the crowds at Devkund
Bro Tips
Devkund waterfalls has become heavily commercialised and should be avoided on weekends to beat the crowd.
What should I carry on this trek ?
On treks, first preference for food is ghar ka khana, fruits, dry fruits, lemon juice & lots of water over biscuits, breads and carbonated drinks. Also I do carry 1₹ chocolates for quick energy boosts. My normal attire includes full sleeved clothes , cap & proper trek shoes ( No flip-flops) Good goggles i.e anti-glares are must for summer treks. I also carry safety gadgets like fire starter, waterproof torch, whistle, first-aid just in case. Here are few trekking gears which i always carry on treks
Along with proper gear you must carry few qualities of a good human being - never trouble wild life, never draw on fort walls, never risk your life for selfies, never throw plastic anywhere (carry back all waste) and never play loud music. When in nature behave like animals. Be one with nature
The most common question that i get asked is I want to travel a lot but I dont have leaves. Should I quit my job ? I have always suggested to not quit your job unless you have another source of income. In search of this source of income I tried freelancing , trek leading, vlogging and I realised nothing works in the long term. After trying many different thinkgs finally I came across trading
Trading is a perfect source of income & freedom for a person with traveller mindset. You can trade from anywhere around the world be it some off the grid village in Himachal or Meghalaya, be it some island in Andaman. All you need is an internet connection and a trading account. You can earn by trading for 1-2 hrs a day and would have freedom to do anything in the free time.Or you might have just earned enough in a day to take the month off travelling around the world. If you are able to learn this then it has potential to make all your dreams come true. I would suggest you take it up as a side project for 6 months to see if you have patience & intellect to master it.
Devkund waterfall trek blog : TheFreeBird’s story
Inpsite of all the expected crowd I did go there on a Sunday 😊 since at that time I was possessed by the waterfall I could not wait any longer. I however made the most of it by finding secluded spots. There are many smaller ponds in the devkund stream where no one visits. Such ponds contain crystal clear water much more than anyone can expect in Maharashtra. These transparent waters gives a feel of Meghalaya. You would see that later in the blog.
So as the weekend arrived I had my bag packed and was ready for the adventure the next day. I could barely sleep that night since I was bubbling with excitement. By the time sun came out I was already near Khalapur.
The road ahead of Imagica is under repair and takes a lot of time to negotiate the rough road. After that the road towards Pali is better. But once you a take a left from Pali towards Bhira the road is one of the best for a long drive. Chaperoned by tree lines on both side this is just great.
Once at Bhira Power plant I took a left to reach the village and little ahead is the parking lot. It was really ridiculous to pay Rs 30 for bike parking ( Rs 50 for a car), Rs 20 for village development taxes. And then came the tricky question whether I wanted a guide.
Do I Need a Guide ?
It doesn’t matter whether you need a guide or not you will have to pay Rs 50 per person as Guide charges. These are paid for common guides which are present throughout the trail till Devkund waterfall. This charges became mandatory after few souls who didn’t knew swimming ended up in the pond.
Without this payment you wont be allowed inside from the start point. If you are a smartass you can go around the village & cross a hill and join the trail without paying Rs 50 😛 But that’s overkill.
Once you have paid the money and put down you name in the old register you can start walking on the trail which passes by the Bhira Dam backwaters to reach the Devkund waterfall. Finally after so much travelling and completing the formalities I was on my way to the waterfall. The thought of seeing the huge waterfall falling into a green pond really got me excited
The trail is pretty well marked and hence there are no chances of getting lost. The trail provides various peaceful movements along the backwaters.
Time Required ?
It takes around 75 minutes at full steam to reach from parking spot to waterfall. However if you ( yes you who is reading this) attempts this I am pretty sure you would stop after every 10 minutes where you will click 100 pictures. I don’t care if you are a seasoned / amateur photographer or a gorilla with a camera in hand you will stop every now & then to click some pictures. Trust me I did the same.
Hungry Kya ?
At the Bhira village there are many people who provide home made food. While walking through the village you can notice the tasty food posters on houses.
On the trail there are make shift stalls where you can get lemonade and some basic stuff. These stalls are available only on weekends. It would not make sense for them to run such stalls on weekdays. Have this in mind and carry a lot of water on non-monsoon days.
I wanna stay here !
Imagine you don’t have office / work / school / college tomorrow , you definitely want to stay here. #Wanderlust #UnderTheStars. Then again you can check with these stall guys or guides if they can arrange something. They might allow you to stay in the huts at night and arrange your dinner. If you want to camp out they can show you some flat spaces where you can put down your newly bought / soiled tents for the night. Here is my tent.
