A Bumpy Ride

               Me and my friends have been doing a monsoon trip every year. It has been a ritual for us no matter we meet some other time of the year or not, but this trip short/long doesn’t matter, we all go and have a good time. It all began with a random trip we took in the monsoons to Mahabaleshwar couple years back and the fun we had has been itched in our minds forever. From there on, every monsoon was eagerly waited for a new place to be explored. For the last 2 years, this ritual is broken and it’s not like an effort was never made but somehow, it just didn’t happen. However, I knew I’d get sometime by the end of year and had already geared up friends to make themselves available, no matter what!! And it was affirmatively agreed upon right away. We all started looking for places where we could ride to for a weekend since that was the only time where all of us could fit in. The priority for this trip was a bike ride to a nearby place so we don’t end up riding all weekend without spending much time with each other. Next was either a beach or a hill station and finally a place where we could chill all night and have some fun. We shortlisted a few places and finalized on the nearby beach Diveagar since that would be good enough for folks traveling either from Pune or Mumbai.

            We were 4 riders and 5 of us for this trip. Now let me introduce you to the gang. From Mumbai, we had Chaudhary on RE Classic 350, myself aka Rajjo on Yamaha FZ16, read as Black Wind and my sister, a pillion who is a part of the plan this time. From Pune, we had Kaka on RE Thunderbird and D on Bajaj Avenger. We started gearing up for the ride and our hotel was our usual one at Diveagar. So, there was no research required on that front. We called up Hotel Prathamesh and booked us two rooms. Just a day before the journey, D ditched the plan and we were down to 3 riders. However, Kaka was sure to head for the journey. So, we had the plan going and asked Kaka to either meet us directly at Mangaon junction via Tamhini Ghat or he can come via Khopoli and meet us near Imagica. He chose the latter as that route was in a better condition and we decided to meet around 7.00 AM near Imagica on a Saturday morning. Chaudhary left his place early in morning from Borivali and met us near Panvel at 5.15AM. We saddled our bags and flagged off around 5.30AM for Imagica via Old Mumbai Pune highway. The route was pretty much in good state until we reached Khopoli and a few kms before that was in shabby state. We reached Imagica by 6.45AM and waited for Kaka to join us. Kaka reached there by 7.30ish and we left right away. Just a few kms ahead, Chaudhary’s bike started knocking and then it stalled after some time. On our way to Khopoli as well, his bike knocked a bit, but I thought it was just one off. But now it seemed serious. He started the bike again and put it on idling to see if it stalls. It didn’t so we moved ahead and then it stalled again. We started looking for a mechanic at 8 in the morning and couldn’t find one. We checked the spark plug and cleaned it. Try starting the bike again and it worked. We thought may be the spark plug had a lose connection. While we were near Parali/Amnori, we found a mechanic, but he wouldn’t work so early and asked us to go ahead and look for a mechanic near Pali. While looking for a mechanic on the way, we were even dodging the numerous potholes. The roads were in a bad shape. We somehow reached Pali only to find no mechanic who could work on RE. Since the bike was working, we decided to move ahead as one of the local whom we came across said there is a mechanic in Kolad who works on RE. We decided to have breakfast at Shreekar – The Dhaba on the Mumbai Goa highway. By the time we reached there, it was around 10AM.

We had a quick breakfast and as soon as we geared up to move, I noticed my front wheel was pretty much oily. I looked and found out the front left fork seal to be broken and the oil was leaking. When I gave my bike for servicing a couple days back, the mechanic told the shock absorber should last until next service as there was no sign of leakage. Me being stupid took a chance and here I am with a broken seal cap. I cleaned it up and rode very slowly avoiding any further shocks until we reached the mechanic at Kolad. We finally found the guy who looked at the RE and narrowed down the issue with the spark plugs. Now since RE350 has 2 spark plugs, he replaced the one he had but didn’t have the other one. And he asked us to check with RE Authorized Service Center in Mangaon which is around 20km ahead. Until this was being worked upon, I checked on my shock absorber and found it to be completely broken now.

Black Wind's Front Left Fork work in progress

The entire front wheel was covered with white liquid. We asked him if he can replace the same. Luckily, he had ordered the Yamaha fork oil and cap for his own Yamaha FZ16 and he agreed to use those on my bike. We decided to get this done and asked Chaudhary to reach Mangaon and get his other spark plug replaced in order to save time. Chaudhary checked and could start the bike, so he went ahead, and Kaka stayed back with me since I had a pillion rider and he could be of help in case of emergency. The work on shock absorber took almost 1.5hrs and it was already half past noon by the time we left from here. We even asked to check on the other shock absorber if any issues. He said the other one was good and shouldn’t be a problem. We had already received call from Chaudhary stating his 2^nd spark plug was replaced, and we were all set to meet up at Mangaon junction. We started from Kolad and rode as fast as we could. A few kms ahead, Kaka noticed that his odometer had stopped working and we even received a call from Chaudhary stating he again had knocking issues with his bike. Daymnnn, ain’t it!! And now all the bikes had issues.

