Day 11 :Feb 11: Mumbai - Pune
Text: Sandeep Goswami
We had planned an early departure from Mumbai to avoid its infamous traffic but it was not to be. Rohit Talwar from Castrol wanted to travel with us to Pune, in the support van. Co-ordinating his pick-up and organising other things took a little time and we left around 0900hrs. And ended up smack in the middle of rush-hour traffic. Juhu-Tara road to Panvel took us the better part of two hours. Past Panvel, the road and traffic opens up and the pressure of reigning in the 170 horses eased up a bit. We could cruise at good speeds, the R15 also having no great difficulty in keeping up with us.
We stopped to refuel at a petrol pump some half hour out of Panvel and met a very inquisitive young boy, who just wanted to know everything about the big Yamahas at once. Sunil was his patient teacher but despite his efforts, the youngster remained convinced that we two Sunny and I) would fly on the R1’s, jumping over trucks and buses and the occasional tree. Wish we had such magical bikes though.
Leaving the boy and his dreams behind, we moved on to Lonavla after a short photo-session at the start of Khandala. A pit stop was of the order at a place as well-known as Lonavla and so we took a short break at one of the road-side resorts. The road so far had been good and we had been told that we would get a 4-laner from now on right upto Pune and beyond. Good.
The divided 4 lane road was a relief with the variable of on-coming traffic removed from the riding equation. The scenery is good and the weather was not too hot as we moved at a fair clip towards Pune. A touch of erronous navigation at Dehu Road and we turned in towards it instead of continuing on the mumbai – Bangalore highway till Pune. The ride from Dehu Road via Kirkee into Pune was all about chaotic traffic, populated mostly by two-wheelers. We managed to reach Wakhdewadi, saw a fuel bunk and stopped to refuel and also to gather our bearings. We had been very generously invited by Manav (an xBhpian) to stay at his flat in Baner while in Pune. Having no idea which way to go, Sunny called him and as we were only some 5-6kms from his place, he asked us to stay put at the petrol pump while he rode over to guide us home.
Things were stirring up at the petrol pump meanwhile. Its manager was pretty enamoured by our steeds and offered us cold drinks (he totally brushed aside our attempts to pay him for the drinks, thank you sir) and we ended up as being their honoured guests. One young man on a CBZ enquired about our purpose of travel and on learning about the scheduled event, promised to be there. Manav rode in on a fairingless Suzuki gixer and we tamely followed him to his flat. The support van driver was called up on his phone and directed to Manav’s place. It was 4 in the evening by this time and we were also a little tired, more from sweating in the heat than the actual ride.
Drove over to Dream bikes showroom on MG Road, took a few pics of their showroom, had a quick cup of coffee and returned to work on the blogs etc. Also made a few calls around to Pune xbhpians and other biking groups, planning meets and rides with them over the next few days that we were there before the mega-event. I put up with an old friend of mine who now works for TELCO at Pune. It was good to meet him and his family after almost two years.
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. Back in the hotel room, starters for dinners also included some strawberry preparations, especially for Noor and Sandeep sir because they couldn’t get strawberry shake because there was no electricity in the whole town which we were told is a routine for every Tuesday here. I also bought 5-6 packs of strawberry chikki to take back home. Noor also had a bagful of strawberries for his sister.


































































































































































ay 55: Mar 28th :in and around hyderabad: Xbhp meet
























































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