Finally it was the time for the dream to come true. I had always wanted to do a Konkan coast ride. Instead, we ended up doing a Karwar-Gokarna trip last year starting on 23rd Dec 07. This time round, I had a holiday during the X’mas break and it was only on Friday before the break that myself, Bandya and Vindy agreed upon the Konkan Coast ride. The trip was to start exactly a year later on 23rd Dec again. :-) Lots of online and offline research, a tip or two from some other bloggers who had done the similar trip earlier and a couple of meetings later our tentative plan and routes were finalized.
Da Romans:
That’s what we call ourselves after the Karwar trip. It was a smaller group this time round though. Me on my Red Enfield Thunderbird, Bandya (Suryakant) on his Black Thunderbird and Vindy (Vinod) on his good ol’ CBZ made up the pack.
The Route:
Day 1 saw us cover nearly 410KM from Pune to Vengurla via Nipani, Shippur on NH4, Ajra, and Amboli Ghat.
Day 2 was to be from Vengurla to Hedavi as per the original plans. But we could only reach Ratnagiri by the sun down passing through Malwan, Kunkeshwar, Devgad, Girye, Vijaydurg, Padel Titha, Amberli Bridge, and Jaitapur. At Jaitapur we loaded the bikes in a boat and crossed over the creek to Nate. Moving ahead, crossed Bhatye finally reaching Ratnagiri.
An early start on Day 3 and we were moving up north leaving Ganpatipule behind reaching Jaigad. Time to load the bikes in a boat and cross the creek to Tavsal. From Tavsal we took the coastal roads again through Hedavi, Velneshwar, Guhagar and Dhopave. Here we took a ferry to cross over to Dabhol. Back on the coastal route we touched Kolthar, Burondi, Ladghar, Dapoli, Harne, Anjarla, Kelashi, reaching Veshwi Jetty near Bankot. Took a ferry to cross-over to Bagmandala and halted at Harihareshwar.
We started off Day 4 by crossing Shrivardhan, Diveagar, and Dighi where we had planned to take a ferry to Agardanda, but instead moved along the creek to save on time, passing through Mhasala, Pabhare, Mandad, Agardanda, Rajpuri, Murud, Kashid, Revdanda, Chaul and ending at Nagaon.
On Day 5 we decided to go all the way up to Revas via Alibaug, Mandava to complete the coast . From Revas we started our journey back home through Pen, Khopoli and Lonavala.
The Journey:
The five days threw so much at us that if I want to recite it all, it will be a 50 page blog. But it will be unfair not to mention some experiences, good or otherwise, and call this post complete.
Day 1:
The NH4 till Nipani was pretty much usual monotonous stuff. It was in a jungle just before Amboli village that Vindy beeped his horn and gave us the good news that his bike’s rear tyre had a puncture. We were prepared for this, or so we thought. Off came the wheel. Then with two long screw drivers and lots of effort we managed to get the tyre off the rim. Vindy was carrying a spare tube. In she went and again after lots of effort we managed to put the tyre back over the rim. All three of us standing on that tyre trying to push it back on the rim was a sight to watch. It was now time for inflating the thing and, curse the devils, we couldn’t inflate it after more than 20 mins. of pumping. Finally, I and Bandya took the tyre to a puncture shop in Amboli village nearly 10 KMs away. Guess what? In our efforts to get the tyre on the rim, we had managed to puncture the new tube as well. :-) Some 20 mins later, with puncture fixed, back we went in the jungle where Vindy was amusing himself with some creative photography. After another effort to get the wheel back on, we started moving towards Vengurla. It was on day 1 where we rode past one of the high points of the trip as far as the roads and scenery goes. Yes, the famous Amboli Ghat!! It was so refreshing to drive down that road after the monotonous NH4 and the puncture episode.
