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Like I said in the teaser intro, month of November was the perfect time for me to plan for a longish ride. It's winter time and the touring season in India.. Also I was supposed to attend my cousin's wedding in Goa on 22nd November. I had decided to ride to Goa to attend this wedding and therefore had got the full servicing done of my bike. New chain - sprocket set, new break pads.. new engine oil.. The cone set replacement(which was pending for a long time).. In short, my bike was in perfect condition for a long ride.
At the same time, Mumbai xBhpians were planning a ride to Velneshwar. I was like wow.. I've got some good company. But there was one problem. Mom n dad wanted me to go to Goa by bus/train with them
That's why I couldn't participate or confirm in the Velneshwar ride discussion on Mumbai thread till the very last day.
Finally after a lot of negotiation and promises I managed to convince my parents and got the permission to ride for the wedding to Goa
Mom was gonna carry most of my clothes and other stuff to Goa and therefore I didn't have to carry heavy luggage with me. Packed the usual stuff, tanked up my bike and I was all set for a good ride on 20th November.
At the same time, Mumbai xBhpians were planning a ride to Velneshwar. I was like wow.. I've got some good company. But there was one problem. Mom n dad wanted me to go to Goa by bus/train with them
That's why I couldn't participate or confirm in the Velneshwar ride discussion on Mumbai thread till the very last day. Finally after a lot of negotiation and promises I managed to convince my parents and got the permission to ride for the wedding to Goa
Mom was gonna carry most of my clothes and other stuff to Goa and therefore I didn't have to carry heavy luggage with me. Packed the usual stuff, tanked up my bike and I was all set for a good ride on 20th November.
Day 1
Mumbai - Velneshwar
I couldn't sleep properly due to the excitement on the night prior to ride. The excitement of riding on my favorite NH17, excitement of meeting all the fellow bikers, excitement of reaching Goa and seeing our newly renovated ancestral house in Kumbharjau, Goa. Yes, I had decided to reach Goa on the same day. But luck had something else for me... More on that later.
With only 3-4 hours of sleep, I woke up at 4.30 in the morning and started getting ready to roll. Time passed so quickly that I didn't even realize it was 5.25 am already. I was supposed to reach Panvel McD by 6 am and didn't want to be tagged as a late comer. Quickly gathered my stuff and rushed to the bike. Tail bag comes handy in such situations and saves time and effort of putting bungee chords etc. With everything set, me and my bike was ready for a nice day ahead...
Although I was expecting a very cold early morning ride, it wasn't that cold at all and I didn't even need to use the inner liner of my jacket to protect myself from the cold wind. After a nice and relaxed ride, reached Panvel McD. A couple of xBhpians were already there. I was 10-12 mins late actually..
In about 15-20 mins and while we were having breakfast inside McD, rest of the group rolls in. Plenty of new faces for me. Got introduced to each and everyone of them and a futile effort to remember everyone's name. I am really sorry but am very bad with remembering names. We all were waiting for DK to arrive and meanwhile had a small photo session outside McD.
DK joins in after sometime and without spending much time, we started gearing up and start the actual ride. Bujurg member of the gang, DK decided to lead the group and asked me to be in the second position in the formation. Ashish aka Motionfreak agreed to tail the group. 12 fully geared riders started their journey towards Velneshwar in proper formation.
In no time we crossed the JNPT by-pass and hit the NH17. Now was the tricky and most dangerous part of the ride. Section of NH17 between Panvel and Wadkhal is notorious for bad roads and reckless rash cagers. I don't know how many times I have written this line but that's the fact. It's a very dangerous two lane highway.
I was trying my best to alert the group by waving my hand for any danger on the road, like bad road, animals, speed breaker or even during overtaking. At one point I thought of pulling over and briefing the group to avoid any unpleasant incident. I did so after the Pen Toll naka. IMO it was needed and sorry if anybody felt bad about it. But that was for everyone's benefit.
Moving on we reached Wadkhal without any problem and stopped for breakfast at Hotel Milind vihar(i think so
).
