oops! I will put up a long disclaimer that i have clicked none of the pics that have been used here. but at the end of the log

oh yes. in fact so much that I dont quite remember what i did after 2 am!

thanks buddy. and sorry for this long wait for the next day's log.

thanks buddy. for the first time, an HR guy is appreciating me! (generally, in appraissals, they need supplements for the list of errors. )

oh such kind words! I dont hope to disappoint you for long

ha ha... if alankar sees this, I am a dead man...

btw, most of the pics were shot just as tp but i managed to cook up a story with them

actually, when this pic was taken, i was picking up the can that i had dropped while alankar was checking if he had any contents in the can.

A nice detailed log & great pics. I really enjoyed reading this.
Btw, where are the ghost stories you were supposed to write in last day's log? I am intrested in those stories also.

Decent log.. Good pics. Hoping for the last parts

Incomplete log from a Pathetic person. Log is incomplete even after 11 months of finishing the ride. If you have any decency remaining. You will mail the log to me within 24 hours OR ELSE!!!

May this log RIP. RockerZ are you listening?

Goa ...rocks and when some of us bikers ride to that place its is enchanting is self ....Kudos for completing the trip

5) The Home-Run and the Final Run Later - 2nd JAN 2011 - AKA - Day 4

Ok so this day has arrived.
A morning when I woke up wishing that my office would suddenly grant paid leaves to me till the next recession period. But damn. No pain no gain. So here comes my quota of pain:-
• Butterflies in the wallet.
• Bike running low on fuel.
• My friendly (salary) bank account shows hints of me nearing bankruptcy.
• We settle our scores with each other. i.e. the bills
• And to top it all, I hear voices from the back of my head saying “return to office else you are going nowhere”.

So the Home Run begins. Atleast, that’s what I talk to myself.

As usual, we plan to get up and start early (08.00) so that we don’t have to rip all the way home, but destiny (or rather our lazy bones) has other plans hence, we start our ride at 10.00 sharp. So now, all that we gotta do is pin the throttle and listen the sweet music of our puny touring bikes trying their best to take all sorts of roads that we are gonna throw at it. Seems easy right? It isn’t! But what kept my spirits high despite the thought of leaving Goa was the stares from the passers by at 6 aliens on some desi bikes, one of them (my K&N’ed hunk) was farting like hell, while the other (Satyen’s RTR 160) was purring along but the rest were doing exactly what they were supposed to do- not to shout at the top of their voices.

As soon as we left Palolem (the beach where we stayed), we decided to stuff-in as much petrol that we could owing to the cheap Goan fuel rates. So after the top up, we swung the leg and off we were on the first ride of the year. After some time, Anup noticed his bike dancing to the tune of the road. Nope, Anup was not drunk, neither was his bike, it was the rear tyre. Yup we had a punctured tyre in our very first ride so here comes the first pit-stop. That too within the first 100 kms of riding. So while Anup had his puncture repaired, we had our rumbling tummies filled up. Soon, we were stuffed with the wada paws and cream rolls. As usual, I don’t remember the name of the place where we had the lunch so I conveniently move to the rest of the log.

After the tyre was patched up, and Alankar had his R15 inspected, we started riding. Soon, we get to the ghat sections and as usual, Antz and me, (and Satyen, and Sachin, and eventually Alankar) decided to take them in our stride. While I Antz and Antz do a mild bit of cornering, Satyen shows us who the daddy is. Seriously, his RTR can corner. And that too so good that I chickened on almost every corner trying to keep pace with Antz and Satyen. So i gave up trying to follow them and I let my chickens to dictate the speed at which they were not having their feathers ruffled. Soon, I have Sachin and Alankar in my rear view mirror, and I toddle along.

