Motorists always complain about the road conditions in India, but one ride on the NH4 would make up for all the bad times on the road. Long stretches of straights where you can really test your machine!! Two big lanes on each side of a divider, so that you don’t have to worry about head on collisions; reason: motorists in India don’t understand the “right of way” concept. It’s still being constructed, so there are ‘hiccups’ in certain parts, but you generally don’t take it as a negative.
In the morning we decided to go to the Cantonment Area and Fort that was built by the British. We also saw a 100 year old church.
We then headed towards Hassan through some internal roads of Karnataka after taking a left at Chitradurga. Unfortunately, our tryst with good roads was to come to an end right about here. And to top it off, these roads are used by ‘killer’ bus and truck drivers all bent on giving Colin McRae a run for his money! We ended up staying at Hosdurga which had two lodges since we reached pretty late. We stayed at the ‘best’ one, but were terrified of weird insects and bed bugs, so we slept in our sleeping bags.
On day 3 we rode through Hassan on our way to Madikeri, Coorg on roads which seemed like offroading up and down mountains.The road which we were told was a national highway was little more than some bits of tar on red mud. I had a little skid on what was easily half a foot of loose sand. Other than a bent foot peg, a generous sprinkling of mud and a hurt ego, there was no other damage done. The scenery however made up for it. Reached Coorg at about 1830 hrs and we settled in at the first lodge we could find. We went night hunting for a coffee shop for this is a coffee lover’s paradise.
Unfortunately, Karthik’s Bullet had other plans. An insignificant sound that had started on day 3, started to get really loud and we had to stay back in Virajpet to visit a bike doctor...and was he a specialist! We were lucky; only bullet mechanic in a 100km radius. 
The parts had to be sourced from Mysore which was a 100 kms away. Anyway, this proved to be a good break for sightseeing and photography and we stayed here for about a day and a half, eating authentic ‘Virajpetti’ food and visiting random places on my Bullet, which included Nagarhole forest and some 
coffee estates. After his Bullet was repaired, we decided to go through Hunsur, Mysore and then the Bhandipur and Madumalai National parks.
In the morning, we went into the jungle. Saw some amazing birds and a large red squirrel called the Malabar squirrel. The young one readily posed quite close for photographs. We then went to the ‘deep’ jungle home which as the name suggests in inside the jungle. We saw no elephants, but some big elephant poop there, that’s all. 
Later we rode to Ooty through some seriously stunning scenery, courtesy the Nilgiris. Reached in the evening, and checked into a Bank of Baroda guest house. We started our search for Sterling Resort, which was the location where Rider Mania was going to be held. On reaching there we were 
told that there was a party for Bulleteers at the only lounge bar in Ooty. Off we went. Blaring not-our-type-of music proved to be a bummer, but we did have a chance to meet some interesting people. One of them, the DJ, asked us to the bar the next evening and he would play our-type-of music for us.
The next two days were spent with 600+ Bulleteers. We shared the hotel suite with two other riders, Sumant and Vignesh, part of Torque Hub Club, Mumbai. There were games and parties and most importantly awesome Bullets to ogle at!! 
Some people really do put in a lot of time and money on making their Bullets look like masterpieces and perform like superbikes. We had a group ride with all those bikes thundering in the Nilgiris. We also rode to Coonoor to get our hands on some delicious tea leaves.
Monday, saw us riding towards Chikamagalur, but not before saluting our flag and singing in praise of our motherland, for it was Republic day. I’m sure the villagers on the way were stunned at the sight of so many Bullets ‘whizzing’ through their villages. 
The state highway this time was simply awesome. On the way, we wanted to see the famous Gomateshwara statue at Sravanabelgola, but we reached Hassan pretty late and it was still 180 kms in another direction. So we headed on our way to Chikamagalur. Upon reaching there, we settled in at a lodge, but it was a terrible night for me. Bedbugs!! Karthik who was sleeping in the twin bed a few feet away was spared.
