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Day 2:


Pune to Kolhapur

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The new day and being already done with the Mumbai Pune part of the ride put us in a good mood and eager to start the day’s ride. However, we did take it a little slow with breakfast and getting ready. After a quick chat with a couple of friends staying in Pune we started our ride around 9.30AM.

We filled the tank in Pune and set out to Kolhapur. Within 10 kms of riding, we got a pleasant surprise as we started climbing ghat roads. These were not steep ghats, but roads with wide curves and thick greenery on both sides. We were treated to the real life beauty of the mountains in Maharashtra: Rocky with horizontal lines and draped in a carpet of green. There is something magical about the capacity of these natural landscapes to instantly make you feel being a part of something bigger and incredible. Maybe the locals there will have a much more grounded view.

The ghats soon after leaving Pune:




A carpet of green:







After some time, we hit the highway to Kolhapur. The sun and the rain played hide and seek with us and our rain gear. Everytime we would stop to put on the rain gear, the sun would come out in an instant. At one stretch, as the rain was starting, we could see that if we crossed the dark cloud it would be sunny again. So, we rode, got wet and got dry again. The weather really added to the riding experience.

The rains stopping when we stopped to put on our rain gear:





Around afternoon, we reached this restaurant called Hotel Abiruchi for lunch. We tried this Marati drink called Solkadi. After trying it here, we drank it everyday for the rest of our trip.

After the meal, we hit some long straight highway sections and mostly decent roads. We were able to cover some good distance.

A good stretch of highway to Kolhapur:



A break on our way to Kolhapur:



We reached Kolhapur and saw that almost everyone was out. Families were buying Ganesha idols of varying sizes. Processions with drums and trumpets were going on every few streets. It was good to see so many smiling faces in the festive spirit.


By around 4.30, we had checked into the hotel. We had initially planned to leave at 6 AM and reach by 1PM. We left by 9.30AM and reached by 4.30 PM. Our plan for the entire trip was to ride from morning to afternoon. This way we would reduce hours spent in a day on the bike and have lengthy rests in the evening. We never left on the planned time, but we did roughly stick to the route and riding times.


After a brief rest, we walked around a little and had a diabetes inducing coffee. After this, we shopped a bit and went to my wife’s friend’s place. For dinner, we went to this famous hotel called Hotel Opal. I ordered the highly recommended Tambda Rassa and realised that it was mutton soup. The food was really yumm. The place had an old world charm. We were disappointed that we didn't stay there.

Hotel Opal for reference:



Day 3 to be continued next.

Day 3:

Kolhapur to Siolim, Goa



We had planned to leave at 7 AM and reach Goa by 1PM. Instead we were sipping bad hotel room instant coffee at 7.30AM. We packed and checked out by 9AM.

The bike loaded and ready for the day:



Without really a breakfast place in mind, we started riding. As we were riding to North Goa, Google had suggested a route through Amboli ghat. We had no idea just how off road the route would be. Straightaway we were riding on single lane state highways that weaved through lush greenery. They were either carpets of green from the crops or the grasslands in their brightest green after the rains or the dreamy green of the distant mountains.

Beautiful green tops and tar roads:




By chance we saw this little breakfast place in the middle of all this scenery with no other buildings in sight. The place was super neat and well maintained. We were the only two people when we entered and thought that we had discovered some unknown, hidden breakfast place. We were so wrong. Pretty soon the place had a regular stream of locals. We were the only tourists there. We had a leisurely breakfast. The poha and the tea were amazing. So much so that we had two rounds of tea. The restrooms were also extremely well maintained. Clean, well maintained restrooms are such a must, particularly for women travellers. Barring a few exceptions like this, it is a pretty stinking state of affairs.

The view from the breakfast place:



Some beautiful scenery:









Our two plates of Poha, 2 bottles of water and 4 cups of tea cost less than 100Rs. Feeling shocked at the low price for breakfast, we continued our journey. We still had about 160 kms to cover. We kept an enjoyable steady pace. After some time, my wife took over and rode the bike for some distance.



We were covering about 30kms on average per hour. With about 100kms left, Google decided to explore roads with us as it took us on roads that kept getting narrower and with fewer and fewer people.





After some time, we were riding on roads whose quality kept going down and with just enough space for a bike to ride and passed through small village after small village. After passing through these villages, many streams started criss-crossing the road. Every few kilometres, there was a small stream crossing. With the full weight of the monsoon rains, the sound from these streams filled the air and they flowed with speed. We crossed a particularly rowdy stream and stopped to appreciate the sound of rushing water, taking the soil along with it.

