How often do we plan bike rides and how often are they only virtual plans and how seldom are they actually executed!!!!! Too many questions and the only answer was to get out and ride……so it started with short trips to Lonavala, Mulshi, Amby valley etc. just to satisfy those big ride questions. At the end of the recently done Pune-Alibag-Nagaon bike trip, we finally came to conclusion of a do or die bike trip, a rather bigger one, destination had to be some beach of course, and voila it was decided to head to Ratnagiri, an unexplored place on our list and a bon voyage for ‘Mr.Richie’ to get back in time to his college days at Ratnagiri!!!!
It initially started with creating a Whatsapp group flaunting a flashy icon message: ‘We ride not to escape life but for life to not escape us’ and further adding the riders: ‘Mr.Richie’ ‘Mr.Mikey’ and myself ‘Mr.Lara’……and the conversations were flowing……zeroing on every possible things that could be done and how they could be done for this bike trip. Dates were finalized, 24^th to 26^th Feb-2017.
Amidst this planning, we thought of asking a few other friends to join us, and luckily two of them were ready to join, and there we registered them to our Whatsapp group ‘Mr.Amy’ & ‘Mr.Digs’ and then the route discussions started. The Marathi movie ‘Killa’ was the base plot of all this planning, having seen the mesmerizing views in the movie at the light house and fort, just amazing. We had to go there at any cost!!!
As usual, massive discussions happened over which route to take, google maps links and images just bombarding the whatsapp group……to pin down on either of below, we took Route1 though finally.
Route1: Pune-Satara-Umbraj-Chiplun-Ratnagiri
Route2: Pune-Karad-Amba ghat-Ratnagiri
Then we entered the final week, the countdown had begun, we also added another member to our group ‘Mr.Ron’, who was supposed to join us for this trip since long. And then the biggest question post his shopping was put forth by Mr. Digs wherein he also added pictures of he having done some shopping…….guyz do y’all have safety gear? We were like what crap, we don’t need safety gear, we ride safe just with helmets and how on earth does one wear all that stuff and be comfortable for a long ride??? Questions and questions again, guess why? The Sunday edition of PuneTimes had an article on bike gear safety: Rohith Subramanian: Better safe than sorry, says bikers | Pune News - Times of India
Now, this article was noticed by the loving wives of Mr.Mikey and Mr.Richie and no wonder we were forced to buy some safety gear, which we forcibly did by hunting down as many shops as we could and finally bought pairs of knee and elbow guards, gloves, balaclavas, ropes and strings etc., a necessary investment on terms of ‘precaution is better than cure’!!!!!
Days just passed by and the chats on whatsapp group continued, then a night before the D day, Mr.Digs calls saying : Hey I got medical issues and may either come as pillion or even drop-off the plan…..I was then like WTF, all that planning down to gutters? Cause, if Mr.Digs won’t turn-up then so would Mr.Amy too, a mutual algorithm bonding, and so was it, Mr.Amy’s phone was switched-off, what the hell, it was time to fuel-up for next day early morning ride and the riders themselves were missing. Then calls among Mr.Richie Mr.Mikey, Mr.Ron and myself started, now what do we do, drive in a car? No, was the majority call, it had to be done on bikes!!!! Yeah, a bike trip was still in place!!!!! Then even until 11pm a night before D day we were fuelling up, washing polishing our rides, doing necessary adjustments for bags n stuff, though we had planned to start at 4.30AM!!!!
So far the finalized riders: Mr.Richie(200NS),Mr.Mikey(Karizma),Mr.Ron(FZ),Mr.L ara(P220)
D day, alarm goes off at 3.30am, a power nap kindoff for roughly 3-3.30hrs. It was time to gear-up, bags were loaded and stringed to the rear seats and off we started to catchup Mr.Mikey at our first meeting point, before which I got a call(Mr.Digs: dude comedown we are at your society gate), I was on Cloud9, these guyz (Mr.Digs & Mr.Amy) had actually made it and were joining us for the ride!!!! Wow, that’s nostalgic, they came all geared-up roaring on their mighty bullets, classic 350’s, with saddle bags, well cushioned seats and back rests, wohhhhhh, surprise!!!!! We then happened to load all our stuff onto Mr.Amy’s bullet and also loaded my backpack onto his bullets rear seat, and there was still space left for 2 more bags, wow, the bullet was a luggage carrier!!!! We finally started our bike trip to Ratnagiri hitting the Pune-Bangalore highway in no time…….Mr.Richie was supposed to catch-up at Khed-Shivapur, and so did he, post we having actually missed stopping at the decided meeting point . Lights-on, bullets roaring, high beams blinding us throughout, yet we were happily cruising one behind the other!!!! In no time had we reached Khambhatki ghat, loaded trucks slowed us down, the whistling sound of tyres rubbing the tarmac was soothing.
Then it was time for some breakfast, we stopped by a wellknown place and stuffed some poha, missal and wada-pav, tasty as ever followed by a cup of tea. Thanks to our trip photographer Mr.Ron, who kept clicking every moment with his DSLR, he had forgotten his so called go-pro cam to capture the bike ride videos though.

