RoadShakers Ride to Amboli and Back at 1750kmph*.....

[This used to be posted on my favorite site, RoyalEnfield.com, they removed it, so I am posting it here... it's old, but pretty interesteing...]

Vivek, who just came back from US, after long stint there, was itching for ride and so was I. I had plans for Goa on this 4 days weekend, including leave on Monday and 15th Aug as Independence Day on Tuesday, so the leave was already taken well in advance. But when Amboli ride was floated I changed my mind from Goa to Amboli to invite wrath of many colleagues, who were depending on me to take(?) them to Goa. But let me tell you, I think I took very right decision.

Vivek and Darshana, Rohan and Aditi, Ram and his wife, Eklavya, Param, Sanket, Ra’JAAT’ Gandhi, Navin and me were the people who shown interest. List was long and it’s a really good head count.

But by Saturday many of the riders could not confirm the plan, Ram was unsure as his bike’s health is little dicey, though he already had planned to get the sick leave, for him not for his bike. There is no employeer in India right now, which gives sick leaves for bikes…hehehehe. Param’s boss love him so much that he just don’t want to miss him even for a day. L

1. Home 15317kms 0745hrs 12/08/2006
[Place, Oddo reading, Time and Date format]
Citypride Satara Road 15324kms 0805hrs 12/08/2006

Thus finally only 4 of us, Vivek and Darshana, Sanket and me, rolled out from CityPride Satara road at 0830hrs on 12th Aug 2006. Starting early was only to get past crowded Katraj ghat before it gets traffic jammed. Eklavya was able to get leave for Monday and will be catching us up in Satara.

Riders and their royal steeds:
a. Vivek and Darshana – Bullet Electra 4s
b. Sanket – Bullet Electra 5s
c. Eklavya - Bullet 350 Campus Ed.
d. doc (me) – Bullet500 (ESDB)


2. Shindewadi-Shirval 15368kms 1025hrs 12/08/2006
As decided while starting from Pune itself, we rode slowly and leisurely, so that we can enjoy the scenic beauty more and give some time to Eklavya to catch up with us. Vivek was leading and me sweeping. Sanket is newbie, recently joined RoadShakers and have earned reputation of making all the RS rides so far J, lucky him. While we stopped for first butt break, he noticed that the fuel tube is little loose and there is leakage of petrol, so we stopped at Shindewadi and he got that tube replaced. We had been riding for about 2 hours to cover only 40odd kms, you can imagine, how slow we were.

3. Sai Sahara Khambatki 15384 1045 12/08/2006
Then as a mandatory stop for all RS guys, we stopped at this hotel, just before Khambaki ghat toll booth, had some chai-biskuts and at the time of starting we checked for any loose screws or nuts, hopefully none was there, only my bike was out of engine oil, so $hit scared, and got it tanked-up at the next possible stop. Only problem is, on the highway, it’s very tough to find 20w-50 oil, what’s available everywhere is 20w-40, which is used for general bikes. Yes! I don’t consider my Bullet as general bike, she is really special and I know you will agree with me. So advice is always keep some oil handy, and better check it before starting for ride itself. Khambatki ghat is the one where one really want to rip and we did J. We had a small photo session also. While searching for engine oil, we stopped at one petrol bunk and then Eklavya came ripping from behind and overtook us. He took us by surprise and only thing we could do was to SMS him that we are behind him, which he mistook very well…hehehehe. He reached Satara an hour before us and kept searching his behind for us (pun intended).

4. Satara 15435kms 1330hrs 12/08/2006
Thoseghar 15462kms, Windmill 15465kms
It was not raining and we were fairly dry till Satara. After reaching Satara, we booked rooms in Rajatadri hotel, in the main square itself. It belongs to friend of Param. We had light lunch in the restaurant attached. After relaxing for some time we decided to ride to visit well-known Thoseghar waterfall. But it started raining incessantly while we were riding to Thoseghar and we were drenched till the bone. The waterfall is very beautiful and all the falls in Mulshi, Bhushi, etc are really puny in front of this one. It was raining continuously and we were soaked wet, we had nice cuppa of tea at the shack nearby and then came the funda of earth’s rotations and the surface speed of the earth.