Day 2:
It was at Vijaydurg, that we were directed to a newly constructed bridge at Amberli that would take us to Jaitapur. This road from Padel Titha to just before Jaitapur was an experience in itself. Basically the journey gave us all types of roads it could, right from nice smooth tar roads, to dirt tracks to tar roads without… err…. tar. This was the slowest part of our journey. Slower than any other throughout five days where we could cover only 40KM in 2.5 Hrs. But all was not bad. Reaching Jaitapur we were to cross the creek and this is where we got the first hand experience of loading the bikes in a boat on a jetty which had steps, not a ramp. The worst fear was, “what if the bikes fall in the river?”. But the boat-man seemed very confident and spoke as if it was an everyday affair for him which was not at all misplaced, I must say. If loading the bikes was a challenge then unloading them was an even bigger challenge. At the end of all of us were exhausted and dehydrated. But in a hindsight I must say it was one of the high points of our journey.
Day 3:
One of the memorable roads has to be the internal road from Ratnagiri to Ganpatipule via Nevare. A real picturesque journey along the winding roads, with sea on one side and the mountains on the other. On this day we crossed the creeks thrice. First at Jaigad, in a normal boat where the loading and unloading experience of the previous day came in handy. Then at Dhopave, to get to Dabhol and finally at Vishve Jetty (near Bankot) to get to Bagmandala. The last two were easy. All one needed to do was to start the bike and ride-in on the ferry which could carry three, four and six wheelers as well. The other memorable road, but for the reasons I would like to forget was between Harne and Bankot. It invoked memories of the road between Joida and Kadra during our journey to Karwar the previous year. But as was a norm with this entire trip, all was not bad. The untouched (some call it virgin) beaches at Anjarle, Ladghar were worth the ass-beating that the roads gave us. I also managed to get the darshan of my kul-daivat, Vyaadeshwar at Guhagar.
Day 4:
We were now moving up north and getting nearer to Mumbai. What it meant was that the places were now getting crowded and a hindrance to three of us who had gotten into the habit of being the only three souls on the road. Bandya bought a Halwa fish somewhere between Shrivardhan and Diveagar, promptly dropping it on the road near Dighi. Vindya trailing him, picked it up and put it in my bag. We ensured that Bandya knew that he has lost his big catch only to let him know that it was safe when we reached Nagaon. One of the soar points was the road from Dighi to Murud. My bums were really hurting now and I was basically not able to enjoy much of the ride. I changed into shorts at Murud and with a towel on the seat the journey till Nagaon was more than bearable. It was in fact fun. I took a detour at Chaul for darshan of my gram-daivat Shitaladevi. Another high point has to be the Nagaon beach and the place we stayed at. It was basically an old house with nice rooms and a great waadi. We had an outdoor candle-light dinner that night with the Halwa making it on the menu.
Day 5:
A Konkan trip without a dip in the sea? Yes! That was something missing till now. And that was what we planned to fix at Nagaon. So first up in the morning we went to the beach and spent a good hour and half in the waters. The only other mentionable point of the day was getting to Revas and hence completing the Konkan coast trip.
The People:
That’s another fascinating aspect of a long journey on a bike. We met and spoke to some people; we saw many others and did not speak to them but still were left with all sorts of thoughts about them.
The Lodge owner at Vengurla and his mentally challenged son took care of us at the end of day 1. The guy had a typical Konkani tone to his language and the ‘jibheche tirke walan’ for which that particular Konkan region is supposedly famous for. He did all the tea and breakfast preparations and his son, I think his name was Babu, helped him in which ever way he could. Babu got particularly fond of Bandya and shook hands with him and gave him a “God bless you” good-bye when we were about to leave.
Then there was the journalist we met at Tavsal after crossing over in a boat from Jaigad, who was very enthusiastic about the route we were doing. He is trying hard to set up the tourism business at this faraway place and elaborated his plans to achieve it. The chat brought fourth the lax attitude of the local people and lack of knowledge of the world which exists just a few Kilo Meters away at places like Hedavi. He also said that the reason he is telling us about all this is because we would now go back to cities and tell people about the places unknown to them.