The next day Karthik and I decided to do something not on our itineraries and we were rewarded for that!! We rode to Mulyanagiri, the highest peak in Karnataka and through Bhadra National Park. This was a really dense forest high up in the mountains. There were small waterfalls on the way and breathtaking sceneries. At one place we saw water coming out of a rock and were about to stop, but I swear I heard a shrill cry of a leopard. We sped off not wanting to take any chances :). We then attempted to go to Hebbe falls around 13kms from Kemmanagundi. The way started off as a simple mud path but started turning out into an offroaders paradise. About halfway to the falls it got so bad that I found Karthik straddling over his bike which was flat on the ground. 
We decided to turn back, as we realised that even on a 4x4 jeep, the terrain would be very difficult to conquer. The land around us seemed very barren and there were fires lit so burn off the plants. I guess it was being cleared off for farming. This is what happens to all the forests around here I presume. We then continued to Kalhatta giri falls near Kemmanagundi. Washed and refreshed ourselves in the cold waters.
The next day, now completely weary eyed and bodied, we saw Jog falls and the hydro power station there. I was now in a hurry to get to Goa as fast as possible so that I could sleep! We reached Honavar for breakfast. After breakfast, Karthik pointed to a random left off the NH17 and we found ourselves on the most beautiful, untouched beach. I didn’t want to wait much long here however and a few pictures and minutes later we went off. Later, we had lunch at Karwar and reached Madgoan in the evening. 
Found a cheap room and then went to have dinner at the many Colva shacks. Found a place that played our-type-of music and plonked there for the next couple of hours. While getting back, the entire route was covered in fog!! Err…weren’t we in friggin Goa??!! Went off to bed and, phew…no bugs. The best sleep in a long time :)
The next day we went to Betul. Spent some time at the beautiful, rocky beach and then made our way to Carmona beach. We were a little stunned when we saw that everything at the entrance was written in Russian. We settled down in a shack filled with foreigners and mongrels. We made friends with the friendly animals. About 6 beers and some awesome food later we decided to go into the water. Karthik decided to play a little prank, after I lost my glasses in a big wave. Apparently he found it and then didn’t give them back until much later, enjoying my blinking in ‘agony’ and ranting. Dinner at Longuinho’s and it was time for bed.
Next day we had our breakfast at Calangute and commented on how much it had changed since the last time we were here. The breakfast cost us 300 bucks!! We continued on our way to Mumbai stopping at a place in Ratnagiri for some really good lunch. We were wondering whether to stop at Chiplun for the night, but then Karthik suggested we go to Guhaghar beach. The road to Guhaghar was simply mind-blowing! Karthik saw a fox and I was enchanted by the plateaus of either side. The ride was simply one of the best we’ve had. On reaching the beach we found a good guest house just off the beach. We tried to make a campfire at the beach, but there wasn’t much fuel around.
Just as we got out of the restaurant we saw a left turn to Amby Valley. We had never seen it. So we decided to have a look, since we reckoned it wouldn’t be very far. Once we were on the road, the beauty and the quality of roads just swept us away! It was beautiful.
11 people on 7 bikes were planning a trip to Malshej ghat in Maharashtra on a Saturday. The group captain knew Karthik and that’s how 3 more bikers were added to the list. We were to meet at 0700 hrs at Thane, but other than a few, none of the others were on time. One of the bikers was still in bed, thinking it was a Sunday ride! After a majority of them made it, we made our way to Kalyan and towards Malshej. The roads were very good and the ghats steep. Scenery, as usual, couldn’t be described in words.
We stopped for lunch at the MTDC resort, where we realized the three of us were the only ones ‘unprepared’ for the trip. The others had come with loads of food! Food was shared and after some rest we decided to have a look at the dam close by. A few minutes later, we were on our way back. A small river on route gave us a chance to rest the bikes and cool our feet.
All I can say about the NH8 is that it is truck infested!! There’s not much scenery except some dry plains. We overshot a right turn and had to head back to Valsad. We had been travelling for about 3 hours so we decided to tank up and take a break. We saw these strange contraptions called ‘Jugaads’. These are wagons strapped on to diesel bullets. We were feeling hungry so we decided to have some dhoklas at the road side stall there. Best dhoklas I’ve had, the only thing lacking was some spicy green chutney…if only!.
