Distance on Meter: 750 Kms
Bikers: Myself (Unicorn Sporty) ; Rachit (KZM) ; Ajay (Unicorn Sporty) and Nitin (Avenger)
Roads Strip : Unknown Road(To) NH 50, SH 10 and NH222
Day and Date: Saturday and Sunday, 14th and 15th November 2009
After evaluating various places and 3 hour long group chat supported by a long tread of mails, we decided to go for a holy tour to which included Trimbak-Nashik-Shridi-Shani Shingannapur-Ahemadnagar other places holy stops fitting in the route.
The route was interesting because we were not repeating the roads leaving a nice round mark on the map. Personally, I had already done half the route some 40 days before with my good friend Hemant(Blogged previously). So it was set, the GOA Killers was on for yet another tour……this time a HOLY ONE….
For me, the mammoth task was to convince loved MOM. After a many heated discussions for few days and few promises I finally managed to win over her. One of the reasons which worked in my favour I think was the fact that we were doing a Holy tour and not a Biking Tour :) That was it! It was a herculean task that I just completed and I knew I had to stand on her trust, to complete the tour safely.
Mom helping me to get the gears on...
Coconut Breaking for the good luck.....
The day was here, Meeting Point: Fountain Hotel which is some 7 Kms outside Mumbai on
the NH8 road. Time: between 5.30am 5.45 am. But Killers!! How can you expect them to be on time??? I was late but first one to reach and then came the other 3..around 6,25am. So were already late by 45Mins to the plan. The plan was to complete 70% of the route and not resting before Shani-Shingnapur.
@ 6.00am
when other killers came in...
Fueling up, we all started our journey towards Manor on NH8. The excitement was clearly evident on all of our faces as we did 60kms in quick time to reach Manor Wada Junction. It was cold as stopped for a quick breakfast. Here are few pics @ the pit-stop :D
It was too cold you see... ;)
:)
Moving ahead to Wada, the next 30 kms was full of Potholes forcing us to be below 60km\hr as we rode in formation. Bypassing Wada the road to trimbak was narrow and full of curves. Rachit (KZM) and Nitin (Unicorn) zoomed ahead with Myself(Unicorn) and Nitin(Avenger) trailing behind. And just as we were about 11kms out from Wada i realized that the front wheel got punctured. We were in the middle of the forest with no idea on how much ahead we would get a mechanic.
Asking few local, we found a uncle who claim to be the doctor to Dolly. What was more amazing was that the place the uncle was discovered no-way looked as a garage or service station- It was actually his house.
Just before the uncle could actually touch dolly I ensured myself asking uncle on his knowledge to fix up the complicated Disc break wheel. We knew we had no option but to trust him as he came out with all his out dated tools and fixtures. Amazingly it worked….Here are few of pix while he was fixing the puncture…
Come on uncle....
Poor Dolly... :(
The next few minutes while the uncle was busy fixing the front wheel, we got restless moreover because of Rachit and Ajay who we know would we worried, waiting for us ahead. The mobile networks were down making it more problematic. It took almost 45 mins for us to get back on the wheels and moving.
Happy to be back on wheels....
Riding another 30 Kms we finally met Rachit and Ajay who were waiting for us at Khondale Village. I was welcomed with few BCs MCs, as we all cracked into laughs and few clicks….
We were already late by almost 2 Hrs now so we knew we had to rush but the curves of the road would not allow us the same. We continued riding the curvy roads, plains, mountains, bridges for some 50-60kms to reach Trimbak at around 11.45am. I maintained good speed to match up with Rachit and Ajay as Nitin was left few spaces behind.
We were there Trimbakeshwar- One of the 12 Swayambhu Lings of Lord Shiva. Visiting first the famous KUND there . I personally believe that the KUND is a perfect example of Blind-faiths that we Indians have as I saw people bathing in the filthiest water of the KUND.
The water was smelling like anything but people there were still happily bathing, considering it to be a holy water. We opted just few sprinkles of the KUND Water just to ensure that we accustomed the Holy Spirit.
Seeking much wanted blessing..
Finishing with the Shiv Darshan we were quick to head straight for lunch.
