Group Ride to Jawhar

Posted: by Pulsurge in Labels: , , ,
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The destination:
Jawhar


The distance:
350 kms approx return

The riders and their machines:
Ishtiaque: Bullet Standard 500
Apoorva: Thunderbird 350
Vikram: Aquila 250
Krishna: Yezdi 250
Sameer: Pillion on the Yezdi
Glen: Wind 125
Rajeev: ZMA
Eric: ZMA
Vinod: Pulsar 180 DTSi
Sanket: Pulsar 180 DTSi
Prannoy: Pulsar 180 DTSi
Kapil: Pulsar 150 DTSi
Varun: Pulsar 150 Classic
Sunny: Pulsar 150 DTSi
Deepak: Pulsar 150 DTSi

Token of thanks:
At first my thanks to Ishtiaque- our thumping and touring Dadaji for the surprise turnout. To Kapil, Rajeev, Apoorva and Diamond for turning up at a last minute confirmation and to Vikram for riding all the way from Pune to join us.

Everything was planned and set for a wonderful day of riding. I always try to make sure that I get home early the previous night to get a good long sleep to enjoy the ride the next day and most important turn up at the meeting point on time. But as usual it’s similar fate for me. I always end up roaming out late and never find enough sleep. Came home at 2.30 in the night after hanging out and dining with Parimal, Sanket and Vikram. As a precautionary measure, had requested Vinod to wake me up early morning. Got a good firing from Mom being so late and riding early next morning. Washed up and lay flat on my back- the thought of the ride was shooing away sleep away from my eyes- wasn’t able to sleep at all. Tried to tight-wink my eyes to sleep but couldn’t. No option but to watch TV and finally at around 4 my eyes started getting heavy and I went to sleep. The phone rings and someone at the other ends says “Good morning Mr. Dongre” – I see my watch, 5:50 a.m…. yaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn….. what the hell good morning?? Spoiled my sleep. Suddenly am in my senses, it’s Vinod :D “Get ready, nahi to late ho jayega” he tells me. Damn, its riding day – I say fine. Get cracking and finish off everything by 6.45 and ready to leave. Call up Glen to find him at his breakfast table. As decided I reach the Cadbury’s flyover end before time. Get an sms from Akhilesh of not being able to make it despite his best efforts- the Saturday hangover was too strong to let him ride :)) No probs, next time. Call up Kapil and he is about to leave, he has no idea about Apoorva if he has left or if he’ll be coming for the ride.

Some minutes later Glen arrives, then Apoorva on his Thunderbird. Glen and myself spend some time checking out his bike asking all sorts of questions. Finally Kapil and Rajeev arrive in their awesome looking Fieldsheer jackets. Rajeev was looking more of a MotoGP racer with the jacket, a shiny new GP-One shell with a dark visor and with an even more shinier cherry red ZMA :) We decide not to waste any time and ride to Ghodbunder. 20 minutes of riding takes us to Ghodbunder with everyone waiting and we being the last of the pack to arrive. Sunny, Sameer and Krishna were to catch us up at Bhiwandi bypass ahead. Time for lift off….. engines revving - filling up the entire surrounding with a growl with people with their usual surprise glare. Anyways we’ve got used to that :P Vinod’s given the responsibility of leading the pack with Ishtiaque and me being the tail. I mumble a small prayer to the almighty for a safe ride for everyone ahead. Tap on the first cog and everyone’s off. Just as a train leaves the platform slowly and gradually picking speed, so was the group. The pack was actually looking like a train from far behind :) Vinod pauses up again on the bridge to check if no one is left behind… fine it is. Lets go!!!!

Just as we’re about to hit our decided speed of 80 kph- come across a bunch of packed traffic. Gawd!!! Why today- its Sunday and these number of vehicles??? The group gets separated with Ishtiaque, Vikram, Glen and me being left behind. Wriggle our way out of the mess and again as we’re about to pick up speed- again same story. This rolls on for some distance with me wondering if we’re actually going to ride in this manner all the way to our place. Due to the traffic no one took notice of Sunny, Krishna and Sameer, but thankfully we stumbled upon them. The fore-runners were waiting ahead for us to regroup- small introduction among the newer guys and we’re off. Crap…. Same mess again… traffic. We lose a lot of time due to some foolish car drivers who think they could actually crawl their cars out from a 3 feet gap. The next pre-decided halt was Manor and it was quite some distance away with we same three being left behind. I decided to stay with Vikram with Ishtiaque trailing as we rode on. Found Sunny waiting ahead for us. The road was amply clear of traffic and with Ishtiaque being the tail and there to take care of Vikram, Sunny and myself decided to have a small burst. Same old story- my bike getting its nose ahead in the drag :P clocked a best of 122 kph in the sprint. Suddenly we find Krishna and Sameer in sight fiddling around with the Yezdi. Some small niggle- but is quickly done away with.

