Pune => Bengaluru (Banglore / Bengalooru) => Pune on Bike, 23/24/25 April 2011

Days - 23, 24 and 25 April 2011.
Bikes - Black Thunderbird Twinspark (me driving and Sumedh on pillion seat)
           Silver Thunderbird Twinspark (Shrenik with tank bag and saddle bags to accompany him :D )

Me, Sumedh and Shrenik

Route => NH4 (Pune => Satara => Kolhapur => Nipani => Belgaon => Dharwad => Ranibennur => Davangere => Chitradurga => Tumkur => Bangaluru) @ 850 km
NH7 from outskirts of Bangaluru to Eletronic city @ 40 Km.
Same way on our journey back.

Notes :
1. Drink lots and lots of water on long journeys - specially in summer.
2. Take a break after 2 hours in long journey for bike tyre and engine to cool down. This actually depends on bike and tyre quality.

Picasa link for photos : https://picasaweb.google.com/adsarode/PuneBanglorePune232425April2011#

THE PLAN
This journey was planned for long long time in my mind (even the dates). I would have done this journey solo if Shrenik would not have asked me for it. In one of our juice-bar (* fruit juice - non fermented) meetings (I think 27 March 11) Shrenik asked me for this trip. I did not take even 1 second thought to say yes!! Of-course I want to join!! I just changed dates in his plan. On 20th April Shrenik and me did a test ride to Saradwadi (@ 70 km from Pune) to ensure that our bikes do not have any problem. We met our riding guru Harshad Sharma there.

Baba Harshad Sharma - with his message => Just Ride =>

Got the servicing done for my bike, on 22nd I went to Bhavani Peth in Pune to get a nice Halogen lamp for night driving.... pheww got a duplicate one. I think my original bulb is better.

DAY 1 - 23 April 2011 (Pune to Chitradurga @ 675 km)
We did give thought to summer heat and decided to start early morning @ 2.45 am from Shrenik's place on 23rd. Unusual but true I was late by 10 mins, so after little pack up started @ 3.05 am from Shrenik's home.

My bike's trip meter reading almost immediately after leaving home - reading 12401

Our bikes started moving quickly and first break was @ Swargate for tea, after that wheels just kept rolling through Katraj Ghat, Khambataki ghat and after all this warm-up exercise both the bikes were hungry for speed!! 80-90 kmph was comfortable speed on NH4, we were going exactly as per plans. Except one of odd tea breaks our wheels just kept rolling.
We reached Kolhapur @ 8 am, so much so excited I asked Shrenik to continue till Sankeshwar and let's not take break in Kolhapur, but finally we took break Had some snacks etc. @ Kolhapur and @ 8.40 am we were ready to continue with 80-90 kmph again!! But Shrenik's bike was not!! his Thunderbird's rear tyre was flat!!
I took my TBTS and roamed through the near-by roads to look for Puncher repair-shop. I got one @ 3 km away, the puncharwala was not ready to come 3 km, he told me either to bring bike to his shop or else find another shop !!! (I think this is typically Kolhapuri attitude).
On the other side of the highway I could find 7-8 tyre shops in line only @ 500-600 meter away from Shrenik's bike, all of them were closed :D. Meanwhile Shrenik also got some help from Mr. Pravin Sathe (senior rider) who extended great help giving us number of some tyre dealer.

Finally got Shrenik's rear tyre MRF 3.50-19 replaced along with tyre-tube and wheels started rolling again @ 11-11.30 am from Kolhapur. We did not have any enthu to take photographs in this situation what the Fish it was - just in first 250 km we wasted 3+ hours and Shrenik spent @ 2600 Rs.

Bye Bye Maharashta - we are entering Karnatak State. Photo courtesy Shrenik.

Now we decided to ride little slowly, as the tyrewala told us to drive at slow speed to avoid bursting of tyre-tube. Almost immediately on entering Karnataka border Sumedh asked me to stop. He had dropped one of his hand-gloves on highway. Within 2-3 min I could see 2 Karnataka police approaching me asking me reason to stop (Did I write here before? ;) I was not carrying insurance papers with me :D). I talked to them with such a confident attitude as if the whole NH4 is private property of my father, they did not ask me for papers etc.

NH4 in Karnataka State, Photo courtesy Shrenik.