Outside the Shiv Temple
After a short walk we came across a hotel where we were more than happy to gorge as it served “unlimited food”. Post refreshing our mud stricken faces we sat down to lunch with Myself and Rachit k molesting the Gujarathi Thali and Nitin & Ajay polish off the Rice Plates.
Yummy...
While we munching on our Lunch, the depression caused due to the PHYAN (cyclone) resulted in for the sky to turn dark. It is not this time that rains are expected we were still worried as we headed towards Shridi our next holy stop. Staring the dark clouds from the visor we could literally see the rain marching towards us.
Caught unprepared, we were forced to stop till it continued drizzling. Baffled! We waited and waited as the precious time was passing by.
Knowing that it was already 4 and just 2 hours for the times to get dark, we hashed out to change the plan. We had no option but to drop Shanishingnapur resting ourselves in Shirdi.
Resumming our journey on wet roads on a considerably slow speed of 30-40 kmph to avoid slippage. Smiles were back our faces as the sun came out from behind the clouds. Zooming ahead ,we reached Shirdi not before the light is dismissed totally.
SHIRDI- Famous not only for the SAI TEMPLE but also for the No Of Hotels that it has. In spite of this fact it took us more than a hour to select a hotel balancing our requirements and budget both. Finally we manage to find Sai Chaitanya which was at some walking distance from the SAI Temple.
Getting fresh we all went for the Sai Darshan and then the dinner. On the way, the shops were too tempting to commit us for some shopping. It was almost 11.30pm by the time we finished all this and all our body was asking for a Bed to rest. Reaching back in the hotel, we were straight on the Bed. Many jokes and stories shared aas slowely we all went into depp sleep dreaming of more bikes, more routes more kilometers to cover......
Late Sleepers will Get Up Late….8am planned but got up in reality by 10am. Quick Bath and Breakfast we were on our wheels to Ahemadnagar.
Gearing up for the exciting route ahead....
The initial plan to visit few places in Ahemadnagar, had to be drop as we By-Passed it to be on 222 road which heads through long stretched plains till Kalyan.
Out of Ahemadnagar about 9-10 kms, we stopped for our first official Photo Shoot. Down came the bike stands and out came the cameras….
Anna(Ajay) doing Jadi ke peeche.... :D
Rachit preferring to do Jaadi ke Aage :()
Awsome road isn't it?
Village boy.....proudy of his bike....
Sun peeping out the clouds starring us....
Howzzz that??!!!
A break of 30min was enough to kick start a ride for another 6 hrs. After the above posses we were on our best that is Riding. Enjoying the scenic beauty & green
patched that surrounded the roads from Both sides, we all zoomed pass each other over 85-90kms/hr. The target was to reach Malshej Ghat before it is dark, keeping that in mind we could afford to take any prolonged breaks in between even passing the astonishing & beautiful scenaries comming across.
The PHYAN pressure continued as we could see clouds beleaguering the Malshej Mountains. So we expect catch up the coulds somewhere near Malsejh Ghat. Just as we reached malshej ghat the climate and surrounding was really at its best. The backwater on the right and naturally carved mountain on the left we reach the start of the ghat.
We zoomed trough the dense fog at the tip of Malsejh Ghat. While riding came the thought that the fog we were cutting through that it was actually Nature’s Cloud Manufacturing Unit (Yes I am too imaginative here)
Reaching the top, we then took a halt at the small Human Temple posited at the top of the ghat. This was probably our last temple on the Holy Trip.
Moving ahead quickly, our tummies were empty so was time for another halt down the ghat at a newly opened hotel(don’t remember the name).
It was dark & raining now and we had still more 100+ kilometers to reach Mumbai so we continued the there onwards…
Our machines were thirsty for fuel so we refilled our bikes once we reached Kalyan;
Happy to be almost there...
It was the amazing feeling of returning back after a successful journey… Once we
reached our place all the pain & agony had transformed to pride & excitement
with all our friends waiting to meet at hemant's place.
I thank all for reading this blog written as per my best capabilities…m sure we
would be back with another interesting experiences very soon!!!
“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”
Thanks again!
