A Crater of Wild Imagination

It was that time of the year again, and we, Da Romans, were planning furiously for, what has now become, the annual year end ride. What started off with planning a ride to Rajasthan, then Gujrath, finally came down to Chikhaladara, a hill station in district of Amravati, Maharashtra, situated near the Melghat Tiger Reserve.

What usually happens with me on a bike ride is that the blog starts taking shape in my mind as I ride. It was a different case this time round though. For reasons unknown, there were no mental notes made during the entire trip. There were times in last couple of days that I had dropped the ideal of blogging this ride entirely. But then again, a trip without a blog is not complete. So I decided to use a different format this time round. I thought of putting up a sort of trip log, if you will and then some highlights (or lowlights) of that day. What's the use of noting down those odo readings at every halt otherwise.

Background:

We decided to start our trip on 21st and return to Pune on 25th owing to Amit's long standing commitment. :-) The group comprised of six Romans with six horses. The founder member Bandya was not joining in due to personal commitments. So it was me on my Thuderbird, Mandar and Maneesh on their recently bought Bullet Machismo 500s, Vindy on his good ol CBZ, Amit, despite having booked a baby Ninja, on a Pulsar 180 and Dhanya on his Unicorn.

It was decide to move in general direction of Akola or Lonar and halt where we felt comfortable.

Day 1 : 21st Dec 2009

Trip Log:

Odometer Reading (KM)	Time		Place	Comments
	Arrived	Left
0	06:50	07:10	Vindy’s house	This is where Me, Maneesh, Mandar and Vindya got together to go to our meeting point in Yerawada
8	07:30	07:45	Yerawada	This was the meeting point, Dhanya and Amit joined us here
67.5	09:00	09:45	Saradwadi	Breakfast halt
121.7	10:30	10:35	Ahmednagar	Regroup halt before moving on
184.6	11:35	11:55	Nevasa Phata	Butt break
253.9	13:05	13:15	Chikalthana	Regroup point after crossing Aurangabad city, here we decide to look for a hotel to have lunch
258.9	13:25	14:30	Hotel Abhijit	A hotel on Jalna road. Lunch break.
274.4	14:45	14:50	Petrol Pump	Vindy tanked up here
297.5	15:10	15:15	Petrol Pump	Mandar had to tank-up here
340	16:05	16:30	Sindkhed Raja	Regroup point. Some folks went into Jalna city while Me, Amit and Mandar took a by-pass road. So we decided to regroup at this point and decided that Akola is out of reach so Lonar is the first halt
401.1	17:30	-	Lonar	Night Halt

Headlines:

Dhanya goes missing...

Yes, at yerawada, Dhanya was the only one who needed to tank-up. So I asked him to go ahead and wait for us. He called us and said he is waiting for us at some HP petrol pump. Many a petrol pumps went by.. no sign of him. Called him up but he was not picking up the phone. Finally at Saradwadi I got a call from him that he is still waiting for us at Shikrapur. The reason why we missed locating him was because he went to a petrol pump which on the opposite side of the road.

Da Romans T-shirts invokes police interest

Yes, the newly made Da Roman t-shirt piqued the curiosity of Lonar police. After settling down in Krushna Lodge in Lonar, we went out for a cuppa tea without realizing that since it was first day of the ride, everyone was wearing the Da Romans T-shirt. There was a police patrol van passing by and they stopped us to inquire what we were up to in Lonar with all in same attire. No hassles though, they let us roam freely.