It was time to hit the roads, the darkness was now disappearing slowly, the speedo touching constant 90-100+ on the smooth tarmac, we just kept cruising along through rare traffic. As we neared Wai-Mahabaleshwar turn, we were welcomed with the smell from sugar factories, burning our noses and waking us up 200%!!!! Throttle was increased to get out of it asap
Soon we neared the turn for Umbraj and it was time for a quick water/tea break. Ensuring not wasting any more time we headed further as it got sunny and we started feeling the heat. We again stopped as our mighty bulletiers had to fuel-up their beasts to the brim. We started again and now it was a single lane road all the way long, trees on both sides of the road providing some shade from the sun. The roads were still amazing, not a place we encountered pot holes along the way, we kept cruising.
Soon we reached Patan, a bit crowded there in the market on the road, but nothing stopped us and we headed further. The smooth tarmac and lush green fields besides the road were just amazing, that thought of having already ridden for so long was almost negligible, but we were already preparing for iron butts on those nasty seats
Now as we got closer to Koyna, the view was just amazing, we had to stop, stop to massage our sore bums and most importantly to capture some awesome pics. Wow, what a view, a shining cement road bridge standing tall on the mighty river joining both the sides of the river, lush greenery everywhere, the riders all set and already posing for pics with their rides!!! It was all happening, we blocked the bridge and clicked some lovely pics, thanks to Mr.Ron and his DSLR, every angle was captured, the on lookers were also stopped by us and again we handed over our cellphones to have some more pics clicked on our phones. It was really tough to move out from that lovely view of the river, but something even more beautiful was awaiting us, our destination Ratnagiri!!!!

We started off again, the roads were now quieter, in the sense rare traffic and just a few trucks passed by in intervals. We were just about to enter Kumbharli ghat, we thought of taking a break, sipped in some bisleri water lemon juice, meanwhile Mr.Amy was busy getting his future Facebook profile pics clicked into the valley view from the hotel there!!!! Mr.Digs also happened to get pillion riders all the way, he gave lift to a guy until the end of the ghat, no wonder the pillion might have jumped off willingly with deafening sound of the bullets silencer I was a victim too, as I was riding exactly behind Mr.Digs noisy bullet. The ghat road was nice, swirling turns, rocky hills by one side and deep valley by the other side. It was a game of up-down shifting of gears , clutch and brakes, the horn was rarely used, the bullets firing was enough to corner down the oncoming traffic. We crossed the mighty ghat roads and reached Chiplun, another milestone reached, was time for a break. The sun had taken of all our energy to ride, it was getting hotter and hotter, and with all our riding gear and helmets and jackets we just wanted to sip some chilled water and relax for a while.
We stopped at a small hotel, and were greeted with all the Ratnagiri mango flavor stuff!!! We ordered some mango lassi and coconut water, that was really nice at that moment!!!! Mr.Richie was at the clock, he knew if we didn’t reach Ratnagiri by 2.30pm we wouldn’t get lunch!!! So we speeded up , the last half an hour was a speed run, throttle open and the six bikes were roaring to reach the destination.
Finally, we reached a point where number of MSRTC red buses were seen on the road, and we knew we were close, there came a turn with a sign board: Ratnagiri turn right, we had entered Ratnagiri town, the steep slope on the road was making us feel as though it would land us directly onto the beach!!!! Mr.Richie was leading, as he knew the places and local food joints there, he took turns and we just followed him, finally he happened to stop by a small hotel, so did we, parked our bikes, and walked into the hotel like ducks, bums hardened and just wanting a soft seat to rest. We crashed into the chairs having gotten rid of all our riding gear, it was riding gear, bags and helmets on all tables of the hotel, yes we were the only ones in there, as though Mr.Richie had pre-booked the entire hotel for us. A quick wash and we were placing our orders, surmai thali-pomphret thali-2 veg thalis of which one was a special veg thali (I wonder what the difference between them was ), mandeli fry, colddrinks and the list went on!!!!!!!

