.::navendu::.

Rajmachi – A twin fort destination near Lonawala. A location which is a two days beginners trek and a slightly challenging destination for those who wish to use the two wheels over two legs.

My first visit to Rajmachi was way back in year 2002 on my Suzuki Fiero with three other riders (from the Pulsar yahoo group) who came from Bombay on their Bajaj Pulsar’s. We teamed up at Khopoli, as I rode down the Khandala ghats. Before we started our ride to Rajmachi we feasted at RK, Lonawala.

The road to Rajmachi, when coming from Lonawala side is just after a couple of turns after Lonawala town. The road is on right hand side and goes down steeply.

The auto is coming from Lonawala side and the narrow road going down, next to those advertising boards goes to Rajmachi.

Initially the road is not so bad but once we cross the last village enroute, for the rest of 20 odd km we have to ride on gravel, stones, mud, etc. Just before the Rajmachi village we have to climb up a stretch which during monsoon is used by rain water to come down. So it is full of decent sized stones and loose sand to fight with, often requiring not just the machine but human power to get the vehicle up.

After a challenging ride we are greeted by the village located at the base of fort. There are some houses here who cater to tourist by providing them home cooked meal at a very reasonable rate but the time taken is a lot. So one can order the food and walk towards an ancient temple and a water reservoir located behind the village.

One can also walk up the fort but it will be difficult to return back the same day, unless he is willing to ride back in dark. A different kind of experience all together, which I’m yet to experience

To stay overnight, one can either take shelter in the house of villagers at a nominal rate or choose the school room for night halt.

Here are pictures from my very first ride to Rajmachi.

Ravi & Eric at RK, Lonawala

Enroute Rajmachi

The village at the base of fort

The village at the base of fort

Riding back from Rajmachi

Riding back from Rajmachi

Riding back from Rajmachi

It took me another 5odd years to revisit this wonderful place. The ocassion was Republic day ride (2007) at BikeNomads. This time as well it was the riders from Pune and Bombay riding together to conquer the challenging Rajmachi trail. Accompanying me it was once again my good old Suzuki Fiero. The route hasn’t changed much in last 5 years so hasn’t the challanges. Though few of the team members decided to stay overnight, me and a few more riders returned back before it got dark.

Here are the pictures from my second visit to Rajmachi.

Enroute to Rajmachi

The water reservoir

An ancient temple

Catching the sky

Returning back from Rajamchi

Returning back from Rajamchi

Returning back from Rajamchi

This time no stories from my side. Just a few set of pictures.

Sunrise at Chandani Chowk

Rides of Nomads

View from top of Temghar Dam

View from top of Temghar Dam

Me on 220, taking the left hander

Me on 220, taking the left hander

Me on 220, taking the left hander

Me on 220, taking the left hander

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When: 30th June 2007
Route: Pune – Khambatki Ghat – Wai – Parsani Ghat – Panchgani – Mahabaleshwar – Ambenali Ghat – Poladpur – Mahad – Poladpur – Ambenali Ghat – Mahabaleshwar – Panchgani – Parsani Ghat – Wai – Khambatki Ghat – Pune.
Riders ‘n’ Rides: Praveen Shirali on Black P180, Nalin on Silver P180, Me on Black Fiero and Shyamal on Gray Unicorn.

Distance: 405km
Time Taken: 15hrs (5:45am to 8:45pm)

With another weekend coming, we planned a slightly longer ride this time, with the route as Pune – Khambatki Ghat – Wai – Parsani Ghat – Panchgani – Mahabaleshwar – Ambenali Ghat – Poladpur – Mahad – Varandha Ghat – Bhor – Pune. This time we were 4 riders (other 2 dropped out), as compared to 2 of last time. With the route slightly longer an early start was required so we decided to start at 6am.

Even before we could start the ride, it started to rain heavily and by the time we stopped to refuel at Reliance gas station on NH4 we were all drenched (from outside only) with our rain gears trying hard to stop the water outside.

We were maintaining speed around 80km/hr and were approaching Shirval when disaster stuck, suddenly I started to feel my front end has gone heavy, I realised its a puncture so I slowely pulled over to road side only to find the help (puncture repair shop) across the road. While the puncture guy was fixing the puncture, I sms’ed the group about my problem, few minutes later the group was back. The puncture costed us around 30minutes and Rs 60 (due to damaged valve as well).

After we resumed the ride, soon we were at the foot hills of Khambatki Ghat, traffic was heavy today. As we started to climb up, the series of breaks started, to click pictures and enjoy the scenery.

Khambatki Ghat and a waterfall there

Surface of Khambatki Ghat has gone slightly bad and potholes has started to show at various place. After crossing Khambatki Ghat we took the diversion towards Wai, traffic was lesser on this road and still the road condition was as good as it was before rains. After crossing Wai as we started the climb up the Parsani Ghat (good road surface still), the scenery started to go from nice to better to excellent. With clouds all over the place.

Enroute to Wai, Climb up Parsani Ghat

Clouds all over the place was a great sight, it was not so good to click pictures As we climbed up, the cloud cover on road got denser and denser. After we reached at the top we pulled over to Harrison Point to have a view of the valley down.

View from Harrison Point

Due to rains the muddy track on Harrison Point was slightly slushy, thankfully not too many car’s have come here so there was still decent paths for two wheelers to ride on.

Harrison Point and Bikes

After spending some time at Harrison Point, we realised that we are behind the schedule so without wasting much time we headed towards Mapro for lunch. Sadly strawberries season is over and we were forced to have sandwich with hot chocolate.

