Trip to Guhaghar

Another One bites the dust

Destination: Guhaghar, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra.

Cast: Marshal*, Shoelace*, Viks* and moi

Supporting role: Pulsar twins (150 and 180 dts-i)

After the euphoria over our last trip had died down, after ‘n’ number of people had told us that we were ‘mental’ to ride such a distance on a bike, after ‘m’ number of people had told us that we were “kewl”, after I got a earful from my sis to take proper care of my back and after I got some good comments about my blog it was back to life. The next two months were uneventful (oh, I did manage a quick trip to Thane) and we seemed to be fully submerged in earning our chapati, sabzi and chawal. Then one day, around mid April, Marshal pings me on Yahoo messenger (the lifeline of all techies) saying that time was fast flying by and we needed to plan and execute another trip ASAP before the rain gods played spoilsport. Mesgs wnt bck n frth n v decd tht 13^th wknd wd b gd. We decided to fix the date and take some time to finalize the destination. Soon Shoelace and Viks were roped in and everything was set. It took us till the week before 13^th to settle on a destination. Guhaghar was Marshal’s choice, me had no problems in going to Hell as long as it was on bikes but Viks and Shoelace had second thoughts, citing distance and temperature as the reason, both being much more than what they had bargained for. Here Marshal has to be commended for coming up with the appropriate points to convince them.

So according to plan we reached Marshal’s place the evening before and all of us met there to put the final touches to the plan. Yeah!, that was the reason we told Marshal. Actually the more important reason we met there was that we would get to savour his mum’s cooking. Its was too good. We decided to leave at 4:30 AM the next morning and make up as much distance before the Sun came up and tried to roast us. Why 4:30 AM? That is a good question but since it was Marshal’s idea I will let him explain that. Viks left for home so that he could pack for the trip. We were to pick him up the next day and continue.

Morning came and it was Marshal who wanted to bathe before he left home. I didn’t even try to understand why he had to. So it was 5 by the time we left his place and 5:15 by the time we picked up Viks and started the journey. The road goes through the Katraj tunnel and that road will win a “worst road in the world” contest any day. With all those trucks on the road, it’s absolutely crazy to drive there. So like the last trip it all began with that nightmare of a road. Somehow we managed to get out of there and soon were on the highway going at 90kmph. We took the same route to Bhor that we had taken the last time and it was quite nice too. We stopped at Bhor for breakfast of chai, biscuit and chips for Marshal who was on a fast( he does it every Saturday) Then started the ghats from Bhor to Khed. The problem with the roads here is that the contractor has forgotten to put the last layer of fine tar, maybe he thought that people going on that road would have backs made of titanium, it was like riding while sitting on a vibrator strip working at the maximum. But once we reached Khed the roads improved. The rest of the road all the way to Guhaghar was very good and it was great fun riding on it. 100 kmph was normal and Viks touched 105 kmph on the 180. The one thing to remember is that near Mahad you reach a fork from where you take the road to Panjim. So officially we did not touch Mahad. Remember this if you plan to go on this trip. The whole trip went without much incident and we reached Guhaghar at 12:30, a distance of 250 kms covered in 7.5 hours. Not bad I would say.

Once we reached there we had to find a place to stay, me and shoelace found a place and decided to stay there but Marshal and Viks weren’t convinced and so we looked some more. While looking around Marshal saw a house and asked a passerby whether he had any idea if the place would be rented out and believe it or not he did help us get the house. So we got a room with 4 beds at Rs 50 per bed, yeah that cheap…. It was just about 50 metres from the beach and we could see the beach from the room. Awesome. All credit to Marshal for being a stubborn Ass J

We got rid of our travel clothes and had lunch, came back, took a walk to the beach, came back and fell asleep. Got up in the evening and again went to the beach. This time to get wet. The waves were too powerful and the person who gave us the room advised us to not go into the water too deep as the sea was never in a great mood but we did manage to get into waist deep water. Shoelace decided to stay on the beach for some reason, how he managed it is too far beyond me. Maybe he decided that the planets weren’t aligned properly for him to step into the water. Whatever…..

We watched a nice sunset; it’s amazing how each sunset never fails to make you go “wow!” I remember a quote I read somewhere, seemingly said by Abe Lincoln. “….how can you look up at the stars and not believe in God.” A beautiful sunset has that effect on me.

Dinner was at another one of the restaurants in the place and like in the afternoon, the only good thing there was the sol-kadi and aam-ras. So let me not waste more bytes on that. We found a place to get beers and then took it to the beach for consumption. A beach at night is nothing like a beach in the day. The combination of darkness and the sound of the waves crashing can be very scary, a very appropriate place to indulge in some intoxication. That day was different though, it was full moon or a day later. The whole beach was lit up with moon-light. At one time the scene was such that moonlight was streaming through a break in a line of trees and illuminating just a band of the beach where we were seated. I looked at the gang and sighed…I am sure that if I had been there with a girl it would have the best chance to get lucky ;-) sadly it was just us boys so I continued drinking, having another reason to do so. We even dug pits and hid all evidence of us having drunk there. After a bottle of beer even that seems like fun. Marshal though kept away from the “vile and unholy” liquid citing religious reasons. “God, please take him into heaven. He works the hardest for it.”. After the drink and the associated brainless chatter and actions we returned to the room for much needed sleep.

