Two bikers, me and Nahas Bhai, were sure about the way we were going invite the New Year that is on the full moon day, somewhere in the Sahyadris. But as the saying goes, “man proposes, god disposes” it turned out a bit different.
I was riding my Mach 350, Optimus, and Nahas was riding his black beauty Electra 4S. The preparation for me had started almost three months before. So by the time I informed Nahas about the ride it was Nov 24th, just a month before. We had our bikes prepped up well in time, I suppose. Both of us made sure that we take safety as a treasure, and then riding will be a pleasure. We were totally committed to safety. We used AGV helmets, authentic riding jackets, gloves, knee guards and good shoes.
The plan was to transport, or rather carry the bike as luggage till Mumbai and ride on from there. So we needed to pack the bike safely, we borrowed the packing material from the RE showroom, who were very glad to help us. We had to remove all the petrol from the bikes; I had it planned, so that not more than a half liter would be left in the tank. To remove the left over petrol, the front should be at a higher inclination, any platform can be used for this, and put the bike onto side stand, as all the remaining petrol would drain out. All done, we tipped the person in charge for loading the bikes.
24th Dec 2009, Thursday:
Our first day of journey, in Sharavati Express, Mysore to Dadar Junction.
We got to the railway station by 4AM, the train was scheduled to leave by 6 15AM.
We wanted to make sure that the bikes were on the same train. After parking our luggage, I went in patrol to find if the bikes were in place. The luggage coach was sealed; we hoped our bikes were inside. The train came to life only by 5 45. We had reservations at different coaches, so we had to adjust somehow, that we can be placed together. We got a side berth, secured our luggage and were set to the journey.
The best part of the journey was through Dandeli reserve forest section. We caught up with the sunset. The sun merged into the horizon, defined by the trees.
Our berths were in the end of the coach, u can guess what that implies, a smelly experience:-P. We had terrible time coping with it in the night; it was cold, the windows refusing to get closed completely. To add to the trouble the train got late by two hours.
To Route
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25th Dec 2009, Friday:
We begin the ride.
Train arrived at 7 15 at Dadar Junction. Gladly we received the bikes in a safe condition, except for few extraneous scratches. The parcel people were already at work, unloaded the bikes, and got the gate pass and the approval from Octroi department.
We needed fuel, as we had dried up everything before loading; first we towed them out of the station, put on our riding gear and kicked off to the nearest petrol bunk. Petrol is cheaper by 3rs in Maharashtra.
It was already 8 by the time we could start navigate out of Mumbai into the south western highway. The roads in Mumbai had a waterproofing surface. Shiny and slippery I guess. Hence we had to take it slow and steady till we got out of Mumbai. Rode on till Vasai, 60kms from Mumbai for our Brunch.
The air had a tinge of coolness in it.
The highway had very heavy traffic; there is still some road construction work under progress. We covered around 200kms in good time, given the traffic jam near Toll plazas.
As we neared Surat, I noticed Nahas Bhai’s engine oil was leaking through his breather from the air filter box. The leak got worse as we rode on. So we stopped at a petrol bunk to pick up some engine oil. We decided to ride till Bharuch, where we located a RE dealer. Inconspicuous to the scene, there was a long trailer taking a u turn in the six lane highway. We braked as soon as we saw it, but it a bit late for Nahas Bhai to react, as he was blinded by another trailer which was changing the lane due to the later. He hit the side rear tyre of the trailer head on, may be at 50kmph. By what seemed, we felt, it was fork bend. We were lucky to find a bullet mechanic, just one km away from the spot, place called Ankleshwar. We rushed to him for a solution. The gentleman’s name is Maktoum Bhai, in his mid 50’s, has done a lot of modification work on the bullets. What shocked us was the Chassis itself had been bent, hunched actually. We felt that our ride was over before it started. Maktoum Bhai with all his influences assured us the bike would be ready by 27th noon.
They started removing all the parts attached to the chassis including the forks and the rim of front tyre. The gentleman even helped us find a good hotel room nearby. Hospitable indeed. With heavy hearts we settled in the room.