A strong monsoon stream taking a lot of mud with it:



A break after crossing many streams:



A single car with travellers came along and asked us for directions! Us! Turns out, we were not the only ones Google was playing with. We were enjoying the wild ride though. However, despite our full rain gear, we were wet to our bones. Shivering from being wet and hungry, we rode on, on those remote roads. Occasionally we passed locals who were as surprised as we were to see us there. Google kept getting confused and rerouting us. Then, we lost all mobile network signals. We just kept going, completing 20-25 kms per hour on semi-gravel semi-tar roads.


At one point we came across some road work for a new bridge. They had dumped a lot of soil in order to make an elevated bridge. The soil was loose and fully wet with the rains. We were fully loaded with the Himalayan. We had no idea where we were. We didnt know if we should keep going forward or turn around. Telling the bike that this was it's time to shine, we climbed up the slushy slope, crossed and climbed down. The bike handled it really well.


After that, we were thankful for the narrow paved roads. We reached Amboli ghats around late afternoon. Emerging into Amboli ghats felt like those treks where you struggle and persevere through a difficult terrain to finally get to a water falls only to see it crowded with tourists who have taken a straight road to the falls. There were quite a few tourists staying at Amboli ghats and just taking in the magical place. At midday, there was so much fog and chill that we could see nothing in front. Not crossing more than 15km/hr and shivering as we were riding, we crossed the main tourist places. A little further, we stopped at a space in the ghat road. Here we could hear the wind bring up the fog and could reach out to feel it in our hands.

So much fog:






Best to follow a car:



Stopping to see the fog up close:



The valley below covered in fog:



We continued onwards to Goa. As we climbed down Amboli ghat, we were treated to numerous small, but gushing waterfalls crossing the road at every turn. We lost count. Such was the beauty of the place.

Green mountains, water falls and ghat roads, ah to ride here!







At the border to Goa, our vaccine certificates were checked and we were on wide concrete highway roads to Siolim, our place of stay. We checked into our accommodation at around 3.30PM. We ordered a very late lunch via swiggy. After washing our muddy rain gear and luggage and a shower, we felt rejuvenated.

Days 3 (afternoon) to Day 7 (morning) in Goa:

We had planned the trip in such a way that two of our family members would fly from Chennai to join us while we were in Goa.

The next few days would be a combination of the rain playing hide and seek, lazing around, planning for 5 things and then doing 1 thing not in the plan for the entire day.

For dinner on our first night in Goa, we planned to go to a famous place called Thalassa. It is an eatery/bar/dance club. The sheer number of people there really surprised us. The place was so packed and so loud. Pandemic? What pandemic? Escaping the crowd, we went to a place nearby called Coastal Spice. This place would become our comfort place for the duration of our trip. The place was quiet, hygienic and the quality and taste of the food was fantastic. Moreover they had a Foosball table where we had many memorable games.

We rented a scooter additionally. On Day 4 (Sunday) morning, we went to Morjim beach in the morning and tried to make some shack owner to open early to eat breakfast. We finally found one that opened and made food while we spent time at the beach.

Morjim Beach:



Around evening, we went to Panjim and spent some time on the footsteps of the famous Our Lady of Immaculate Conception church.




The rain kept coming and going forcing us to stop now and then and wait it out. Nobody really wanted to wear rain gear and go out in Goa. Running from the rain also meant going into cafes and having hot coffee and tasty cakes. So, not bad.

Knowing we were late, we still tried to catch the sunset at Vagator beach. We didnt. We did manage to wet our feet at the beach with the skies dark and beautiful hovering over us.

Vagator Beach:



On Monday (Day 5) we went to Lower Aguada fort. This place is well maintained and the beach nearby is quite scenic and beautiful. On Tuesday (Day 6), we spent time at Reis Magos fort, got drenched in the rain again and found a small shack with a beautiful view for the evening. We didnt do much on Day 7. It was mostly spent quietly packing with a little sense of sadness.

Views from Reis Magos Fort:




Lower Aguada fort and beach:





A cafe in Goa:

Day 7: Goa to Malvan



The fox and the beach

It was time to say goodbye to Goa. We got ready, packed and loaded the bike and left for Malvan around afternoon. The ride from Goa to Malvan was beautiful. This time the roads were bigger and better. The rivers and bridges we crossed were bigger.