The lodge boy at Harihareshwar was pretty impressed with our friendly attitude so much so that he himself started reciprocating the same towards us. Then there was this couple (who were not really a couple, because they stayed in separate rooms) boarding in the same place as ours. They were driving down along the coast and we helped them with the routes and stuff.
The eight to ten ladies selling flowers and garlands outside the Shitaladevi temple at Cahul are remembered for a weird reason. The moment I parked my bike to get inside the temple, all of them started asking me to buy flowers from them. When I said I don’t need to buy any flowers, some still kept insisting. That’s when one elderly lady said, “अहो, तो बाईक वर आला आहे इतक्या लांब. त्याला फुले नको म्हणाला तो. नाट नका लाऊ त्याला." ("He has come on a bike all this way. He said he dose not want any flowers. Don't put a jinx to his journey") It was a really surprising comment which brought out the caring side of these simple people.
The Waadi owner at Nagaon who was managing the entire waadi on his own with some help from the locals was an interesting soul. He spoke about his son who was working in Mumbai and the lack of interest shown about having to manage this place. He also spoke about Nagaon’s rise as a tourist destination due to pollution at the beaches up north like Alibaug. He was very appreciative of the fact that we came all the way from Vengurla on a bike and proudly shared his son’s achievement of a bicycle journey from Delhi to Mumbai.
Apart from these, there were quite a few number of people who, sometimes for no reason, are part of the memory. The waiter at hotel near Shippur, the puncture repair guy just before Amboli, the person in a red Swift who was the only out of 50 odd vehicles which passed us, to ask if we needed spanners and stuff in the jungle where we trying to fix the puncture, the quietly confident boat-man at Jaitapur, the fort guard at Vijaydurg who invited us to visit HIS fort, the girl managing a small tea-stall at Naate, the boat-man at Jaigad, the old man selling flowers at Guhagar who was repeatedly asking Bandya why he was not going in the temple and the countless number of people whom we asked for directions and were guided towards right routes almost all the times.
One last mention in this section has to be of the people, mainly kids, who watched in amusement/awe as three of us wearing jackets, helmets and gloves with saddle bags on the back-seat passed through narrow roads and small villages. The look in their eyes was very disturbing to me. I may not be able to say what it was about the way they looked at us that disturbed me the most. Was it a mixture of awe with may be a hint of wanting to do it themselves added to the ignorance of existence of the things we were wearing and doing? I am not sure.
The Fun:
When Da Romans like Bandya, Vindy and I are there, the trip is never dull. The PJs and laughing out loud for no good reason is a common occurrence.
If the Karwar trip was dominated by the Javed da Jafferys istyle dialogues from Salam Namaste (“In the Roam, do tha romans” – That’s the origin of our group’s name Da Romans.), this time round it was Kachra and Bankot ( बाणकोट ) Rap.
It was weird that a reference to a Russian staying in Vengurla led to her asking what Kachra is. The answer being “What? You have not seen Lagaan?” and that’s where it all started. The Kachra acting, with hands bent at the wrists and weird imaginations about how Kachra would go about the bike ride and other stuff was the pastime for rest of the trip.
So was the Bankot Rap. Basically at Vijaydurg, Vindy started to rap on the lines of Shivaji conquering the Vijaydurg fort and centuries later three of us visiting it then moving ahead and reaching Bankot. So then on anything we did, we converted it into a rap lyrics and ended with “Bankot aa haa haa Bankot yeah yeah yeah Bankot” We soon plan to come out with a full-blown hip-hop song of Bankot Rap. :-)
The last one has to be on the Nagaon beach, where in the pitch dark we were sipping on the beer. Suddenly two bright flashlights started moving towards us. With recent security scenario, we knew that police has increased their vigil on the beaches and we thought they were the men in uniform. So we quickly gathered out stuff and started off just to realize those were some kids looking for empty beer bottles. When they realized what we thought they were laughing as hell. “काका तुम्ही घाबरले का? एय, हे बघ काका घाबरले... काका, पोलीस आले तरी घाबरायचे नाय. तिकडे पळून जायचे जोरात." was his last advice.