It there at the Hotel I came to know that one of the riders was gonna turn back to home after some time. He was there just for a small ride as he had some personal commitments back home. With tummies full and mind refreshed, we were back on road and heading towards Velneshwar on NH17.
After sometime, we pulled over to the side of the road as Centaur wanted to head back home. Wish him safe journey we moved and continued till Mahad. How can we ride on NH17 and not stop for a photo shoot near Mahad lake/river. DK lead the group to a halt under a tree shade near Mahad lake and we got some relief from the ever increasing heat.
After this sutta/pee/butt/chit chat break, the convoy was back on track and moving towards the destination... A few minutes of riding and we were at Poladpur, a village at the base of Kashedi ghat, one of the biggest ghats of our journey. I wanted to record a video of the entire kashedi ghat with my on-board camera. Therefore I pulled over to the side of the road to mount the camera on helmet and asked the rest of the group to move ahead. I was also suffering from a little headache. Took a five minutes break for the headache to settle down and mounted the camera on the helmet.
I've got a full 22 minutes video covering the entire Kashedi ghat, right from start to end. Will post the link here after uploading.
On the way, I saw a group of bikers taking rest in Kashedi ghat but I couldn't stop there as I had to catch up with the rest of the group ahead. I again had to stop after Kashedi ghat to stop recording and keep the camera safely. Few minutes ahead I found our group taking rest under a tree shade opposite a dam(forgot it's name, I think natuwadi or something). Our lead man was missing though. We tried his cell but that was not reachable for quite sometime. Veeral, Pranav and some other guys had gone under the bridge to enjoy the flowing stream of water. sometime later we understood that DK is waiting for us 12 Kms ahead at Khed.
Heat was killing and everyone was pouring water on their head to keep it cool.. DK had to wait for almost 40-45 mins by the time we reached there. Without wasting anymore time we moved ahead towards Chiplun. Had a funny encounter with a Mitsubishi Outlander on the way
Once we were in Parshuram ghat, DK stopped the group at the entrance of Lord Parshuram's temple. But the heat was too much and it would have taken too much time, hence was postponed for some other time, may be during return journey.
The exit for Guhagar is right there at the end of Parshuram ghat and DK accidentally missed it and moved ahead. I talked to DK on the go and the group took a U turn.
I had been to Guhagar a few months before with Mandar and a non xBhpian friend and was aware of the road conditions. I was so so excited to hit the same road once again. It's a 56 Kms road from NH17 exit to Guhagar and can be easily termed as every corner carver's dream road. Am sure the group members will agree on this. DK's bike needed a refuel and therefore Dinesh, Mayur, Veeral, N4speed and I decided to move on. The road was so beautiful that we couldn't hold ourselves from ripping and we enjoyed the corners to it's fullest. Thinking the group was left far behind we stopped a place. Rest of the group arrived in about 5-10 minutes.
DK, Ashish and I was discussing bout the further route and we decided to take the route via Marg Tamhane. A few minutes ride took us to the Marg Tamhane phata. We confirmed our route with a gentleman there and left the main Guhagar road behind. The road we were riding then was a bit of off-road kind of surface. Lot of broken patches and gravel.
DK, Veeral, Mayur and I were riding at decent speeds and reached a point where we were supposed to turn left. Thinking that the group is just behind us we took the left turn and stopped at the next junction. Few minutes later Pranav joined us but no sign of the rest of the group. Even after 15-20 minutes no one appeared. We were getting worried and started calling everyone's cell phone. But none was reachable. Veeral and DK even rode back a few distance to check on them but they could not be found. We had no choice but to move on. 5 of us moved ahead towards Velneshwar and with the help of some villagers reached our destination.
Just as we were parking our bikes near the MTDC approved hotel, rest of the group rolled in. It was such a relief. Reason for their delay was, dinesh had a small crash in the gravel. It was horribly hot and we got rid of the riding gear and settled down in the restaurant.
It was a beautiful beach side hotel...
