Yeah plan I did. Unlimited calls to BNers for company went unanswered. A feeling of excitement crept in the mind - Would i be doing this alone? How much can i do alone? How far could i stretch this? Meanwhile the net was swept for maps. Monsoons meant the Konkan would be an enticing options or could be wrong decision. The more I googled, green and unscathed Konkan presented me in all her glory - her bridges, her beaches and her winding roads beckoned me. And to add to that another place reared its head from among the countless of triplogs of fellow bikers - Amba Ghats.
And then the decision was made - Pune-Kolhapur (heard too much of the long straight four laners)-Amba ghat-Ratnagiri and from there on to internal Konkan roads to Mumbai. The idea was to stick to internal roads to soak in as much of raw Konkan as I could.
Day 1
At 4:30 in the morning, trembling with excitement - we set out - me, the yammmie and the crammie. The boring ride to Panvel later I was on the Pune highway cutting through the dark cautiously till I reached Lonavla. As the first light of Independance Day shone on the Western part of the country, I grabbed a warm cuppa.
Just after Lonavla and before Kamshet, stopped for a Photo-Break and to my dismay i discover - cammie (the olympus) was missing its battery. The battery was still on the charger at home which I had so carefully remembered to plug in the socket last nite. The feeling there was of utter dismay, of confusion whether I should head back for batteries, how would the trip come out without the camera. I had the Phone camera of course but then!
Decided against turning back - the road the Kolhapur wasnt that picturesque anyway, would try finding a battery in Kolhapur. Took some snaps around with the phone camera itself and then set out.
The first shot with Phone cam at the point
The Indrayani river outside LonavlaRiding on, suddenly I discover I am in Pune. Asked around and what do I know, I had missed the turnoff at Dehu road for the bypass to NH4. It was swine flu season at Pune and in that wet morning that was the first thing that struck my mind - Funny huh! Made my way through the city with instructions from a cobbler, a policeman, a chaiwala and a morning jogger. The last one almost reported me to police for the crime that I was headed to Kolhapur alone on my bike.
Crept out of Pune with the feeling that this was a to be a trip of errors - had already lost more than an hour and a half seeking my way around the city. The Katraj ghat was a reward though for the pain - Pune bikers are damn lucky they have one just so near the city.
Fuelled up soon after Pune and then had some breakfast sometime later... the road and the bike embraced in a warm hug @ 130 kph ... there were times even i was getting worried about this love story between the two... not much action though.. just plain straight roads... except for the part in between on the Khambatki ghats which unluckily was full of traffic on the way up... sped my way down and then continued the sojourn...
Took a break somewhere after the turn off to mahabaleshwar... was tempted to ride that way but then i had greater conquests in mind... the best part was the bike was behaving really good... no vibrations at high speeds i mean.
From ther on it was non stop to this bridge on the river koyna.. this locale seemed an ideal place for a smoke and some reality check... Not much to check tho.. was on time, it wasnt even lunch time and i was nearing kolhapur, i could look around kolhapur for some camera batteries, have lunch and then move on
Murphy caught up in Kolhapur however... the guy i asked to point me out to a store where i could find olympus camera batteries took me for a ride in Kolhapur from one end of the town to the other.... all sorts of stores promising me to get the batteries in a days time... and then he demanded Rs. 200 for his services... amazing and so utterly stupid of me....By the time i ended the unsucessful search , it was almost two thirty and i was getting late... i still would be about a 100 odd kms to ratnagiri and in between lay amba ghats... skipped the famous rassa at kolhapur and had a quick chicken kolhapuri roti lunch on the outskirts of the city... the dhaba owner got over friendly and bombarded me with questions and views about my life.. can you beat it...
After a refuel and a smoke, set off on the road to ambaghat
Soon it turned all green...
Yeah all shades of it...
yeah and greener and greener and greener...
The road was great as it wound through the small hills leading to the ghats,...
the traditional warning signals before the turns... CAUTION!.. my foot.. i threw myself with vigour at every corner i could...
but at this point i realised that whatever i had come through was only the beginning.. miles of ghat roads lay ahead of me.. begging my foot peg to scrape those tantalising corners... and boy o boy.. peg-scrape i did for the first time in my life
right till the end... i could see bewildered faces of tourists everytime i emerged from a tight hairpin ..in the harley davidson riding jacket, gloves and helmet... they looked at this thing that emerged from the corner and shot past them just to lean back into the other one while they admired the beauty of the ghats... i was shouting to myself inside the helmet... it was exhilarating... thats the word...
Soon it turned all green...
Yeah all shades of it...
yeah and greener and greener and greener...