26th Dec 2009, Saturday:
We slept for a long time, woke up at 8 30, got ready, not knowing what’s in store.
By the time we reached Maktoum Bhai’s garage, the bike was completely disassembled and the parts were being sent to the place, where the bend is removed by hydraulic techniques. We wanted to use that time visiting a nearby place. We were suggested Sardar sarovar, 80kms from Ankleshwar. We went on my Bike. Sardar sarovar is located north east of Surat, in a district called Rajpipla. This is a dam built on the river Narmada, named after Sardar Patel. Went around the dam site, which spans 32kms. This dam is the most controversial Dam, remember Narmada Bachao Andolan. It was because of this!!
Finding a hotel for lunch became a problem, we had ride back to Ankleshwar for food. As we returned few hundred meters from the garage, I had a flat tyre. On first look I picked out a small thorn and showed it to Nahas Bhai, as that was the culprit. We pushed the bike to Maktoum Bhai’s garage and removed the tyre for puncture. On closer examination, it was revealed that a 2 inch nail was embedded firmly into my tyre, shredding a part of the tube. Chassis had not yet arrived by then, so Maktoum Bhai took us to a non veg hotel for dinner. The chassis had been repaired as we gorged on our food. Maktoum Bhai rushed to get the Chassis, and fix it for us. The mechanics four of them worked till 9 30 PM to re assemble the parts. Some part of the work still remained.
At one point, I felt, we could get the bike by the same day, seeing the rate at which they were putting it together.
27th Dec 2009, Sunday:
The plan for the day was to visit a place called kabirvad, a pilgrimage center, with centuries old banyan tree. And get back to receive Nahas Bhai’s bike by noon. Kabirvad is 40kms away from Ankleshwar, so reaching the place didn’t take much time. One has to cross the river Narmada to reach kabirvad on a ferry. The place had a lot of visitors, most of them students, being a Sunday it was apparent. Had a nice photography session, with the sunrise and the reflections on the river.
As scheduled, we got back to our hotel, packed up our luggage, checked out and waited for Maktoum Bhai to deliver the bike. Only by 2PM were we able to resume our ride. We thanked all the mechanics for their kind help extended to us. This can happen only in India
The target for the day was Palanpur, some 400kms from Ankleshwar. We made it quite fast till Ahmedabad, but got stuck in the mess of finding our way out to Palanpur, lost precious time. It was 9 15pm when we reached Palanpur. Rented a room at hotel Cappal, yes you read it right; it is Cappal (pun Intended).
We were absolutely tired for the day, sipped a hot cup of tea and went to sleep. What I have to mention here is the part of night riding we did, almost 180kms of it. Nahas Bhai took the lead, during this stretch. It just exemplifies the strength of the man. He is the same person, who had an accident a day before, who is already taking up the mantle. Cheers to you mate, Proud of you.
We were on schedule, albeit we had lost one and a half days.
28th Dec 2009, Monday:
We were supposed to reach Bikaner by the end of the day, which is 560kms away. We were also supposed to spend some time in Jodhpur ogling at the Fort. We knew what the day expected out of us, determination got us moving. It was damn cold in the morning, even the leather gloves weren’t enough to keep our hands warm. I had to tie my handkerchief around my mouth to protect from the cold air. Sunrise greeted us at Abu road; thankfully the Sun was out and smiling, may be just for us.
Stopped for breakfast in a roadside dhaba near Sirohi. Treated ourselves with tawa roti with ghee and channa masala and dahi masala.
We resumed our ride from there a kept riding till Jodhpur non stop. Nahas Bhai’s bike again started showing signs of trouble. This time though it was starting trouble. But still ride able. We had a miserable time locating the Mehrengarh Fort, in Jodhpur. It’s a huge fort with amazing art work, like none other. Got full use of my new camera. Spent two hours inside the fort. I also sat on a camel for a stroll, and some posing!!
It was already dark by the time could start off towards Bikaner. Had a typical Rajasthani Lunch, Bajre ki roti, kher sangri and others I can’t do justice by remembering them. Once again we caught up with Sunset. Nahas Bhai immediately stopped for few quick snaps. I too capitalized on that.