We had our lunch there and then Ashish and Pranav went out to arrange the accommodation. They came back almost after an hour and it was close to 5.30 pm I guess. While Ashish and I was having a chat with the hotel owner for the dinner arrangements he suggested us to take the boat ride to Jaigad fort light house. It would have cost Rs. 500 for the entire group and more than half an hour of boat ride. We told him we'll try to go on the boat ride but can't confirm as everyone needed to get fresh at the hotel. Way to the hotel was a deadly steep climb with uneven surface.. Slight mistake and you are sure to fall down..
Our place to stay for the night...
Had awesome time in the house with lot of funny stories to share.. frogs in the bathroom.. Naamkaran of Veeral.. Bathroom light ki story while Dinesh was taking bath.. What not... haha..
Everybody waiting for chai in veranda..
DK ne kuch pehna bhi hai ya aise hi..
View from the Hotel..
As you can see in the above pic, it had started getting dark and we were still in our room. So there was no question of boat ride anymore. People decided to spend time on the beach and postponed the boat ride for next day. DK and Ashish were busy guiding the Pune riders to Velneshwar and arranging the booze.
After drinking tea, some riders volunteered to take their bikes down to the beach where as some decided to be pillion with them.
At the beach..
It was like a bunch of kids let loose on the beach. Especially Ashish As I said my initial plan was to go to Goa on the same day, I wasn't carrying any extra clothes. Also my right leg's thumb which was operated last year doesn't allow me to enjoy salty water that much. Therefore I decided to be on the shore taking pix and taking care of their belongings. After sometime, I informed someone from the group and headed to the restaurant. I was supposed to leave for Goa next day very early in the morning and hence had to talk to the hotel owner for a few details.
I asked the hotel owners a few details like what time the temple opens in the morning(I was no way gonna leave the place without taking darshan of lord Shiva), which is the best route to hit NH17 in the morning etc. Hotel owner gave me an easy but detailed road map to NH17. I ordered a cup of tea and called up back home. Sat there under open sky talking to mom, having hot tea and watching these guys enjoy the sea.
Sometime later, all the guys joined in. A bit of chit chat and we ordered the food. While we were having dinner Pune guys reached there. After greeting everyone they too ordered food. Will never forget the taste of Aaamras.. Superb.
Dinner was over and it was time to hit the beach again.. this time for bonfire. Spirits were high and usual entertainers were in full swing. Had awesome time listening to Rishabh and DK's stories..
Time passed by and we didn't even realize it was close to 12.30am . I was worried as I had very little sleep the night before the ride and also waking up early in the morning on Sunday. I along with some other members asked the group if we can go back to the room and carry on with rest of the stories. They agreed and we were back home. Everyone decided to sleep in the veranda. I sat with them for another half n hour or so enjoying DK, Veeral and Rishabh's jugalbandi and finally hit the bed at around 1.15- 1.30am. I fell asleep after setting and alarm for next morning 6 am.
.
.
.
Day 2 log coming up......
Note 1: Some of the pics used here, are from the thread http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/1...20th-21st.html
Note 2: The cam I was using was a very old Sony cybershot camera. It had some problem with the lens which has resulted in loss of a lot of pictures They have come out totally blur. Some pics posted here are also not clear. All thanks to the old problematic camera 
With only 3-4 hours of sleep, I woke up at 4.30 in the morning and started getting ready to roll. Time passed so quickly that I didn't even realize it was 5.25 am already. I was supposed to reach Panvel McD by 6 am and didn't want to be tagged as a late comer. Quickly gathered my stuff and rushed to the bike. Tail bag comes handy in such situations and saves time and effort of putting bungee chords etc. With everything set, me and my bike was ready for a nice day ahead...
Although I was expecting a very cold early morning ride, it wasn't that cold at all and I didn't even need to use the inner liner of my jacket to protect myself from the cold wind. After a nice and relaxed ride, reached Panvel McD. A couple of xBhpians were already there. I was 10-12 mins late actually..
In about 15-20 mins and while we were having breakfast inside McD, rest of the group rolls in. Plenty of new faces for me. Got introduced to each and everyone of them and a futile effort to remember everyone's name. I am really sorry but am very bad with remembering names. We all were waiting for DK to arrive and meanwhile had a small photo session outside McD. DK joins in after sometime and without spending much time, we started gearing up and start the actual ride. Bujurg member of the gang, DK decided to lead the group and asked me to be in the second position in the formation. Ashish aka Motionfreak agreed to tail the group. 12 fully geared riders started their journey towards Velneshwar in proper formation.
