Pune - Kalamboli - Pune quick trip

Day : 15 Aug. 2010

Shrenik / Me / Shrenik's friend

Bikes : Thunderbird Twinspark (Me and Prajesh)
           Thunderbird Twinspark (Shrenik and his friend - forgot his name)
Distance : Round trip 264km
Average driving speed : 65kmph to 80 kmph (Pune to Kalamboli)
                                     55kmph to 70 kmph (Kalamboli to Pune) = in day time traffic increased.
Road condition : Mostly very good (I would say excellent)
Lessons learned :
1. Take break if you are tired... there is very less difference between driving of tired person and drunk person :)
2. Use indicator while overtaking

Note : quality of photos is poor - taken using my Nokia E63

I started from home very early - 4.45 am :), met Shrenik at Wakad chowk and started for Kalamboli @ 5.10 am (we both reached the spot earlier than decided 5.15 am).

This was my first experience of night (early morning) riding. As compared to my earlier ride experiences, NH4 is completely different experience. Thanks to Shrenik for teaching me few riding lessons.
From the start itself we were riding quite fast, mostly the vehicles around were heavy vehicles (and some very very heavy vehicles). In the early morning there was very less traffic and we could maintain speed of 70kmph + almost throughout ride.
We reached Lonawala @ 6.15 am - the view of Lonawala was very beautiful

Beautiful view from Lonawala 

Glimpse of NH4

On the way...

Road condition is mostly good - while going to Mumbai, ghat section is not much difficult to drive. We reached Kalamboli @ 8 am. There we met our friend Harshad Sharma (who went as a journalist with RE trip on NH17).

Harshad Sharma - aka Hiway

Another good thing was we got to see so many Royal Enfields in a row!! (and almost all varieties of them) -

Royal Enfields !!

Royal Enfields !!

Our return journey was equally good (except the traffic we experienced in Mumbai). In return journey the ghat section is little difficult to drive, the turns are sharp and you have to climb a lot. We took some photos near Lonawala.

Huge container

Monkeys

We reached home @ 2pm, that was a real quick trip :).

Memorable ride to Bhimashankar

Day : 01 Aug. 10

Left to Right => Girish, Ashish, Suhas, Jyotish

Bike : Thunderbird twinspark (me and Jyotish), CBZ xtreme (Suhas and Girish)
Distance :
Kothrud Stand to Sadhu Vaswani Chowk to Bhimashankar(Pune => Chakan => Khed => Chaskaman => Wadi => Bhimashankar) : 124 Km
Note : There is turn immediately after Khed/ Rajgurunagar ST stand if you want to go by Wadi/ Chaskaman road - ask the local people for directions.
Bhimashankar to Kothrud Stand (Bhimashankar => Ghodegaon => Manchar => Chakan => Kothrud stand) : @ 124 Km

Rain : Almost throughout journey, medium thunder showers.

Road condition is mostly good - advantage of Chakasman road is less traffic and
 great scenery

Road condition : Mostly good -
Chaskamam - wadi road condition is good and
road via Ghodegaon is also in good condition. (This road is broader but has much more traffic as compare to Wadi road)

Lessons learned :
1. Do not stretch schedule too much.
2. Do not keep distance more than visible range from fellow bikers.

Extra caution : Do not rely on mobile or phone network. You may not get any opportunity for telephone communication in 20-30km radius from Bhimashankar.

Thanks to many blogger users who have written good information about Bhimashankar and the roads. Thanks to almighty god Mahadev for making our ride safe.

I started from home @ 7.10 am - reached to Jyotish's home (near Sadhu Vaswani Chowk) and then we two reached Bhosari to join our friends. Instead of planned 5-6 riders we were only 4 - others did culti.com :P. We started our journey @ 8.30 am from there.

We thought it is only 80km road from Bhosari - so we were not worried about schedule. We took first break at Chakasman-dam. The dam site is beautiful and probably it was just trailer of the beauty of mother nature ahead.

Second major stop was near Bibi-gaon. There is Swayambhu temple of Mahadev. Girish told us that the mandir (temple) is good and lets visit the temple on top of hill. The temple is really beautiful and one can get superb view of the region from this location. Good thing is the sadhu-baba in the temple allowed us to take photographs :).

Swayambhu Mahadev Mandir

Chaskaman dam - taken from Swayambhu Mahade temple

Another photo of Chakasman - taken from Swayambhu Mahadev Mandir

Photo of road - taken from Swayambhu Mahadev Temple

Afterwards we went to Girish's cousin sister's home. His sister gave us tea and prepared delicious lunch. I think this is first time I have taken lunch in proper village home (home with farms around). By the time we started for our planned destination - it was 2.30pm and Bhimashankar was still 32Km ahead. We thought it as 30-40 min journey.

We travelled 10Km or something and we were unable to find our fellow bikers Girish and Suhas. Mobile networks were not working!. We then started for the ghat (which is little difficult from the wadi side - I think the one from Ghodegaon side is different ghat and is easy). The scenery around the ghat is very beautiful - most of the ghat goes through forest area.
We waited again in ghat section for Girish and Suhas but could not get them :(. Finally we decided to reach temple. When we were @ 10 km away from the temple it was @ 3.20pm time but it feeling like it is 7pm. Because of clouds there was very less day light. There  were boards around informing the animals found in the jungle area - includes bibatya (leopard / panther). I was using my TBTS high-beam light but could hardly see anything beyond 5-10 meters (no wonder my judgement went wrong on 1-2 turns). I was really afraid - thanks to Jyotish who convinced me that nothing is wrong lets go!

Om Namah Shivay - Bhimashankar temple photo from one of my earlier trips

We reached temple @ 3.45pm. I wanted to call home and asked there for coin-box phones but even those were out of order :(. There was unexpectedly very long queue for darshan. We waited in queue till 4.30pm and hardly reached upto chappal stand (I was convinced that we wont get darshan unless 6pm). I convinced Jyotish to start for return journey - we were still unable to find Girish and Suhas.

While coming back - it started raining heavily - somehow the road was very clearly visible (mist was almost completely gone!) and we really felt like Bhole has blessed us. The scenery around was heavenly beautiful, there were high green mountains around. I could see at least 3-4 waterfalls in those mountains. Some mountains were covered by clouds and it was wonderful experience to see this scenery. One could also see one dam in valley. In my opinion this road from Ghodegaon side is easy one it afterwards connects to NH50. I would still say that it is worth riding from Wadi road at-least once.

What happened to Girish and Suhas => Somewhere they took wrong road and went to Bhorgiri instead of Bhimashankar :).