It was decided then.... road trip it wud be... this was 8000 bucks as opposed to Goa... 12000 bucks (recession demands budgeting u see)... the longest ride till date... time to put the yammie to test... and imagine what.. she agreed... yes she agreed... the route... Diveagar-Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani-Mumbai(via Pune)... Bookings done... the cramster packed... and we were off... 4 30 in the morning.. we were off...
Day 1
The Start
(The stoppage chapter)And then we stopped... and we stopped and we stopped.. the start was full of stoppages...Her helmet didnt feel comfortable... each time she tried fitting it over her scarf, it felt more and more uncomfortable... so we did without it... strapped it to the cramster and moved on...
And then we stopped again.... we had barely crossed the vashi bridge and panvel ... it was 5 30 in the morning... and the wind in our face was chilling... my hands shivered.... my pillion cowered trying to hide herself behind my frame... seeking respite from the cold wind in her face.... but 'twas all in vain... and so ... we stopped.... a small chai ki tapri... had chai... clicked a couple... and then decided we were warm enough to move on...
(The food max chapter)
But we werent... it was still chilling as hell as we hit the Goa Highway...... we crawled along at 40 kph... yes 40 on an empty highway... trailing whatever big trucks we could spot(the trail of large trucks are a little warmer u see).... i was feeling miserable... We realised we needed another stop... we had to wait for Surya Devta to comeup before we could ride freely.... we decided an early breakfast stop wud do... but then most dhabas were still closed... or just opening... and then we spotted "Food Max - 15 Mins ahead"... Food Max it would be then... we road along... looking for Food max... and after 10 mins into the chilly morning we saw the next board... "Food Max - 12 mins ahead"... wonder what speed they had in mind when they wrote the distance in minutes... we prodded on and after a half an hour and a series of boards declaring "Food Max - 10/8/5/2 mins ahead", reached Food Max... imagine our plight when we realised that Food Max had minimum options of only dosa without Sambar (they were just opening)... well not that we had many options otherwise... we settled down cozily in there.... watched the sun rise... decided it was warm enough now after some argument and then set off...
Food Max
Sunrise @ Food Max
The Steed
(NH & SH Chapter)The Goa highway is nice... though two lane.. but a sunday morning ensured lesser vehicles... sawa group of bikers with bags strapped out on a tour... we were feeling a oneness with the road now as we zoomed ahead at 90 kph on the spread out roads... past Penn, Kolad, Indapur.. there wa no stopping now... past the tempting turnoffs to Pali, Murud... onto Mangaon... Now there are two exits from the highway to Diveagar/Srivardhan... one at Mangaon (start of SH97) and other at TollPhata (end of SH 97)... We took the Mangaon one... scenic roads... smooth tarmac... so clean you can sleep on the road... winding through ghats... till we reached Mhasla Gaon...from where the roads climbed down the last of the ghats before the Arabian sea.... the road from thereon was part good and part decrepit... the patch,a downhill ride we had to ride on, was pathetic... my arms were taking flak from the amount ofdownhill braking and clutching and bouncing... till we descended on to plains...from where the roads looked good... thanks o lord...we crossed a toll gate
Onward Ho!
Winding their way round the ghats
A short break and we were on our way... the last few kms to Diveagar.- distance done-200 kms.... once we reached there it was a little effort to find the place we had booked... to our joy we found that the whole lodge was empty except us.... nothings beats a whole cottage to yourselves amidst nutmeg and palm trees and tucked in the corner of a sleepy village...nothing if you are one of those who live in mumbai and travel an hour to work amidst all kinds of din and odour of local trains, autos and taxis....
The rest of the day was well spent with a nice lunch at Exotica Resorts, visits to the Beach, and afternoon nap and then a visit to the temple...
Sunrise @ Diveagar Beach
A Different Kinda ride
Mandir
Day 2
(harihareshwar Chapter)
A small ride to and fro Harihareshwar - Distance - 80 kms total - was planned for day 2 morning before we packed up and left for mahabaleshwar... The small ride turned painful... the roads were non existent at places and bad at others... corners at ghats had to be taken carefully to ensure that the bike did not skid... any vehicle coming from the other side ensured we had to grovel on the gravel....