In no time we crossed the JNPT by-pass and hit the NH17. Now was the tricky and most dangerous part of the ride. Section of NH17 between Panvel and Wadkhal is notorious for bad roads and reckless rash cagers. I don't know how many times I have written this line but that's the fact. It's a very dangerous two lane highway.
I was trying my best to alert the group by waving my hand for any danger on the road, like bad road, animals, speed breaker or even during overtaking. At one point I thought of pulling over and briefing the group to avoid any unpleasant incident. I did so after the Pen Toll naka. IMO it was needed and sorry if anybody felt bad about it. But that was for everyone's benefit.
Moving on we reached Wadkhal without any problem and stopped for breakfast at Hotel Milind vihar(i think so
). It there at the Hotel I came to know that one of the riders was gonna turn back to home after some time. He was there just for a small ride as he had some personal commitments back home. With tummies full and mind refreshed, we were back on road and heading towards Velneshwar on NH17.
After sometime, we pulled over to the side of the road as Centaur wanted to head back home. Wish him safe journey we moved and continued till Mahad. How can we ride on NH17 and not stop for a photo shoot near Mahad lake/river. DK lead the group to a halt under a tree shade near Mahad lake and we got some relief from the ever increasing heat.
After this sutta/pee/butt/chit chat break, the convoy was back on track and moving towards the destination... A few minutes of riding and we were at Poladpur, a village at the base of Kashedi ghat, one of the biggest ghats of our journey. I wanted to record a video of the entire kashedi ghat with my on-board camera. Therefore I pulled over to the side of the road to mount the camera on helmet and asked the rest of the group to move ahead. I was also suffering from a little headache. Took a five minutes break for the headache to settle down and mounted the camera on the helmet.
I've got a full 22 minutes video covering the entire Kashedi ghat, right from start to end. Will post the link here after uploading.
On the way, I saw a group of bikers taking rest in Kashedi ghat but I couldn't stop there as I had to catch up with the rest of the group ahead. I again had to stop after Kashedi ghat to stop recording and keep the camera safely. Few minutes ahead I found our group taking rest under a tree shade opposite a dam(forgot it's name, I think natuwadi or something). Our lead man was missing though. We tried his cell but that was not reachable for quite sometime. Veeral, Pranav and some other guys had gone under the bridge to enjoy the flowing stream of water. sometime later we understood that DK is waiting for us 12 Kms ahead at Khed.
Heat was killing and everyone was pouring water on their head to keep it cool.. DK had to wait for almost 40-45 mins by the time we reached there. Without wasting anymore time we moved ahead towards Chiplun. Had a funny encounter with a Mitsubishi Outlander on the way
Once we were in Parshuram ghat, DK stopped the group at the entrance of Lord Parshuram's temple. But the heat was too much and it would have taken too much time, hence was postponed for some other time, may be during return journey. The exit for Guhagar is right there at the end of Parshuram ghat and DK accidentally missed it and moved ahead. I talked to DK on the go and the group took a U turn.
I had been to Guhagar a few months before with Mandar and a non xBhpian friend and was aware of the road conditions. I was so so excited to hit the same road once again. It's a 56 Kms road from NH17 exit to Guhagar and can be easily termed as every corner carver's dream road. Am sure the group members will agree on this. DK's bike needed a refuel and therefore Dinesh, Mayur, Veeral, N4speed and I decided to move on. The road was so beautiful that we couldn't hold ourselves from ripping and we enjoyed the corners to it's fullest. Thinking the group was left far behind we stopped a place. Rest of the group arrived in about 5-10 minutes.
DK, Ashish and I was discussing bout the further route and we decided to take the route via Marg Tamhane. A few minutes ride took us to the Marg Tamhane phata. We confirmed our route with a gentleman there and left the main Guhagar road behind. The road we were riding then was a bit of off-road kind of surface. Lot of broken patches and gravel.