With stuffed stomachs, we started off again towards our resort close to Kalbadevi beach, Mr.Amy had pre-booked a place for us there, the google maps were now put to use and we reached when the google navigation said: Your destination is on the right
Parked our bikes, unloaded our bags and sat back on chairs as though we were in a movie hall!!! We needed to rest a while and then plan places to visit for the next 2 days. ‘Rest’ it never happened though, just a quick wash and we wanted to get to the white sand Kalbadevi beach. Waves blasting, white sand, small crabs all around, the filth spitted out by the sea at the shore, miles and miles no one other than 4 of us on the beach. Wait a second, just 4? Where were the other 2 guyz? Moment we walked back to the room, surprise, the bar was open, bonfire made ready …………….and then we never noticed when the sun went down and there was darkness and the Bluetooth speaker just kept playing some rocking songs!!!! Dinner dishes were ordered and we just gulped the tasty surmai and pomphret thalis, finger licking good!!!! In no time we went off to deep sleep, what a day it had been, riding all the way, our first long trip, we were living it, we were living a small dream!!!!!!
Big plans for Saturday morning getting to the beach to see the sunrise and move out for an early ride were all just talks, we only started at around 8-8.30am post some good bed tea. We hit the roads, this time without any riding gear :P , internal Ratnagiri roads, Mr.Richie was leading the group and the rest busy clicking pics on cellphones, as we had rested two of our bikes. Moment we reached a bridge over the river, indicators were on and the bikes halted, indeed for another photo and video shoot in the early sun rays. The shiny faces with sunscreen lotions made the pictures even brighter This was a special photoshoot for all on the might bullet classic 350. We headed further for our breakfast at hotel Rudra, a small hotel by the roadside, there was no dish left to order, every dish already having been repeated twice or thrice we were just stuffing the amazing breakfast of poha, upma, sheera, ussal, missal and what not, guess the bill was just penny’s compared to the way we hogged there, just wonderful. Just besides the hotel was a garage and Mr.Richie and Mr.Mikey wanted to get their bikes checked for choking and strange noises respectively. The mechanic initially looked weird to us, but he happened to recognize the problems immediately having test driven the bikes. Mr.Richies 200NS was tuned a bit and spark plugs cleaned, Mr.Mikeys Karizma’s air pipe was having a crack causing a fuss-fuss sound and had to be replaced. I too wanted to get my P220 checked for some strange noise but thought of doing so in the evening, as we had to go about places/spots and explore Ratnagiri.
Mr.Richie led us to his ‘Kohinoor’ college, a nice big place atop a small hill and the mighty ocean behind it, Mr.Richie we wonder how on earth could you actually study there when you had such an amazing view of the ocean from every nook and corner of any classroom. He clicked some pics……
Then we headed on the Bhatye Pawas marg to the Bhatye beach, on the way we found the lovely huts available for stay at Bhatye beach, they were looking just great with an amazing view of the sea from the beach huts. We stopped by, it was tough time riding the bikes in sand even 100 meters. We sipped in some nice nariyal paani , Mr.Ron was busy clicking the bikes pics amidst the sun rays that cut through the dense trees. He captured every possible angle

Post refreshments, we then headed to Mandvi beach, the view there was again so beautiful, a small pathway like bridge leading you into the sea, the waves dashing and bursting into droplets by the small pathway bridge. No wonder Mr.Ron was back into business, clicking pics and so were we the posers :P We walked back towards the parking and sat there for a while. Mr.Ron meanwhile had noticed some ice-cream shop and had gone hunting as though he had been waiting for ages to have that ice-cream, yes, it was the famous ‘Creambell Mango icecream’. Six candy icecreams and every one of us was just licking the icecream sticks, taste of real Ratnagiri mango, hmm yummy!!!!!
Post that amazing break, we headed to Ratnadurga fort. Red soil and pebbles, blocks of rock fences and contrast of colors(red soil, black rocks, green grass, clear ocean water and blue skies), who wouldn’t want to see such a view and have some pictures clicked!!!! That’s all we actually did there, enjoyed the mesmerizing view and clicked selfies and pics. The actual fort entrance was a bit further but we were just reluctant to leave that place and the lovely view. But we did go, parked our bikes, and first sipped some fresh lime juice at a stall there and then three of us got in. The backside view from the fort was just amazing, miles you could see only blue waters and blue sky. Then at one point we noticed a bridge below, something similar to star shaped rock structures, we just wanted to get there asap because of the amazing view. We immediately headed to the parking, fired up our bikes and headed to get down there, had to go all the way round but we finally got there. It looked small from the fort but was relatively bigger in reality. What else when you bikes are parked in a row with a beautiful backdrop of blue skies and sun bathed waters, just amazing, wall paper clicks taken!!!!!! Time went unnoticed and it was already getting late for lunch. Mr.Richie led us along and took us to one famous restaurants there, Hotel Aamantran, people already in queue to get their chance over a table and grab some tasty seafood. Table for 6, we waited for a few minutes and were invited in. Prawns, surmai, pomphret, shells , prawns biryani were ordered and had over un-ending talks about the day so far J