Day 2 : 22nd Dec 2009

Trip Log:

Odometer Reading (KM)	Time		Place	Comments
	Arrived	Left
-	-	-	Lonar Crater	Don’t have the Odo as well as time detailes as I did not take my bike for this visit. Vindy will probably have it.
401.1	-	09:30	Lonar	Left from Lonar
425.5	10:00	10:30	Mehkar	Petrol and breakfast break
531.7	12:10	12:30	Akola	Regroup and refuel point for some. Reached here via Malegaon
582	13:35	14:40	Akot	Lunch break and go the directions to Chikhaldara. Aparently two routes are available. One Akot – Paratwada – Dhamnagaon – Chikhaldara, which is supposedly a boring high-way rout. The other Akot – Popatkhed – Khatkali – Semadoh which goes through Jungle.
605.5	15:15	15:25	Khatkali	Melghat tiger reserve entrance. You have to pay a fee of Rs. 15/- per bike and Rs. 20/- per person.
686.2	17:35	18:15	Semadoh	Searched for the accommodation here but none was available. So decide to go to Chikhaldara.
715.8	19:30	-	Chikhaldara	Night halt after 30 KM of Ghat driving

Headlines:

एकेका वळणावर बिकट घाट कैसा ?

That's "How come there's a tough mountain pass on every turn" literally in English. Basically there are 2 routes one can take from Akot to reach Chikhaldara. The one most popular is Akot - Paratwada - Dhamngaon - Chikhaldara. The rout is a state highway with good roads and stuff. But the people who got enthused by the fact that we have come all this way on bikes, suggested us to take a route through jungle. We were told that road condition may not be that good but the ride is really good. I am so glad we took their advice and decided to go that way. The road basically goes from Akot - Popatkhed - Khatkali - Chikhali - Harisal (infact 2 KM before Harisal) - Semadoh. The entire stretch of nearly 85KM from Khatkali to Semadoh is a ghat road. The road was turing from good to bad to ugly to good again in stretches and some re-tarring was also in progress. But the scenic beauty as we negotiated the curves was breathtaking.

घर मिळेल का... घर?

We were told at Akot and Khatkali that there is a rest house at Semadoh where we can get a place to stay. When we actually reached there, we realized that there was some sort of forest officers training going on there and hence it was full. We were directed to another guest house 1/2 KM away ( the guy said अर्धा. Mandar heard आठ-दहा). No luck there as well. So the only option was to go to Chikhaldara. It was already dark, and as it turned out, the cold wave reached the area with us. So it was very cold. There are three routes which take you to Chikhaldara from Semadoh. The shortest is a direct ghat of about 30KM. The only issue is the entry on this road is permitted upto 6.00 PM only. The other route is Semadoh - Paratwada - Chikhaldara which is basically around 80KM. And the last one is Semadoh - Ghatang - Chikhaldra which is also a longer one. It was already 6.15PM when we started for Chikhaldara and we had to argue with the security guard to let us through. Post some convincing, he did and it was an expereince of a kind riding in pitch dark in a jungle known to have wild animals with turning roads and only headlights to our assistance. Finally at Chikhaldara we were able to get a place for us to stay.

Day 3 : 23rd Dec 2009

Trip Log:

Odometer Reading (KM)	Time		Place	Comments
	Arrived	Left
-	-	-	Chikhaldara Sightseeing	Don’t have the Odo as well as time detailes as I did not take my bike for this visit. Vindy will probably have it.
715.8	-	15:45	Chikhaldara	Left Chikhaldara to go to Semadoh for a jungle Safari
735	16:30	18:30	Semadoh	Went for 1.5 Hrs jungle safari
785.7	19:50	20:05	Paratwada	Went all the way here just to tank-up
819.7	21:20	-	Chikhaldara	Back to home away from home

Headlines:

The चार बडे बडे tigers in the jungle safari

After the Chikhaldara sight seeing and a fulfilling lunch, we, after quite a bit of deliberations, decided to go for a jungle safari. (Best of the arguments has to be "इतक्या लांब आलो आहोत तर..."). The thing was that we needed to go back to Semadoh at the same guest house where we were refused accomodation the day before. Some guys were running short on fuel and so was the petrol pump in Chikhaldara. Even then we decided to risk it and off we went. We came to know that the safari is allowed only if you have a four-wheeler, that to of your own. So off went Mandar and Vindy in the town to hire one for us. It was a Maruti Omni. After paying for the guide and jungle entry we started off. The safari was boring to say the least. Forget tigers, we did not see an ant. The guide strongly believed in power of silence and refused to break his Maun-vrat come what may. It was at the exit from the jungle trail while entering highway that two bikers asked something to the driver and we heard enthusiastic Dhanya, who was sitting in front seat, shout "हा... दिखे दिखे... चार बडे बडे" As it turned out the poor souls were just asking if the route we cam out from was a short-cut, but it was good enough to throw us in a laughter frenzy.