Soon, we are greeted with the view of Satyen and Antz waiting for us ahead. The irony is that we skipped the whole section of ghats without any our our shutters clicking. Soon, Antz takes the lead, followed by me, followed by Sachin and then Satyen and tailed by Alankar. This formation continues for precisely for the next 5.25 mines after which, I ask Sachin to ride ahead, strangely, soon , lose view of Sachin, anant as well as Satyen and Alankar. I remember that Satyen / Alankar is behind me and Sachin / Antz is ahead but still no one is in view. But I ride on expecting either Satyen to catchup or Sachin to wait. But nothing of that sort happens for the next 30 mines. So I pull over, reach for my cell phone and realize that aircell has the worst coverage in this region. A wait of 15 more mins follows but still, no one in sight. Since I have no other option, I continue crawling for the next couple of kilometers expecting someone to showup. Finally I pull-over and decide to wait for the rest of the gang to group. The battery of cell is a bit low so I decide not to click pics (one more excuse for not clicking the pics). The cool afternoon breeze soon put me into hibernation and I park my bike in the wrong direction so that I can see anyone coming. The place is so silent that the whizzing of the gentle breeze can be clearly heard. After a while, I hear some music. The music of 2 bikes nearing. I get up and to my surprise, its Antz and Sachin.
How can this be possible? Am I dreaming? Am I hallucinating? Who are these ghost riders? I see them look at me in disgust but I dare not to go near them. The last thing I want now is being condemned to hell with a burning face. These 2 ghosts near me and try to communicate. Soon, I understood what had happened. While Antz and Sachin were waiting at a petrol bunk for us to rejoin, I had ridden ahead of them. But where is Alankar and Satyen? Apparently, neither has Sachin not Anant seen them fly by, hence, we assumed that they were still behind. But now comes the next question. Where is Anup? Ever since, his bike got puffed up with air, he is nowhere to be seen.

We tried calling satyen and alankar but their phones are out of reach.. So, we decide to ride slowly expecting others to catch up. But as our engines roar to life, Alankar and Satyen join us. So we stop the engines and take some much rest. After 5 mins, we are moving pieces of metal on the road again. Soon, we are shaving a kilometer and half every minute. The milestones as they passby, indicate that we are on the right way to our homes and we ride on. Any ride if done on one run is boring but this route isn’t because it is full of changes. Be it in the form of tight corners followed by smooth sweeping corners turning into special offroad stages and later smooth straights. All in all, a decent mix of roads to prevent us from dozing off at the wheel. This route is very much better than the NH4. Mainly because this route is very scenic for a first timer. Unlike the NH4 which is full of boring arrow straight roads and providing you enough time to think of “what color of top should my G-friend wear over a blue JEAN!”.

As we pass well across the mid noon, we realize that we have lost Anant and Sachin. But they are not lost. They are actually looking for some decent place to have lunch. Soon, we stop at a hotel for some food. As usual, I did not care to note the name of the hotel, hence, future travelers along this route will have to test a couple of hotels for decent food.
After topping up with chickens and rotis, we move on. We lose Anant again, and this time, we are not gonna see him again till we reach mahad. But before we reach mahad and group with Anant, we met a group of riders without any concern for safety, riding without helmets. After we were asked by them if they could join us in our ride till Mumbai, we politely refused but assured that if they ride safely, and not interfere with our group, we would not have any problem with their riding behind us. But these adamant morons soon started following Alankar and were riding irresponsibly. Despite clear warnings, they were over-taking us at every corner they could. At a particular corner, they missed going downhill by a couple of inches. Terrified of this, we asked them to ride ahead and allowed them to disappear into the farthest of our vision. To assist in losing them, We then had a small stop enroute and (surprisingly) noticed Anant flyby! We are surprised how could Anant be behind us? We quickly sipped our cups of tea and put a message to Anant to call us when he read's the message. After our short tea break, We have the ghats ahead of us so we get all charged up and ride merrily along the sparse traffic of the ghats. We were riding merrily until the point when an I-10 owner decided to race with us. Initially, we thought that he was simply following us since he was maintaining a distance from us. But later when he got way too aggressive and almost collided with an on-coming bus, we decided to stop and let him go far ahead, and let him remain satisfied that he was the son of Mr. M. Schumacher. Damn, such people are a disgrace to the roads.

Since, it was beginning to get dark, we lowered our speeds. While we were waiting for the I-10 to disappear, I read a message from antz that he will wait for us at chiplun. So, knowing that the next stop is gonna take lot of time, we decided to keep the break short. Soon, after the ghats were over, we met antz where he explained that he saw us flyby his stop location hence he thought that we had moved ahead! So after or quota of vada paws and tea, I noticed that my silencer nut was loose so headed to a local mechanic for getting it tightened while the rest of the gang had the next round of paw and chai.