The road was great as it wound through the small hills leading to the ghats,...
the traditional warning signals before the turns... CAUTION!.. my foot.. i threw myself with vigour at every corner i could...
but at this point i realised that whatever i had come through was only the beginning.. miles of ghat roads lay ahead of me.. begging my foot peg to scrape those tantalising corners... and boy o boy.. peg-scrape i did for the first time in my life
right till the end... i could see bewildered faces of tourists everytime i emerged from a tight hairpin ..in the harley davidson riding jacket, gloves and helmet... they looked at this thing that emerged from the corner and shot past them just to lean back into the other one while they admired the beauty of the ghats... i was shouting to myself inside the helmet... it was exhilarating... thats the word...After the main amba ghat there were still some smaller sections and as i wound amidst them to Ratnagiri i could not but stop getting lost in those crazy hairpins i had just negotiated.. ocassionaly stopping over for a chai break...
got into Ratnagiri, went straight towards the jetty when voila i spot a hotel just over our Bank's ratnagiri branch.. decided to check in there and have a bath before i could take a stroll towards the jetty. Put off plans of going to other places in Ratnagiri... The hotel was cheap with 400 bucks for cozy single bed room...
got into Ratnagiri, went straight towards the jetty when voila i spot a hotel just over our Bank's ratnagiri branch.. decided to check in there and have a bath before i could take a stroll towards the jetty. Put off plans of going to other places in Ratnagiri... The hotel was cheap with 400 bucks for cozy single bed room...The ratnagiri jetty is a nice place for an evening stroll.. extending right into the sea.. even caught a father son or uncle nephew duo fishing right at the end...
Turned back to the Hotel as darkness fell but not before a Vadapav and chai...
Turned back to the Hotel as darkness fell but not before a Vadapav and chai...Back in the small one bed room, ordered some pomfret, some roti and some beer... that and the pictures of the day which i could not capture on my stupid but now vital phone camera lulled me to sleep....
The Yotel and the Branch
The road towards Ganapatiphule hemmed the coastline as i ran from beach to beach across ridges jutting well out into the sea...
From Aarey Waarey - two beaches separates by a ridge to bhatye to bhandarpule to ganapatiphule.. it was miles and miles of uninhabited white sands and blue water...
And finally my self, got a hitchhiker here, some kind of quack doctor... on his way to a near by village...
Yes, Santosh, The Quack doctor.
THe Pristing Bhatye Beach
THrough the dungeons... :D
Bhandar pule and finally...
Ganpatiphule.... doesnt look so from here but it was very crowded...
decided to stop over at the Ganapatiphule MTDC resort for breakfast... while at it, debated the short trip to Jaigad and then decided against it.. rode on towards the next destination.. the Rai Bhatgaon bridge through internal roads.. most of them as per my research district roads...
view from Ganapatiphule from outside the town....
enroute to rai... needed to find the chafe rai road...
The chafe rai road and markers confirming i as still on the right road.. the roads here ranged from bad to worse to ok... but the sights were amazing... almost no vehicles or mankind around except the occassional villages and the tomtoms carrying luggage and equally packed villagers...
there were the occassional stops where the road forked into two and i did not know which way to go..lit up and waited for the occassional passerby to guide me to the right road....
until i spotted the bhatgaon creek and finally...
the Rai bhatgaon bridge.. it was a photo of this place that led to the whole plan... amazing place.. a bridge in the middle of nowhere over this creek crossing into the Guhagar district from the ratnagiri district... there was not a soul around, the sky was partly clouded with the occassional glimpse of hte sun and there was me and my steed..
post the bridge the road divided into two and inspite of waiting for quite sometime found no one to ask the right route... with gut feeling and a vague sense of direction of Hedvi from this place, i took the one to the left and continued on.. found a passerby in between who confirmed that this road did lead to hedvi but after quite some rights and lefts at junctions in between... invariably i was bound to loose my way at some of them,... and then after a while would trace back to the junction to take the other fork... rain was intermittent in between and my jeans kept getting wet and then again drying up ... road quality was as district roads can be expected to be and was making bad work of my back... twists and turns in the vast coastal plains and undulations finally brought me to the Hedvi temple...
The only thing i was sure of now was the next destination... velneshwar...
sea views again... a nice temple and a beach.. pristine and devoid of the tourist crowd....
I was feeling like taking a dive now... but i knew i was making average time on these raods and there was still a lot more to go and lot more to see... After a chai and a smoke, set off towards guhagar, joined the Chiplun guhagar state highway.. the nicest road since three hours and sped off to Guhagar... The guhagar beach is equally blissful... had just so much time to savour the entire stretch, click a few and then off.. if the picture were a little more high resolution you could spot anjanvel in it - the shore point of Bombay high and also the pipeline extending into the sea.... now towards the dhopave jetty..
the road was broken all along and my back took a bad beating along this stretch though not more than 50 kms... the only place you could ride on this road were the fringes where there was gravel ... i was panting when i reached the jetty... took a ticket.. sat on a stump and watched the ferry chug in...
theres the bharti and ABG shipyard in the distance... and dabhol on the other side...
the ferry.. and the crowd alighting...
loaded the bike on the ferry, chatted with a friendly chap with his son.. he kept making a hero out of me to his son...
the other side greeted me to wonderful no-roads sections which did not aid my mental and physical condition by now.. the adventure was turning more difficult now and the thoughts of sticking to the sea shore till bankot and further on by ferry again were leaving me slowly...
the road got better on sometime later and as i sped on towards dapoli, i knew this was the end to the coastal roads...
