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 !! :)