Having loaded ourselves with seafood, it was now time to get to the light house, we had been wanting to get up there since long. Stories unfolding to reality, we were heading to the light house. Having known from the locals there, we got there at around 3.30pm, the light house is open for visitors from 4pm-5.30pm or so. A small gate at the entrance atop a hill with a mesmerizing view of the sea, just amazing. We got in, but had to wait until 4pm, Mr.Amy and Mr.Ron were back to business, photography, guess what they also happened to capture dolphins on full zoom of the DSLR, wow that was certainly crazy. Entry tickets were bought, Rs.10 each, and the door opened to get to the top of the light house, a swirling staircase led us up there. Finally, we had made it to the top, the views 360 degree were just so amazing, just cannot describe it in words, Mighty sea and sand shore by one side, Ratnadurga fort by the other side, click click click the camera kept rolling. We didn’t want to leave until we saw it functioning, but it would have been too late to wait until 6.30pm for the lights to be turned on, so we moved on. Let the pictures do the talking.

It was time for a tea break, so we headed back to hotel Rudra, and I made a pitstop at the garage next to the hotel, to check on the weird sound. The mechanic test drove my bike and he said it was some noise from the chain sprocket, the chain itself had loosened up a bit. Opened-up the rear wheel, changed the bearing and rubber, and I then test drove my bike, the sound had reduced but could still hear it, and it still exists, need to get it checked yet and I’ve been too lazy :P
Mr.Mikey and Mr.Ron had gone ahead to our room to make arrangements for dinner, rest of us headed to the local fish market to get some fresh Surmai fish for dinner, bought them and headed further just to halt again as Mr.Amy wanted to buy a selfie stick to capture some videos by tying it up to his bullet, I wish I could show you his first video doing that the videos been shaking like hell thanks to his bullets vibrations hahaha.
We reached the room, handed the fish to the cook and it was time for some rest. Dinner was served while we were busy playing cards and listening to music. Again, some tasty fish preparations, got us heavily loaded. We hit the bed after some crazy joke sessions, and boy ohh boy, it was only after a couple of hours, and all the lions and tigers were just roaring to glory in the room

We had packed up all our stuff for the next day return journey back to Pune, alarms went off at 6am, all of freshened up, we had ordered our breakfast at the room itself, but lazy bums we were, we happened to start on journey only at around 8-8.30am, last pictures taken at our resort room, and we started-off.
Just about 10kms in the ride, we had already stopped, stopped thinking we would never want to go back from that place, we were at the Sagari marg, amazing amazing views there, all we did was clicked some awesome pics, took videos on that road and sipped some cool lime/kokum/aawla sarbat. This was the best place of our entire journey, beautiful roadside view of the sea!!!!!

But, we had to move on, next destination being Ganpatipule. The roads were narrow now, but lush greenery on both sides of the road, we just kept cruising on that amazing road. We reached Gapatipule, parked our bikes, and headed towards the Ganpatipule temple. All devotees queuing up for darshan. Mr.Digs got us some Prasad, modaks J Clicked pictures and then we started again. A small mess-up here, and in groups of 3 we happened to take different turns mistakenly, but finally we knew where we could catchup together again. Mr.Amy had stopped, just to have his phone attached to the selfie stick he had bought to capture the lovely roadside views. 2 bullets and a P220 in the movie he was trying to make then, the amazing views of Aarey-Waarey beach were captured, white sand beach and absolutely no one there, clean blue waters, wow that was serene.