The Bottom Line:
5 days, 1200+ KM, 3 bikes, 3 jokers, beautiful coastal roads, BLISS - I love Konkan.
The Photos:
Check the trip snaps from Vindy's camera here.
Check the trip snaps from Bandya's camera here.
Read Vindy's version on the trip here..
Da Romans:
That’s what we call ourselves after the Karwar trip. It was a smaller group this time round though. Me on my Red Enfield Thunderbird, Bandya (Suryakant) on his Black Thunderbird and Vindy (Vinod) on his good ol’ CBZ made up the pack.
The Route:
Day 1 saw us cover nearly 410KM from Pune to Vengurla via Nipani, Shippur on NH4, Ajra, and Amboli Ghat.
Day 2 was to be from Vengurla to Hedavi as per the original plans. But we could only reach Ratnagiri by the sun down passing through Malwan, Kunkeshwar, Devgad, Girye, Vijaydurg, Padel Titha, Amberli Bridge, and Jaitapur. At Jaitapur we loaded the bikes in a boat and crossed over the creek to Nate. Moving ahead, crossed Bhatye finally reaching Ratnagiri.
An early start on Day 3 and we were moving up north leaving Ganpatipule behind reaching Jaigad. Time to load the bikes in a boat and cross the creek to Tavsal. From Tavsal we took the coastal roads again through Hedavi, Velneshwar, Guhagar and Dhopave. Here we took a ferry to cross over to Dabhol. Back on the coastal route we touched Kolthar, Burondi, Ladghar, Dapoli, Harne, Anjarla, Kelashi, reaching Veshwi Jetty near Bankot. Took a ferry to cross-over to Bagmandala and halted at Harihareshwar.
We started off Day 4 by crossing Shrivardhan, Diveagar, and Dighi where we had planned to take a ferry to Agardanda, but instead moved along the creek to save on time, passing through Mhasala, Pabhare, Mandad, Agardanda, Rajpuri, Murud, Kashid, Revdanda, Chaul and ending at Nagaon.
On Day 5 we decided to go all the way up to Revas via Alibaug, Mandava to complete the coast . From Revas we started our journey back home through Pen, Khopoli and Lonavala.
The Journey:
The five days threw so much at us that if I want to recite it all, it will be a 50 page blog. But it will be unfair not to mention some experiences, good or otherwise, and call this post complete.
Day 1:
The NH4 till Nipani was pretty much usual monotonous stuff. It was in a jungle just before Amboli village that Vindy beeped his horn and gave us the good news that his bike’s rear tyre had a puncture. We were prepared for this, or so we thought. Off came the wheel. Then with two long screw drivers and lots of effort we managed to get the tyre off the rim. Vindy was carrying a spare tube. In she went and again after lots of effort we managed to put the tyre back over the rim. All three of us standing on that tyre trying to push it back on the rim was a sight to watch. It was now time for inflating the thing and, curse the devils, we couldn’t inflate it after more than 20 mins. of pumping. Finally, I and Bandya took the tyre to a puncture shop in Amboli village nearly 10 KMs away. Guess what? In our efforts to get the tyre on the rim, we had managed to puncture the new tube as well. :-) Some 20 mins later, with puncture fixed, back we went in the jungle where Vindy was amusing himself with some creative photography. After another effort to get the wheel back on, we started moving towards Vengurla. It was on day 1 where we rode past one of the high points of the trip as far as the roads and scenery goes. Yes, the famous Amboli Ghat!! It was so refreshing to drive down that road after the monotonous NH4 and the puncture episode.
Day 2:
It was at Vijaydurg, that we were directed to a newly constructed bridge at Amberli that would take us to Jaitapur. This road from Padel Titha to just before Jaitapur was an experience in itself. Basically the journey gave us all types of roads it could, right from nice smooth tar roads, to dirt tracks to tar roads without… err…. tar. This was the slowest part of our journey. Slower than any other throughout five days where we could cover only 40KM in 2.5 Hrs. But all was not bad. Reaching Jaitapur we were to cross the creek and this is where we got the first hand experience of loading the bikes in a boat on a jetty which had steps, not a ramp. The worst fear was, “what if the bikes fall in the river?”. But the boat-man seemed very confident and spoke as if it was an everyday affair for him which was not at all misplaced, I must say. If loading the bikes was a challenge then unloading them was an even bigger challenge. At the end of all of us were exhausted and dehydrated. But in a hindsight I must say it was one of the high points of our journey.