We headed on the state highway to Dharampur. Since we had by now been on quite a few trips, we expected the roads to be very bad. But Gujarat surprised us. The roads are new and very smooth. A dream run! By mid afternoon, we reached a bridge and since it was hot decided to have a dip in the river. The river was running dry, so we had to walk a bit with our heavy luggage to get to the water. Alas when we reached there, the water was stagnant with moss. After walking all the way in the heat, Karthik and I weren’t going to let moss (however yucky the river looked) get in our way of cooling down. We jumped in, with Prince deciding he’d rather cool off in the shade.
So the room got cleaned, we kept our stuff in and went to the check post at Vansda to see if we could go inside the jungle. Unfortunately we were late and he asked us to come next morning. He suggested Gira falls close by. The falls looked powerful, must’ve been even better in the rains. We spent some time there and when it was dark headed back to our 1 kitchen room. Had our dinner and then went to the dam. The sound of the river was calming. In the pitch darkness you could see the millions of stars, something that city dwellers never get to see. Chilled there for an hour or so and when the ‘real chill’ was too much for us, we headed back. Just at the riverbed we saw the hugest crab we had ever seen. A giant of a creature, I’m sure it could’ve snapped our fingers (or toes) off. Sat there in awe, looking at it for sometime and then we went off to our rooms to sleep. Not the most restful sleep we’ve had, but it had to do.
The forest was pretty dense with a lot of bamboo. The sounds, intermittently ‘silenced’ by the thump of our bikes, were scary. We loitered around the forest for some time. We came back to the rest house where we heard that the caretaker had caught a snake. I got a chance to hold the snake in my hands! We went to the river to swim and get the previous days moss off. Close to the other bank we saw a thousand butterflies fluttering. We have interesting pictures of men in underwear amongst butterflies, but that won’t be public :)
We saw the artificial lake that is created in Saputara and then headed off to Nashik. The scenery was mostly that of plains, with mountains in the distance. We stopped for pictures once. The roads were awesome with minimal traffic and we were riding fast. We wanted to pass through Nashik quick since we knew that the traffic would get bad in the evening. After passing Nashik, we decided to eat at Tiger Hill, since we had seen this place earlier on our Yawal Sanctuary trip but couldn’t eat there then. Ate our dinner and reached Kalyan at about 0000 hrs just in time to wish Karthik a very happy birthday. We reached home at about 0200 hrs to end another memorable trip.
Early the next morning, Karthik’s brother-in-law, Jimmy, joined us on his Victor at Vashi for the ride. 2 Bullet Electras and a Victor (2 bullets and a Victor…sounds like quite a movie...no?) We stopped for Misal Pav at Datta's (that would be the famous vada pav joint in Panvel). Stuffed up and then continued on NH 17 towards Goa. After about 2 hours of riding we stopped for water and pictures. We asked a local for directions because the arbitrary right on our map and the actual road didn’t seem to add up. After traveling 200meters it did?. The initial stretch was smooth and through small villages and green fields. We had planned to take the coastal route, coz it looked good in the online maps.
True to form, the scenes were breathtaking. Stopped at some fishing villages and took pictures with the kids. We passed familiar territory – Harihareshwar. We had visited them last year on our Mahabaleshwar, Harihareshwar, Murud trip. We reached Bagmandale at around 1600 hrs and waited for a ferry to take us across the creek to Bankot. From there we had planned to go to Kelshi.
We reached Kelshi and decided we should go see the beach. It was a vast expanse of sand, a very beautiful beach, but there was no one there. We wondered how no one had heard of this beach before. Parked the bikes on the sand, took pictures and went get our feet wet in the sea. Karthik wanted to stay there for the night, but Jimmy and I, mentioning the state of the road and not knowing how far we were from Hedavi decided we should try and reach Hedavi. Majority wins…I like that game: D. Went to a nearby shack and had tea and snacks, asked for directions and continued on our way. It was now getting dark…really dark. We wanted to ask for directions, but there was no one there. Not a soul. We continued on our way and after travelling about half an hour we came across some men on bikes. We asked them the way to Dabhol and were shocked to find that we were on a completely different route. Apparently, the people we had asked for directions at the shack were sending us by road, instead of to Dapoli. Doh! It happens a lot; these towns with similar sounding names and not knowing the local dialect.