River crossing:



Stopping at another bridge:




Then came the highlight of our day’s ride. The geography of the route had roads twisting and climbing up, a few kms of high plateau and roads twisting down again. These plateaus were usually grasslands and with the monsoon they were a carpet of green. There were usually no humans or buildings in the vicinity in these grasslands.


However, during one such grassland stretch, the road went for kilometers around a high compound with barbed wires and absolutely no sign board. The only posts were warning signs against trespass. The high walls prevented seeing what was inside. There was not other building in that area. My guess is, it might be a secret Government facility. Almost at the end of the compound wall, we came to a rare fork in the road. As usual, I picked the wrong fork, realised and was about to turn around, when we spotted a fox. The fox stayed where it was and looked back at us. Not meaning to get in the way of him/her, we left the spot.

The Fox:



We reached Malvan around 3PM and went to a famous restaurant called Athithi. The place was fully crowded. We tried, but it quickly became clear that the restaurant would close before we got seats. We sort of wandered around Malvan and came across this restaurant called Saami which was not very crowded. The food however, was very tasty. We had fish thalis and a plate of prawn fry. The style of frying here is very different from how it is done in the south. They seem to add flour and some crumbs to their masala frying paste. For almost the remainder of our coastal route, we were eating fish thalis day and night.



Malvan has surprisingly high tourist traffic with an equally high number of tourist resorts. The MTDC resort we stayed in is located right next to Tarkali Beach. We would recommend this place for anyone visiting Malvan. The beach is very clean and quiet. The powdery whitish sand is also a very unique experience. We spent the evening and the night at the beach.

Tarkali Beach:

Beautifully written and captured!
The uncommon roads might not be very good to ride but adds to the experience!

Thank you !

True that! We experienced and saw so many things we wouldn't have in a normal highway ride. The slower pace made us feel closer to our surroundings.

Day 8 Malvan to Ratnagiri




Flight of fancy


We woke up to have coffee and breakfast on the beach.



Some work had come up for my wife. So she had to login for a couple of hours. In the meantime, I cleaned up the chain with some WD-40 and got us ready to go after packing our stuff and loading the bike up. By now, the whole unloading, unpacking, packing, loading had developed a nice rhythm in our day.

Made a friend while she was working:



Didnt mind sitting around and waiting here:



We left for Ratnagiri around afternoon. Before leaving Malvan, we had Malvani Fish thaali one more time at Hotel Saami. Yumm it was!


We started the ride in late afternoon. The roads were in a much better condition now. After sometime, the roads got narrow and a little worse. Google had some fun by taking us down a non-existent road which literally ended in a ditch, where some guys where hanging around and everyone turned to stare at us. Quickly taking a U-turn, we exited the area. We had late lunch at a random place we picked. We had their simple but tasty lunch which was chapati, green chilli and red chilli pickle. The owner convinced us to buy few packets of their pickle for our home. We set on after squeezing in the pickle packets in our top box (We found out later that they leaked). Don't buy pickle packets on bike trips.





We were still riding in similar kind of geography. Twisting roads up, plateau and twisting roads down. When riding in one such plateau stretch, a car in front of us startled a peacock crossing the road. He then took flight, his majestic plumage shining in the evening sun for a few seconds before he settled back down on the other side of the road.

Mirror like still backwaters:







We can see the sea!:




Towards late evening, we started seeing glimpses of the sea and then glimpses of the beach as the road would tease us by going near the beach and then going away and climbing a hill again. Soon after, we started getting beaches on our left that could be seen between trees. Before the sun set, we stopped at a road that sloped down from a hill and opened to a beautiful beach on the left. The beach had conifer trees and the sparkling evening sun reflected in the sea glimmering through the trees.







We reached our accommodation around 8PM. Our accommodation was a big rich person’s house converted for accommodation for around 6 guests. After settling in, we went to a famous fish thaali place in Ratnagiri. Unfortunately, the food was expensive and disappointing.

Day 9 Ratnagiri to Dapoli

The hills, the road and the coast



After finishing our breakfast at the accommodation, we packed and got ready to leave. While the rooms were spacious and very clean, the breakfast decent, the place never gave a comfortable vibe. The whole place was remote controlled by a “Doctor Madam” whose approval had to be sought for everything by the boys maintaining the place. After we had settled everything and were packing, one of the boys was instructed to keep watching us until we left the house. Uncomfortable and strange.

There are quite a few scenic routes we have seen in movies and elsewhere where a coastal road wraps around a mountain on one side while the beach and the vastness of the sea drape the other side of the road. We saw such jaw dropping beautiful roads during our ride from Ratnagiri to Dapoli.

