Malshej Reloaded

Had been on a trip to Malshej Ghat last week... was a overnite trip... a trip in the rains..,
The last trip to Malshej was the first one on the Bike... i was a novice rider then, but even then those curves left a deep impression in my mind... so this time when the trip was planned, there was a growing sense of exhilaration of hitting those curves once again... only thing i had to mind was rain and slush...

Well seems i did not have to mind anything... the cloud cover is a thing i had long missed since my days in North Bengal... the rains just added the flavour to the seasoning of the curves or vice versa... curves at 60 meant even more deftness and control... The R15 never ceases to surprise as it takes every curve headon, the front tyre giving loads of feedback to the rear and thus munching up curves like spoilt kids at Mac ds. Its a feeling i can keep descriing pages on end.. but lets keep that in memory and get out with the captures...

Breakfast at Kalyan - Starts raining

Stopped here last time too... nice big curveThe road ahead
Full Frontal

Leaving me wet

Dude and Steed

I gobble up miles...

....wid a Turtle on my back

Cliffs hid by clouds...

Curves in mist...

....or the clearer ones

I like slush

A clearing on the lake

Bridgin!!!

ST - Travel Maratha Style

Leading on to the mountains at the horizonAao Twist Kare

Clouds on Cliffs...

....or all around the cliffs

I want to go up there again....

4 days... 800 kms...

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.

A trip to Bhandardara... a lil delayed

Well the last i wrote, i was supposed to leave for Bhandardara... and i did... i was supposed to ride till Kurla nad pick up my GF from there... and then onward ho... However, there were certain intermittent delays and we had to skip lunch and were soon doing tons on the speedometer on the splendid highway... the roads being four laned in places in between but overall 'twas gud going...
Just after Igatpuri, there is a turn off the highway towards the right at a place called Ghoti... the turn took us into a marketplace where man and beasts toiled equally hard to get through a narrow road... once past that and past a railway crossing, we landed on a state highway... from there on the road spread out long and smooth... the best part of Maharashtra are actually its state highways... they are good.. traffic is low and the country side blissful...
Getting the Jacket on...

Scenic roads... the sun has already set So good was the road that we missed the exit for Bhandardara and happily zoomed along the state highway...

It was after quite some distance (later found out, it was about 50 kms), we realised that for a long time we hadn't seen a milestone with Bhandardara written on it. Asked around and realised that we had left the exit long back.... turned and rode back asking people along the road after every 5 minutes... by this time the sun had set, the roads were dark and deserted
Once again I was riding at night on desolate state highways with a lady in tow... somehow located the exit and took the road to bhandardara along the ghats... if the State Highway was desolate this was like Mars with no sign of life... the stars (no moon that day) and the occassional hut along the rode were our only companions... stopped every time we saw a human to ask for directions... we seemed to be going the right direction this time... i could feel my GF holding her breath and praying to God to save her from this Mad Creature who's fond of jeopardising her life on lonely Ghat roads on moonless nights on trips to places of neither of us have any directions to.... i guess she loves me too much...
We continued wandering ( almost two hours considering we reached Bhandardara at about 9 PM) on meandering roads which were only about a meter wide and sometimes wondering where we were riding to... the night was dark though the sky was lit with stars and this could well have been a romantic night if not for the fact that at times we felt like we were riding through the same patch of road... simple village folk with shawls were suspected as bandits, dark corners with hairpins looked like end of road.... at one point had to brake and actually turn the bike to see if actually there was a road around the corner (the R15s headlights dont turn with the handle you see)... well we finally located the place and promptly plonked our tired asses on the bed at the MTDC resort... dinner was a formality... we needed some sleep to catch up with the enormity of the feat we just acheived... if not enormous for me, at least for that poor soul who never balks at the thought of a trip with this Yammmie.....
The next day was much better for her and given the adventure we had the previous day, i decided this would be her day... so it was all gardens, lakes, falls and nice lunches (at Manas Resorts) for her... PICs as below... obviously couldnt risk taking pics of that thrilling ride at night

A Brilliant morning.. pensive by the lake...

Geared up for the road ahead.. MTDC resort

The Umbrella FallsThat bridge was rusty ReflectionsWhere the two streams metGateway to ?????