*- We found out that earth rotates about itself and being on earth we also with it, so what’s the speed of that rotation? After some brief calculations it turned out to be 1675kmph. That’s too much, for us to imagine, but considering we generally ride at 75 to 95kmph, our actual speed becomes 1750 to 1770kmph….interesting hmmm….and hence the name of the ride story J. Well, you can contest the claim, but that’s the best we could come up then…

While returning from the falls, we decided to take a look little ahead to catch the windmills installed on the mountain tops…So we headed there, the windmill was really huge and we were not able to see it completely as it was very foggy there. Then, at that moment, the “most reliable”, as proclaimed by her owner, bike started giving starting problem. Little moisture went into the spark-plug cap was doing nasty things and WD-40 from Vivek’s toolbox came handy. It saved the ‘remaining’ day for us and we rode back to hotel. While coming back, we got the news that Param is also coming to Satara to meet us. Thanks to his above mentioned ‘loving’ boss, he could not make for the ride, but he tried to wash away his sins by being there with us for dinner along with his lovely niece, who to my great surprise do not like chocolates muchJ. After full-tummy dinner, we decided to retire for the day, only to plan early next day for Amboli, our final destination.

5. Satara 15494kms, 1000hrs, 13/08/2006
As decided, we got up early in the morning at 7, yes that’s early for most of us, particularly for a guy like Eklavya, who had worked whole night and then rode to Satara without sleep, kudos dude! Then he realized that he needs to replace the foot-peg nut and again Param came to rescue, this guy sure is very resourceful. As it is seen as delay to all, Eklavya decided to ride afterwards and will try to catch us, we rode on towards Kolhapur. We took first break only after 90 odd kms, and eventually Eklavya joined us in no time.

6. Reliance petrol bunk 15589kms 1200-1220hrs 13/08/2006
We spent some time at the Reliance petrol bunk and had tea. Our next stop will be little after Nipani, from where we were supposed to take right turn to Ajra road.

7. Nipani-Shippur 15666kms 1340-1430hrs 13/08/2006
Amboli via Ajra 15742kms 1620hrs 13/08/2006
At the junction where we were supposed to take turn, the place is called Shippur, we had our lunch. Now onwards the road is not National Highway, it had pretty bad patch at couple of places. Otherwise the road was like Tamhini road. In the meantime, at one petrol bunk we tanked up the bikes and as usual, my bike asked for the least quantity to stun all the 350 guys. We reached Amboli in the afternoon.

Point to be noted, 28 people, mostly school-children and young guys, told us that our headlights are ON, which we kept ON intentionally, while going from Satara to Amboli.


8. Amboli waterfalls, Mahadevgad, Chaukul gaon, Shirgaonkar point, Kavlesaad point, Hiranyakeshi river origin
In Amboli after booking the hotel rooms and putting down the entire luggage, we decided to ride down to the Amboli waterfalls, which are the main attraction of the place. The waterfall is magnificent and one can actually get into is unlike the Thoseghar. We had really good time there and after some buttas and tea, we came back to hotel, only to plan, what to do tomorrow and what to see. I got up early in the morning and went for the walk for almost couple of kms, then came back, woke up other guys, had breakfast and decided to go for site seeing. We went to Amboli waterfall again to catch some pics. Then we went to Mahadevgad point which is a ridge which overlooks a beautiful valley, but everything was under wraps of fog and mist. It used to open for only couple of minutes and then again used to go under wraps. Then we rode to Chaukul village and took nice detour to some unknown place also, where the scenic beauty was breathtaking. Then we decided to come back for lunch and then proceed for other points. After lunch, next stop was Kavlesaad point, where the water falling into the valley gets uplifted due to high speed wind flow and fall upwards. The place was so fantastic that we were almost in no mood to leave the place. But then there were couple of more places to be visited. We went to a place where Hiranyakeshi river originates. The place has small Shiva temple and the pond of freshly emerging water. We sat there for some time and came back to hotel, pretty tired of riding bad roads and no roads whole day. Next day, Eklavya have to catch office by the evening so he decided to leave early that others.