By the time we left from mahad, it was already dark. So now we had to ride in a group. But oweing to the poor headlight on my bike and due to less than 5 hrs of sleep the night before, I was already weary. I even comented to Anant that if I am too tired, I might consider staying at Roha (my uncle stays there). But due to some miscommunication, Anant thought that I had decided to stay at roha and I was not gonna ride further. This was a crucial error cos this later resulted in antz taking a road that he wasn’t supposed to take and we both had to ride solo till pune. But that’s coming later and there is a spicy adventure that I had between 12 pm -4 am….
As long as we were on city roads, we were able to ride in a group. But soon, the city roads gave away to the open state highways. So our group again split into two, Antz and Sachin riding far ahead while, Satyen, me and Alankar riding far behind. The poor sleep the night before had started taking its toll. I was unable to ride at any speed above 55 kmph. While the rest were getting weary at riding my speeds. I was the limitation to my group. They had to ride slow just because I wasn’t able to ride above 55. Soon, irritated by the high beams of oncoming traffic and the with chilly climate, I was already aware that if I am not cautious, I might doze off at the wheel. And I almost did. Here, Alankar understood the problem of my headlights so he rode ahead of me and maintained me in his rear view mirror. Soon, We got a stretch of ghats, after which, we all re-grouped and we met another couple touring on a bullet. But this was not after we had ridden for another 3 hours. We decided to take a tea break because everyone was really feeling tired. Here, Alankar told me that I was riding horribly and I understood the real reason why he started riding ahead was that I was continuously drifting into the wrong lane. Again we set off with stopping at the next tea stall we find. But as luck would have it, we did not get any for a long time. Instead, we had to stop at every fork to ensure that were going in the right direction. The riding formation was Satyen in the lead Followed by Anant Followed by Sachin then came Me and finally the group tailed by Alankar. Despite this, somehow, Anant evaded Sachin and Satyen and rode far ahead. While Satyen waited for re-grouping, antz disappeared. We realized this after the whole group rejoined. We tried to call antz but as usual, his cell was out of coverage area. So we decided to have dinner and then ride expecting antz to wait somewhere ahead. At the first hotel we could find, we stopped for our dinner and tea. I had the tummy full and emptied the contents from my sore a$$. After the dinner and the refreshments, I wore my sweatshirt, raincoat, jacket and whatever else I had so endure the cold. Little did I know how helpful this would be for the rest of the experience that will be happening within the next few hours.
Soon, after numerous failed attempts to connect with Anant, we hoped that he would wait for us somewhere ahead. So I left him a message that I will wait for him at the pali exit just before nagothane. Soon, we started riding and even after an hour of riding, we could not find Anant. Then the exit poin for khopoli arrived from where, the Mumbai gang had to continue via the highway while I was to ride to pune via pali, khopoli , lonavala to finally pune. Here, I got a message from Anant that he was already across the dreaded tamhini ghats and was just a couple of kilometers from pune. So now I understood that I had to ride alone. I bid a happy journey to the Mumbai gang and wished them a safe journey ahead. Since I know this route better than the back of my hand oweing to frequent visits to my uncle, I am very much confident of the route and I don’t need to ask anyone of the directions. But as soon as I set off, I am thinking that what if I doze off at the wheel? I get thoughts of staying at roha for the night and then reach pune the next day. but for some reason, I decide against it and I ride ahead. Soon, I am gonna regret taking the decision......

more to follow soon with punches and a mad speed run :P

First of all.. we had wada pavs at chiplun and not mahad.