Day 3:
One of the memorable roads has to be the internal road from Ratnagiri to Ganpatipule via Nevare. A real picturesque journey along the winding roads, with sea on one side and the mountains on the other. On this day we crossed the creeks thrice. First at Jaigad, in a normal boat where the loading and unloading experience of the previous day came in handy. Then at Dhopave, to get to Dabhol and finally at Vishve Jetty (near Bankot) to get to Bagmandala. The last two were easy. All one needed to do was to start the bike and ride-in on the ferry which could carry three, four and six wheelers as well. The other memorable road, but for the reasons I would like to forget was between Harne and Bankot. It invoked memories of the road between Joida and Kadra during our journey to Karwar the previous year. But as was a norm with this entire trip, all was not bad. The untouched (some call it virgin) beaches at Anjarle, Ladghar were worth the ass-beating that the roads gave us. I also managed to get the darshan of my kul-daivat, Vyaadeshwar at Guhagar.
Day 4:
We were now moving up north and getting nearer to Mumbai. What it meant was that the places were now getting crowded and a hindrance to three of us who had gotten into the habit of being the only three souls on the road. Bandya bought a Halwa fish somewhere between Shrivardhan and Diveagar, promptly dropping it on the road near Dighi. Vindya trailing him, picked it up and put it in my bag. We ensured that Bandya knew that he has lost his big catch only to let him know that it was safe when we reached Nagaon. One of the soar points was the road from Dighi to Murud. My bums were really hurting now and I was basically not able to enjoy much of the ride. I changed into shorts at Murud and with a towel on the seat the journey till Nagaon was more than bearable. It was in fact fun. I took a detour at Chaul for darshan of my gram-daivat Shitaladevi. Another high point has to be the Nagaon beach and the place we stayed at. It was basically an old house with nice rooms and a great waadi. We had an outdoor candle-light dinner that night with the Halwa making it on the menu.
Day 5:
A Konkan trip without a dip in the sea? Yes! That was something missing till now. And that was what we planned to fix at Nagaon. So first up in the morning we went to the beach and spent a good hour and half in the waters. The only other mentionable point of the day was getting to Revas and hence completing the Konkan coast trip.
The People:
That’s another fascinating aspect of a long journey on a bike. We met and spoke to some people; we saw many others and did not speak to them but still were left with all sorts of thoughts about them.
The Lodge owner at Vengurla and his mentally challenged son took care of us at the end of day 1. The guy had a typical Konkani tone to his language and the ‘jibheche tirke walan’ for which that particular Konkan region is supposedly famous for. He did all the tea and breakfast preparations and his son, I think his name was Babu, helped him in which ever way he could. Babu got particularly fond of Bandya and shook hands with him and gave him a “God bless you” good-bye when we were about to leave.
Then there was the journalist we met at Tavsal after crossing over in a boat from Jaigad, who was very enthusiastic about the route we were doing. He is trying hard to set up the tourism business at this faraway place and elaborated his plans to achieve it. The chat brought fourth the lax attitude of the local people and lack of knowledge of the world which exists just a few Kilo Meters away at places like Hedavi. He also said that the reason he is telling us about all this is because we would now go back to cities and tell people about the places unknown to them.
The lodge boy at Harihareshwar was pretty impressed with our friendly attitude so much so that he himself started reciprocating the same towards us. Then there was this couple (who were not really a couple, because they stayed in separate rooms) boarding in the same place as ours. They were driving down along the coast and we helped them with the routes and stuff.
