Date: - 7th July 2012
Route: - Pune - Manchar - Bhimashankar - Pune
Time: - 0630 to 1700
Distance: - 236 kms
June had already passed, but monsoon was still eluding Pune city. So we, Bladerunnerzzz decided to give a visit to Rain Gods simultaneously visiting the Holy Shrine of Lord Shiva at Bhimashankar.
On 7th July at morning 6:00 am, all the BRZZZ met at Bremen Circle. I was surprised to see the number of bikes that had turned up for the rides (19 in total with 2 new joinees). A couple of days back we had heard about a certain Mandhardevi temple, the route to which passes through some scenic ghat. So a poll was arranged whether to carry on with our plan for Bhimashankar or explore this new destination. As majority of people had not been to Bhimashankar, the former was chosen.
This time we tried a new technique to ride in formation (and it worked very well). The whole bunch of 19 bikes were divided in three groups with a lead and sweep for each sub group. Ayush, myself and Rachit were the leads while Sarthak, Sharath and Alok were the sweeps for sub groups 1,2 and 3 respectively. Each and every rider was given a number and it was decided that everyone will follow the sequence. We left Bremen Circle at some 6:30 am. Riding in such a huge formation of 19 bikes did command attention for each and every passer-by we crossed. I wont deny that it felt good :) . Initially being slow, we picked up our speeds after crossing Bhosari, although we never went above 80s as that would have disturbed the formation. Within an hour or so we reached Hotel Purohit for the breakfast stop. the 2 newbies Kinshuk and Sayan introduced themselves and vice versa received the intro of our good ol' BRZZZ.
At 8:30 we left Purohit and diverted off the NH-50 from Manchar to take the state highway. We were expecting rough roads, but thankfully the surface seemed to have been tarred recently, so it was almost pothole free road except a few bad patches that went unnoticable. The surroundings were not very enchanting untill we started ascending the ghat on the way after a small town village Mapoli. We were greeted with the familiar sights of monsoon in Sahyadris with hazy grey clouds kissing the mountain tops. Intermittent drizzles were accompanying all the time. Some 60kms and 1.5 hrs after Purohit, we took the first break to relax and had the regular group photo session. The weather had turned cloudy and everyone had gotten into the enjoyment mode. Cracking jokes, lying on the roads, blah blah.....We started and after some time just when Bhimashankar was some 7-8 kms ahead, took one more break as the visibility has reduced to a few meters. Time for another photoshoot. We could see only for 3-4 m ahead of us. Reached Bhimashankar and were stopped by a check post (not police) for entry fees. Each bike was charged 5 bucks.
Once we reached temple, the visibility reduced further to hardly 1-2 meters. Everyone was enjoying the foggy atmosphere to the core as it was welcome respite from the sunny days in Pune. A descend of few foot steps and we approached the entrance of temple. It was 10:30 am and crowd was growing. We had to wait for some 20 mins in queue for the revered Bhagwan ke Darshan. Once done, we climbed back to parking and there was no point in wandering here n there because of low visibility. Anyways trekking to Gupt Bhimashankar would have taken lots of efforts and its not very comforable to trek carrying the heavy riding gear.
So we started back to Pune. Time for photo shoot of the guys with their rides. We chose a spot where road was passing through middle of the jungle for the photo shoot. I bet whenever anyone passed by us ( be it a car or a bike or a bus), he/she must have been hell scared of seeing group of 19 guys on their bikes almost blocking the way ahead of them. Although that was not our intention. We just wanted to have a good snap for our next month's calendar page.
As soon as we started back, it started raining and this time it was heavy .... damn heavy. We got completely drenched in a matter of few mins. But doning ourselves with riding jacket, helmets, knee gaurds and gloves, we hardly felt any rain beating us. We cruised along cautiously at speeds of 30s-40s. It was an unbelievable experience. This was not th first time I had ridden in such a torrential rain. But everytime I do, it gives a sense of enormous satisfaction. We kept of riding for next whole 1.5 hrs in this rain and managed to cover 40kms only. Once we descended the ghat and crossed the village Mapoli, the rains subsided, but I bet it was still raining up beyond the ghat. We stopped for a small petrol break and decided to take a somewhat different routeback home. Instead of going straight to Manchar, we took a right to directly catch NH50 at Peth. No one knew the condition of the road and everyone was a bit thrilled to take this route. After taking the detour, hardly after a couple of kms, the road ended and we ended up on the gravel track. Asking a few construction workers on the way, they told that the road is good ahead of this small patch. A small ghat was staring ahead of us. But the torrential rains had taken toll on one of the R15s chain. It literally came off and it had to be fixed like the one we do for a cycle. It kept of slipping off the sprocket and we had no other alternative that to carry on like that untill we find some mechanic on the way. Once ghat was over, the chain behaved properly and we were able to reach Peth very soon. Just before Peth, we found a mechanic. Abhishek(R15 rider) was fixing the chain with mechanic and suddenly looking at the Vada pav kiosk opposite to the mechnic shop, everyone's hunger pangs increased the intensity a hundred times. We had not eaten since the breakfast in morning at 8:30 and now it was almost 3 pm. we ordered that guy some 20 vada pavs, and 20 bread pattice. He had to fetch some essentials from nearby shops so as to cater to us. In short, uski Lottery lag gayi. The mechanic was unable to repair the chain and there was no other alternative than to carry on till Pune and show the bike to Yamaha ASC. So Abhishek and
Sourabh started ahead slowly approacing Pune. Meanwhile, we discovered that we had eaten more than 35 vada pavs and 15 bread pattices. Typical BRZZZ again. With our tummies satisfied, we made our final dash to Pune kindoff impatiently. Reached Nashik Phata by 5 PM and bade goodbye to each other leaving behind the memorable moments we had.
This is only the second ride this monsoon and we are already are drowned in the intoxication of riding. Hoping so that many more are coming........
