Ride to Mulshi - Lonavala

Was going home on 5th September 2008 when i received a call from Vindya as to what I was doing the next day 6th (saturday) , I said nothing so he said lets ride on our bikes. I said yes and he asked me to think about some destination and get back soon.

I didnt think about any place to go when Vindya called again and asked whether I thought about some place to which he replied "kya yar..soch na" .. so I told him we meet at Chandani chowk in the morning at 9am and then decide where to go.

Morning woke up at 7am - usually saturdays are the lazy one's and I wake up late but if someone says "bike rides" up i am !!

Started for Chandani chowk from home at 8.15am and reached there at 8.40am and waited for Vindya. Vindya came in at 9.10am and we decided to goto Mulshi and then from there to Lonavala and come back. Wow...nice place and I hadnt ridden to that place. So off we went towards Mulshi via the toll gates at a steady 65kmph.

We rode on and passed Bhugaon and Pirangut in no time. Then we crossed Paud and went on ahead where I saw a board Ghusalkhamb 40km towards the right. I stopped Vindya and told him excitedly that Ghusalkhamb was the place near Lonavala , so there existed a road to Lonavala from Paud too i.e before Mulshi too and then again after Mulshi. Cool! I made up my mind to go from the Mulshi side and turn on this road from Lonavala while coming back so it would be a no-highway ride which gets pretty boring and that too on NH4.

We continued ahead and then the road to Mulshi came up and we went ahead and stopped at hotel Shivsagar for breakfast of Pohe and Tea. Done that we started again. Stopped in between to look at the picturesque Mulshi lake and clicked some photos before starting again.

We reached the Lonavala turn in no-turn and whoa...I looked ahead to find that the road was only stones , I exchanged glances with Vindya who smiled and asked him to lead the way ahead.
So up we went over the stoned road :) and ahead where we found some tarmac...so the road did exist and was being made in a couple of places. The area receives heavy rainfall every year so the condition of the roads deteriorate fast and as the road isnt used much authorities tend to neglect it.

We stopped after the initial bad road to have a look at the nature around which was amazing. We heard an ST bus coming from ahead and heaved a sigh of relief that the road did exist. So off we went ahead , saw a yoga ashram just ahead and went ahead and stopped at a point near a river.
Nice place , took some photos and went ahead.

Vindya talked about a platform which was a tourist point, we went there parked our bikes and went down to the platform. The view was amazing, the whole plus valley was visible and at a distance we could see waterfalls. We talked about how we could get to those amazing spots and went on ahead.

The road now took a turn over a bridge and lo...there was no road ahead, just stones. We rode on through villages and stones and through patches of so-called roads. We finally reached a mini-waterfall and washed ourselves and went ahead. The road started appearing now and it was a cool ride. Saw Ghangad and Telbaila while riding and rode ahead.

Nice places , nice views and we were literally awestruck at every place , the views were just breathtaking. We wished it would rain but it didnt , it was just cloudy. Finally we passed the Telbaila turn and went ahead where we found newly blossomed Karvi flowers.

These Karvi flowers bloom once in 10 years and this year we were lucky to see them. Took some more photos and went ahead. The road was still bad. Some distance ahead we could see amazing roads , we were near the Amby valley and the roads were good now. We went ahead on the road ripping at 70kmph throughout.

Finally we reached Ghusalkhamb from where we decided we goto Paud and not go home via the highway from Lonavala , so off we went , the road here too wasnt great but good for biking and the nature was just awesome. Vindya thought that this road was wrong because we could see Korigad at a distance so we thought we were going back to the same road from where we came, he confirmed this with some villagers and they said we were on the correct road.

We went ahead and then we hit a great spot where we could see the backwaters of the Mulshi dam again. So this was a new road we found out :) - we stopped at a place where we could view the backwaters and enjoyed the views there. Two foreigners came by asking the distance to Lonavala and we told them and they went away towards Lonavala , they had come on bicycles and were riding. I plan to do the same road one day on bicycle !

We started again and then went via great roads which were twisting and turning and finally we saw the walls of the Mulshi dam. So we were on the correct path. Stopped for sometime and took photos and went ahead and joined the Paud road correctly. We were back after going circular to the Mulshi waters :)

We stopped at a hotel as the time read 2.45pm for lunch and had a great lunch of chapatis , bhaji and rice and started again towards Chandani Chowk. We reached Chandani chowk at around 4 and had coffee and parted. I reached home at around 5pm.

Nice ride in all and awesome nature. Just ride !! :)

BN ride to lonavala

Finally after a long time on a bike ride , this time with a group known as Bike Nomads. We were to goto Lonavala and come back just like that on Saturday 30th August.

The plan was to meet on the bypass highway near Joshi Wade Wale at Wakad at 7am , in the morning. Now 7am on a Saturday seemed weird but for a ride im ready anytime :)

Got up at 6am , left home at 6.45am and reached Joshi Wade Wale by 6.55am , the place is just 5km from my home and in the morning no traffic !

Found just one guy Somnath waiting there. We introduced ourselves as this being my first ride with the group. Sometime later Sayan came in followed by Anupam and Chinmay. We introduced ourselves and by then Vibhu (one of the owners of the yahoogroup for this riding club) came in at 7.20am.

After some instructions from Sayan about the ride and the formation we started and some guys filled in petrol and we went ahead.

We were 7 people (1 more to be picked up ahead) on 2 Pulsar 150's , 2 Karizma's , 1 Unicorn and 1 Pulsar 220. Mine being the classic Pulsar 150 I was lagging behind in speeds compared to the 200+ cc guys. Even Sayan on a 150 Dtsi bike was ripping ... sadly I couldnt rip because of two reasons one being I ride cooly and the 2nd being mine was the less power bike in the lot.

We reached Talegaon in about 20 mins and picked up Nalin another fellow who was to ride pillion with Chinmay on the P220.

We then zoomed ahead towards lonavala this time me making max speeds of 95kmph on my bike and I was told to be in front coz everyone could overtake me easily and they didnt want to break their formation.

Reached Lonavala at around 8.30am and then a hotel where we stopped for breakfast and had discussion ranging from the Annual Meet to the iphone et all over cups of tea and the breakfast.
Finally leaving from there it was decided to go upto Tiger Point on the road to Sahara City and come back and go home.

We entered Lonavala and went ahead - nowadays there is a toll post for 2 and 4 wheelers taking 20 Rs per vehicle and 5 Rs per person. Now toll for bikes was unheard before and not on that road to Sahara City anytime. We got into an altercation with those guys who tried to convince us why the toll was being charged , we anyway gave the amount and then went ahead.

The road was as usual amazing to say and others ripped ahead with me and Vibhu at the end. We reached the point and took photos chatted for sometime before moving to another point just ahead and sat there and did some timepass before leaving back.

Coming back was a speedy affair with me extracting 105 kmph from my bike , the max , but the p220 and the karizma were long gone ahead of me and I couldnt even catch a glimpse of them ahead until I reached home.

Guess its time to upgrade my bike..but i love my current one, ill keep this and go for a faster one :) , thus the ride with BN........