Trip to " Land of Strawberries"

Prologue:

My childhood friends (Hari and Satish) were planning for a long time to visit my place and to roam around Mumbai. The Last time they visited Mumbai was on 26/11/2008! Yes, that dreadful day along with those dreaded terrorists. That time we couldn’t roam around and the fun factor was totally missing. This time they wanted to enjoy the trip to the fullest.

They didn’t have any specific place in mind and handed over the job of picking a location to me. I suggested Alibaug Beach as a one day bike trip, however, we dropped it as me and Hari will be in the land of beaches, Goa, for five days prior to the day of this travel. After lot of suggestions from various people, I zeroed on Mahabaleswar. This trip is specially for tasting those strawberry cream

I wanted to do a bike trip to Mahableswar, however was skeptical about doing it with a pillion (Hari never rode bike on a Highway). So, we started searching for buses, luckily, we dint get any booking and the availability of buses were not in line with our schedule. Hence, we decided to do a bike trip. We needed another bike and I didn’t worry much about as I had my friend Naveen. He didn’t hesitate a moment and gave the mighty HUNK.

However, the mighty Hunk was not at its mighty best and we had couple of challenges. First the bike was not in best condition; we took the bike to Service center and made it ready for the long ride. The second was a shocker, the bike’s insurance expired and we got worried.

What we do now? Call off the trip? No way… Naveen had his  insurance from ICICI Lombard. We renewed it online and got the print out. All these things were happening just the previous evening of our trip. On top of these, Satish is not used to riding this kind of bike (he is riding Splendor for the past 8 yrs). So, we decided to take a short trip to south Mumbai to fulfill two purposes, one is Sathish getting used to the bike and the other one is seeing the Gateway of India (which they were not able to see last time they came due to the terrorist attack). After a brief posing session in front of Gateway Of India and Taj we went to McDonald’s for dinner. We reached home around 11.30 PM .

Day 1:

We decided to start at 05:30 AM and reach there before 2 pm, however, not all plans get implemented, isn’t it? We got up late and started from our home only at 06:45 AM. We decided to go via NH4 as the route is relatively easier, though it was a little long. I was leading and Satish was tailing slowly. Hari was pillion with sathish till Lonavala. Our first stop was Lonavala. We reached there at 0850 AM and had a heavy breakfast. After 30 mins of loading and unloading, we resumed our journey. This time Hari sat pillion with me, as satish was riding slowly with the pillion.

We were riding at a decent speed and reached Dehu rd( Pune bypass) at 10:30 AM. Most of the time, I sped away and slowed down later for Sathish to catch us. We crossed the Pune bypass at 11:25 AM with some intermitted stopping for Sathish to catch us. The best part of this stretch was riding through the Katraj tunnel (which is1.8 km long). I was a bit nervous inside the tunnel as the light was very minimal and cars were zipping past us at 100+ speed.

After catching up at the NH4 again, we asked Sathish to ride a bit faster to reach the destination before scheduled time. From hereon, Our superfast highway cruising started. I was cruising at 100+ speed with a pillion and was cutting through the car traffic at a insane speed. At one straight stretch I throttled to the maximum, my bike reached a speed of 113 Kmph with a pillion! I tried again and again, but the top speed didn’t cross the 113 mark.

After some heavy riding, we reached Khambakthi ghat at 12:20 pm. We snacked and refreshed ourselves. Now Hari shifted to Sathish’s bike and we started ascending the Khambakthi ghat. It is always a pleasure to ride on the ghats. I love it for the twists and turns it offers, just like our life. The joy doubles when the road is one way and super curvy.  We covered the entire ghat section at a good pace. Now we are back to the straight stretch of the road. I was bit worried about the top speed of my bike as it dint cross the 113 mark. So, this time I tried crouching and twisted the throttle to the maximum…aayila(sorry for the Marati)! I reached a speed of 122 kmph. I couldn’t explain how happy I was seeing that figure; however, I didn’t want to extend it further as the figure totally perplexed me.

Finally we took the right turn from NH4 at 01:00pm and started towards mahabaleswar. We reached panchgani at 01:40 pm and was looking for a Ganapathi mandhir which had a huge statue of Ganesh. We visited one mandhir which was mistaken to be the one which Hari’s mom told. On inquiring, we found that one was in Wai which we crossed before reaching Panchangi and decided to visit it on the way back. Hari wanted to visit that Mahaganapathi mandhir which his mother told him to visit without fail.

Around 03:30 pm we reached Mahabaleswar and booked a room near Mahabaleswar bus stand. We kept our luggage at the room and had our lunch at 05:00 PM in a Punjabi restaurant opposite to our lodging!

After the long and tiring journey that we had, we decided to take some rest and visit the spots in the evening. When we got up after our short nap, it was already 7 PM and it was very dark outside.

We decided to visit the Veena lake which was the boating place and eat something. Sathish was down with cold and mild fever due to which he didn’t join us. So, myself and Hari went to Veena Lake. The boating was closed, however, we were allowed to inside the lake and we took few pictures. After some posing session, we went downhill to do the Most important activity of this trip.

                         We went to Bagicha juice center to taste the strawberry cream. We took one strawberry cream and one milk shake. I cannot explain the taste in words, it is worth every mile we traveled. You should visit Mahabaleswar just for this strawberry stuff. Bagicha’s are the best in business and I would recommend this as a must do activity for anyone visiting Mahableswar.

