Hmmm…So I am back. Back from a memorable trip, Back from a fabulous ride, back from an awesome place..Back from Mahabaleshwar & panchgani!! As soon as we finished our last visit to Murud-Janzira, we were craving for another and a little longer trip. The only problem was to get the leave. Its OK with Anurag as he is having 5 days a week but I m regularly being tortured for six days. (From Monday onwards I start to wait for the solitary Sunday and only I know how badly I pray to god to give either a republic day or an independence day each month!)After much deliberation and pondering, I decided to abstain from office on Saturday and after discussing some other places like Guhagar & Matheran, we decided on Mahabaleshwar.
Our adventure was to start on an arduous note. We decided leave from Bombay as early as possible to ditch the traffic and to enjoy the beauty of rising sun, something that I have not seen for years!! Anurag came to my place on friday night itself. Now waking up in the morning and leaving early is OK but how can u expect someone to wake up at mid-night?? At 5:00AM?? When it comes to sleeping even ‘kumbhakarn’ would come 3rd after anurag & me!
Alarm rang at 5:00AM, which was duly changed to 5:30 by me! But these 30 minutes evaporated in 2 minutes! Finally we were out of bed. Had tea (prepared by me because he does not even know how to light the burner! At least he pretends so.) and then anurag was warming up the “highway star” at 6:15AM which was just 15 minutes shy of the original schedule…a highly commendable effort. Helmets were adjusted, distance meter was re-setted and after exchanging high fives..we hit the road. Drove straight to petrol pump to feed the bike. It was still dark when we started and the stage was perfect to see the dawn. It was pretty cold and I kept adjusting my jacket & trying to hide behind anurag. After a little while , the darkness started to give way to redness and the adrenaline started to flow. The trip suddenly started to look all the more exciting. Anurag was already in his zone and I was into mine. After 15 minutes of complete silence, the budding photographer inside me shook me hard. I yelled at Anurag to capture the nature in my camera but this man was feeling as if he is Michael Schumacher in his Ferarri. He didn’t budge and we continued to ‘flow’ on the road. Finally, we decided to fuel our tanks. We stopped at a road side dhaba and ordered for Bhurji , Pav & Tea because these were the only three edibles he had! After sometime, that dhaba became the melting pot of India. Met a truck driver from Bihar, another one from Nainital. The dhaba owner & two of us took the count to 5. They cautioned us to restrain from driving in the night and we nodded. Time to leave again and the adventure continued…
Just 3 kms before Mahad, we spotted some caves on top of the mountain alongside the highway! Anurag was a bit reluctant to climb all the way to those caves. But this time historian and archaeologist ‘Gaurav’ dragged him. Inside the caves there were statues of Bhuddha and the caves were exactly in the format of a room with a platform and scope for ventilation. I silently admired the beauty and the efforts of their creator and clicked a few snaps there. After gulping a cold bislery ( It was getting hot and the time was around 11:00AM) we started again. From there onwards, the road was as smooth as silk. We were feeling as if we were floating on water. Surely, one of the very best roads I have traveled. Anurag continued to take inspiration from Mr. Schumacher and touched the magical figure of 100kmph twice. Although I am not very fond of speed and loves slow rides , he was elated as if Saurav Ganguly had just broke the barrier of 100miles per hour with his military medium bowling!
Now one thing I must admit. Royal Enfield is really royal in all senses, I mean whether its pick up, comfort, speed or show. Everything is there. Among a herd of bikes, it stands as distinct as Sunil Shetty in a group of good actors!
We continued to sail through the scenic ghats and enjoying the beauty. Next was Pratapgarh Fort. We were nearing Mahabaleshwar now and there was no sight of Pratapgarh. We thought we missed the turn somewhere. Then we spotted a turn around 20 kms before Mahabaleshwar which took us to the fort. It was pretty crowded and as always, Anurag was reluctant to climb up as if he was some pregnant woman who was adviced against climbing stairs! Also, it was our combined view that most of the Shivaji’s forts are pretty lifeless..i mean there is nothing but the walls!! Its amazing that they used fight battles for these stony walls! We decided against scaling the fort because by now , our asses were crying for cushion...Had a round of hopeless idli and an okiesh dosa and then we headed towards the destination. Again the ghats, again the mountains, again the scenery all around and we were there at the entrance of Mahabaleshwar…
Next was search for the room and the all important “Mahabaleshwar darshan”..This and more in next post..
PS: Will be posting the link of pics with the next post…
Cheers…
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