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Okay.I remember in Punjab every 'gabru' would have 'Jatt Putt' emblazoned on their jeeps as well

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Ha ha! Something along those lines

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This set of pictures is from the long Republic Day weekend last week. I was joined by two new riders with whom I haven't been on a ride before, as riding buddy Gurpratap couldn't make it. Introducing Karthik, the man on a mission (Triumph Street Twin) and Vikram (Triumph Bonneville). The ride plan was to head for Karwar which is on the Karnataka Goa border and especially experience the ride via Dandeli and Anshi Forest Reserve.
We set out at 6.15 am from MacDonald which is just after Katraj tunnel. Karthik decided to open his throttle wide aided by the HID setup on his bike with Vikram in tow and leaving me far behind. This began a series of everyone ending up riding on their own which was not only frustrating but defeated the purpose of riding as a group. We eventually regrouped at Sai Inn just before entering Kolhapur which Karthik in all his wisdom reached first and a whole 5 minutes ahead of me with Vikram pulling up 10 minutes later.
Despite me voicing my concern of riding seperately and not keeping the rider behind in his RVM which is a rule of thumb thing to do it all fell on deaf ears. We pushed on for Belgaum after breakfast where I reached 30 minutes earlier.
I was keen to approach Dandeli from Dharwad but on the insistence of Karthik who said he had been through Belgaum route earlier I went along. Getting out of Belgaum was another fiasco of traffic and chaos as it usually is and I felt that we could have escaped all this should we have stuck to the Dharwad route. We got seperated again! The road from Belgaum to Dandeli for the initial 10 km is so-so but begins to improve and become much better later on. Fortunately Vikram and I stopped for some tea and began chatting and getting to know each other. Karthik had taken off and we decided to let him go and instead focus and enjoy our ride. We took a few breaks for photography and to soak in the feeling of being out in the forest. Anshi Forest is well paved throughout with minimal traffic and a corner carvers delight. We had lunch at a roadside eatery whilst passing through a small village of omelette and bread. A simple meal but delicious.
We reached our hotel Adithi Comforts in Karwar at around 6pm a whole half-hour later than Karthik who missed out on all the fun we had in the hills.
I had chosen this hotel over other options available as it offered safe parking and for a 2BHK service apartment at Rs.6000/- for 2 days it was fairly reasonable. I tucked into some oysters and fried fish before calling it a rather late evening around midnight.
I awoke very late at 11.30am the next day because I hadn't set an alarm and after lazing around sipping chai and chatting with the others I decided to ride into Goa for lunch, fuel and buying some booze on my own. I left Karwar at 1.30pm and quickly crossed the Karnataka Goa border which after the roads became awesome. The ride became so involving and enjoyable that I crossed Palolem and saw that Margao was about 30 km ahead, so I called up my friend Francis and decided to catch up with him at his restaurant Viva Goa near Colva beach. I am glad I did. I reached the restaurant at 3.30pm and was immediately fed fried mussels, fried fish,. Chappatis, fish curry and rice. Francis is a rider and is a member of two Harley-Davidson chapters in Goa and has dedicated a section of his restaurant wall to pictures from various rides. His restaurant is frequented by numerous riding groups when they are in Goa. Thank you buddy for a fabulous meal. After driving in Francis's car to buy booze and check out Colva beach which was overcrowded with tourists by the busloads, I left Margao at 5pm for Karwar. Enroute I filled up petrol @61.15/litre to reach my hotel at 7pm. For dinner I relished some clams and tandoori chicken.
We left the next morning at 5.45am from Karwar however Karthik and Vikram wanted to reach Pune early so they took a shorter route heading north from Karwar via Anmod ghat. I was more than happy to ride on my own[emoji4] Amidst a dark morning I rode South to Ankola where I joined the road to Yellapur. The first 40 kms or so is pure awesomeness till the Temple where I stopped for tea and the temperature sharply dipping.
Thereafter for about 10km the road condtion isn't good which after crossing it the roads become pretty nice. The only drawback about this route is the traffic which despite being so early in the morning was quite heavy. Nevertheless I enjoyed my ride and reached Hubli by 10.30am. The only thing worth mentioning here on the boring straights back home was this enterprising food truck where I stopped for a superb cup of tea whilst crossing Belgaum.I reached home at 3.45pm which was half-hour later than Karthik and Vikram having done 120 km more of some super roads and a three-day round trip of 1320 km.

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Nice one bro. your Tlog write up and pictures are always smooth and crisp. Always my favourite.

Great going.

Shiva☮️

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Thank you for your kind words.

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First time on your thread, was fun going through!

