Konkan Exploration

It’s been itching for some time to go for a long ride. Tentatively a ride to ganapatipule was decided and discussed with my riding buddies about that. Though everyone was interested, but fixing the date was very difficult. Later the destination was changed to harihareshwar due to the date issues.

Now everyone backed off again citing dates. The plan was almost scrapped but luck has come in the form of pravin. He is game for any destination provided it is done thru bike.

We decided the date as 24^th Feb. and got ready for it. Just on the previous day, I bought the protective gloves and bungee cord.

After browsing thru xbhp and some googling, we zeroed on the route.

The plan is to start from Mumbai at early morning and reach harihareshwar before dark and stay there at MTDC resort and return next day. Our onward journey is thru kashid, murud, diveagar, shrivardhan and return is thru mangaon via NH17.

After my evening shift, I managed to catch some sleep and got ready at 0600 am. With some initial hiccups in my bike, I reached Mankhurd junction at 0630 AM. Pravin was already waiting for me. We discussed about our next stop and started the journey officially.

Our first stop is HPC petrol pump at panvel. After filing the tank with a meager 8 litre, my pocket was lighter by 500 rs. 500 rs for just 8 litre, what the heck is this? Back in my workplace I handle the same fluid in thousand kilolitres and its monetary value never surprised me.

Now back to the business, we decided to take breakfast at Wadkal junction. We were cruising at a low speed of 40- 50 kmph in NH17. I asked pravin to lead, so that I won’t sped away and lose him. Heavy traffic before pen separated pravin from me.

He called me to inform that he already reached the point and asked my whereabouts. I was quite surprised to know our bullet pandi has reached the destination so quickly. I ripped my bike and reached the wadkal and was searching for him at the junction. He was nowhere to be seen and later came to know that He mistook pen for wadkal and entered the pen town for breakfast.

After a simple breakfast, we headed to khashid beach. Pravin forgot to take his camera’s memory card along with him. So, we decided to go to alibaug, to buy one SD card.

Though we were not riding at very high speed, we reached khashid very quickly compared to our last ride. Khashid was still scenic with its white sand under scorching sun. After some photo shoot we headed for Murud- Jangira.

Kashid and woods

Bullet pandi!

Our plan was to enjoy all the beaches enroute. So we dint skip even the lesser known nandgaon beach.  Around 1 pm with lot many breaks, we reached rajpuri (Jangira fort) area. We had our lunch at a dhaba. I was bit taken back when that dhaba owner spoke to me in Tamil.

We took the 2 pm ferry to fort. The ferry driver later turned as a guide explained the history of the fort. We could see lot of school kids coming to this spot for excursion. 

On the way to Murud

Nandgaon beach

jangira fort

Inside fort

After the detour, we were back to the ferry station. We loaded our bikes into the ferry and reached dighe at 5pm. Kudos to those ferry riders, they loaded the mighty bullet into the ferry without any damage.

ferrying bikes from Murud to Dighe

Ride from dighe to diveagar was scenic and our first encounter with village road started here. We went to ganapati temple at diveagar and later went to the beach.

Diveagar Beach

Diveagar

Awesome road between Diveagar and Shrivardhan

Diveagar beach was one of the best. Perfect for camping and weekend getaways. We wanted to stay for a longer time but we ve to reach the destination before dark. After having a tea, we took a sea side road to harihareshwar.

After sometime, we ascended a ghat which left us spellbound for the view it has offered. We could not resist but to immerse ourselves in her beauty. We freeze the frame in our cameras but no photo can do a justice. The road was awesome along the rim of mountain with a sea on the other side to make it more stunning. I strongly recommend this place to everyone.

Our speed has dropped as we were mesmerized in her beauty. Slowly the dark has engulfed the sky; we are yet to cross the shrivardhan. We enquired the route to shrivardhan from local and proceeded further. Just before entering shrivardhan, we were asked by the local to take an alternative route to avoid shrivardhan market and reach harihareshwar bypassing.

The route we took was very narrow and it was not having any signs of civilization. My GPS was also not showing any road. After sometime, two middle aged guys helped us with the route. They said it is 4 km before we reach a petrol pump. But those 4 km were like an hour long journey. No vehicles in the sight and twisty mountain road without tarmac. We finally reached the petrol pump. Pravin topped up his tank for the fear of roads it has offered.

Right after crossing the diveagar, our mobile lost network. We cannot afford to separate. After some route enquiry, we resume our journey. Lucky that I ve learnt some Marathi to manage communication with the locals. This time we came across a diversion mentioning harihareshwar 14 km. Our ride thru those pitch dark road was a nightmare. That was the first time we were riding in the ghat in pitch dark road. Lucky that the tarmac was not very bad. We rode very cautiously and reached harihareshwar after 30 mins.

We booked a room for 1000rs and had our dinner at a seaside restaurant. There was no mobile network of airtel and reliance in harihareshwar. But we were blessed with those two networks only. We searched for a phone booth and found one. Informed our parents about our network issue and that we reached our destination safely.

Day2

We got up early and after taking bath we went to the temple. The location of this temple reminded tiruchendur in TN. We climbed a small hill near the temple and descended to the sea. After photo session, we returned to the hotel.

We ordered breakfast in the same restaurant where we took our dinner. At night we couldn’t see the proximity of restaurant to the sea. It was one of the best places to have food.

MTDC resort

Harihareshwar temple

Harihareshwar beach

Seaside restaurant

Shrivardhan Beach

We check'd-out the resort and started for shrivardhan. While going back, we were amazed to find the road that we managed to cross at night.

We went to shrivardhan temple and later to the beach. All these beaches along the konkan are pristine and way better than beaches in TN. After spending some time in beach, we started our return journey with a heavy heart.

It’s almost 11 am, we ve to reach Mumbai before dark. Just before exiting shrivardhan town, bullet developed some problem. We took the vehicle to nearby mechanic. After a lot of struggle, our bike got ready at 0215 pm.

Attending Bullet

Long way to go!

We decided to take lunch at mangaon and started our return journey. Road from shrivardhan to mangaon is being laid. We found it equally exiting and difficult to traverse on this stretch. We crossed 4-5 ghats with numerous hairpin bends. 60% of the stretch was covered with gravel. This stretch helped us to develop ourselves as an ATR (all terrain rider!).

We had our heavy lunch at Anand bhuvan hotel, Mangaon and resumed our journey. Riding thru the NH17 was boring and that too at a speed of 50 kmhr, it was boring to the core. I pestered pravin to increase the speed to atleast 60kmhr but our bulleteer is no mood to listen.

Somewhere after Pen

We slowly munched miles and reached jnpt junction at dusk. We decided to take JNPT, palmbeach and reach vashi. But pravin took a wrong right turn and reached panvel Mcd junction. I continued onto JNPT and reached Palm Beach. Later we rejoined at nerul and bid goodbye.

Total distance 396+29 km

I reached home at 0830pm. This completes our pilgrimage cum adventurous trip of 425 km to an end. Overall the trip left us with an everlasting impression on konkan coast. We decided to explore konkan coast further southwards in our next trip.

Our route:



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Click here for Narration by pravin with more info