A little ahead on the hillock was a crevice and a blowhole. It is said that in the monsoons when the sea is rough at high tide, water shoots out of the blowhole to several 100 feet. We didn’t get to see any of that action however. Took some pictures, and then decided to go to Velneshwar beach, which was 10 kms away. On the way, we had some tadimadi (toddy) for kicks, pun intended. The road to Velneshwar was through some really steep ghats. At one high point you can actually see the beach from the top of the mountain (or must be some other divine beach…we couldn’t really tell). We chilled at the beach for some time. The sea was very rough and the big boats were really close to shore. That meant that the sea was very deep – not a good beach to swim at if you don’t know how to.
We then proceeded to create a masterpiece: Fort Velneshwar. 2 men toiled for 1 hour to create a mammoth fort complete with a moat and underground tunnels, water tanks and a sophisticated water guidance system to get the water from the sea. The sand was very coarse and very soon the sand had gotten into the flesh beneath the nails. Hmm…painful…I’m not doing that again. Ate at a restaurant beside the beach and then decided we should get back. That’s when the slight patch of bad luck hit us. Karthik had a complete flat tyre. The only tyre guy was a few kms away. So we removed the tyre out and took it to him. Unfortunately, no electricity and hence no tyre pump. He suggested we go back to Hedavi where one tyre guy ‘stores’ air. So we took the tyre to him. There while he repaired the tyre, we had the most amazing chai. I had 3 cups. He came back with us to fit the tyre back. Reached in time to capture an amazing sunset at Hedavi and then decided to go for a swim. Ugh…the worst time at the beach ever. The water was filled with plastic and other debris!! And the high tide had brought it all in. We were disgusted.
The sky looked clear and we thought that we would easily reach Mumbai by nighfall. On the way to Chiplun, suddenly it started to pour like all the water in the world was up in the sky. We stopped at a local restaurant for lunch. We ate abt 3 vada pavs and 3 misal pavs each (atleast I did…I wasn’t paying attention to the others) waiting for the rains to pass. It didn’t, so we had to move on. We rode slowly till our next stop at Mandvi, for tea. Sorted our bills and then Jimmy decided he would head off fast since he had to get home urgently. So he continued on to Mumbai. The thunderstorm follows us (or we follow…what’s the difference) right up to Panvel…quite an interesting ride…with the non-existent visor et al. Karthik and I reached Panvel at about 2230 hrs completely soaked to the bone, and had our dinner. Quite a memorable ride, I’d say!!
Karthik’s dad got us accommodations at a company guesthouse in Jalgaon, and that was going to be the first night stop. We packed the bags and went to office. The night was spent at a friend’s place in Kalyan, since it would save us a lot of time in the morning. We left early. The road to Nashik is beautiful with a small ghat section. The road is still being made and was very muddy in some places. There were huge road building rock breaking machines on the way. We saw lots of vineyards on the way to Nashik and one particular restaurant/vineyard caught our eye. However, short on time and with a slower bike (mine was still in break-in…remember?), we decided that we would stop there on our way back. We reached Nashik by 1030 hrs for a vada pava and chai break.
After Nashik came Malegaon – the onion capital of this side of the country. The land was filled with the oblong, pink and violet vegetable. We had our lunch at a roadside dhaba, where some truckers told us they had seen us overtake them many times. That was because we kept stopping for pictures. The scenery didn’t change much until after Dhule, where the road had trees on both sides. We reached Jalgaon at 1900hrs and checked in into the guesthouse. Had our dinner and went off to sleep.
The next morning, we decided to keep our luggage at the guesthouse itself and go to Pal. We didn’t know what the guest house scene at Pal would be, and hence thought it would be safer to do so, incase we had to come back in the night. The road to Pal was through some very steep ghats. The view was amazing. We could see the small towns surrounding the mountains for miles (kilometers just don’t sound right). Karthik gave a ride to an adivasi who appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared the same way. Around noon, we found ourselves at a river, and it being quite hot, we decided to take a dip. Later we acted like professional photographers trying to get shots of elusive birds.
