Archived Thread Approved.

Thanks for the approval !

Nice ride there.Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Is everyone allowed inside the windmill farm?

Waiting for the next one by hyperion.

I have been there 3 times , no one ever stopped us. But this time Suzlon had a gate/barricade but surprisingly the gatekeeper didn't even bother to stop and ask us where we were headed.

Thanks for the update.I live so close yet I have never been to that place.Need to check it out before monsoon and once after monsoon.

windmills r always fascinating...!!!! good ride there.......

wow ..wonderfull pics .. nice ride there

Nice trip...
I have been planning this since last summer but still in wish list

Highly recommended !
Thanks guys!
Wait for a few more rain showers in that area, place would be a little more greener.

Ride to the Satara Windmill Farm, June 2009

Nikhil has some strange affinity for this place. I dont know what it is, pretty certain he doesnt too.
Its a good place for a ride without question , yet it holds a special place in his list of places to ride to.
He must always answer its beckoning.
So when he messaged me saying that he was planning to ride to the Windmill farm this weekend, I knew he wasnt going to take no for an answer.
My hands were bound, cancelling all other appointments,I took out my riding gear and started mentally preparing for the ride.
By Friday everything was pretty much decided. There were some guys who were tentative for the ride and unfortunately they couldnt make it.
This was the final line-up,

Sandeep (xBhp id : kr4zy54n) - RTR 160
Nikhil (xBhp id : niks_devil666) - P-220
Vijay (xBhp id : ????????) - P-200
Ashutosh (xBhp id : Hyperion) - RTR 160

The plan was that Sandeep,Nikhil and VJ would rendezvous at Chandani Chowk around 6:15. I would then join them at Double Barrel on NH4.
I slept late the night before and after giving in to the snooze button a few times, finally awoke to find my self well behind schedule.
After hurriedly going through the boot up routine, I was just about to suit up when I recieved Niks call indicating that those guys had started off from CC. I was not going to make it in time, so I messaged them saying I will be a little late.
It didnt take me much longer to start off from home and since it was early saturday morning, I didnt come across any traffic as well.

I reached Double barrel, but I found no sign of the group. I then noticed that there was an unread message, in my cell. It was Niks saying they
are waiting for me at the first petrol pump past the tunnel. Just as well, I had to fill up and check tyre pressure as well.
I started off from Double Barrel, not long after I had exit the tunnel, somewhere at the corner of my eye, I noticed a guy standing to the left side
of the road, in a DSG Spike.For a moment I thought it was them,but then soon my eyes turned to the bike next to the guy. How could I have missed it
in the first place. It was a White Busa.Damn.

I pretended not to pay any attention and went on, about a minute after I had passed him. I could hear a distant roar getting closing in on me from
behind and before I could even begin to comprehend, it flew past me.Ah, what a sight. I always love the way it zooms past you. And I was treated to it again as another Busa did a flyby close on the heels of the first one.Followed by a string of superbikes.Just made me feel I was doing something like 10 kph when I was actually closer to 100.Nonetheless, back in the mortal realm, I spotted VJ and Nikhil near the fuel station. The half-sleepy attendants the fuel station were taking their time. This pissed me off, I wasnt so low on fuel anyway. So we decided to refuel at another pump further down the road.

Starting off it was around 7:20 am. The weather was very pleasant and the traffic was sparse. It didnt take us long to reach a BP fuel station. We refuelled there but unfortunately the we couldnt check tyre pressure as the machine had gone kaput. Anyway, we did check the pressure using Niks handy pressure gauge.
It wasnt all that low, in fact the my bikes rear tyre pressure was above spec.
Nikhil's front tyre seemed a bit low however, but he seemed ok with it.

Having travelled on the NH4 stretch between Pune and Satara on numerous occassions I knew the road pretty well.It seemed Nikhil had stopped of somewhere for a call on his cell, along with VJ. It was only Sandeep that I could see in my RVM.After crossing the toll booth at the base of Khambatki, the traffic started to slightly increase. Somehow, it always happens at this point on the road.But compared to average traffic on this ghat, it was quite tolerable.
Going through those curves on Khambatki is always a pleasure and with no oncoming traffic its even more so.Making the most of it, I was past it in no time.
Just after descending the ghat, I pulled over. Waiting for Sandeep, VJ and Nikhil to catch up. But even after waiting for 10 mins. Not even a sign of one of them. Nikhil and VJ, I could understand, but Sandeep was right behind me. After 10 mins, Nikhil and VJ turned up. They hadn't passed Sandeep anywhere either.

