One day ride to Alibaug

Prologue:

Right from the day I bought my RTR, I desired to go for a long trip by bike, but never accomplished the same. Blame it on my work schedule, non availability of like-minded riders and sometimes my health condition also. It was hardly a month after my recovery from arm fracture, the plan of one-day trip suddenly popped up.

On 8^th October night, just before the dinner at our office, Suresh (Little intro: he is my friend/Junior/colleague/ brother) received a call from Praveen. They were just conversing something about Alibaug/Murud trip. I overheard the conversation and decided to join them if it is done thru’ bike. We started counting the members and I called Pradeep( fastest Indian) to join us, he was held up with some other appointment next day, But I insisted him to join us and he obliged. With Pradeep joining the team the total count increased to 7.

Team:

     Murali( Myself) on RTR160 with Mahadevan as Pillion

       Pradeep(Fastest Indian) on Pulsar 200 with Suresh as his Pillion

 

       
     

·         Praveen on Royal Enfield 350 with Saravana Raj as his pillion

·         Sanjay Kantiwal on TVS Victor

Having said about Suresh & Pradeep let me give a small intro about others also. Praveen Subramaniam, experienced tourer. Sanjay Kantiwal, proud owner of TVS victor and Lancer, and finally Saravana Raj  a gr8 philosopher..

All the seven of us work for the same organization with a COMMON GOAL (only god knows that goal)

The D-day:

We decided the starting time as 0600 AM but things never started as planned! I got a call from Suresh  saying that our start will get delayed and exact time will be informed later. I tried to catch a little sleep in between. I received a call around 0640 am from Suresh and he asked me to come near Mankhurd link rd jn.

I took a quick bath and dumped some dress into my bag. I opened the cover of my Brand new Vega Boolean Modular helmet and peeled off the skin from visor. I bought this helmet two months back, now the time had come to test it.

I reached the spot at 0715 am and other riders were yet to come. I called Suresh to know their position, and got to know that they were yet to start from home and Praveen & co were on their way.

Praveen& Co arrived 10 mins latter and in meantime I tried capturing my bike thru the 2mpx mobile camera. Then, we had our customary posing session...still Pradeep and suresh has not arrived.

With Pradeep& Suresh arriving 10 mins later, we started our one-day trip to Alibaug-Murud. We dint discuss anything about team riding and stuff like that. I zipped past everyone and suddenly my bike started losing power…

Took my bike to the side-lane and changed the fuel cock to reserve. Every one decided to tank at panvel HPC pump. On the way to panvel, we dint adhere to any riding formation.. Each one ripping fast and zoom’d ahead and then slowing down as and when.

I stopped some few km before Panvel to buy a pair of Sun-glasses for our pillion riders. Mahadevan(My pillion) managed to get it @ 40 Rs each. We all met at Panvel HPC fuel station and tanked our bikes. Praveen suggested that we should take breakfast outside the panvel (no specifics mentioned). I started my bike and drove very slowly due to heavy traffic.

Spl. Sunglasses

While going towards Goa highway, we noticed a lot of bikers with big backpack. We even got a glimpse of Legendry BUSA near panvel ST stand. But, saddest of all is, most of the bikers were having chicks as their pillion rider and we…. ( not even one was blessed).

Hayabusa! near panvel

Our group stopped just before the JNPT/Goa rd jn and lamented on not finding any hotel till now. Then we decided to go ahead and find a hotel on the way and to stop others. At this point praveen clearly told that : we’ve to take right and then immediately left for taking Goa highway.

I started off  first and was searching for the hotel on the NH4. After a few kms, we spotted a decent hotel and started calling others to inform about our discovery. Our Group arrived little later, Reason: Mr.Fastest Indian continued his way onto JNPT rd instead of taking the left to Goa highway.

We had a simple breakfast because they had nothing more than Misal and Vada pav to offer. After the breakfast, We had our customary posing session and decided to meet at Vadkal (where the highway bifurcates to Goa and Alibaug)

With no specific leaders and tail enders, we were driving through the badly damaged Goa highway. Most of the time, Sanjay was leading and Praveen was tailing.. Suresh and Pradeep interchanged positions and Pradeep trained Suresh to ride his 200 cc bike.  

Suresh twisting P200

I reached the Vadkal junction and Sanjay also reached within mins. We called others to know the position, but those buggers dint stop at Vadkal and continued towards Alibaug. We decided to meet at ISPAT industries and after knowing the distance from locals, we reached ISPAT jetty in no time. After taking couple of snaps, we continued onto Alibaug.

Speed boats near ISPAT

Inland port

Most of the stretches were badly affected by the recent monsoon. We could manage only a max of 60kmph on that road. We finally reached Alibaug at 1130AM... (Too much time for a 100 km ride).

 We decided to visit Alibaug beach and start for Murud after that. But fate has something else in its mind…!

I handed over my mobile to Mahadevan (pillion) and asked him to find the route thru GPS. He managed to find some route, he directed in a certain way which made us to cover half-of-the Alibaug.

After parking our bikes along the beach, Suresh expressed his desire to go to Alibaug fort which was immediately turned-down by Praveen. After some coaxing, we all decided to go to fort. Paid 100 Rs/Person for the boat ride to fort. There is nothing specific to write about the no-electricity-dilapidated-fort but we had fun climbing every rock and posing in front of cannons.

Gangsters!

Boat-ride

Attacked!