Pretty soon into our ride, we were greeted to the above described geography: Hills to the right of the road and a cliff and then rocky beaches on the left of the road. Each corner opened to splendid views of hills and rocky beaches. Riding here was a pleasure. We stopped frequently, giving time for our eyes to see the beauty of the place patiently. We tried to capture it in photos. However, we have stronger feelings thinking back about the route than from looking at the pictures on our phone.

To ride at places like these....









Around afternoon, we reached Jaigad from where we took a ferry to Tavsal. For this day’s route, we had not planned for a place to eat. We wanted to stop at a place we found on the way. We never really found something and kept riding. That day, we skipped lunch and kept riding, even though there was no hurry.

The ferry ride:







Around evening we reached Dapoli. We had looked up a place to stay that was right next to the beach in Dapoli. It was highly rated on Google, however, the place looked quite different in person. The whole area itself felt a little shady. On the way, we noticed an interesting place with a clever name: “The point of view”. The place was situated on the road, had a small foot bridge and was built up from two floors below the level of the road such that the second floor of the building was level with the road. The rooms had stunning views of hills. We came to stay near the beach but instead stayed looking at hills. The whole place felt like a hill station, while surprisingly, just a few kilometres away was the beach and a whole crowd of people.



The food was below average, the rooms very full of bugs, but the views from the room more than made up for it all. After darkness fell and the traffic died, we spent the night listening to the sounds from insects and birds from the hills.

Day 10 Dapoli to Mumbai



From our earlier long rides from Mumbai, we knew that the worst part of the journey was the final 80 kilometres into Mumbai, being stuck in terrible roads and horrible traffic. Luckily, we found an alternate route.There is a commercial ferry service between Alibaug and Mumbai called Ro-Ro ferry which would drop us directly in south Mumbai. We planned to get one leaving at 4PM from Alibaug.

We had our breakfast, loaded the luggage one last time, admired the beauty of our bike having been an amazing travel companion and started our ride to Alibaug.

Morning view at Dapoli:



Ignore the foreground



We rode at our usual speed, taking breaks every 1 hour. However, the narrow roads and traffic meant that our average speed was low. To add to that, we started coming across heavy vehicles and bad roads that led to the ride being in a concrete dust bowl. Our backs were shattered. Humans, machine and luggage was covered in an inch of dust. After some time it looked like we had reached some good highways and could make some quick progress on our route. Sadly, not. The road was like this: 800-900 metres of superb road, a large crater at the end of that stretch which you cannot avoid and then some off-road. This pattern repeated for 30 kilometres. We were frustrated, had aching backs and more distance left to cover. Luckily, we found narrower roads after that which were in much better condition, but needed a lot of concentration to ride at around 70 kmph. We had planned to eat in Alibag, but it was clear that we didnt have time for that. We zipped through Alibag to the northern part where the ferry would dock. Lots of rich people in Mumbai have farmhouses in Alibag and we crossed some sections with lots of such farm houses. Strangely, the roads here were in top condition. There is India for the rich, India for the middle class, India for the poor and so many other Indias in between.


We reached and waited to board the ferry. It is a pretty big commercial operation. The air conditioned cabin with sofas and cushioned chairs were markedly different from the bare metal ferry we had taken just a day ago. We had some re-hydrated reheated meal which tasted hot and nothing else.

View from inside the ferry:




The ferry ride took less than an hour to reach Mumbai. We were the first one out on our bike and it felt pretty good to have beaten the traffic and landed near the heart of Mumbai. However, instead of joining the expressway, I took a wrong turn which meant that we had to take the more traffic and slow route home. Trying to see if we could join the expressway, I took another turn against Google’s recommendations and took us into peak 5PM Mumbai. We should have reached home by 5.30, but thanks to me, we reached at 6.30PM. Still, not too bad. We were not the walking dead. The magic of a shower was all we needed.

Thus ended our long trip, that didnt feel long at all. Our eyes had seen so much more than four white walls and some small screens. Nothing against the city, but coming back felt like stepping back into our pigeon holes.

So we lead our lives, vacationing with nature than living with it. I realise the human inventions that were central to our travels. I fully realise the livelihoods made in cities. Still, we can do better. We can be much more closer to nature. There is something about our basic connection to nature that no material comfort can replace.

Wonderful T-log and yes, do not buy and pickles

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Lovely travelogue. I have done this stretch in bits and parts years and years ago. The food is always a treat along this coast but surprisingly the roads are still quite shitty for most of the part. Ride safe and thanks for sharing your ride