The roads from Jodhpur to Bikaner via Nagaur, is two lane state highways. Thankfully there was not much traffic to counter. But as rode on Nahas Bhai’s starting trouble kept increasing, after some distance he lost complete compression in his valves. Then we knew, something was really wrong with the engine. We didn’t even stop for dinner because of the problem. Our only stop was at Nagaur for a cup of tea. It was getting colder as the night progressed. We somehow managed to reach Bikaner by 10 30PM. Thanks to Anwar Sir, a friend of my dearest Kashyap uncle, we found a nice and cozy room at a good price. Exhausted, we crashed to sleep.29th Dec 2009, Tuesday:
We had to find a mechanic for repairing Nahas Bhai’s ailing bike, which was the first thing in the morning we did. Actually the valve seating had been damaged. Left the bike for repair and left to visit the Junagarh Palace. I had also spotted an Army sales store on a road, so traced it back and bought few things for brother, friends and myself.
Junagarh Fort is still privately owned palace opened for public viewing. This is perhaps the most beautiful of the fort palaces in Rajasthan, with splendid interiors. Spent nearly three hours inside the fort, we were among the first visitors for the day. A large number of foreign tourists were also there. The design is a visual treat. A museum is attached to the palace, exhibiting the things used by the kings of Bikaner. The weather was very pleasant; this is the peak season for tourism in Rajasthan.
I had been following the TV show, Highway on my Plate, a show by NDTV Good times; two gentlemen go around the country tasting the cuisine. Few episodes covered Rajasthan, so I was well aware of the food specialties in Bikaner. Especially the sweets, the ghewar, rasgulla and few others. We went into the market in search of sweets, as directed by a localite. I gorged into the ghewar which had pista condensed milk on top of it. Ghewar is perforated and bread like, crispy stuff onto which this pista flavored condensed milk (Creamy) in poured. Also had a dripping Rasgulla and A masala ki Dhokla (Gujarati Special Dish). As if that was not enough we went in search of a hotel for some main course. I ordered two butter naan, was later humbled by their size, and couldn’t even finish one.
We got the bike only 5 30 PM, we were advised to get the tappets tightened every 400kms. Immediately we rushed to the hotel, cleared the bills, put on the saddles and started towards Jaisalmer by 6 PM. What lay ahead of us, was a 330 km stretch of out of the world landscape, with equally good road. The evening was cold; we passed through Phalodi, Pokaran to reach Jaisalmer. Stopped somewhere near Phalodi for dinner at a road side dhaba. Surprisingly the place was buzzing with truckers. There was background song on lord Shiva that was being played. After a nice dinner we started off toward jaisalmer. The atmosphere was getting colder by the hour. Nahas Bhai’s bike again started to make some strange noises, we though it was the loose tappets. We reached Jaisalmer by 11 PM. So that sums it up for the day the last stretch , Bikaner to jaisalmer covered in four hours ( 330km) including a dinner break and during night ,Can you imagine the road???
We stopped at the first sighting of a hotel for room, we were offered a cozy room at affordable price, and the hotel name is Desert Tulip. One more exhaustive day in Rajasthan came to an end.
30th Dec 2009, Wednesday:
I knew that the day had some surprises for us, so it did. Once again our prerogative was to find a mechanic get the tappets tightened. We were guided to a Sardarji mechanic. He after analyzing gave us a shocking revelation that the crank shaft has been completely damaged. The reason behind it was that the guy who serviced Nahas Bhai’s bike had just replaced the engine oil, but not the oil filter . So that stopped supply to the crank shaft.
