Prelude:
Final year of Engineering College..
Job placements.. DONE..
Exam dates.. A LONG way..
Perfect!! Its time for a ride!!

It had been a really long week with the placements and the final year project work piling up.. I just needed a day to get away from everything..


The meeting point and time was set.. Everything was finalized... And in the night we were counting down to our start.. The initial plan was to ride to Bhimashankar but a couple of turns changed the journey..


At 5 am, we were on the NH50.. An empty stretch of highway lay before us, calling us out of our daily routine..



We went on steadily with only the rains to slow us down at times.. We left the highway at peth and came across some beautiful twisties..


There were some under onstruction roads, but that was all fine.. The surrounding was so beautiful, we had no intentions of speeding up..


Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


The green carpet was way more tempting than the black tarmac..


The steeds taking their first break..


We reached Dimbhe dam on the way to bhimashankar.. This is where we saw a turn leading towards ahupe village.. We had been to Bhimashankar previously.. I asked my friends if they were interested in trying something different and so we took a right turn that would take us to ahupe, one of the most scenic place i will visit..

The turn took us on a road that went along the backwaters of the dam..

Green mountains.. Twisty roads.. And the sounds of bikes revving.. What more do u need..


The beautiful road continued with some smaller trails joining from the side.. They were more tempting than the main road and we followed one..


And the choice turned out to be pretty good... It led us to this beautiful waterfall..






Riders turn explorers!!


My old camera works pretty fine i guess..


After some time at the waterfall, we joined the main road again.. The road now passed through the jugle and beauty was increasing exponentially..


We continued riding making frequent stops at numerous waterfalls..




25k kms young..


We stopped here for the mist to clear a bit.. The visibility was getting poor.. A stop just to admire the beauty..


Sometimes its good to get lost in the arms of nature..


Finally, Ahupe village..


Now it was the end of the road.. Time for some offroading to reach the cliffs.. Man i love this part..


Mud, puddles and slippery rocks.. A different way of enjoying the ride..


Making your own way...




Burnout.. Bad idea..


After some offroading, it was really the end of the road..
At the edge of a 4000 ft cliff..


Dense fog covered the valleys... I was a bit perturbed by the weather.. I wanted a glimpse of the majestic cliffs and breathtaking valleys.. I have been in the mountains far too often trekking.. And the gods have been cruel to me many times when it comes to weather.. Giving me scorching sun when there weren't any forests and denying me of dry wood with rains when i was hungry and needed to cook.. But it didnt happen today.. The fog cleared and we could see the spectacular view of the cliffs and valleys and one of the longest waterfall i've seen..




A closer view of a small part of the waterfall with the 55-200 lens..


And now a pic with my ever faithful.. RTR 160..


We met a friendly old man who was quite interested in talking to us.. He was still confused about why someone from Pune would come all the way here..
He showed us the Gorakhgad and Macchindragad pinnacles..


The twin forts.. I made a mental note to myself to return after the monsoons to scale these peaks..


Resting time for the bikes.. It had been a lot of offroading..


Meanwhile even we decided to have some food.. After a trekking incident that happened few years earlier, i make it a point to carry at least some food from home in case we done get anything at the destination.. That came in handy.. The village had absolutely nothing to provide us with..
Some parathas that we got would suffice for the time..


A cobra.. Gotta be careful while choosing lunch places..


It was getting late in the evening and we knew the roads weren't in the best condition.. Also we could hear distant thunders and knew that it'll take much more time to ride back home.. We packed up, bid adieu to the alluring vistas and started the journey back home.. Another ride that will go down the memory lane forever..






A video of the 2 waterfalls before signing off..



Hope you guys enjoyed..
Thanks..