Sandeep had gone past me, I dont know when, and he thought I had gone ahead and was trying to "catch up" with me.Finally after reaching Satara and not seeing me he decided to call me.On calling, we found out that he had gone a little ahead. So we called him back to the turn where we were waiting.All of us were now hungry and looking for a place to have breakfast.
I tried calling Sandeep, his phone was ringing but no answer. VJ decided to go ahead and see if Sandeep had gone past me.About 5 mins later, me and Nikhil
left. Soon we caught up with VJ, he didnt seem to find Sandeep anywhere. Now I was really worried.If he was behind me he should have turned up by now.
If something had gone wrong with his bike, Nikhil and VJ would have spotted him before reaching me.And if he had gone ahead, he would have stopped somewhere down the road for us to catch up to him or atleast called us. But nothing, he had just...disappeared.No point in stopping now, we decided to make a break for Satara and then look at the matter. satara was only 30 kms ahead and that didnt take us any long. Finally after stopping near turn that leads in to the town of Satara, I noticed that I had 9 missed calls on my cell. Guess who?
Unfortunately, the place where we pulled over first was closed.As it was on our last trip here.After a brief ride through the heart of the city, we crossed the tunnel just outside of town and realized that we arent likely to find any good places to eat from here on.No point in turning back, we left stomachs still complaining. We were hoping to come across some small tea stall that also inevitably sells bhaje and wada pav. We took a right past the tunnel. Now the road here more or less resembles the surface of a planet that has had more than its fair share of asteroid collisions. To add to that we had errant commuters , breaking all rules to avoid those nasty potholes.After a hard ride of 5-10 kms, we came across..well, a tea stall that inevitably stocked bhaje and wada pav.What a sight for sore eyes, or in this case, empty stomachs. Hunger also had overridden any standards of hygeine
that we may have had. (Not that the place was particularly unhygeinic).After stocking up on a some food and tea we were off again.Just after leaving, the ghats towards Thosegarh start.

Now these roads are completey different than what we have seen so far. Quite smooth and winding up the hill and pratically no traffic. Perfect.Its fantastic place to enjoy biking. But also beware that the road has no barriers on the road side. So a entering a corner faster than expected could mean more than just torn jeans and bruised pride.That is also one of the quaint
joys of riding in this place.Nikhil stopped a couple of times on the road trying to capture a few scenic Vistas in his cam.Its just an awesome sight. Its litterally a windmill farm. There's hundreds of them in all directions.Its a very awe-inspiring sight and not very common.That is one of the beauties of this place.All this idealism only lasts for 30 odd kms though.




As soon as you enter the windmill farm, the road is replaced by beaten track with patches of tarmac. Its near impossible to travel anything more than 40 kph on this road. Its a terrible terrible patch.The weather which had been sunny so far, had now become cloudy and much more pleasant.After travelling another couple of kilometres(which seemed like 10 times that), we
just left the road and headed towards a clump of trees on the side. After parking the bikes and taking off the gear. We decided to take a break in the cool shade of the trees.









Here we had multiple conversations, from heated PC vs Console arguments, to torrent client preferences,hardware dealers in Pune and the plan for the ride back. This was followed by a photo session.
After exercising creativity and imagination (which might not reflect in all the pics by the way,except maybe Nikhil's) in the art of photography, we decided to head back.
Now of course, there was this bad road to cross, which was bit of a pain. But after that there was the nice ghat section. We reached Satara in no time.Hit the highway and were briskly moving towards Pune.
About 80 kms from Pune, we saw rain up ahead and decided to pullover at a road side motel for lunch. All of us were quite hungry after having had a light breakfast. The lunch was quite Spartan(in the worst sense of the word).
Nikhi was so impressed by the food that he asked for a recipe of Aloo jeera from the chef.You are not so keen to ride after lunch. But still we had to get back. Surprisingly the ride back was quite fast.
We never encountered rain on the way, but it had left wet roads in its wake.Weather was cloudy and windy.
We reached Pune in quick time.I had to take a right near the Katraj flyover and the others were heading straight for CC. This is where we parted. Another memorable ride to the Windmill farms.

^ the thread is up ! good good ! I hope this will inspire many to have a visit to the farms

Nice triplogue by Ashu...
sure, so many ppl will be inspire to visit WindMill farms.
When rain will start, ppl can have good time at nearby Toseghar waterfall also...

I have never seen that waterfall like the "LEGENDS" have told me about it , so what say , we visit amidst heavy rains this time?

Nice pics there Nikhil..!!

btw, have you posted this thread earlier too..??