The 15001th km ride

Thats what i did for the length of the Holi weekend ride with gf (now fiancee officially, congrats to me). Had been fidgeting with itineries, plans, places but with the long weekend rush, lack of a place to stay was playing spoilsport.

Our previous best was the 280 kms backs from Panchgani and the last part of that ride was hell for her. So Panchgani was ruled as much for the distance as for the lack of affordable stay options. Konkan has been a tradionally dependable destination in times of tryst. And so it turned out that the route to Dapoli through Mandangad was shorter and totalled around 220 odd KMs. The last time I was on my solo to Konkan, I had avoided this route given that my back had already recieved a solid kick from the Konkan internal roads. But this time some googling and phoning around assured me the route was good to do.Our second best was around 180 kms, thus some coaxing and a brand new and more comfortable seat (some more foam and a rexin cover over the first one) helped me sign the deal.

So on Saturday (27th Feb) early morning, the both of us set out in the dark to explore the Dapoli Taluka and its beaches and temples. First break at Panvel for a cup of tea and we set on to the NH17. The bike's service this time round was not fully satisfactory and the tuning was wrong. While in the city, it did not make much of a difference, on the NH17 it did. Overtaking was becoming more challenging, specially the boleros and the scorpios of the world. and speeds of 104-5 kms made the bike shudder. However, soon I adjusted the ride to a 90 kph cruise mode and cruised along till Nagothane for a breakfast of Misal and Tomato Utthapa at Hotel Ruchi. Dawn had just broken and the morning sun and a cool breeze welcomed us back onto the road.

There were two ways to go to Mandangad from NH17 - one from Goregaon Phata and the other from Veer. Took the first one and some 5 kms into the ride, regretted it. The road was patchy and as it wound up and down the Konkan terrain, pressure on my arms and back mounted. But, all that was easy to ignore given the scenes that unravelled in front of us ravines, lakes, dams...

Just before Mandangad you take a left turn for Dapoli from wher the road was quite good and I could lean to my hearts content along the nice curves. Not before it got all patchy again - the type of patchy where you get roughed up as much at speeds of 30 kph as at 80kph. I followed the later.

Dapoli turned up quite quickly at around 11 AM and from there Murud was a stones throw 9if you could call 10 odd kms that). Checked into the small Hotel Sahil at Murud, freshened up and moved towards the beach. After a first rendevous, we firned up the itinery. We moved towards Anjarle with the intention of catching the FIsh Auction at Harnai first and then seeing the Kadyavarcha Ganapati. The stink of Rawas at the entrance to Harnai proved to strong for me to convince her to go further and so we gave the Harnai bunder a pass and instead moved to Anjarle through the fishing village. Line after line of fish laid out to dry greeted us on the way as we rode past the small thatched roof houses of the fishermen. Sights, sounds and scents of a rural fishing community hit us on the way.

Kadyavarcha Ganapati temple proved quite scenic more for the view of the Arabian sea and the setting sun it offered us that for the actual all white temple. On the way back to Murud, stopped at a Couple of Sunset view points and view it was. I am thinking of taking up Sunset photography as a hobby (once i get my own DSLR) and set out to practice with all kinds of subject (read the lady, the bike,the odd bush) in between the lens and the reddish hues of the setting sun.

Dinner that night was at the Silver Sands resort with everything having prawns as a part and a bottle of Kingfisher.

THe next morning a crowded beach and dangerously overloaded boats led to us scrapping our dolphin watching plans and we got into the sea bathing mode. A good 2 hours later, we were red in the eyes and runny by the nose. Lunch was planned at Dapoli after which we were to proceed to Ladghar. But the afternoon heat burned us down and so after a lunch at Hotel Vrindavan at Dapoli, we came back to base and ventured only after the sun had calmed down at around 4 30. The route to Ladghar was through Dapoli and the roads were good enough.

Tamas Teerth turned out to be a dissapointment with nothing red enough but a little gravel fringing the beach. THe ladghar beach though was extremely serene and devoid of people. And it was there that we bade the sun good bye, caught a local group trying to erect a structure for Holika Dahan and then rode back to base. Some bhelpuri at the Murud beach, a night ride along the beach and dinner aided with fried pomphret later we retired for the night.

Next day morning we took the road from Dapoli towards Khed. The road was as good as it could get and as it wound about the small hills, the R15 danced around the curves and soon we hit the Nh17. The kashedi Ghat welcomes the R15 on its curves and thereon began and embrace that stopped only at Poladpur. The rest of the journey was uneventful except a nice Puri Bhaji breakfast at Kamat's Mahad. We were back to Mumbai and its holi celebrations by lunch time thus ending the 15001th kms sojourn to the so called mahabaleshwar of konkan.

Route taken - Mumbai-Panvel-Pen-Mangaon-Goregaon Phata-Ambet-Mandangad-Dapoli-Murud-Anjarle-Murud-Dapoli-Ladghar-Dapoli-Murud-Dapoli-Khed-Poladpur-Mahad-Mangaon-Pen-Panvel and back to Mumbai.
Total Distance 689 kms

Signing off with the photos