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Hey hey hey, I am honored to welcome you to my thread JP. May I mention here that many of my rides like P2K=3K, Karwar ride etc have been suggested, chalked out and inspired by JP from Motomonks and Open Roads. Some of our rides together have been chronicled earlier in this thread.

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This video is from the Ride to Karwar last weekend. The video captures the essence of the ride especially through Dandeli and Anshi Forest Reserve. Hope you enjoy it and subscribe to my YouTube channel.

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This set of pictures is from today's ride to Lavasa. The hills were alive with a large number of bikes which was an unusual given it was a Saturday.

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Great going Akshay Bhai!

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Bumped into the Mumbai chapter of 'The Bikernis' during our Sunday morning ride to Amby Valley. The girls were enroute to Mulshi Dam for an event of theirs.

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This set of pictures is from a solo ride today for breakfast at Ramakrishna Lonavala. Met Chouhan from Mumbai who was riding a 2008 700cc Honda DL 01 alongwith his buddies who were astride a Kawasaki ZX10 and Triumph Tiger. They were returning home from Mahabaleshwar after attending a superbike event over the weekend.



Also met Pramod who was on his Hayabusa and his buddy Pervez on a Kawasaki Versys. Caught up on news about the Sore Arse Bikers MC who were also somewhere in Lonavala for a pre-ride meet-up of their upcoming ride to Goa later this month.

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This weekend Feb 25 & 26, Gurpratap and I went for an epic ride to Goa via Yellapur and returned back through Anshi Forest Reserve. I have now done this route twice over the last month and it will probably be the last one for the season.

We left Pune at 5am and after our customary stop before Khambatki ghat for a cup of tea we pushed on amidst the temperature sharply dropping to Nipani for breakfast. Having done some Pet Puja my energy levels began to perk up and we made tracks for Hubli which we covered in a short while thanks to the superb AH47 highway in Karnataka. We began our ascent to Yellapur which took us through some rustic scenery and forests after which we stopped for lunch at 2.45pm just 5km short of Ankola at Hotel Konkan Spice where we tucked into our first sea-food meal of fried fish, prawn curry rice and washed down with cold watermelon juice. Incidentally, the 10 to 15km of tarmac which was broken from my last month's ride has been patched up.
We continued our ride hitting the coast road at Ankola with the weather becoming hot & humid to stop for a picture break at Karwar Naval Warship Museum We then crossed the Karnataka border and entered the beautiful roads of Goa, crossing quaint villages and a couple of ghats. Our tentative destination was Palolem and as we had no hotel booking, we had our fingers crossed that we could get accommodation for a couple of rooms. The first order of the day was to buy liquor which we did as soon as we entered Palolem. We then rode into Palolem beach with the sun beginning to set and after asking around a few hotels we settled into Hotel Wavelet which gave us 2 air-conditioned rooms at Rs.2000/- apiece. We settled in and shortly afterwards were served tea as we began to wipe our bikes down as is our usual discipline. After a quick bath and prepping our gear for the next day's ride, we headed for the beach to have an early dinner. I loved Palolem beach which was a little crowded but minus the riff raff. We began our evening meal at a place called Cocktails & Dreams with some cold beer at our table which was put out on the beach and pretty close to the sea. We ordered a round each of beef chilly, Goa pork sausage and a prawn cocktail made with wine. After a scrumptious meal we walked back to our hotel and enroute picked up some ice-cream and Gurpratap another bottle of single malt.
We began our ride back at 6am from Goa and after refueling just before Karwar we stopped for a cup of tea at the turn off to Anshi in Karwar at 7am and with the sun beginning to rise. We were all eager beaver to begin this fantastic part of our journey which is primarily what we had been looking forward to and travelled so far for. As we entered the hills the weather turned cool and made for perfect riding conditions. The times when we stopped during this stretch it was surreal to experience the sounds of the jungle. A little before Dandeli we stopped at a small eatery and relished some home cooked puri bhaji for breakfast alongwith tea.
We pushed on for Belgaum via Khanapur and joined the AH47 highway after which we stopped for lunch at 1.30pm Kolhapur MacDonald. A chicken maharaja burger, Mocha Latte and some fries later we bombed the Kolhapur Satara stretch. Needless to say the ride back from Satara onwards is painful which is plagued with diversions and heavy unruly traffic. I wish the Maharashtra government would learn something from folks in Karnataka or TN about road construction and completion off it during this century. We reached home at 6.30pm after a kick ass ride.

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The true nature of the ride through Yellapur and especially Anshi Forest Reserve gets captured in video. Do check it out and if you enjoy it, kindly press the like button and subscribe for more.

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Like the riding spirit of you guys! Keep it up!