Startin on a misty morning
Better roads after Srivardhan
Harihareshwar - Pristine always
The roads after Srivardhan were much better and we cruised along the twisties till we reached the MTDC resort at Harihareshwar. This was my second visit to this place. The last time, it was monsoons and every thing was wrapped in sea-mist... that was one hell of a beautiful sight.... only this time with the sun gleaming on the sea water and the distant hills still misty it was even better.... The ride back was the same painful story and by the time we were back at Diveagar our bums had gone rather numb... a quick bath... some refreshments and we were off... Destination Mahabaleshwar - Distance 120 kms - Star attraction - 40 kms of winding ghat roads We continued by the same road as we had come till the toll gate from where we took the right turn towards Tol Phata... now this road was a mix of everything... ghats with both good and bad roads ... long and smooth stretches of straight roads... roads through the jungle where you could here nothing but crickets chirp when you switched off the engine, we stopped quite a number of times... it was getting hot and we were getting pretty dehydrated.... Once we hit the NH again, we took a right and headed straight for Mahad... Had lunch at kamat's just after Mahad... and then continued... We reached Poladpur, took a left and within 5 minutes hit the ghats...
This is where i love my Yammie... it bores you on long straight roads where it cruises comfy at 90-100 speeds.... and once it hits the twisties, it never fails to amaze you with its performance... for the first time i was scraping the foot peg (wid a pillion who jerked at every scrape mind you). I was playing a game now... dont let the speedometer indicate less than 50 by any chance... and I was almost excelling at this game when the devil called bad roads hit us...
The climb to Mahabaleshwar from Poladpur is quite exhilarating ... there are places where you climb pretty high in a series of sharp hairpins, so much so that you feel your ears getting blocked... an it gives you all kinds of views... some even funny like a huge dumper trying to negotiatiate a sharp hairpin... or aunties sick from the twisting road and sharp climb holding their heads in one hand and side rails in the other...
The air got cooler as we climbed up steadily over alternate rough and smooth patches of roads until we finally reached the MTDC resort. Some much needed rest and a bath later, it was time for a hilly sunset from one of the innumerable points in Mbswr. Some shopping for Sweat shirts (nice ones and real cheap), booze and back to the MTDC resort at night for a nice dinner and booze session... And then sleep beckoned.
Day 3
Started early with a ride to Arthurs seat even before the sun could rise... the sweatshirts kept us comfy as we sped through completely barren and winding roads to one of the farthest and best points of Mbswr. This ride would turn out to be one of the best in the trip after obviously the fourth day one. We had the point completely to ourselves for sometime (it being so early) and as the first of the tourist laden cars arrived, we pushed off.
Post a healthy breakfast, repacking, re-cramstering, we set off for our next destination - Panchgani, content with the knowledge that Panchgani was much more beautiful than Mbswr. A couple of points and a lake later, we hit the short but awsome road to Panchgani. Looked around for a valleyside hotel and hit upon this awsome place which was completely empty except us and had a nice view of the valley in between trees. Really lucky to have found this place.
During the whole day, made multiple trips on the Mbswr Panchgani road for lunch, evening snacks, dinner, visit to tableland (a flat place full of horseshit!!!). Was almost gettin used to those twisties when nite fell and it was bedtime again. Day 3 was not something to write about... it was something to live about... Ae kash ke life aisi hoti... but then as i say Jeevan gaari hai samay pahiya...
Day 4
A healthy breakfast and tea along with a sunrise from our balcony and chirping of birds greeted us good morning. They may call kerala - gods own country or kashmir heaven on earth but i havent been to any to realise the truth... but this place i would like to call "Gods own corner" - tucked in the cradle of the mountains, overlooking a spendid valley, set amidst the greenery, the caretaker's small kid playing in the lawn and the only noise being that of birds...
Once again repacking, re cramstering and then we set out on our course... quite early in the morning... a long one for us considering we had about 270 kms to go on a R15 with a disasterous pillion posture. But i knew that the enthusisam of the pillion and the thirst of the rider would gobble up miles in a jiffy...
First the twisties bringing us down to Wai... the best road on this whole journey.. the roads twisted left and right and the tarmac was butter smooth... you could lean into corners at 45 degree even with a pillion and then zoom out at 60Kph on fourth gear... thx to the yammie... it was exhilarating... It was like a fitting end to this long trip the both of us had imagined since the last few weeks...
And then we hit the boring straight four laned highway towards pune... 120 KPH was like average speed on this road.... nothing much to write home about except of course the Khambatki tunnel and the Via duct nearer to Pune... Had breakfast near Pune at about 10 AM and then pushed off towards Mumbai... got to admit it was a little tiring towards the end...
It was holi that day and colours were all around.. but they couldnt match uptp the colours that we had seen in the last few days... golden and orange hues of sunset, pitch black nights, barren yellow plains, even more barren brown hills, greyish tarmacs covered by green trees on both sidesand finally that afternoon lunch the red and yellow colours of a MACDONALDS :)... we were back to Mumbai.