BN - the prelude

I was bored of life like it is... to put some masala into it got me a bike - had been saving up for a bullet but then given my 5'5 height decided against it... but then i was bored of doing colaba Bandra on it... i mean the R15 desires curves and flat roads... it dies to be revved... taken above the century mark...
So then i put my GF on the back seat and revved to Malshej... 8 PM at night - a Zen in front of me driving at 70-80 kph and me just blindly following himnegotiating turns at at same speeds in fear of being left along on those desolate and dark roads ... realised what i had ridden through while coming back the next morning... life began to take a new meaning...

But i needed people to share it... i needed people to whom i could describe the feeling and they would know and agree.. rather than my colleagues who kept admonishing me against taking a girl alone on such lonely mountain roads at nite... or for that matter friends telling me that a ride to goa ws not worth it... should rather take a bus so that i could enjoy my time there... And then I discovered "BIKENOMADS".
Need to admit that the initial trail of mails were a little boring.. and then the news of the first rides came along... though it was normal reading... (i had started reading ride stories and about bikes since i was in b-school)... felt good that i am a member of such a group...

PICs of Malshej and Dandeli lit fires in my mind...

tales of SaddleSores left me exhausted....

freaks riding to Belgaum and back in a day had me crooning for 70 more KMs....

guys riding the country on a bullet put ideas into my head...

Himalayan odesseys inspiring me to look for jobs in delhi and prodding me to look for jobs in Delhi...

R1s touring the country had me beleiving my 5er version of the giant could do it too....

And then one day came a mail for a calendar.. now what could be so interesting about a calendar... and that too of PICs collected from mortals on bikes.... decided one calendar for myself would not hurt.. there were anyways so many coming from clients and vendors... lets check this one out... but then the enthu of a certain person called Sayan got me wondering if there was more to it than meets the eye... so when Abhimanyu asked for the requirement, increased the requirement to two... was getting warmed up by then... even the prospect of meeting some of the guys at a CCD was getting me hyped up... my heart sank when the ccd meet was turned into a saturday nite ride to Karnal... had to get my bike into the Servise Station on saturday and collect it back on Monday... but then something inside my heart (hurt that it was) sent a message to my mind.... an idea...

Wednesday - I fell ill but still ran with the bike to the Service Station to get the servicing done.... was beaming by this time at the idea of meeting the guys by the weekend...

Thursday, riding to office and felt the bike wasnt running well... the guys at the SS had retuned the bike and the pick up was horrible... where was the R15 i was riding... this sfelt like trying to go high speed on a kinetic honda... the bike whining and screeching but refusing to go beyond 80... believe me... I was like a kid whose favourite lollypop was taken away just when he had had his first lick...

Friday - tried hard to fix a up a client meeting towards andheri... thats where the SS is... but couldnt... i was crest fallen... ashish and sanket had already planned meeting at dadar and moving on... abhimanyu was all packed up with the payload... and i was invited to join them... but my mind still kept fearing of riding to a group of riders with a spanking new R15 that would not go beyond 80 KPH.

Saturday - this was the day all my hopes were pinned on.... though a half day at office, 5 pm is what they udnerstand by half day.... but i had to get out of office and be in Andheri before 5 30... the SS guy would refuse to look at the bike after 6... couldnt take a risk with the timing when the first meeting with the BNers were concerned... after all its a matter of a riders pride.... my scheming mind kept on churning out all kinds of tactics to help me get out of office at 3 PM... from then on it was plain euphoria driving me.... visit to the SS... having the guy return the bike three times till i was content with the speed levels... and then ... ROAD HO....

Trip to Bhandardara due today

Just waiting for the clock to strike 1 and then find some justification to leave office.. then its off to Bhandardara on the R15... wid sumbody ofcorz :)
Just to update the road map - Get on to the Mumbai Nashik highway (NH3) and just beyond Igatpuri, you will see an exit to the right for Bhandardara via Ghoti village. The roads overall are excellent except for the roads in the Ghoti village which are narrow and crowded. The signage all along to Bhandardara and back is good to ensure you do not lose time asking for directions.
Will update pics and triplog when i get back... pics of Alibaug day trip also pending.. had been there on 8th....
the only hitch.. have a sore throat... dont want to aggravate it in any manner...

The Steed

Handsome! Yeah!
Chiselled Looks! Yeah