We’re off and reach Manor in a short time. Give a breather to our engines before heading to our usual stopover at the restaurant for some refreshments. Vinod, Prannoy, Ishtiaque and Sanket move earlier and I decide to lead the rest of the pack till the restaurant. I decide to ride slow to not overcross the right turn that we would be taking for the restaurant and this slow process makes us lose the other four. I come across a place which looks very similar like the one we stop at, but I had my doubts and I still ride on. Sunny comes honking all the way and says that we have come far ahead. Agreeing to him we take a right for the place and reach only to find that my feeling was right. It wasn’t that place- and nobody even including myself remembers that its Sarovar that we stop at. Try to call the other people but network not getting through. After trying a lot we finally decide to get in and have some something to fill. Suddenly my phone rings and its Prannoy asking us where we are. We convey that we would be catching up only after we are full. The eating session takes longer time than expected with the sun rising overhead and with jackets on, we’ll be sweating a lot. Anyways we move out to catch up with the four with we three (Vikram, Sunny, Ishtiaque and me) being at the far end. Get onto a steady speed and finalllllly meet the rest at Charoti Naka. Sanket was at his usual best of showering some unusual vocabularical phrases on me :))

75% of the distance was covered, and riding mostly on straightish highways- it was about time to look at the track ahead at leaning angles. The roads turned out to be exactly as I had posted in my plan- twists and twists and twists and to complement that the quality of the roads was simply superb- I don’t remember if we bumped up our seats anytime except for a couple of speed breakers while passing villages. Being at the tail and watching the group ahead is an experience. Seems like a caterpillar is making its way swerving around branches of a tree. Glen who had a scary time at Malshej Ghats was in his own mood taking curves like pros- was having a gala time riding. Everyone had to stop as Diamond was filling dizzy and dehydrated with Ishtiaque helping him out with some water. A brief nap again riding some distance with everyone trying out Apoorva’s TB which was like operating a machine gun without a barrel than riding it, just shakes you up :P

Getting off from the place and we finally reach Jawhar market and take into a shade under nearby shops feasting upon some sweet and juicy melons to cool off. Kapil is dead hungry and madly on a lookout for a restaurant. Ishtiaque wanders around to enquire about a waterfall nearby that he had heard about. To my thoughts, it was tough finding a waterfall in such a hot and dry place. He came back with information that it was some 8 kms away from the market. Poor Kapil had to keep himself hungry for some more time. Everyone rides off with some sections giving scares- roads were to the edges of the cliff with hardly 10 feet wide. That was the end of tarmac riding and time for some off roading. A local fellow says that bikes won’t go till the place, but everyone was in a mood for adventure and we decided to take to the rough track. Was wondering how Ishtiaque with his Bullet 500, Apoorva with his TB and Vikram on his Aquila would be handling their machines - but they came out well as we did.

Getting off our bikes, sweating badly in the scorching sun and what do we see…. WATER…. Everyone’s kind of so impatient that we start descending down the hill. No one was willing to delay any further of jumping into the water, firstly everyone was badly sweating and second the rocks were baking our feet taking away the chances of standing still at a place. Everyone gets rid of their clothes and splash into the water enjoying the welcome change. The place was void of anyone around and everyone was screaming with all their breath. I put Vinod’s and Vikram’s cams to work clicking a few of the moments before getting into the flow. I get a scare of my life when I step into a pit underwater with water above my head level and the problem is I don’t know to swim. I panic and just flutter for help, Vikram comes to my rescue and pushes me out- my whole body was shivering of fright. But seeing everyone enjoy makes me forget the scare and I am back again in the water but with caution. We spend a lot of time in the pool before making our climb up again, it was a tough climb, we had utilized all our energy splashing in the puddle and now stomachs are crying out for food and the throat for water. I was almost going to faint with my throat running dry before Kapil takes out a bottle from his bag. I owe him a big thanks as I do to Vikram. We take a small nap under a shade before riding off to the market again. There aren’t much restaurants to eat and the one available was too expensive for our liking. We find a melon-vendor again and everyone’s at it. Gulping down as much as we can- stomachs were full and having food that time would put us to sleep riding. Ishtiaque recommends that we ride all the way to Charoti and have food at a Dhaba which serves good food. Everyone’s affirmative and we ride off. This time the group breaks off, we come to a two-way road with one saying Mumbai and the other Charoti. We take the Charoti route and find everyone waiting ahead. This time everyone suggests that I lead till the next stop. Enjoyed riding this time too down the ghats effortlessly cruising around 80 kph without a worry of us hitting a bump.

We reach Charoti and get right into the Dhaba and to our misfortune nothing is available to eat except dal and parathas. Ishtiaque speaks to the restaurant fellow to get fresh chicken cooked. Kapil and myself being veggies order dal tadka, rajma with aaloo ka parathas. I have never eaten such tasty parathas in my life. The non-veggies too make around our table and just munching out their share. Kapil finishes off eating first and I am carrying on with people still around. Now the chicken arrives and I find everyone just disappeared from the table… these hungry demons. With reflexes as quick as Keanu Reeves in matrix, these fellas finish off the chicken in no time. The food was something that I will remember for a long long time. No guessing that I’ll be making a trip again just to eat those parathas there. A small rest before getting up again for the journey back home. Its already dark and we decide that experience riders be placed in between the group to take care of the newbies. I just check for some loose bolts and tighten my chain. Everyone’s off on the highway cruising along well as planned, people having the hazard blinkers on to be in sight. The pack is split again- Vikram doesn’t have much experience riding under such conditions and we are into a lower speed compared to the group ahead. Vikram is still trailing and needs to be taken care that we don’t lose him in the dark. As always Vinod puts his hand up to help on the occasion to cover-escort him, while we three zoom ahead taking a couple of more stops to regroup. Come across a bulleteer gentleman who has lost some of his stuff, but there wasn’t any way that we could have done and ride off the place. We slowly reach Ghodbunder, to find everyone’s left- we were that slow. Ishtiaque and Vinod leave for their homes, while Sanket and I decide to stopover at Vikram’s Mumbai residence. Get to Vikram’s place, take a nice hot shower to get away with the bit of stress, have food and flat I am on the bed.

My thanks to everyone who turned up to make it a fun-filled and safe ride. It was a perfect blend of cruising, swirling around, off roading, a bit of trekking, swimming- a truly adventure filled trip. I am sure everyone would have enjoyed the ride as I did.

Enjoy the pics here : http://www.picturetrail.com/gid10048472

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