Destination : Alibaugh & Kashid
Riders : Kartik(kartikpai), The K9 Rider (Shrinathrao), Haivaan (utsavchs)
Rides : Karthik-CB Unicorn, The K9 Rider-R15, Haivaan – RTR HE
Departure : 26:02:2011 15:00Hours
Meetup Place : Baner
It was the most unplanned ride ever. I wanted to go on a ride but K9 had already cancelled 21 ride plans since the past 5days. Atlast he agreed to go to Matheraan at 12:20Hrs and from then preparations started. Kartik also joined us.
As planned we started at 15:00Hrs from Baner. Kartik was waiting for us at some distance. We were heading for RKs (RamaKrishna) Lonava as it was our first point to stop. I was leading the pack and as formerly decided the average speed to be maintained was 60KMPH. Kartik was tailing. It was quite an incident when a dog came running and stood on the dividers and the K9 suddenly applied brakes. Kartik who was tailing was startled and applied brakes. Unicorn’s rear wheel got locked due to the drum setup and drifted its way and was going to crash into the R15. Thank god nothing such happened. Kartik and K9 filled up their tanks at a nearby shell pump. The K9 was amazed to find the SuperShell price to be at 72INR/Littre and the normal to be at 68INR/Littre. The roads to Lonavala smelled of a fresh coat of tar and K9’s R15’s rear tyre got a tar splash allover on the rims. Atlast at 17:00Hrs we reached RKs, Lonavala. As planned we stopped for food, tea and some sutta break.
From here, the destination was being changed. Firstly it was changed to Mahabaleshwar then to Alibaugh then again to Matheraan then to Kashid. We booked our resort from here. It was already 17:50 by then. We decided to leave and started up from there. It was already sunset the sky was red.
It was a tough job to retrieve the beasts thanks to the Innova and the Bolero for blocking the parking off the road and leaving a very little space to turn the machines. Somehow we took them out, with K9’s R15 the last. The light was dim, the sky was golden yellow and the roads we jam packed with cars. The cliffs and the hill side were packed with tourists. This time it was the Unicorn who was leading the pack with me tailing. I found a few corners and loved them. Reached Khopoli in nearly no time and it was dark with the purple sky looking upon us. Here we asked for directions to the nearby locals.
Soon after we crossed the populated area and reached a dark jungle. By this time it was the K9 who was leading with his brand new HID, followed by Kartik and tailed by me. We were maintaining a constant speed of 65-70 kmph on the winding roads of the sahayadri ghats as we were surrounded by dense deep forests. All we could hear was the roar of our engines and the wind whistle by our helmets. It was a huge problem to keep our visors clean as the nearby insects, attracted by the headlights of our machines came on our way and crashed onto our clear visors. Hardly any vehicles over took us as there were none. My RVMs were looking as if they were painted black. There was not a single ray of light coming from the woods.
After sometime the roads became straight and the jungle on the road sides also lessened. Suddenly we could see a police check post. Checking was on and we were stopped. The police men asked for our papers and license which we had. One constable fellow asked me for original documents only. I dint have the originals but was carrying the Xerox with notary stamp which was torn due to its placement in my purse. He told, I had to pay a fine for not carrying the originals and referred my to a higher inspector. The inspector mockingly said, at least he is carrying the Xerox, the people don’t even carry their license. The constable fellow was busy checking our gears, wore kartik’s gloves checked my RTR and was trying to knockout an invisible opponent with a punch wearing the DSG gloves. We were let off and were riding straight away.
I could smell the air change. It was salty and the air was calm. We rode and took turns and finally reached the city of Alibaugh. Here we took a turn into the interior of the city where we bought beers (Kingfisher & Budweiser) and a 360ml Whisky bottle. The bottles were packed in newspaper and was stacked in my Reebok Knight Rider bag. Kartik bought some chips and soft drinks where the K9 went to buy 3 cig packets. After finishing our shopping we rode off from Alibaugh into the heart of Kashid beach.
