ya rite! gotto read about this.... you buggers

Again, Nice log Vivek...loved it.

Very detailed write up.Good going Vivek.

Expected more details about Pakodaas,White Tiger,The ring Master,Flying dragons etc etc.

Buggers i reached Chikhaldhara at 05 PM Saturday,I waited for you guys for 2-3 hours and then i decided to leave to Paratwada as did not had enough money to afford the lodging :P .Which was minimum 1500.

Inder 2.0 will be officially released soon :P

Cheers
Biru

Great going guys Seems like you folks had one hell of good time ... Missing my saddle memories badly

Superb trip there! Haven't yet had the time to go through the log but it definitely looks like you guys had a lot of fun

Good to see a Ninja touring on these kindda roads too

It sure was an expensive place! And imagine our luck - we got to stay free of cost!!

Get the video ready man!

We sure did . Hope these travelogues bring back fond memories .

LOTS of fun!

Do go through the whole thing.. Lotsa interesting insightful experiences..

Day 3

A Morning In The Forest

Everyone was up by 515 the next morning since we wanted to be on our way by 6. We stepped outside for a few minutes and boy was it refreshing! We were right in the middle of a forest and the twilight time coolness plus the greenery surrounding us was just like morning coffee! Our senses were alert in no time! Sid commented,"In weather like this I'd go jogging every morning!" . Easier said than done I say. After reveling in the wonderful weather we stepped back inside and executed the usual morning duties. Everyone was packed and geared up by 6 and we proceeded to the bikes.

Krish had a can of chain clean and lube and everyone except Sid used them generously . While the chains were being lubed Mr. Agarwal was spotted walking toward us. I wasn't surprised to see him, he looked like a morning sort of person. He was his merry self and after another round of thankfulness from our side, the engines were warmed up and we were off. We stopped for tea at the tapri where everyone had tested eachother's bikes the previous evening.





We started riding after a few minutes and stopped at another stream we encountered. This place had a lot of cattle around and many people shitting on the banks of the stream. I did my best to avoid getting them in the frame.





We were off again, finding our lines through the twisties. The roads were pretty good with the occasional bad patch. A few hairpins later we found ourselves on this straight stretch with hills to our left, plains to the right and fog rising up from a valley behind us. I didn't know where to look ! The road angled off toward the right and we stopped here again for a few more photos.









We were riding again and after a few more hairpins and descending a thousand feet or so the roads started getting straighter. We saw a lot of schoolkids since it was 15th August and waved to them to which they reacted merrily. We rode on till Burhanpur and from there proceeded towards Amravati.

Amravati was a sort of diversion we took to avoid the bad roads we'd encountered on Day 1. The roads to Amravati were amazing! Complete with roadside markings and signs, it was a pleasure cruising on these roads. Amravati came up in no time and we continued, without any stops, for Jalna. We entered a town called Mehkar on the way and stopped there to make a decision. At an intersection, left went to Lonar, a meteor crater and straight went to Jalna. After 5 minutes of debating we decided to ride to Lonar as it seemed to be a good idea and then continue towards Jalna.



A Meteor Crater

So we proceeded towards Lonar. These roads were no better than what we'd already been running on but the layout of the roads, the twists and turns gave the entire 20km run an Isle of Man feel ! There were smooth curves all along, no bad patches except this one place where some construction work was on. We could easily imagine ourselves on litre class bikes zooming through these roads at 200kmph+ speeds! The roads were that good! We slowed down and passed through a village, took a right turn and reached the crater. The detour sure was worth it!












My camera was on full digital zoom to capture this. The crater was huge!


The previous photo magnified to show some cattle

The water in this crater was a weird green color. It was most likely because of the minerals left over by the meteor. The crater must have been almost a km in diameter! We sat around for quite a while soaking in the beautiful surroundings.

We were off soon enough and got the Isle of Man feeling again. This time the feeling was amplified as there were lots of people along the edge of the road who were having some kind of procession. They were waving to us and I just couldn't help but feel like this was a race! It was a great feeling cruising along those amazing roads. We reached Mehkar soon and took the straight road (now left turn) to Jalna.



Good Roads, Good Cruising

The roads carried on winding and we continued cruising. The roads were similar to the "contract to break roads" patch we'd encountered on Day 1. It was so much easier spotting and avoiding the potholes in day time and it was almost like child's play. I won't even have guessed that I could almost have bent my rims on these roads at night. By this time, Biru, Nachiket and Krish were little ahead of the rest of us owing to traffic. Sudhir had to stop to refuel so Sid and he waited at the petrol station while I tried catching up with the rest of the group.

Biru was more of a solo rider and Nachiket was on his first group riding trip so I didn't expect either of them to check their RVMs. Krish did so after a while and stopped at the edge of the road. I motioned for him to wait while I tried to catch up with the other two. The occasional bad patch and traffic didn't allow me to do so and they were soon out of my sight. So I decided to ride towards Jalna hoping that they'd have stopped there. To my surprise, they hadn't even stopped at Jalna! I decided to wait for the group coming up from behind and after a 15 minute wait, they were there. We carried on again and met up with the other two a little way off. Rejoined with the group, we started off towards Aurangabad.