We returned home to find Sathish back to his normal state. Me and Sathish went outside to have dinner, as Hari decided to stay indoors heavy with the strawberry cream and juice we had at the Bagicha’s. After the dinner we came back and Sathish started telling his failed love story (which was hilarious for Me and Hari as he always adds some additional flavor to whatever he tells).

Day 2:

After listening to Sathish's story the other nite, we woke up around 7 AM and left the room by 9 AM. After enquiring the locals about the nearest places to visit we zeroed on Elphinstine point, Lodwick's point and Elephant Head. Elphinstine point had a breath taking view, me and Hari wanted to go down to take a picture, however, our caretaker Sathish was against it and started yelling at us. After the routine of posing we had biscuit and tea. We started walking towards Lodwick's point and Elephant Head.

  

After trekking for about 2 KMS, we reached Lodwick point. Lodwick is an English general who made Mahableswar a popular spot. After spending some time there we started walking to Elephant Head, which is a point as well. The path to Elephant Head was scenic and it had a steel fencing in either side of it.  It is one of the most beautiful places which we saw on the trip. We took a lot of pictures there and started trekking back to Elphinstine point (since we have our bike parked there). After enjoying some breath-taking views, we returned back breathless.

We checked out the hotel around 11 AM and started to Panchgani. My bike was running in reserve for the last 5 Kms and we had to fill its tummy. The Bharat Petroleum near the bus stand had a power outage and none of the petrol pumps in Mahableshwar were functional due to that. Hence we decided to visit other points with the limited fuel in my bike and fill petrol on the way.

Next, we stopped at Kates point. This one was very beautiful( like its name) and I will recommend this as a must see for anyone visiting Mahableshwar. It had a scenic view and you could get a fantabulous view of the valleys and Sayadhiri range. We had our delayed breakfast at this point and took some wonderful pictures.

We resumed our journey towards Panchgani and on the way we visited Mapro gardens  to  taste strawberry juice again. Here we bought some Strawberry extracts and Jams which increased our bag’s weight by 5 kgs. We started our journey towards Panchgani with this increased luggage and after the downhill ride, we reached Panchngani. We hoped to find fuel atleast here, however, we were left disappointed. We visited the Tabletop in Panchgani. Tabletop is a vacant land and it has some view points.  Here, one has to be careful because there are lots of Horse cart riders who will be pestering you to take a ride for huge price. One particular horse rider who asked us to pay 400 Rs, came down till 30 Rs, however, due to shortage of time we  declined and left the place.

 We started from Table Top to our next destination, which is Wai. Downhill with a 80 kg pillion was really adventurous. We finally filled our fuel tanks in Wai. We paid our visit to Mahaganapati mandir, which Hari’s mom insisted us to go. This temple is situated at the bank of river Krishna and the small bridge adjacent to the temple adds beauty to the location. The Ganapati statue was really big and way different from any other temple. Hari wanted to take a picture of the statue, however, it was turned down by the priest.

 After the Darshan, we went to a nearby hotel and had the much needed lunch. We finished our lunch around 0440 pm. We were all tired but we were determined to reach Mumbai before 10 PM.  I asked satish to maintain 70+ consistently. Our return journey to Mumbai started, we were cruising closely at a very good speed and managed to maintain 70+ Avg speed. Sathish was up to the task this time and we avoided frequent stoppage. Within an hour and fifteen minutes we reached Pune from Wai. We stopped at the outskirts of Pune for chai and much needed relaxation.

While coming back, we bypassed the entire Khambhakthi ghat through a lengthy tunnel. The Sun started to take a nap and darkness was filling the place as were reaching Lonavala. We reached lonavala around 0715 pm and had some snacks there. We ve to drive another 90+ km to reach home.(We almost covered the last 150 in 2 hrs).

The next stretch of the journey was very challenging as it was really dark and the highway was devoid of any light and speeding vehicles. Another challenge was, the Hunk stopped frequently. I took the lead and Sathish was following me. I must admit, this was the toughtest part of the entire trip as fatigue creeped in.

Our average speed has dropped drastically and we managed to reach panvel bypass around 0900 pm. It was really disheartening to see Hari’s face, as his back started hurting... We avoided Panvel rush by reaching Vashi through JNPT and Palm Beach road.

 

Atlast after a long trip of 600kms, we reached Chembur and stopped at a restaurant. All of was were totally worn out and dead tired. We freshened up at the restaurant . After the heavy dinner we reached home, exhausted and drained!

Some of the highlights about this trip are:

1.       The superb strawberry cream we had at The Bagicha's, Mahabaleswar.

2.   I cruised continuously at 100+ speed with a pillion and my bike dint show any sign of engine over-heating.

3.       My GPS, which was our saviour for most part of the journey. It helped us to locate where we are, to calculate the remaining distance for destination and also for updating our location on Google latitude.

4.       My Co-rider sathish, drove very well and displayed his never-say-die attitude.

5.    My pillion rider - Hari, who never complained about our riding and never asked for a frequent break. He is an epitome of true pillion rider.

On the whole, this was a fantastic trip with my childhood friends whom I know for more than 20 years. My Bro Koti and Rajesh really missed this trip.

Before finishing this blog, I like to quote the words of Robert Prisig: “..Vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from the other. In a car you’re always in a compartment, and through car window everything you see is just more TV.You’re passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame….. On a motorcycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene not just watching but very present there…” thats why we like to explore this world in motorcycle!

Come again .. we’ll explore some other exotic location real soon.

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