We were crossed a small bridge and right after that came a great jungle. It was quite a big jungle and was hilly. We rode uphill easily but soon we had two ghost encounters that freaked us out.
First: Our beloved K9 was riding with HID on and suddenly he noticed a girl with firewood on her head walking on middle of the road on the white patches. She was not there a few seconds back (we could see quite a distance with the powerful HID). Anyways K9 honked his horns and she seemed gliding slowly to the left side of the road. She was wearing a white top and a blue Saree type of thing in a very different style. We couldn't see her feet. K9 crossed her from the left, Kartik and me crossed her from the right. K9 couldn't see her on his RVM even though Kartik and mine headlights were glowing powerfully, neither could Kartik nor me. We were freaked out and increased the speeds.
Second: This encounter was not very far away from the first one. It was a truck. A model of truck which are unseen these days and looked like a 50 year old truck model with its canvas torn and weak lights. K9 also saw this very suddenly which he had to brake and over take by changing the lane. Kartik could see it but I couldn't. Infact Shrinath saw me go through the truck itself. Yes, I passed through the truck and suddenly I saw that there was a small light very near behind me. I pressed a little of the brakes to make the tail light glow and the vision on my RVM freaked me our and I sped off. It was really a truck and I had passed through it. We did not stop until we reached our destination.
The roads were cement paved and were smaller than what we here at Pune call “streets”. I could feel the heavy salty air. And the K9 Leader took a wrong turn. Kartik told me that it was a wrong turn and I went on the catch the K9 and bring him on the correct road. It was easy to catch his R15 on the RTR and soon followed in the Unicorn. After a short discussion of direction we roared off to the resort to find a dog barking at us. We reached at 23:10Hrs.
We checked in, and after getting fresh , collapsed on the chair to rest and wait for the time to be 00:00 as the K9 was on Fasting. We dint want to begin without him, so asked the attendant to keep the bottles of beer in the freezer along with the soft drinks. We ordered food with was served fast. Outside some completely boozed off college students were enjoying a good time dancing to the music. Soon it struck 00:00 and we started off with the beer and the whisky. Enjoyed the loud exterior music , ate and drank to our fill and did smoke a lot. Kartik went to sleep early as I and K9 were still enjoying the food and smokes till 3:30 and then dozed off on the beds.
I woke up at 6 and was the first to leave the warmth of the cot at 9 followed by Kartik and K9. After finishing the breakfast, we checked out and headed towards the beach behind the resort with our beasts. It was 12:30 by then and we decided to leave without further delay as we dint want to do night riding. Our next stop was Alibaugh, then at a petrol pump at Roha and then for food at State Highway 60. As broken it was, so was the heat of the sun beating upon us. The surrounding rocks and hills were stunningly spectacular. The K9 was riding at 30ish speed followed by me and Kartik was leading, he was not to be seen near due to the twists and turns. We were following the infamous route of Belkhar – Roha – Kolad – State Highway 60 – Tamhini – Varak – Mulshi – Paud – Pune.
We stopped for a smoke and to drink water but the heat of the unmerciful sun made it near boiling. Later we crossed crossed the infamously treacherous roads of Tamhini and were into Mulshi. We saw the dam and also a sign board nearby stating “Do not step into the water for quick sands”. We stopped for tea soon and K9 and Kartik were very tired followed by me. By the time we crossed into Paud it was dark again but we were thanking our stars for not having to ride in dark at Tamhini at least.
We headed for Nikhil’s Moto Café at Bavdhaan and treated ourselves with the deserts of the moto café (TMC). After spending time till 21:00Hrs we headed to the safely of our houses. Sore we were, so was the tiredness beating upon us. I had a refreshing Ninja drink at TMC and was wide awake. The distance to my home from TMC is 30kms which was a dashingly fast ride due to the good roads and thanks to the empty traffic.
Of the Bikers, By the Bikers, For the Bikers






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