Now we were already in Karnatak and Sun was at his best to heat up our cool heads. We could see Mirages on the road. No wonder all this made us feel dizzy. Baba Shrenik knows how to overcome it - park your bike in safe zone on main stand... cover your head with hanky .... that is it! ready to sleep...

Baba Shrenik taking Cat-nap - I never imagined that one can sleep on highway :D

We could not drive much on 23rd afternoon, the thought of getting puncher on NH4 where you sometimes can not see petrol pump / repair shop / human existence for 50-70 km patches is a real thrill. All this made us take ample coffee / sprite breaks.

Somewhere near Dharwad - Wow Filter Coffee!

In the evening we all were excited again, we did not feel tired at all.

Somewhere between Dharwad and Haveri

Night is approaching...

Patch after Dharwad is really thrill to drive. There is almost no human trace on this road for miles, what you can see is long road with trucks crossing you on regular period of time, the thought of having problem to your vehicle in night time made me understand what the word fear really means!. Anyways who gives a damn to fear, as long as God is there to protect us :).

'My bike's fuel indicator is coming very near to Red mark, we do not know when next city will come. Haveri does not look worth enough to leave highway'... but... finally we came near Ranibennur and suddenly we could see many human beings!! First thing we did was fill in petrol! Second thing was obviously getting some food for energy!.
One thing to note is the road condition is not great in @ 100 km patch in this area. From Harihar / Ranibennur  till almost Chitradurga road construction work is still ongoing. There are many patches of 5-6 km which suddenly make NH4 2 lane without divider - halogens and HID lights coming from trucks and cars suck big time here.

Finally @ 11 pm (almost after 20 hours of journey), we decided to give rest to our excited souls for some time. We took a lodge in Chitradurga near highway. The lodge was fantastic, owner of the lodge and few of his friends were excited looking at our enfields and he was telling us about the 1978 model he has and blah blah blah.... who wants to listen after 675 km of driving... our souls need peace.



DAY 2 - 24 April 2011 (Chitradurga => Electronic City => U turn => Dawangere @ 550 km)
We did not give any damn to our 5 am alarms. Though all 3 of us could hear alarms, our dreams did not allow us get-up till @ 6 am. We packed up quickly and left Chitradurga @ 7.15 am. Hit the highway and first thing we did was 'tank full' for both bikes!. Petrol is very costly in Karnataka 65.59 Rs / liter as compared to 61.62 Rs / liter in Maharashtra (outside city).
Our wheels started rolling @ 80 kmph again in the morning. The road is very beautiful from Chitradurga to Bangaluru.

Beautiful road with Coconut trees on both sides

What a beautiful road to drive! No traffic, and trees on both sides!

We kept riding till Tumkur and first time in our journey we decided to enter inside the city. The city is quite good. Specially we found the food super duper delicious here....

I have not eat more tasty Dosa than this till date!! What a taste! We ordered different variety of Dosas after this but photos are missing!! ... Photo courtesy Shrenik.

We did not feel like stopping since the clouds protected us from day heat and our excitement to reach Bangaluru kept the thought of breaks miles away from our minds. Another good thing was we could sense some drops of rains touch us - the sensation was great!.

Thanks to clouds!

We took NH7 when NH4 was showing @ 18 km distance to Bangaluru city. NH7 is again a very beautiful highway but we paid exactly 100 Rs toll / bike for total of about 80 km journey we had on this road. Shrenik wanted to go till Hosur which is just 18-20 km away from Bengaluru and falls into state of Tamil Nadu. I was very tired at this point and did not want to go. I am sure if I would have agreed to Hosur, Shrenik would have said Chennai is just 250 km next... Finally Shrenik agreed to cancel further plans (sorry for that Shrenik but it was good decision looking at the dehydration I had afterwards).

NH7

We reached Electronic City, Bangaluru @ 12.30 pm. I did not find anything much special about this IT park (at least from birds eye view) it is very similar to Hinjewadi IT park in Pune. We took some photos here and had some breaks for coffee / coconut water etc.

And we did it!! Almost 909 km journey and we are reached our destination for the trip.

We started our return journey @ 3-4 pm. We did not feel like taking breaks on this day. We even cancelled our planned second visit to Tumkur city for snacks. The wheels just kept rolling!!

Suddenly we were hit by rain drops and Shrenik advised that it is better to take break cause wet surface might cause our bikes to skid at high speed... but fortunately we overtook the clouds and rainy area. We continued our journey... except one of odd breaks for tea / coffee.