Secondly.. did it really need a warning?

lol... i had a nice time punching so maybe i will write regarding that :P. btw, no ghost stories :P

yup.. very sorry, i forgot about this... i will put up the last part by tonight... (i hope so )

so sorry guys that the last part took time... actually i lost the pen drive and hence no pics at all

how about goa this year as well ? i will put up that update as well :P

yeah, the real fun there was the time i spent worry-free with like minded riders... its the group that rocked...

so sorry.. i am not so slow generaly :P

As I ride, the insecurity of dozing off at wheel becomes so much unbrearable, that I decide to ride at 40 – 50 kmph and take a break after every 20 – 30 kms. Since I know that there is a decent tapri ahead, I stop there for some refreshments and tea. Soon, 2 guys reach there and stare at me for the completely alienated look. You see, a completely kitted rider with a bag strapped on to the bike, covered with a jacket, then a raincoat and then guards above them is not something that you see daily on village roads. And the chance of seeing someone like this at midnight is additionally rare. Since I am used to such stares, I have my refreshments, pay for them and swing my leg over my bike.
Just at that moment, one of them asks me about the guard and where I am going. I explain them that I have been touring and am going home to pune. The guy then tells that he is going to lonawala and needs the directions. So I explain him the route. This is when I realize that these 2 guys are completely drunk. In the meanwhile, the guy asks if he can ride with me till pune. I pretend that I did not hear him and I start my bike and ride. I see him abusing me in the mirror but I ride on. Soon, after barely 15 mins of riding, I see a bike nearing me rather quickly so I swerve to the side of the road to let them ride ahead. But as soon as the bike crosses me, it slows and rides parallel to me. I notice that these are the same guys whom I met at the tapri before. They ask me the directions again. So I explain them the directions again while I am riding the bike. But these guys don’t seem to get the directions so they ask again. Fearing that they might crash into me, I ask them to pull over. but as soon as they stop, I notice that there is no number plate on their bike and the bike does not seem new. I smell something fishy. But its too late. As soon as I stop, the pillion jumps off the bike and abuses me and then pulls out a long knife. He stands on my left side and the rider quickly comes to the right side so that I cant dodge him and run away on the bike. I quickly understand that this is a loot. I curse my self for chosing to ride despite been told that this route is prone to loots. In no time, the rider is on the other side of my bike asking me to handover all the cash and valuables that I have. Soon, the basic survival instincts take over and I remember that once my uncle had told that such robber do not spare you even if you hand over all the cash because the victim could later take help of police and take the robbers down. Hence, I am pretty sure that give them everything or not, I am gonna meet the same fate. But then the thought crosses my mind that since they are drunk, if I am some how able to get rid of the knife, I have decent chances of surving the ordeal considering the thick jacket, the armour on top of it, and to top it off, I am wearing hard knuckeled gloves. But still, Terrified of the knife, I told him that I will hand over everything but since I have lot of gears, let me pull them off. I also plead to pull down the knife as it scares the shit out of me. As soon as he lowers the knife, I suddenly release the brake lever which makes a horrible noise when it strikes the metallic stopper. This noise makes them panicky and they look near my brake as what made the noise. Seizing the moment, I hit the rider with my hard knucked right hand on his nose. His nose instantly starts bleeding and he gets knocked out cold. The next punch is for the pillion who is unable to understand what is going on. I push him away and he loses balance because of the slope on the side of the road. Taking this moment, I quickly push the starter and rev the engine to ride off. But then I realize that the pillion is knocked out cold and his legs are in front of my bike. I wait for a second as should I ride over his legs or should I reverse the bike, lose a couple of moments and risk landing in trouble from the rider who will soon be on his feet again. I decide to ride over him and in the process, I ensure that atleast the rider is not gonna be in a position to stand up on the feet or atleast ride for the night. As soon as I cross him, I kick the standing bike over so that I can gain some time for riding off and then speed away.
The road conditions were pathetic so I could not cross 60 kmph. Another reason why I could not speed was that my bike was 2 years old and the rims were not in the ideal condition so the last thing that I wanted now was to have a bent rim and to be stranded by the roadside. But soon, I could see the headlights of the bike nearing me, and I understand that my gues of the pillion not riding the bike has gone down the drain. So I decide to ride as fast as I can and out run him on the corners on the ghats that are gonna follow. But in my exuberance to outrun him, I take the wrong road which goes through the center of the town and is in a much more pathetic condition. Realizing this, my speeds drop expecting to take a u turn as soon as I get an opportunity. But the bike is nearing me very fast so I have to ride quickly. Just to give a reference, normally when I cross such roads, I never cross 25 kmph. The roads are so bad. But now, I am kissing 60 kmph and I am literally on the footpegs. But the rider (the one who was earlier the pillion and had the knife) is riding at around 90 kmph + speeds. I noticed that he was barely able to control the bike partly because he was drunk and partly because he was riding sitting on the bike. Soon, the distance between me and the rider was reduced to less than a bike length. Here, I found a nice patch of road and I braked hard. He immediately braked but since he had not seen the pothole that lay in front of him, he lost control of the bike and crashed. I skidded to a halt barely able to keep the bike upright. The crash had knocked the pillion cold. I waited for a couple of moments to regain my heartbeats and thought of ramming my bike into this guy if he attempted to get up. But after good 1 minute of no movement, I took a u turn to return to my originally intended route. soon, as I knew, the road became pothole free. After 30 kms of pure ripping at 2 am in night, I spotted a jeep with a MH-14 number plate riding ahead of me. I immediately overtook it and asked them to stop. But they didn’t. So the next time, I stopped in front of them and made them stop. I could not maintain my balance on my trembling feet so I tipped over. I explained them everything and asked for help. They helped me to get into the jeep and one of them rode my bike till the next police station.
Amidst half senses, I explained the police everything and to my horror, the police acused me of trying to convert an accident into loot attempt. I immediately called up my uncle and informed him of what had happened. He made a call to a local politician and then my case was sorted out on priority. Soon, my FIR was registered against 2 people for loot attempt and another for attempt to murder. I thanked the jeep guys for their help and the police assured them that they will escort me to lonawala. amidst these events, I forgot to note the number of the jeep or take down any of the contact numbers of the guys. Soon, I was escorted till lonavala and I paid some tip to the hawaldar for helping me till here and I rode on. The rest of the journey was spent wide awake and reached home at around 5.00 am.
All that I remember next was seeing myself in the sofa at 10.00 am with all gear still on and then when I saw my phone, I realized I had an sms from Satyen and Anant. Somewhere between the loot attempt and me sleeping on the sofa, I had sent Satyen an sms of what had happened.