DK, Veeral, Mayur and I were riding at decent speeds and reached a point where we were supposed to turn left. Thinking that the group is just behind us we took the left turn and stopped at the next junction. Few minutes later Pranav joined us but no sign of the rest of the group. Even after 15-20 minutes no one appeared. We were getting worried and started calling everyone's cell phone. But none was reachable. Veeral and DK even rode back a few distance to check on them but they could not be found. We had no choice but to move on. 5 of us moved ahead towards Velneshwar and with the help of some villagers reached our destination.
Just as we were parking our bikes near the MTDC approved hotel, rest of the group rolled in. It was such a relief. Reason for their delay was, dinesh had a small crash in the gravel. It was horribly hot and we got rid of the riding gear and settled down in the restaurant.
It was a beautiful beach side hotel...
We had our lunch there and then Ashish and Pranav went out to arrange the accommodation. They came back almost after an hour and it was close to 5.30 pm I guess. While Ashish and I was having a chat with the hotel owner for the dinner arrangements he suggested us to take the boat ride to Jaigad fort light house. It would have cost Rs. 500 for the entire group and more than half an hour of boat ride. We told him we'll try to go on the boat ride but can't confirm as everyone needed to get fresh at the hotel. Way to the hotel was a deadly steep climb with uneven surface.. Slight mistake and you are sure to fall down..
Our place to stay for the night...
Had awesome time in the house with lot of funny stories to share.. frogs in the bathroom..
Naamkaran of Veeral.. Bathroom light ki story while Dinesh was taking bath.. What not... haha.. Everybody waiting for chai in veranda..
DK ne kuch pehna bhi hai ya aise hi..
View from the Hotel..
As you can see in the above pic, it had started getting dark and we were still in our room. So there was no question of boat ride anymore. People decided to spend time on the beach and postponed the boat ride for next day. DK and Ashish were busy guiding the Pune riders to Velneshwar and arranging the booze.
After drinking tea, some riders volunteered to take their bikes down to the beach where as some decided to be pillion with them.
At the beach..
It was like a bunch of kids let loose on the beach. Especially Ashish
As I said my initial plan was to go to Goa on the same day, I wasn't carrying any extra clothes. Also my right leg's thumb which was operated last year doesn't allow me to enjoy salty water that much. Therefore I decided to be on the shore taking pix and taking care of their belongings. After sometime, I informed someone from the group and headed to the restaurant. I was supposed to leave for Goa next day very early in the morning and hence had to talk to the hotel owner for a few details. I asked the hotel owners a few details like what time the temple opens in the morning(I was no way gonna leave the place without taking darshan of lord Shiva), which is the best route to hit NH17 in the morning etc. Hotel owner gave me an easy but detailed road map to NH17. I ordered a cup of tea and called up back home. Sat there under open sky talking to mom, having hot tea and watching these guys enjoy the sea.
Sometime later, all the guys joined in. A bit of chit chat and we ordered the food. While we were having dinner Pune guys reached there. After greeting everyone they too ordered food. Will never forget the taste of Aaamras.. Superb.
Dinner was over and it was time to hit the beach again.. this time for bonfire. Spirits were high and usual entertainers were in full swing. Had awesome time listening to Rishabh and DK's stories..
Time passed by and we didn't even realize it was close to 12.30am . I was worried as I had very little sleep the night before the ride and also waking up early in the morning on Sunday. I along with some other members asked the group if we can go back to the room and carry on with rest of the stories. They agreed and we were back home. Everyone decided to sleep in the veranda. I sat with them for another half n hour or so enjoying DK, Veeral and Rishabh's jugalbandi
and finally hit the bed at around 1.15- 1.30am. I fell asleep after setting and alarm for next morning 6 am. .
.
.
Day 2 log coming up......
Note 1: Some of the pics used here, are from the thread http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/1...20th-21st.html
Note 2: The cam I was using was a very old Sony cybershot camera. It had some problem with the lens which has resulted in loss of a lot of pictures
They have come out totally blur. Some pics posted here are also not clear. All thanks to the old problematic camera 
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