9. Amboli 15817kms 0800hrs 15/08/2006
Next day, after breakfast of ghavan and chutney (local delicacy), again we started off from Amboli. The route was scenic and we could meet and greet lot of school children coming back from school after celebrating 60th Independence day of our beloved country. They waved at us, at all the places and we waved back. This kept on repeating at all the villages and stopped only after we took to National Highway at Shippur near Nipani.

10. Kale (7kms from Karad) 16001kms 1135-1230hrs 15/08/2006
Our first stop after leaving Amboli was Kale village just 7kms from Karad. We rode for 180 odd kms before this lunch brake. The ride was fast and hard. We enjoied it thoroughly. After sumptious lunch and receiving whereabouts of Eklavya, we started off again from the place. Our main aim is to cross Katraj ghat before 1600hrs, so that we can avoid the evening traffic jam there.

11. Nagewadi 16074kms 1400hrs 15/08/2006
As we started off directly after lunch, we were bound to feel little dizzy after some time, so we did and took a hot tea break at Nagewadi. Here we decided to ride directly to Pune without even single stoppage.

12. Home 16172kms 1600hrs 15/08/2006
We crossed Katraj ghat well before our self-set deadline of 1600hrs, and rode through all the slush, dirt and bad road conditions of Katraj. We decided to disperse from where we started off together, so we rode together till CityPride Satara road and then after usual, hugs and good byes, we dispersed. I reached home safely around 1600hrs and so did Sanket, Vivek and Darshana. It was one fantastic ride and we all enjoied it thoroughly. Eklavya on his way back met Capt. Krish, who was riding to Tapola sanctuary and reached Pune around 1330 or so. It was sort of record time he had clocked, yet to be confirmed.

There is no point in counting hundreds of kids, who waved at us while coming back from school after Independence day celebrations and told us that our headlights were ON.


The ride pics can be found at:
http://vivekrides1.fotopic.net/c1055183.html
http://photos.rediff.com/bn/emph/prasad_bhangale?path=%2F%2FAmboli%20ride&key=c2b2c3688e878006696307ca8b35d568&exp=HYGDEBCDAB%3FC%3D%3A%3B7957%3B57%5Eo%5D&funcname=showthumbs

Place to stay at Amboli:
Hotel Shiv-Malhar
Vengurla-Belgaum Road, Behind Datta Mandir
Tel/Fax: 02363-240301(Amboli)

Apart from this, there are many hotels.

http://www.nivalink.com/greenvalley/contact.html
Green Valley Resort [MTDC]
Sawantwadi-Bemgaum Road,
Police Out-Post, Amboli, Maharashtra
For Reservations, Travel Assistance Contact:
NivalinkG-32, Lokmanya Paan Bazaar,
Next to Godrej Coliseum,
Somaiya Hospital Road,
Off Eastern Express Highway,
Chunabhatti, Sion, Mumbai - 400022.
Phone : +91-22-24042501 (5 lines)
Fax : +91-22-24042792
Email: greenvalley@nivalink.com

Lessons learnt:
- Always check engine oil before starting on ride, and always carry handful of it.
- Keep WD-40 spray in toolbox as necessary equipment.
- You tend to feel sleepy on National Highways, as they are straight and sometimes down-right boring to ride.
- My bike always need less fuel to tank up than even 350s… hehehehe
- Eklavya Mahapatra’s middle name is Enthusiasm
- I need to get new muffler.