Posing session

3 Monkeys!

One of the interesting things we observed in Alibaug fort was the residents near the fort. They were small in number surrounded on all four sides by seas, no power. Really BRAVE HEARTS!!!! Also underground water was so sweet in-spite of high salt content of the sea. Though we entered the fort as a group we got scattered while returning back from fort.

After getting soaked in the salt water, we started our journey to Murud. Just before exiting the Alibaug, we took a right-turn and waited for Fastest Indian to arrive. In the meantime, we started re-thinking about our decision to take lunch at Murud. Sanjay argued that the chance of getting food on the way to Murud is bleak. He insisted that we should finish our lunch at Alibaug itself. He made a point and we decided to find a hotel in the vicinity. But hold-on where is fastest Indian?? He zipped few kms ahead when we finally got his pillion (Suresh) on the phone. We explained about the change in plan and asked them to turn back.

Praveen started shouting about Pradeep …’ he doesn’t listen… he does things in his way…doesn’t follow the group.. blah..blah ..We managed to find a good veg hotel and started ordering food. Fastest Indian managed to locate the hotel and entered shouting… But delicious food reduced his temper!..

After a heavy meal and bill settlement, it was already 0245 pm. We scrapped our proposed ride to Murud and instead cut it short to Kashid.

Journey to Kashid was really tiresome, with lot of bad road and twists. I was driving last and my stomach upset delayed it further. After finding a nice hotel to relieve myself, I continued the journey. Praveen was waiting for us at important junctions to guide us further.Near one of the diversion near Wellspun industries, saravana was taking pics of the industry and jetty..some cops appeared from nowhere and started enquiring our guys. They managed to escape from those fat cops without bribing.

Just before reaching Kashid, in one of the several twisties, a car suddenly came in front of me. I was doing some 50s and managed to slow down before hitting the corner. But with a pillion at back and panic ridden, I went off the road onto a slope…At that juncture, I was thinking about fracture/injury and everything bad… but I spread my foot and managed to push my bike back to the road. Thank god…we are saved. After that I was extra cautious and finally reached the scenic kashid beach.

We are Okay

Our group decided to play volley-foot ball in the sea.  Team A (Pradeep, Maha, Saravana) won the match with the score of 20-19. I stayed away from water and was wielding the camera and was taking random shots. Around 0500 pm asked them to wind-up, so we can reach Pen in day-light. But they were in no-mood to listen…

Kashid in a different perspective

Playing volleyball with football

Life is a circle.

 After sometime, our heroes ventured out of sea, and started the photo session. Some of the formations were indeed awesome and even the pictures came out well. Saravana’s innovative thinking gave rise to many photos. Pradeep was trying out his gymnastic skills and I freezed the movement perfectly. We realized it  was getting late and started taking bath in fresh water and had some noodles as evening snack.

Gymnastic skills: Getting ready for olympics!

Travelled 125kms to enjoy this! Really worth

Kodak Moments ..

Back to Home:

By the time we prepared to leave, it was already 0700 pm. This time we devised some strategy to reach home safely. Sanjay and Praveen know the route well, so it was decided that Sanjay will be leading from the front and Praveen will be tailing the group.  We started our risky trip back home from Kashid, it was really difficult to maintain speed above 40km/hr.

We reached Alibaug at 0800 pm sharp, it took 1 hr to travel 30 km.I was continuously getting call from my dad who wanted to know my where-about.

Then we started from Alibaug and decided to stay as close as possible. This is the first time, I was doing night riding in a highway. Oncoming high-speed vehicles, lack of barricades at the road corners made driving really thrilling one. Most of us were not experienced riding in this condition. Due to the powerful headlights of oncoming vehicle, I could not see the road ahead. I was in 2^nd position and following Sanjay and Pradeep following me and Praveen sweeping.

We stopped somewhere near Pen as Sanjay’s front mudguard got broken. We restarted our journey and stopped after an hour near JNPT jn. Somehow we lost Sanjay and pravin behind.

After calling their pillion rider, we came to know that Sanjay’s Victor had developed throttle cable problem and now they are back on road.

While waiting for Pravin and Sanjay, I called my Dad to inform him about my whereabouts, he was worried about my hand and the distance. We all were exhausted to the core, I started experiencing little pain at the fractured location. At last, Pravin & co arrived and we reached panvel in no time. It was funny to see Sanjay riding his TVS victor like a horse, holding throttle wire in one hand and clutch at the other. Gr8 rider!!!!

Panvel to vashi was covered at a very good speed inspite of heavy traffic. Our plan was to take dinner at BTC hotel, Vashi. I asked Mahadevan to search for the shortest route to the hotel in GPS, and as he Navigated, I reached the hotel.

Remaining riders were yet to come, they lost the turn and proceeded further. We booked a table in the hotel and I reached the main rd by walk to guide other riders to hotel.. I was feeling very tired to take my bike. All the pillion riders were covered by a layer of cement dust,smokeand what not..Especially Suresh was glowing even in dark We took photos of everyone in that spl. make-up. Everyone ordered some dishes but Pradeep was annoyed as none of his choice was available at that time.

Saravana with Spl.Make-up

Next victim

3rd Victim

Suresh on the job

Half filled glass- Thathuvam pa..

Clean Plate..Sleeping Indian

 Had a good dinner and parted our ways to reach home.

A wonderful trip had come to an End…



Some Info About the destination:
Beaches of Alibaug resembles goa in many aspects. Find more abt Alibaug here.

Our Route: