Faith-Full ride to Kolhapur

It was long time due to visit Kolhapur Mahalkshmi Temple. In fact I remember while we were coming back from Tarkarli in Nov-Dec last year, while tanking up at the highway near Kolhapur, Darshana said to Vivek that lets get into the city and visit the temple. Then somehow we decided to push off and make it to Pune before 4pm to avoid the traffic jam in Katraj ghat... and come back in the early next year... Lots of time gone after the new year started and lot of workload and few changes left this wish un-fulfilled... It was coming to my mind lately that lots of problems I am facing in this years are due to this, so finally decided to go for it, even if nobody will be there to accompany me...
Fortunately that didn't happened... Amol, the son of my landlord was also eager to come along, and we decided to head for Kolhapur in the early morning on Saturday 7th April.
As we had planned to complete this pilgrimage in a day, it was necessary to start as early as possible in the day...

Date: 7th April 2007; Odo reads: 29842kms; Location: home; Time: 0610hrs [This format will continue]
As per decided we woke up early and after all the morning chores, we were ready to hop on my machine to set off for Kolhapur, but how much we planned to push off on or before 6, we could manage it by 6:10, but nevertheless, it was quiet well in time... :-)
The new Katraj tunnel and the whole by-pass road is like a dream and my babe's favorite spot is the tunnel...where she loves to do over 110, last time we did 120, this time 115 as we were riding double seat... i just love the way she roars in the that tunnel and how everyone makes way for her ;-)... we kept on ripping all the way as the road is smooth and deserted in the morning...

7th April 2007; 29907; Sai Sahara; 0720:
After riding for almost an hour, which we enjoyed very much due to initial chill was there in the climate, we decided to take a tea break at the usual place where RoadShakers take a break, Hotel Sai Sahara, just before the toll booth before the Khambatki ghat...
As discussed already, gave a missed call and sent SMS to Param, who is currently in Satara and wished to meet us en route...
But just after leaning my babe by the fantastic twisties of Khambatki, Amol was dead scared... I just told him to sit tight and go with the flow...We took a small site seeing break in the ghat and admired the beauty of nature... It was only at this place we realised that we had forgot the camera in the hullaboo in the morning :-(
On the way, somewhere around 20kms from Satara, I noticed some sound coming from bike, every time she passed rough patch... so we got down to check it... it turned out to be broken plate of the chain cover... so we need to find some mechanic, rather welder to get that fixed as soon as we reach Satara...

7th April 2007; 29955; Satara; 0815 [0815 to 0955 at Satara]:
After reaching there, we searched for the mechanics/welders which were closed for sure as its pretty early in the morning...one more call to Param and he said, he will reach to us in 10 minutes... he came with his newly done-up metallic green 500 which is undergoing the running in under his watchful eyes... the babe looked superb and within no time, this resourceful guy found out the welder's workshop and got it opened and the things fixed... :-)

We had misal-pav as breakfast in Satara and after spending over an hour and half, we headed towards Kolhapur, after formal goodbyes and invitation to Satara for overnight ride... :-)
Param advised us to wait till 1600hrs before we start back as it will be very hot and engine may get overheat in lesser time to make us stop every now and then...This advice was little tough to follow, but still we kept it under consideration.

On the way I shown Amol my odometer as the numbers were running and my babe crossed 30000kms mark... BRAVO!!! still we have very long way to go together.. ;-)

7th April 2007; 30077; Kolhapur; 1120:
We didn't took any break till we reach Kolhapur... and kept on ripping as the road was smooth and straight...

After reaching outskirts of Kolhapur, we started asking for directions to the temple and it was always go straight and turn left... so we thought, it will be simple while coming back straight and turn right ;-)...which obviously was not true...

Traffic police were generous enough to call me as "Sir" and were very friendly, but that was all because of my babe, its very obvious that people get subdued by her very easily... :-)

After having leisurely darshan at the temple and spending some time in the courtyard, we decided to start off from the temple complex... We headed for Prarthana Hotel, we had our fill there and around 1345 started heading back to Pune.

7th April 2007; 30095; Started back from Kolhapur; 1410:
It tool us almost half an hour to get out of the city as our initial smartness of straight and turn right had backfired...hehehe... nevertheless we were on the highway and riding towards Pune at 1410hrs... one more thing remaining was fuel tank-up and oil top-up...

7th April 2007; 30141; Tank-up Reliance bunk; 1455:
So finally looking for decent petrol pump ended when I saw this Reliance bunk... and there I tanked up, also checked the oil-level, which was okay, but still added 250ml of engine oil to be on safer side...
Surprisingly, this tank up happened in 9ltrs, which means 306kms of distance in 9 litres and that's amazing 34kmpl... nothing can beat the satisfaction of getting such a good mileage, that too while I was ripping and was riding with a pillion... but I guess all the credit goes to steady riding, as I didn't fluctuated the speeds too much and abstained from over-revving...

7th April 2007; 30220; Satara; 1615:
As decided we took our next break only in Satara... called Param again and updated him about us, had sugarcane juice to restore the fluid levels in our bodies... and headed off to Pune, feeling happy that we made it to Satara in around 2 hours... and Pune was 110kms which also can be easily covered in 2 hours... Best part of this ride was we met light showers and they kept us and the babe cool...so we didn't cared about the temperatures and they didn't soared as they were supposed.... and even the road towards Pune also looked under similar shadow of rainy clouds and nothing could beat that great feeling...

7th April 2007; 30324; Home; 1755:
Only one butt break for Amol after around 60kms from Satara and we reached home before 6pm... We met light showers even in this patch as well so we kept on ripping continuously. As usual we did 115 in the Katraj tunnel and had good fun on Khambatki ghat also as we could manage to reach 125kmph due to downward slope...

I generally face some problem or the other on this Satara road... 2 times I got the ignition coil failures and this time the broken chain-cover... It's sort of jixed for me, I guess, hehehe...but all is well that ends well...

Riders and steed:
1. Doc, the LeadFoot on his Bullet500
2. Amol as pillion

Vital Stats:
1. Total distance covered gate-to-gate = 482kms
2. Longest ride (distance wise) I had done after Goa to Pune
3. Total time taken for the ride ~ 12 hours
4. If we exclude the 4 hours (1 extra hour in Satara and 3 hours in Kolhapur), we maintained good average speed of 60.25kmph
5. Tank-up to tank-up mileage 34kmpl, Continuous riding at 95-100kmph, double seat

Adios guys...keep thumping...

RideHard but RideSafe
- doc, the LeadFoot ;-)