A sick bullet and his concerned bulleteer are not the most eager people to go on such roads. It was at this time that our dear Mr. Local tour guy told us about dacoits; Faase-pardis as they are called. After 1900 hrs, the jungle, with them, is more dangerous, than with a hundred big cats. Even the police are afraid to go in there, he told us. It seems they rob people and kill them, no questions asked. And they burn their bikes. That was all I needed to hear. It was already 1730 hrs. Karthik wanted to try and go ahead. I turned back. Our tour guide then got us back to the village, not before showing us an enclosure with deer. The deer are accustomed to humans and one little one came right up to us to be petted and to beg for food. After the photography session with the deer, we headed for the forest guest house at Pal itself. We checked in. Mr. Local then decides he will get us dinner and show us a tiger later on in the night. Dinner cost us Rs. 75 per plate for vegan food. It’s a village, I thought. That could mean we might get a huge buffet with 10 odd vegetable dishes.
Suddenly the window swung open and crashed against the wall. Both of us awoke with a start. I had latched all the windows and doors before sleeping?!! It was the watchman and it was 0500 hrs. We left at around 0600 hrs, but this time on the non-ghat route since the watchman told us this would be safer. We had to go to Raver and then pick up our bags from Jalgaon. That was more than 600 kms in one day. On the way back we didn’t stop anywhere, except for lunch at a nondescript Reliance A-station. We reached Nashik late in the evening and the traffic was real bad. We couldn’t go to Tiger Hill. We reached Vashi at around 0000hrs and decided to sleepover at a friend’s place, since we had to go to work the next day.
We left Bombay on Saturday, early in the morning and headed towards Panchgani / Mahabaleshwar. Since this was our first truly long trip, there was a lot of excitement, and apprehension too. The scenery on the way was breathtaking. The ghats to Panchgani were pretty steep. The road from Panchgani to Mahabaleshwar wasn’t too good. Passing vehicles threw up a lot of red mud. We reached Mahabaleshwar at about lunch time and met up with our friends, Velancio, Pradnya, Preeti, Kamlesh and Viral, who had already settled into a lodge. The lodge was right in the center of the market and the traffic management was bad!
We rested a while and then went site seeing in the car to some points. The evening was spent at a lake having copious amounts of strawberry with cream. Waited late over there and then headed to sleep.
The next day, we went back to the resort, and were astounded at what we saw. The resort was just off the beach. What a location to have. The beach itself was not that crowded. We went for a ride a little ahead and then returned to the lodge. There we found the owner playing the harmonium and someone singing kirtans, a folk devotional genre. We listened to some raags. The lodge owner turned out to be the sarpanch of the village. I doubt he’d be over 35. He used to work as an architect in Bombay, but quit and settled down to village life
We went to the temple, but found it too crowded. So we ate lunch and then headed to Rewas danda. On the way we saw a very beautiful beach. We later learnt that it was Dive Agar. On reaching Rewas, the bikes were loaded on the ferry. We were wondering how they would lift such a heavy bike onto the boat, but they did it with such ease! Once across we went off to Murud, and found a place to stay some distance away from the beach. We went and saw the sunset at the beach, chilled for sometime and then went for dinner at what looked like a very upscale hotel. We decided to sit outdoors on a gazebo to eat. Big mistake! A toad, lizard and an assorted bunch of insects joined us. We had our dinner and went off to sleep in our lodge.
The next day, the lodge owner told us about two thousand year old Buddhist caves about 15 kms from there. We went to see. It was very beautiful, but smelt of human excrement. I guess people in India don’t understand the value of heritage sites. We returned back, packed up and left Murud for Mumbai. We took the coastal route and were left awestruck by the beauty on route. We passed by Kashid, which we had travelled to a few months ago. We decided to go to Alibaug and then Rewas to catch a ferry to Bombay. Ours were the only 2 bikes on board and they were loaded on the top of the ferry. We sat with them, since we were afraid of them rolling over.
Reached Ferry Wharf at about 1600hrs and headed home.
In the evening, we were on our way to the beach. We were riding for quite a while, but there was no sign of it. The roads were good, twisting through some hills. We took a plain looking hairpin to the left and were astounded with what we saw. The beach suddenly came into view. It was the most beautiful sight, our new rider eyes had seen. A swim at the beach, some games and it was time to head back. Dinner was quick and sleep came even quicker.