Lunch at Dapoli at around 2:30 and i was decided to catch the Goa highway at the earliest to Mumbai... i was dying for some good roads... so when somebody told me that the road towards mandangad was shorter but quite bad, i opted for the exit from Khed.... the road from here on was too good and from khed onto kashedi ghats were exciting.. this was the first time i was doing these ghats...
A stopover on the other side of the ghats to let the traffic pass over so that i could lean into the corners and there i was at poladpur.. from thereon i rode recklessly onto mumbai via panvel... the only things egging me further were the thought of mumbai and a brand new BMW sedan who i was successfully trying to keep up with on the highway...
Day 2 - August 16
independance day on this ride was to exhilaration and adrenaline what today would be to adventure
Set out early in the morning for i knew not how much of a detour i would be making... i would be taking the coastal route, trying to never leave the sea for long till as far as i could and then hit goa highway to a tiring traffic laden journey home.. but not before 350 kms of adventure...
The Yotel and the Branch
The road towards Ganapatiphule hemmed the coastline as i ran from beach to beach across ridges jutting well out into the sea...
From Aarey Waarey - two beaches separates by a ridge to bhatye to bhandarpule to ganapatiphule.. it was miles and miles of uninhabited white sands and blue water...
And finally my self, got a hitchhiker here, some kind of quack doctor... on his way to a near by village...
Yes, Santosh, The Quack doctor.
THe Pristing Bhatye Beach
THrough the dungeons... :D
Bhandar pule and finally...
Ganpatiphule.... doesnt look so from here but it was very crowded...
decided to stop over at the Ganapatiphule MTDC resort for breakfast... while at it, debated the short trip to Jaigad and then decided against it.. rode on towards the next destination.. the Rai Bhatgaon bridge through internal roads.. most of them as per my research district roads...
view from Ganapatiphule from outside the town....
enroute to rai... needed to find the chafe rai road...
The chafe rai road and markers confirming i as still on the right road.. the roads here ranged from bad to worse to ok... but the sights were amazing... almost no vehicles or mankind around except the occassional villages and the tomtoms carrying luggage and equally packed villagers...
there were the occassional stops where the road forked into two and i did not know which way to go..lit up and waited for the occassional passerby to guide me to the right road....
until i spotted the bhatgaon creek and finally...
the Rai bhatgaon bridge.. it was a photo of this place that led to the whole plan... amazing place.. a bridge in the middle of nowhere over this creek crossing into the Guhagar district from the ratnagiri district... there was not a soul around, the sky was partly clouded with the occassional glimpse of hte sun and there was me and my steed..
post the bridge the road divided into two and inspite of waiting for quite sometime found no one to ask the right route... with gut feeling and a vague sense of direction of Hedvi from this place, i took the one to the left and continued on.. found a passerby in between who confirmed that this road did lead to hedvi but after quite some rights and lefts at junctions in between... invariably i was bound to loose my way at some of them,... and then after a while would trace back to the junction to take the other fork... rain was intermittent in between and my jeans kept getting wet and then again drying up ... road quality was as district roads can be expected to be and was making bad work of my back... twists and turns in the vast coastal plains and undulations finally brought me to the Hedvi temple...
The only thing i was sure of now was the next destination... velneshwar...
sea views again... a nice temple and a beach.. pristine and devoid of the tourist crowd....
I was feeling like taking a dive now... but i knew i was making average time on these raods and there was still a lot more to go and lot more to see... After a chai and a smoke, set off towards guhagar, joined the Chiplun guhagar state highway.. the nicest road since three hours and sped off to Guhagar... The guhagar beach is equally blissful... had just so much time to savour the entire stretch, click a few and then off.. if the picture were a little more high resolution you could spot anjanvel in it - the shore point of Bombay high and also the pipeline extending into the sea.... now towards the dhopave jetty.. 
the road was broken all along and my back took a bad beating along this stretch though not more than 50 kms... the only place you could ride on this road were the fringes where there was gravel ... i was panting when i reached the jetty... took a ticket.. sat on a stump and watched the ferry chug in...
theres the bharti and ABG shipyard in the distance... and dabhol on the other side...
the ferry.. and the crowd alighting...
loaded the bike on the ferry, chatted with a friendly chap with his son.. he kept making a hero out of me to his son...
the other side greeted me to wonderful no-roads sections which did not aid my mental and physical condition by now.. the adventure was turning more difficult now and the thoughts of sticking to the sea shore till bankot and further on by ferry again were leaving me slowly...
the road got better on sometime later and as i sped on towards dapoli, i knew this was the end to the coastal roads...
Lunch at Dapoli at around 2:30 and i was decided to catch the Goa highway at the earliest to Mumbai... i was dying for some good roads... so when somebody told me that the road towards mandangad was shorter but quite bad, i opted for the exit from Khed.... the road from here on was too good and from khed onto kashedi ghats were exciting.. this was the first time i was doing these ghats...
A stopover on the other side of the ghats to let the traffic pass over so that i could lean into the corners and there i was at poladpur.. from thereon i rode recklessly onto mumbai via panvel... the only things egging me further were the thought of mumbai and a brand new BMW sedan who i was successfully trying to keep up with on the highway...There can be no fitting conclusion to this ride or this report so just signing off...