Jaigadh light house, our next destination, ‘Killa’ Marathi movie shooting took place here, we happened to meetup all together again at a point and then headed to Jaigadh, big roads newly built, but too many small speed brakers there, we reached a point where we needed to take a ferry boat to cross the river. We stood in the long queue awaiting our turn, Mr.Mikey had been quick to go buy tickets, the ferry boat arrived but we weren’t allowed to get in, strange, we decided to return the tickets and rather take a longer route via road to get there, and that was a good decision, we got to ride another 20-30kms down the smooth roads
Reading sign boards we finally got closer, just too many turns to choose from now, asking the workmen at the road we finally took the correct turn, just besides the JSW plant, deserted roads they were, and just six bikes cruising now, it was finally good to see a sign board that read “Jaigad Light House turn left”.
We reached its gate, parked our bikes, just to notice, no one was there, literally no one, now what, we couldn’t get to the top of the light house L so what, the red pillar of the lighthouse was itself enough for some great pics, we took pictures, we had made it, we were living a small dream like.

It was now getting very sunny and humid, we had to move-on. We hit the roads, this time it was an all new tarmac road, big and wide, destination Chiplun, we covered the 35-40kms patch in no time, with cautious 3 digit speeds as the roads view was nice and long. We took a turn to enter a small ghat road , seemed like a short cut to somewhere, then it was just a run to reach Chiplun as soon as possible.
We reached Chiplun around 2.45pm, and was time for lunch, we wanted to goto the famous hotel Abhishek there for lunch, but there was a lot of waiting and queue there, hence we decided to get to some other hotel and finally got into hotel Atithi, freshened up and relaxed our sore bums on the much needed sofa Kombdi wade thali’s were ordered and gulped. By 3.30pm we started off again.
We were on the right track, it being a Sunday the roads were deserted, we soon reached the base of Kumbharli ghat, this time it was an ascent to the ghat, back to twisties and swirling roads, game of clutch-gear-brakes was back, and we enjoyed riding. The ghat road seemed a bit longer this time, probably because now the number of breaks we took had reduced comparatively.
Cruising down the smooth tarmac we reached Patan, and took a break for fresh sugarcane juice, before which we had just stopped for fuelling up. Everyone’s bike except mine(P220) needed to tank-up, the P220 was still displaying 5 bars of fuel, I was wondering what mileage it had returned having already clocked so many kilometers But I too filled-in some fuel to be on the safer side :P
Mr.Ron was leading this time on his FZ, and the rest of us were following. A left further down the road, led us to Umbraj, many sugarcane tractors on the way. Finally, we were joining the national highway and heading towards Satara. Speeding cars and trucks and lots of traffic on the highway, sticking to leftmost lane we still managed to cruise at 80-100s. The long queues at the toll naka’s were crossed so easily and with a grin on our faces We kept riding until Satara, and then halted there for a tea break, a much needed one. We knew we would reach our homes only post 10-10.30pm, hence we decided to halt somewhere near Khed-Shivapur for dinner. The run from Satara until Khed-Shivapur was fast, cruising at 3 digit speeds, lights on, flashy high beam lights from opposite ends, and some crazy insane car drivers, it was all happening, it was fun riding through all of this.
We reached Khed-Shivapur and stopped at a hotel for dinner, food was ordered, and until it came it was just discussions, photos being shared on Shareit, what a day it had been. Light dinner of rotis and bhurji and we were done. Time to sit back and ride, the last selfie photo was clicked by Mr.Richie and we departed, as Mr.Richie was supposed to take the Katraj turn and rest of us continue on Bangalore highway.
We were back into the city, lights everywhere, cars honking, hustle and bustle of the city was back, we were far away from the scenic views of the sea and sand, far from serenity. We reached our homes by 11pm, I clicked my last photo of the bikes display, 850kms clocked, wow that had been a hell of a ride!!!!! We unloaded our baggage from the bikes and just went home and crashed into beds.
That thought of getting to office the next day i.e. a Monday was itself so boring, but we had to, no escape there. We #LiveToRideAndRideToEat# . We had a successful bike trip, no issues anywhere were encountered, the planning had helped a lot, the riding gear was needed, pictures were being shared and liked by all. Even today after a week of that ride, the pictures are looked at every day, getting us back in time to the wonderful ride we had………………….thanks to all the riders Mr.Richie,Mr.Ron,Mr.Mikey,Mr.Digs,Mr.Amy,Mr.Lara!! !!!!!!
No wonder, we have already some rough plans in place for the next bike trip, a longer one, planning in progress until we kick-off for the same soon and get back with a write-up here.....
Cheers!!!!! #LiveToRideAndRideToEat#