We decided to cover some bad patches of road in night time itself and decided to take halt either at Davangere or Ranibennur. Rains hit us again and it was horrible to see trucks gone off the track after skidding (We saw at least 8-10 such trucks). Thanks God the rains did not last much and we continued our journey at 65-70 kmph on these bad patches.

We gave quick visit to Chitradurga again, this time we almost entered inside the city. Took fruit juices here... The city is lovely, one could see many stone building here.

Shrenik - second visit to Chitradurga

Me and Sumedh - second visit to Chitradurga

We reached Davangere @ 11 pm. We had to search a lot to get a decent lodge here. Finally got one @ 12 mid-night and took hault.

DAY 3 - 25 April 2011 (Dawangere => Pune @ 600 km)

Plan was to get up @ 3 am in the morning and hit the highway @ 4 am. As soon as 25th April started @ 12.15 or so I was telling Shrenik and Sumedh that I am feeling like loosing balance... I am feeling dizzy. In the sleep Sumedh just commented that it is good that only walls are moving, good that the ground is still. I tried to walk but everything was moving for me - even my body. Somehow I put myself on bed and thought that might be sleep is good solution for this.

I could not sleep - thoughts were rushing to mind at very high speed and I thought that this is because of speed... I have become addicted to seeing moving things in pasts 2 days...

Finally @ 2 am I started vomiting, the vomiting just did not stop, I was very tense as I was loosing balance as well as my internal organs were telling me their existence through the pain while vomiting. I asked Shrenik to wake up and told him my situation. Without much thought he called our Sir Dr. Vijay Gokhale, Sir asked me few questions like what all I ate in the day and IMPORTANTLY HOW MUCH WATER DID YOU TAKE IN THE DAY - NOT MUCH!. Sir prescribed some medicines, I do not know from where did Shrenik bought them but he did give me Electoral Powder and 2 capsules after some time.

@ 4 am we got call from Sir again, asking how is Ashish feeling now. I told Sir ALL SET TO GO TOMORROW PERFECTLY ALL RIGHT. I believe Sir so much, that even if he would have asked me to take 2 glass of water and go to sleep I am quite sure that would have cured me completely (at least mentally).

Finally we got up @ 6 am. I was really feeling good except the bad feeling at throat. I told to Shrenik many a times that I might take stay in Kolhpur tonight you guys continue if you want. But electoral powder (as Shrenik and Sumedh named Engine oil for Ashish LOL) brought me almost back to normal, rather after some time my energy and enthu was above normal :D.

Today even I managed to take (deep) cat nap - for 30-40 mins on highway, now I am sure that tired person can sleep anywhere. After some initial fear in my mind about my health our vehicles kept marching for long distances, today we took few breaks and traveled more. We had to go at 75-80 kmph. At higher speeds I was getting distractions because of mirage and probably because of mental stress.

We took first long break in Dharwad, and then second one in Nipani. We had superb lassi at Nipani - WOW. 

In peace - but this did not work, cat nap is the right way to sleep :)

Beautiful NH4 near Nipani

My energy and everything was very much back to normal now. We did not even stop at Kolhapur, kept riding and took break at Karad - made tank full again and started riding again in few mins.

Break @ Karad

 We took a bad decision to take dinner at Hotel Lake View in Satara. I always have bad experience with hotels in Satara. Wasted almost 1 - 1.30 hour in this hotel, food was OK but service was very slow. Left Satara @ 9.30 (if I remember correctly). In the last patch Shrenik went through Katraj ghat, I entered Pune city crossing Katraj tunnel through Chandani Chowk.

Total journey is 1828 km in 3 days!! reading 14226 km

This ride taught me a lot. I learned to travel for long distances. Learned to drive on National Highway at night time. Learned to take rest - cat nap (my father will hit me on head if he comes to know about this learning :D ). The journey was mixture of adventure / excitement / experiencing speed and seeing different people in short periods of time.

I am happy that I have done this adventure in life. Next time I will never ever forget to drink ample amount of water in such journeys.

Thanks to Shrenik for sharing driving tips. Sumedh gave great company, He never showed any lack of trust on my driving even on 3rd day when I myself was frustrated for some part of time.

I wish next time I could visit these places again, not just highway but even the interiors of these beautiful cities. If not all, at least I want to see Chitradurga again and want to eat the delicious Dosa @ Tumkur again.