We reached the RE Service Center which was on the highway itself and Chaudhary’s bike was being worked upon. Kaka asked the service center guys to look at his Odometer too. There were 2 other RE bikers returning from Dapoli who had issues with their bikes.

4 lane cemented patch

Seemed we all were in the same boat. Chaudhary’s bike had issues with the carburetor and Kaka’s odometer was fixed too. By the time we left from the Service Center it was around 2PM. We were now hungry and exhausted as the short ride turned out to be tiring. We decided to reach Diveagar first and then will have lunch or whatever we find. Once we took the diversion from NH66 towards SH97, the roads seemed to widen than what I had seen a year back. Most of the stretch had road widening work in progress and the other was cemented with 4 lanes. The stretch where road widening was in progress, was a mess with to and fro traffic with ST buses crawling through creating a long jam behind it. On reaching near Mhasala which has a market area and narrow lanes had a choke block situation and we decided to take an alternate route which was newly made to avoid the jam.

under construction patch

We took the diversion which didn’t make any difference and somehow reached Hotel Prathamesh around 4PM. We were exhausted and hungry and our bikes and clothes covered in red Konkan soil. As soon as we checked in, we asked the hotel guy to serve us whatever food he has and luckily, he still had Veg and Non-Veg thali available. We pounced on it and filled our hungry stomach with soothing food.
We freshened up and wanted to go to the beach ASAP as our entire day had been wasted already. A short ride where we could have reached max by 11-12 in the noon, we reached around 4PM. At-least we were excited about the night photography that we wanted to try. We took a nice stroll and enjoyed the evening breeze away from the bustling crowd on the other end. I was excited for the sun to go down so I could set up my tripod and start filming the Steel Wool Photography. 

Diveagar Beach

It was windy but it always is during the sunset. So, we waited until the wind went down and tried to burn the Steel Wool. Unfortunately, the wool wouldn’t burn longer as it was a bit thicker than what we needed. This was my first time with steel wool and that was another disappointment for the day. When that didn’t work, we tried some Light Painting Photography using our mobile phones.

Star Light Photography

Of course, we weren’t prepared for this but tried our hands on and enjoyed our time.

trying my hands on Light Painting Photography

And since this wasn’t the end of disappointment for the day, more had to follow. We reached the hotel and freshened up looking forward to party and have a good time. On reaching we found out, the hotel didn’t have the ice provision today and some other hotel didn’t have it either. And neither did the coal work for our in-house entertainment. So, every time we had to go down and use the kitchen stove to use it. Singing songs through the night followed by food and good talk after a long time just freshened up our mood. And none of the trip ends without playing an UNO game. So, there we were having a jolly good laugh rewinding old memories from our good times.

We woke up in the morning only to be surprised because there was no one we could find in the hotel lobby or reception. I waited downstairs for a while and one of the guys came back to fetch something. I asked him about the breakfast, and he was like order now or you won’t get it. I asked where is everyone and he said, everyone is out at a wedding from the village. We ordered and he gave the breakfast right away. We were ready to move once we cleared the bills and planned to go to Adgaon beach nearby before we head back home.

Our rides at Adgaon Beach

It was scorching heat today morning and the water wasn’t the same blue what I had experienced a year back. May be the color difference because of the month we visit in. Anyway, we relaxed there for a while and started to head back home. We had a lunch break at Mangaon and parted ways with Kaka from there. Kaka took the Tamhini ghat on the way back and we took the same route via Pali Khopoli towards Panvel and Mumbai. We encountered a lot of traffic between Pali and Khopoli and the under-construction patch just drained us out. Just before Panvel, it was dark, and we missed the turn.

clear water of Adgaon Beach

We somehow got onto Uran road and it was all new frontier. We started Google Maps which messed the ride even further. We shut it down and got back to our legacy way of asking someone the route. We somehow reached Khandeshwar taking internal roads and boy the entire highway was a big mess. It seemed as if the bumpy ride wasn’t over yet and we still had more in store for the day. It took us nearly an hour from Khandeshwar till Kharghar junction where the traffic eased a bit. I and Chaudhary took separate ways from here and he went on to reach Borivali.

Looking back at the entire journey, it was tiring and fun as its all about how we deal with the real time situation and make the most out of it. We had fun after a long time, tried some new photography tricks and got our bikes serviced on the way. LOL.