The eight to ten ladies selling flowers and garlands outside the Shitaladevi temple at Cahul are remembered for a weird reason. The moment I parked my bike to get inside the temple, all of them started asking me to buy flowers from them. When I said I don’t need to buy any flowers, some still kept insisting. That’s when one elderly lady said, “अहो, तो बाईक वर आला आहे इतक्या लांब. त्याला फुले नको म्हणाला तो. नाट नका लाऊ त्याला." ("He has come on a bike all this way. He said he dose not want any flowers. Don't put a jinx to his journey") It was a really surprising comment which brought out the caring side of these simple people.
The Waadi owner at Nagaon who was managing the entire waadi on his own with some help from the locals was an interesting soul. He spoke about his son who was working in Mumbai and the lack of interest shown about having to manage this place. He also spoke about Nagaon’s rise as a tourist destination due to pollution at the beaches up north like Alibaug. He was very appreciative of the fact that we came all the way from Vengurla on a bike and proudly shared his son’s achievement of a bicycle journey from Delhi to Mumbai.
Apart from these, there were quite a few number of people who, sometimes for no reason, are part of the memory. The waiter at hotel near Shippur, the puncture repair guy just before Amboli, the person in a red Swift who was the only out of 50 odd vehicles which passed us, to ask if we needed spanners and stuff in the jungle where we trying to fix the puncture, the quietly confident boat-man at Jaitapur, the fort guard at Vijaydurg who invited us to visit HIS fort, the girl managing a small tea-stall at Naate, the boat-man at Jaigad, the old man selling flowers at Guhagar who was repeatedly asking Bandya why he was not going in the temple and the countless number of people whom we asked for directions and were guided towards right routes almost all the times.
One last mention in this section has to be of the people, mainly kids, who watched in amusement/awe as three of us wearing jackets, helmets and gloves with saddle bags on the back-seat passed through narrow roads and small villages. The look in their eyes was very disturbing to me. I may not be able to say what it was about the way they looked at us that disturbed me the most. Was it a mixture of awe with may be a hint of wanting to do it themselves added to the ignorance of existence of the things we were wearing and doing? I am not sure.
The Fun:
When Da Romans like Bandya, Vindy and I are there, the trip is never dull. The PJs and laughing out loud for no good reason is a common occurrence.
If the Karwar trip was dominated by the Javed da Jafferys istyle dialogues from Salam Namaste (“In the Roam, do tha romans” – That’s the origin of our group’s name Da Romans.), this time round it was Kachra and Bankot ( बाणकोट ) Rap.
It was weird that a reference to a Russian staying in Vengurla led to her asking what Kachra is. The answer being “What? You have not seen Lagaan?” and that’s where it all started. The Kachra acting, with hands bent at the wrists and weird imaginations about how Kachra would go about the bike ride and other stuff was the pastime for rest of the trip.
So was the Bankot Rap. Basically at Vijaydurg, Vindy started to rap on the lines of Shivaji conquering the Vijaydurg fort and centuries later three of us visiting it then moving ahead and reaching Bankot. So then on anything we did, we converted it into a rap lyrics and ended with “Bankot aa haa haa Bankot yeah yeah yeah Bankot” We soon plan to come out with a full-blown hip-hop song of Bankot Rap. :-)
The last one has to be on the Nagaon beach, where in the pitch dark we were sipping on the beer. Suddenly two bright flashlights started moving towards us. With recent security scenario, we knew that police has increased their vigil on the beaches and we thought they were the men in uniform. So we quickly gathered out stuff and started off just to realize those were some kids looking for empty beer bottles. When they realized what we thought they were laughing as hell. “काका तुम्ही घाबरले का? एय, हे बघ काका घाबरले... काका, पोलीस आले तरी घाबरायचे नाय. तिकडे पळून जायचे जोरात." was his last advice.
The Bottom Line:
5 days, 1200+ KM, 3 bikes, 3 jokers, beautiful coastal roads, BLISS - I love Konkan.
The Photos:
Check the trip snaps from Vindy's camera here.
Check the trip snaps from Bandya's camera here.
Read Vindy's version on the trip here..