As probably Baba Harshad Sharma call it "Ride long, ride safe"

Cheers!!

Ashish

Jejuri (Kade Pathar)

Date : 09 April 2011

Bike : Thunderbird twinspark (me)
Distance :
Kothrud Stand to Jejuri (Kade Pathar)(Kothrud stand => ChandaniChowk => NH4 => Katraj => Some confusion after tunnel U turn again U turn => Khed Shivapur - Saswad link road (which has Mariaai ghat) => Saswad => Jejuri => Kade Pathar) : @ 84 Km
Jejuri (Kade Pathar) to Kothrud Stand (Kade Pathar => Jejuri => Saswad => Dive ghat => Kondhwa => Pune => Kothrud stand) : @ 60 Km

Note :
Jejuri has 2 well known Khandoba temples, one I visited is on Kade Pathar (has got @ 750 steps) and it is said to be the old temple. There is way from Kade-pathar to visit new temple. I will advice to visit new temple first as I have heard that it usually has relatively long queue .

My age old Nokia E63 does not have GPS so I just read the map and missed the turn @ katraj for Kondhwa (my original plan was to go via Dive ghat). After crossing Katraj tunnel I realized my mistake and took U turn - crossed Katraj tunnel again and then a local told me that there is better road to Saswad after crossing Katraj tunnel - so I took U turn again and reached this Khed-Shivapur - Saswad link road. Thanks to that local guy, I love riding on NH4!.

Khed Shivapur - Saswad link road

The link road is also quite good, there was almost no traffic on this link road. I had never heard of Mariaai ghat - this is little steep ghat but road condition is quite good. Occasionally 1-2 vehicles were crossing (this was good sign :)). I was told by many friends earlier that Saswad region is not safe (looting happens in this area). So having 1-2 vehicles passing by was a good sign :). I gave lift to one old milkman on this road and he told me to visit Kade pathar since it is the actually Pragat sthan of Khandoba.

Stairs to Kade Pathar temple

Taken from Kade Pathar - new temple can be see in Right Hand top corner

My plan was to first visit the new temple and then go to Kade pathar, but Kade pathar and new temple are quite at distance and my bike was parked near Kade-Pathar so I lost the energy and willingness to visit new temple after visiting Kade Pathar temple (actually I think I should have visited new temple as well :().

Kade Pathar temple (in front of Khandoba temple - there is Ram temple)

The idol of lord Khandoba is very beautiful, photography is not allowed inside temple. Here are few photos of some other temples @ Kade pathar -

Inside Ram temple

Inside Lord Datta temple near Khandoba temple

Nandi @ Khandoba temple

Fire (this is probably called angi-kund) @ Khandoba temple

View around Kade Pathar

On my journey back home I came via Dive-ghat, this road is also very good. I bought some fruits, just before Dive ghat, the granny who was selling fruits was very good and kind hearted lady. She gave me few fruits to eat there (for free!) just because I told her they are good in taste. Overall the ride was amazing, I crossed Katraj Tunnel 3 times in a single day! Saw 2 new ghats and got good blessings from Khandoba!

As they say "Yel kot yel kot jay Malhar!!"

Vasota Jungle/ Fort Trek

Date : 3 April 2011

Group : Went with Explorers group.

Difficulty level : easy (almost similar to Sinhagad with little more time), might be difficult if you do not have guide for road, since the road goes completely from Jungle area.

Photos => I have uploaded most of them on Picasa - https://picasaweb.google.com/adsarode/VasotaJungleFortTrek#

2nd to 4rth April being long weekend, I utilized it for going to trek. I had done waterfall rappelling with Explorers before and had good experience that time. This time I did not get any friend to come with me, but then I though of going alone as opportunity to make new friends. The group was good. Arrangement done by Explorers and specially the food they served on the top was Amazing.

Vasota fort is quite remote. One has to first reach Bamnoli and then needs travel through boat for @ 1.30 - 2 hr to reach Koyana forest, from where the road to fort starts. The road is not very difficult. The forest you get to see on the way is eye candy. I enjoyed walking on this road very much.

Beautiful road - for more photos see my picasa link

After reaching fort there is hardly any construction to see there. The good thing is there are too many beautiful things to see around. I wont write much on the beauty of the sight you get to see from this fort - check my Picasa link. Today I am not in a mood to write much :)