Oh what a way to end a ride. After the incident that happened the night before, I started to respect my bike more than I ever did. I felt lucky that I had the gear on with all that protection. without which, I may have chickened out and maybe this trip would have been my last one with my bike being possibly used for some other similar type of loot and someone else cursing my bike the same way as I did to that pulser that followed me during the attempt. But most of all I would have never got another time to relive the dream of goa. This ride was a complete mix experiences in riding. It began with a long stretch of boring straight highways and then followed by a mix of city roads, semi offroads, and finally, night riding. The return journey was even more special with me riding completely tired and exhausted with no mood of returning home. I had laughed at friends for sulking for returning from goa. But this time, I was at the receiving end. Needless to say that whenever i review this log, I return back in goa as if I am still in goa. As time passes, the memories of this place has slightly diluted but the pics are more than sufficient to keep me glued to my dream of goa.
As a matter of fact, I will return this place soon and will be back with a new set of experiences. But will love to have the same riding buddies that rode with me this time. Its just because of them that I made to goa and made back home safely. Thank you god! for all this. Thanks to all truckers who let us pass. Thanks to all kids who waved us. Thanks to all the roadside guides. But, most importantly, Thanks to all my riding buddies who endured me for the whole ride and made this ride a memorable one.

Signing out for another ride…
See you all on some other ride…

Carbon fibre rocks :P

You were lucky dude, Ive seen scarier looting happening and trust me, mushtanda men wearing kashtis and oil on thier body with blades is definitely not the sight you want to see. Drunk men are fun :P

Freak man thats a narrow escape.

@ Satyen- Tell me about it... Such mushtandas with heavy oiled biceps can be found near truck bay areas!!! man they are scary.

seriously, when i was proof reading the log, I felt myself lucky that i survived that incident without mishaps. finally, bear gills helped me to survive :P... long live DISCOVERY CHANNEL :P

yeah, a narrow escape for sure... but this incident taught me to never stop on lonely roads for whatever reasons... infact, i did not mention in the log that generally, i need a pee break every 1.5 hr but during this complete incident, i did not pee untill i reached home

Presence of mind saved you. It could have been worse.