We were left with no option but to end the ride there, and parcel the bike back home, salvage whatever we were able to ride this far. But my biking instincts always would make me ride back, wouldn’t matter if solo. So we discussed between each other that I would carry on to Mysore from Jaisalmer on my Bike (Optimus). And he would reach home ASAP by any means. That meant, he needed to go to the railway station for booking. I in meantime went to visit the Jaisalmer fortified city, which are infact a series of hotels offering a fort like rooms fro tourists, most of them were foreigners. The place was flaunted with tourists. One Scottish gentleman was perhaps admiring my bike where I had parked it. He shared that he used to own one of these some 30years back in Scotland. These are the kind of things that make a bullet special
Quickly went around the fort, made use of the camera, bought some goodies for my friends and left to extend an helping hand to Nahas Bhai. By then he was still waiting in the queue. We found out that the bike can be parceled to Bangalore directly. We once again removed the petrol from Nahas Bhai’s bike and got it ready for packing. By then it was time for me to start the ride back. So after sharing our best wishes, I left jaisalmer.
Return Route
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I coarser along for few kms and suddenly remembered, then Nahas Bhai’s vehicle documents were with me. So had to rush back 30kms to give it back to him. Took 40mins to return to the same spot after returning the documents. Just got going very fast from there on. Covered a lot of distance in good time. Had lunch at Barmer junction. The NH15 which connects Jaisalmer till Sanchor via Barmer, is almost straight, with very less traffic and mind blowing landscape. Had a stop for a quick snap.
Reached Palanpur by day end, and took a room in the same hotel, Hotel Cappal.
Too bad, Nahas Bhai wasn’t with me
31st Dec 2009, Thursday:
The last day of the most eventful year was going to end with a bang.
Started off from Palanpur by 7 30AM, towards Ahmedabad, this was one more very cold stretch I had to encounter. No two words about the road between these two places, was of best quality. Found my way out into Vadodara. I felt tired, as I had not had breakfast, so had to stop in a place called Nadiad. The strain had started to take over me. But that was temporary, as I hit the road again. This part was not eventful as I was only concentrating on riding back at least till Ankleshwar and pick up Nahas Bhai’s Tool kit from Maktoum Bhai’s garage. Had to get through a 5 km long traffic jam near Bharuch. Replenished my system with some food at Ankleshwar. Bid a hearty good by to Maktoum Bhai and left towards the Sahyadris. The plan was to reach Saputara and celebrate the New Year there.
Took a deviation at Kadodra towards Bardoli. The Sahyadris start from Vansda National Park. Ghat section started as I crossed Vansda, the atmosphere was pleasant. The ride was soul refreshing; I got rid of all the strain in my body. It was not only new year eve, but also full moon day , the moon felt, to have increased in size two times, and almost want to get on pillion with me ;-) .
Saputara is on the way to Nasik, infact right on the way, no deviations. The only available rooms hill top villas, with exuberant price list.Option less; I decided to ride to next lodge and stop. Found a decent hotel only 45kms from Saputara. The route was through hills, curving along. With the bright moon giving company to me. The room was in Dindoori. That is how the year ended for me, exotic
1st Jan 2010, Friday:
Happy New Year.
Riding through the escarpment of the Sahyadris is something I would want to do anytime.
Long steep, curvy turns, is like a treasure for bikers. Even with my entire luggage (Saddle). I was comfortably gliding through the road. Had breakfast at Sangamner. Breakfast was batata vada with pav and paper dosa. Called up all my dear ones from here to wish them a happy new year. Got back on the bike, and started the remaining journey.
Started feeling very tired as I approached pune. A gentleman helped me out of Pune. Special thanks to him. Once I hit the NH4 it was like butter, stopped for quick lunch at McDonalds. The NH4 stretch from Pune to Hubli is excellent. So mustered enough strength to reach Hubli by night.
2nd Jan 2010, Saturday:
Mission accomplished
Started from Hubli with a meager 440kms to do. The NH4 is being repaired at a lot of places between Hubli and Chitradurga, one has to be very careful at the diversion, far too may diversions. took the NH4 till Hiriyur, and took a deviation towards Mysore. Reached home by 5 30PM.
To summarize, this ride was the most successful and enjoyable ride in my life till now. I would like to thank all who made it possible, my parents, my friends, my well wishers and my company. A special thanks to Nahas Bhai, for setting examples on handling adversities effectively. Never lose hope. Do what best you can do in the given time and resources.
Will return to thump, till then Njoy Maadi
Ride Pics :http://picasaweb.google.com/prathapchandra.sp/RajasthanRide#