The good roads continued and we were cruising along at a good pace when something completely out of the ordinary happened. Tourers are used to bugs splattered on their visors. In fact, earlier that day, I had to ride with my head slightly turned since a bug had exploded on my visor right in the middle scattering all its fluids. All that is normal. What happened next was rather hilarious. And also a bit sad. To put it simply, Sudhir killed a bird. Yep, that's it. He was riding along, not focusing on the road a 100% and he hit a bird with his shoulder and the bird died. You're going to HELL Sudhir ! The best part was that from my viewpoint, I saw a bird flying about 30ft in the air and next moment I had to swerve to avoid a bird lying on the road! I thought someone had shot it down! I had no idea until when we stopped later that there was another bird which Sudhir had hit! Anyway, we carried on, Sudhir with his hurt shoulder.



Lunch And A Dash Home!

Aurangabad arrived and at the other edge of the city we decided to stop for lunch. This was around 430 in the evening. Lunch was rather small in quantity and we were finished fast. Sid informed us that he had to leave fast since he had to catch a bus for Jalgaon at 11. So he left and I forgot that my camera and phone were in his waist pouch. The pouch was water proof and easy to access so I'd kept the items there but I didn't realize that he'd left with them until we were 150kms from Pune! So I had to roam around without a phone and had to delay writing this log for two days until Sid couriered it to me.

We were on the road again by 6 or so, about 20 minutes after Sid left and we hoped to be home by 11-1130. After a quick break for petrol we decided to carry on. The roads were good once more with decent civilized traffic and as usual, there were only a few cars that overtook us. It started getting dark slowly and that's when the highway started getting dangerous. Even though we had the best light's on two wheelers in the country (not considering the high end bikes of course) the high beams from the oncoming traffic blinded us to quite a degree. Add to the occasional idiot doing 50 in the fast lane and you have a hazardous highway! This one chap was driving a van at 50kmph with a full family inside and he was in the fast lane. On top of that his headlights weren't working ! Moreover, he wouldn't even move over into the slow lane for ANYone! Pretty irritating but I'm sure he had a good reason.

We stopped at a tapri along the way and had some tea and a few biscuits. This was where I realized my phone and camera were with Sid. We dropped him a message saying so and after a few phone calls were on our way again. Biru was leading, I was second and Sudhir was behind me. Needless to say, Biru was seeing the entire spectrum of colors in his RVMs because of my projectors . We reached Ahmednagar soon enough and it was deserted compared to the traffic we'd encountered on Day 1. We went through the city, dodging the occasional pothole and were soon just 100kms from Pune. We passed by Smile Stone where we'd had brunch on Day 1. The roads were pretty good, no problems with doing 100 even with the high beams coming in from the opposite side.

50kms or so from Pune a couple of Innovas caught up with us. The traffic was getting denser since we were approaching Pune and these Innovas were having a hard time maintaining their speeds which were around 120. They also seemed to be in a hurry since they were flashing their lights telling us to move when there was no space to move over! I gestured to them telling them to be patient for a few seconds until we had space to move and as soon as it was clear we moved into the slow lane! They zoomed ahead but not long after encountered some more traffic . We caught up with them again but didn't overtake since it'd just be a waste of time.

We arrived at a fork in the road, the Chakan phata, where Krish and Sudhir went right towards Chakan and Biru and I went straight. It was now less than 25kms to home. The roads were pretty decent. We followed a volvo doing speeds of around 90. The volvo too stopped after a while and we were on our own. We overtook a WagonR who seemed to be pretty intrigued seeing a 220 and a CBR cruising at those times. He sped up a bit and started riding dangerously close to me. Biru was leading at that time and I decreased the distance between the two bikes to get away from the car. After 15 minutes or so Biru and I parted ways too and 15 minutes later, I was home. It was around 1130 and even after 3 days of riding, I wasn't tired! I felt like I could've done many more days but alas, I had to return to the real world!

After a quick dinner I hit the bed and had my first dream-less sleep in 3 days. The trip was over but the memories would remain. They'd have to remain in fact, so I could write this log .

So those were the 1500kms we covered over 3 days. An amazing trip through beautiful forests. Its already the next weekend and another ride is on the charts for Sunday .

Cheers!
Vivek

Hmmm...So all three days has been posted.And dont call it spectrum of light.It was Disco Light .Technology and idea stolen from Mithun's song.." Aaai Yumma Disco Dancer "

Ah so you re done eh......what a wonderful trip it was.abey biru tera version kab aayega

Good trip you guys had... Nicely written log.. Hope I will be able to join you guys sometime in the near future on one of these rides of yours..

Abe put your version of the trip and put up that circus video!

More the merrier man!

You mean more the messier , right?

But we are all cooperative riders !

Wonderful trip log blended with equally nice pics.. Nice work there mate.


Regards,
Nagesh

Wow! That was a super trip log. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and many a times imagined myself riding alongside you guys. I am glad you were all correctly clad and returned home safe. Kudos to you all!

Thanks for reading throught it

Safety is paramount.. Can't enjoy the ride if you're not feeling safe.. Thanks