Cause I need the fuel for the fire to burn

As mentioned earlier, some of us were running their bikes on really low fuel. That was bit fo a concern as we had to start our jorney back, the next day morning via Dharni where the avilability of petrol was unknown. So we decided to go to Paratwada and tank-up. Again the night riding through ghats and the patches of cold and worm sections on the road ("थंड-गार थंड-गार" as explained by Maneesh later) we reached Paratwada and from there finally to Chikhaldara. 85KM of ghat ride in night and cold just to tank-up... beat that!!

Day 4 : 24th Dec 2009

Trip Log:

Odometer Reading (KM)	Time		Place	Comments
	Arrived	Left
819.7	-	08:10	Chikhaldara	Started journey back
897.9	10:25	10:50	Dharani	Breakfast break. Shortly after this we entered MP border
984.2	12:15	12:45	Barhanpur	Includes a police check and a tea-break
1024.1	13:35	14:35	Muktai Nagar	Lunch halt
1073.7	15:50	16:25	Jamner	Butt break
1104.8	17:00	17:10	Phardapur	Looked to see if we can get accommodation. None was available so decided to move on.
1142	18:00	-	Sillod	Halted for night at a very bad hotel

Headlines:

Show me the papers

It was only the second time in the entire trip that we were stopped by the police. This time though it was in Barhanpur, MP, and the police were the traffic police. They stopped us and started chatting with us as even they were amazed at seeing us having come all the way from Pune on bikes. Time to open the saddle bags and show them the papers. Mandar and Maneesh, their bikes being recently bought, did not have a RC card. That's Rs. 50/- each if you are interested to know. After they were satisfied and we were out of Barhanpur, where we should not have gone in the first place had we not missed a turn to go to Ichhapur, we regrouped where Amit told the story of how it was a close shave for Dhanya. Dhanya has this habit of not carrying his papers whenever we are going out of state and he was asked by the Barhanpur police to stand to the side because of that. It was only because the rest of us showed the papers and a bit of chit-chatting with them about places to see in Barhanpur that the police got distracted and we were able to sneak him out without them noticing. Time for me to blast off my anger on Dhanya who finally admitted that he did not forget the papers. He, in fact, had lost them long time back.

You call it a hotel?

Well, we had earlier planned to halt at Ajintha, but realized that no accomodation was available, it being a eve of a long weekend. So we decided to drive-on upto Sillod and halt. The place where we stayed was an MTDC approved hotel called Hotel Yuvraj which looked OKish from the outside. Now I must make it clear that our expectations from a hotel, when on a bike ride, are very very minimal. But as the case was, I can go on and on about the problems we faced there. So I will cut it short and say this. Avoid Hotel Yuvraj at all costs. Sleep by the road side, if you have to. But don't stay in Hotel Yuvraj. Lock is the only thing that can save this hotel. :-)

Day 5 : 25th Dec 2009

Trip Log:

Odometer Reading (KM)	Time		Place	Comments
	Arrived	Left
1142	-	09:30	Sillod	After breakfast and petrol for some, started the journey back.
1205.5	10:45	11:00	Aurangabad	Regroup stop. Did not actually regroup here.
1271.5	12:30	12:45	Nevasa Phata	Petrol and bike repair halt
1327.2	13:45	14:30	Ahmednagar	Bike repair halt
1335.4	14:40	15:40	Kedgaon	Lunch break
1414.3	17:05	17:15	Shikrapur	Butt and tea break
1448.4	17:55	18:20	Yerawada	Time to say goodbye and stuff
1458.4	18:45	-	Home	Yeahhhh

Headlines:

Bang... bong... phatt... phoot

That's Vindy's bike on the last day of the trip, if you are wondering. Basically it was mis-firing massively and the overall speeds were limited by it. Even at full throttle, the bike would decide what speed it wanted to go and rest of us would just follow Vindy at that speed. The speed varied from 40KPH on a climb to 75KPH on slopes and on an average 65KMH on flat terrains. At Nevasa Phat I decided to do something about it and failed. At Nagar we showed it to mechanic and replaced the spark plug. That failed too. Just as I am typing, I am being told by Vindy that it was a loose connection of couple of wires that was causing it. Tightening them fixed the issue. So much for a ride at 60KPH.