Next morning everyone rose showing no ill effects of the previous night’s high-protein liquid diet. The morning was kept aside to visit a couple of tourist attractions, we were tourists too after all. We visited two temples in Hedvi and Velneshwar and paid our respects to the Gods. On the way Viks and me saw some mango trees and decided to try our luck. Viks got off the bike and started walking towards the bike; suddenly out of nowhere a lady appeared and we had to give up. On the way we stopped for breakfast and when marshal and shoelace reached ,I started narrating our story. Shoelace looked up at me with the I-have-the-birdie-in-my-mouth look and Marshal reveals two shining green mangoes, freshly plucked. It seems they were also attracted to the same set of mangoes but were lucky to get their hands onto them. Lucky dogs…

Earlier in the morning we were approached by a person who said that he would cook lunch for us in traditional coastal Ratnagiri style and since we had two not-so-good experiences with restaurants we agreed to it. After the visit to the temples we went to the guys place for lunch. I have to admit the food was GOOD, so much better than the fare served at the restaurants. Prawns masala, fried fish, bhaakri and rice. All of us stuffed ourself. Viks had the vegetarian menu, which was not all that bad either. The only problem was that the host would not stop talking. He just went on and on and on like one of those History teachers teaching us absolute c*&# even if we did not want to learn and who could go on even if there were just four walls or maybe even without them. It was only the good food that had us nodding our heads to his umpteenth topic of discussion.

Lunch was followed by an afternoon siesta and then more time on the beach. This time though we managed to make our own sand castle; if u call 5 cylindrical shapes bordered by sand, a sand castle. But we did spend a lot of time on it and it was fun so no probs.

Dinner was ok with prawn biryani being the main attraction, poor Viks had to make do with chapatti and srikhand. The rest of us are vegetarian too but only when there isn’t anything else. Thank God for that.

More “vile” liquid on the beach followed but now it was just Viks and Shoelace, me having had a lot for dinner and Marshal continuing his religious beliefs. It was another moon lit night and a repeat of the night before. We retired early coz we had to leave early the next day.

The next morning we left at 5:00 Am. This time we took the route which passed through Mahabaleshwar. The roads were much better and we made good time all through the trip. Nothing much to write about it except that my bike touched 110 kmph somewhere during the ride. The official top speed for the trip. We reached Pune at 12:30 having endured the Katraj ghat on the way back too. After driving on the highway for so long, once we reached the city the noise and the crowd was too much to handle. We reached Viks’ place and then went to a restaurant close by where we had lunch before dropping Marshal home and returning home. Finally....

It was a great trip, not as good as Dapoli with regards to the food but better becoz the roads were better and the trip lasted longer. We did around 625 kms this time compared to the 550 odd last time around. This time too we managed to keep our bones together and the bikes too, so that’s another feather in our caps. But the idea to ride pillion was great since it helped us to travel faster and is safer too (it’s ok Viks, don’t smile)

We are back to the grind, hoping to make another trip soon but with the monsoon just around the bend it will be sometime before one happens. We will have to make do with Lonavla till then I suppose.

Asta-la-vista

Route:

Pune to Guhaghar : Pune-Nasrapur-Bhor-Khed-Mahad-Poladpur-Chiplun-Guhaghar.

Guhaghar to Pune : Guhaghar-Chiplun-Poladpur-Mahabaleshwar-Wai-Pune.

Distance : Pune to Guhaghar- about 250 kms

Hotel Info:

There aren’t any great places to stay but if you search hard and are lucky you will find something to suit your taste and budget.

Tips:

1) Take the Mahabaleshwar route if you are on bikes, the roads is much better as compared to the Bhor-Khed section of ghats.

2) It’s much better to double up on the bikes and switch positions often. The rider has it better than the pillion from my experience but it remains to be heard from Viks whether he thinks so too. Riding pillion to me is considered to be their worst nightmare coming true, by some people.

3) Be ready to survive without mobile phones. It a refreshing change if you ask me.

4) Tell someone your plans and call them, if possible, just so that they don’t worry.

About the bikes

The road over the whole journey was good except for the part from Khed to Bhor so the bikes were really given the stick a lot of time. A lot of distance was traveled at more than 80 kmph. On the way back, some 30 odd kms from Pune Marshal said that the 150 wouldn’t go above 80kmph so we decided to stop for sometime. Apart from that we did not face any problems and the bikes performed flawlessly.

*names have been changed to protect privacy.