Back to the walk:
I was really getting pissed off after every 5 minutes when a guide would walk by with some 20 people behind him. I had to wait for all the crowd to pass by to take a clean picture. They just walked to the main attraction while the real beauty is this terrific journey. Out of curiosity found out from them they had paid Rs 1300 for this trip from Mumbai. I spend Rs 300 on this DIY trek.
Anycase I will put all the pics with less crowd to lure you to Devkund waterfalls. Remember to plan this trek on weekdays. Unless your are a type of person who like to watch 100’s of city girls panting their way off to the falls along with their boyfriends/ freindzoned friends 😊.
No it wont be that pretty. Also there would be hundreds of oversized men & college teenagers blaring music on speakers like idiots. Till the time I reached the main falls I tried to find secluded spots where I can have the entire place to myself.
After seeing the crowd I decided to go off track and towards the place where water was buzzing precariously. To my utter shock and surprise I reached here. Ohh boy ! the water is marvellous.
Pond 1 : Zero Crowd : Happiness Tending to infinity
I did my photography and got some cool shots for my vlog. And started back towards the main falls.
Devkund Trivia:
Water to this waterfall is received from Tamhini Ghat’s Plus valley. The waterfall flows to join the Bhira dam which is then released to Kundalika rivers which is famous for river rafting. Because of this huge catchment area and a small water exit at Devkund the area gets flash floods during monsoon. Hence the area is closed for tourists during July-Sept due to the risk involved. There is also Andharban trek which starts in Tamhini Ghat and ends near Bhira dam
Walking a little ahead I noticed another pond just beside the trail. I immediately got down to it. From there I could see people walking ahead, but they could not spot me. This was my den for now.
Pond 2:
I could not get enough of this transparent water. Last time I saw such water I was in Arunachal Pradesh. I floated in this water , watch it on my video
The stones that you see in pond are deep in the water but feel like they are just floating. I didn’t want to leave it but I was not even half way to the Devkund waterfall. Unwillingly I started ahead with hopes of finding another jewels before reaching the main falls.
After a while I reached this spot where a make shift bridge has been put up to help people cross the stream when water is raging.
Besides this bridge on the left side I found my next den.
Pond 3:
This was a slightly bigger pond. Hidden from limelight.
The water is so clean and clear i was reminded of Arunachal every now and then. I will request to surely watch my vlog, I feel it has turned out good.Reluctantly got out of it to reach my next dream waterfall on the other side of the bridge.
Pond 4:
There was guy in his banyans. I asked him to pose for me. Looks cool I guess.
After that I ventured in the pond which is by far the deepest and had the heaviest water flow. To my surprise this kept on getting more surreal .
The waterfall is spell binding beyond anything.
Reluctantly I again got out of this beauty with a hope of finding some more lovely creations. Just above the previous pond is another one . Which wont qualify as a pond for me , But would definitely make a mark if I visited this last month when the water level was higher. I am here at the start of October.
By now my pillion friend Vishal was really getting pissed off. More so because of all the excitement we didn’t eat anything since the morning apart from a single apple. He was dehydrated. Me on the other hand was on a exploratory mode willing to run another 5 kms on empty stomach.
After this last pond it was time to hike a bit to reach the main falls. This is an uphill climb through a slightly dense forest cover. This is where many guys and elderly were taking lots of pits stops.
However. I was inspired to the core to reach the falls. With empty stomach ( very wrong to do so ) I walked towards the maddening sound of water. Crossing the small stream of water which was the devkund overflow I finally managed to reach the falls.
This is Nature’s water kingdom.
As an anti climax after all the swimming I done since morning, looking at the strong crowd I didn’t feel like getting inside the main pond.I think my journey was better. I might come back here on the weekday to have the main pond to myself. Before leaving decided to climb a bit high to get a better view
Bro Tip:
The waterfall’s entry point is mostly closed off during peak monsoon days. However If you reach here during the monsoon there are places on the trails where the water flow rises dangerously high. So take care during such time.
After all the efforts since morning it was time head back home. With so many beautiful memories I rushed home on my bike. That’s it for the Devkund waterfall trek.
Bye !!
Thats it for the Devkund waterfall trek blog.
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I've written blogs covering numerous Sahyadri treks, all accessible in the section below. Additionally, I create ambient Sahyadri videos on YouTube, featuring solely natural sounds such as birdsong, wind rustling through the trees, and the soothing patter of rain—the elements of nature that I hold dear.
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