Bottom da lines:

The punch line on Da Romans T-shirt is a Javed Jaffery dialogue from some movie "When in Rome do Da Romans." This trip did a good justice to that line. Wherever we went, we became that place. That's why, like all other trips, it was an unforgettable experience which will remain with all of us for a long time.

Check out some snaps from the trip here and here.
Vindy describes his experience here while Amit also talks about the ride here.

Note: Neither Google Maps nor MapMyIndia has the road from Semadoh to Chikhaldara marked on it, but the road is there for sure.

A Quick-one @ 50KPH

It was a Monday. Need I say more if I am to go ahead and state that I was in no mood to go to the office? Woke up late than usual and after some calls later Mandar came to my place to pick me up to go to the office. The plan was to go to Kothrud to get my bike and move on.

Now, Mandar bought this Bullet Machismo 500 recently and had clocked only 490 KM in more than 20 days. Pathetic is the word to describe this performance. What it meant was his bike was not due for servicing and he was looking for ways to get it over with. So on our way to Kothrud, on Nilayam Bridge to be precise, I asked Mandar, with certain amount of sheepishness in the tone, if he is interested in a quick drive to Tamhini Ghat. That's when I realized that we were on the same page as far as the matters related to going-to-office were concerned. He took few seconds to respond in the affirmative.

So the plan was plotted. We go to my place in Kothrud, dump all the bags, pick up my bike and move on. So we did. Started off from Mangeshkar hospital stopping on the way:

1. at a petrol pump where we tanked-up the bikes

2. at an ATM where we tanked-up the pockets, and finally

3. at a snack center where we tanked-up ourselves.

Thus satisfied with our efforts, we decided to continue on Karve road at around 11 AM. As Mandar's bike is going through its breaking-in phase we decided to limit our speeds to less than 60KPH but mostly 50KPH. We joined Katraj-Dehuroad bypass at Warje flyover and a right turn took us on the four lane road which we left at Chandani chowk and started moving on the Paud road. The weather was mostly cloudy with patches of Sun in between and the road condition was good. So we hit our pre-decided 50KPH and started to roll in the general direction of Paud. It was hard for me to keep going at 50KPH and once or twice I did twist the throttle and went ahead just to slow down so that Mandar can join back.

Thanks to the latest spell of rains, it was all green around us and we quickly went past Bhugaon, Pirangut and Paud. The road, having behaved like a gentle-man until now, suddenly decided that enough was enough, and after Paud it became temperamental. It was mostly a surface from which the tarmac was scrapped off here and there. But as we were anyway driving at 50, it was not much of an issue.

Moving ahead and after crossing the Tata Power Plant, the distant mountains came into sight with clouds covering the tops. The temperature dropped a bit and up went the helmet visor to soak in the atmosphere. We took our first break at a hotel just after Mulshi and discussed the next plan. There is a road up ahead which goes to Lonavala via Amby-valley and we decided that while coming back we should use that route.

A 10 min break and we were back on the road again and within minutes we were negotiating the curves which take one around the Mulshi lake. The road was now turning good to bad to good in patches and my throat was itching. SO I started singing out loud. Soon passed the village of Tamhini and started the climb up the Ghat. The Ghat roads for the initial part were pretty bad. but who cares?

Soon we were at the spot which gives a beautiful view of a gorge so took the opportunity for another butt-break and were off again. Previous experience was the road is usually bad on the Pune side and improves as soon as we enter Riagad district. But this time the road leading to the border on Pune side was smooth and lovely and the road on the other side, although offering quite a few hairpin turns, was not in great shape. Managing to get through safe and sound we reached the village of Vile at around 1PM.

Here we had to decide what we wanted to do. Post some suggestions of going to Diveagar or to go back on the originally decided plan of we finally agreed upon going to Mangaon and return via Varndha Ghat. Looking back now, there couldn't have been a better decision we took.

So we started off again on the Vile - Mangaon road a lovely road passing through tree cover and very little traffic. A slight scare by a bus which was overtaking a six-seater on a blind turn made me go right to the edge of the road and stop. The bus and the six seater as well as Mandar following me close by also had to stop. Some bit of maneuvering by the bus driver and some foul mouthing him by the six seater driver and all was well and we were on our way. Mandar was not sure about what KMPL his bike was returning and decided that he needed to tank-up a bit again. So we reached Mangaon and turned left on NH17 and started looking for petrol pump. We found one few minutes later and turned in. There was also a nice looking hotel near that petrol pump and sudden realization dawned upon us that we needed refueling as well. It was around 2.15Pm when we ordered some Paneer Butter Masala, Dal Fry and Roti. Called up Vindy to get the directions to Varandha ghat and it looked straight forward to reach there.

After half an hour and a fulfilling meal we started off again on NH17 and soon were on smooth tarmac with not much of traffic. Soon the sky became darker and lightning in the distance announced the presence of rain right where we were heading. Leaving behind the turn to Raigad on the left and turn to Mahad town on the right, we continued our journey. That's when out of nowhere it suddenly started raining cats and dogs. We stopped and shifted our cell phones in to Machismo toolbox, the wallets to back pocket and decided to keep moving. Few minutes later we stopped at a chai tapri to ask for directions and decided to wait and see if the rain will die down. It did after 15 mins and we started again. This time I put in some more gas in my bike and reached the square we were looking for. Post some enquiries we were directed to the right route through the town of Birwadi and soon were negotiating the curves of Varandha ghat.

I had been to Varandha ghat some god-knows-how-many years back and that to in summer time. Add to it a rash driver; I distinctly remember looking at the road instead of anywhere else. But this time round, the scenic beauty of the ghat as it winds up to the top most part of the mountain was simply breath-taking. The huge hairpin bends and a steep climb later we were at the top most point where we decided to halt. Mandar was all smiles when the realization of how much power he had at his disposal came to him.

We were just standing there trying to register all of what we were seeing in our memories. I am sure that a poet, if one was present, would have had all of his creative juices flowing to the brim, and would have delivered one of his best. As we mounted our bikes and kick-started them, satisfaction was written all over our persona.

The road on the other side of the ghat was no different. It went winding down for nearly 30 KMs before we reached Bhor at around 6PM. Mandar did practice the art of turning on the bends without using brakes and admitted later on that he still needs lot of practice.

Quick enquiries at Bhor and we were guided to the road which connects to NH4 and the rain gods decided that we had dried enough to give us another soaking. And when it came, it came down hard. It was impossible to put the visor of the helmet down as we couldn't see a thing and it was even more so with visor up as the rain felt like needles on our face. So with visor down and headlights on we followed a Scorpio all the way up to the NH4. When we reached NH4 at Nasrapur Phata, the rain had reduced to a slight drizzle and we braked for a hot cup of tea. It was already dark and I was keen on going through Katraj Tunnel to get back home, but Mandar was in no mood to take that road and insisted on going through Katraj Ghat.

The last part of the journey was a typical journey which one experience between Nasrapur and Pune. Lots of traffic, lots of idiots on the road driving erratically and the trucks competing with each other at 20KPH blocking, the entire road in the process. Negotiating the traffic and the ghat we were back home at around 7.30 PM.

We checked the odo and saw that we have covered almost 280 KMs and Mandar's problems regarding the first servicing seized to exist.

Check the enlarged version of the map.

It’s always a very hard task for me to end a write-up for lack of proper closing statement. The words fail me when it comes to describing the emotions at the end of a bike ride. So, I guess, I will leave it at that.