Flower ar Mapro

After Mapro our target was to reach Poladpur as soon as possible. As we started towards Mahabaleshwar it started to rain with lots of fog on road making it a wonderful ride. After crossing Mahabaleshwar we were on the Ambenali Ghat which was full of waterfalls, fog and heavy rains.

Waterfalls at Ambenali Ghat

Had we stopped at every waterfall to enjoy it, we would have spend almost the whole day here. So we kept pushing each other to carry on and only to stop at some of the best waterfalls.

Fog and Waterfall at Ambenali Ghat

The road surface of Ambenali Ghat was decent almost all the way. There was a small section where landslide was getting cleared up.

Waterfall and bikes at Ambenali Ghat

As we came down towards Poladpur the fog cleared up but no respite from heavy rains. Since we were behind the schedule (thanks to puncture and numerous halts on the way) we scraped the plan to visit Kashedi Ghat and headed towards Mahad. NH17 was having lesser traffic than normal as we ripped on wet NH17 towards Mahad. Just before the toll booth at Mahad we turned towards Varandha Ghat only to be warned by some people about road under water. We thought that we can always ride over such stretch so we carried on. After a km or so we came to a point where a ST Bus, a 4 wheeler and few two wheelers were standing due to overflowing river water running across the road (see picture below). The force was so strong that none of us could think of risking our life and hence decided to turn back. We wasted some 10min before we headed back only to see the road we have come has started to get under water. The intensity of water was still not high so we quickly crossed over it.

We now had two options, either to return back via Mahabaleshwar or try the Mangaon route. We decide to try the later route and hence headed towards Mangaon. On the way we saw almost all of Mahad under water (whatever was visible from road side). Just after crossing Mahad we came to a point on NH17 which was getting under water (see picture below). We knew if we cross this and if we had to turn back from Mangaon, this place will be impossible to cross so we decided to take the safer option and headed back towards Mahabaleshwar. On the way we saw police has already closed this road for more traffic.

Floods all around Mahad

After a small rip on NH17 we were back at Poladpur. We took a small break for hot tea before we started our climb up Ambenali Ghat. As we climbed up we started to see some beautiful views. Cloud trying to cross over a hill (see picture below bottom left), etc.

Ambenali Ghat

As we reached the top of Ambenali Ghat the fog started to get thicker and thicker with visiblity reduced to 5-6feets. By the time we reached Mahabaleshwar fog was at its peak. (Next day I read in news that this road, Mahabaleshwar – Poladpur, is closed for traffic).

Foggy Mahabaleshwar

On the way we meet with another Nomad, Praveen Sathaye, at Wai. After a small chit chat we all headed back to Pune. Just before Khambatki Ghat we stopped for some evening snacks. As we resumed our return ride, soon it got dark and started to rain little bit. It was difficult to see the road properly due to darkness and rain drops on visor. So it was a slow ride back home for me with speeds around 50-60km/hr as I was worried about not seeing some pothole on road and hitting it at high speed.

After around 15hrs of riding I was back at home totally wet below waist (even when I was wearing rain coat’s pant. Above waist I was almost dry (got wet while taking out camera in rains to click pictures) thanks to my new jacket.

In the end though it was a wonderful ride but I still miss the Mahad – Varandha Ghat – Bhor – Pune leg, which I hope to do sooner than later.

To view image(s) in larger size, click them.

Where two is a Crowd

When: 24th June 2007
Route: Pune – Lonawala – Amby Valley – Kundlika Valley – Mulshi – Pune
Riders ‘n’ Rides: Nalin on Silver P180 and Me on Black Fiero
Distance: 178km

Time Taken: 9hrs (7:45am to 4:15pm)

It was a much awaited ride, one of the many rides I have planned for this rainy season. The ride started a bit late, at 7:45am, on a gloomy day with wet roads. After me and Nalin teamed up at Talegaon, the destination was Lonawala via the boring NH4 but the ride for a change was not so boring.

The wind was on higher side today, as we were nearing to Karla Caves, it started to rain heavily and crosswind increased their intensity. It was difficult to keep the bike moving straight and things went bad while overtaking trucks. Struggling with crosswind, as I would come next to truck, it would shield me from wind but the moment front end would come ahead of truck, wind would hit it with the rest of bike still behind truck, making the bike go into a big wobble, not a good feeling when you are travelling at speed close to 80 on wet roads.

At Lonawala after a small break we headed towards Amby Valley. Initially ride was nice but as we started the climb up Amby Valley, road vanished into thick fog and visiblity was reduced to 10-15feets with headlights on. I dropped the speed to 20-60 as I was not on a corner carving ride, nor was keen on getting my blood flowing faster in my veins (or will it be on road?).

We halted at Tiger point to munch on corn, it was too foggy to click any decent snap of the valley down. After a break we headed towards Amby Valley. As the fog reduced a little, we halted to put out camera’s to good use.

On the way to Amby Valley – Fog and Heavy Rains

On the way to Amby Valley – No speed limit for two-wheelers

Just as we closed on Amby Valley, we took the road off the main weekend tourist road and got onto this stretch of lesser travelled 40 odd km’s. Initially road was good but as we rode on, it started to get bad. We took our first of many halts at this bridge over a high flowing water stream.

On a bridge with high flowing water

Posing time

After riding some more distance we could see flooded fields and at many places water stream flowing over road as well. There we saw for first time another living organism, few big yellow colored crabs running across road. After crossing this water stream covered in fog, we decided to take another break.

Riding thru Fog and Water

Once we crossed over a hill we saw first signs of civilisation, a few houses. Rain has stopped but clouds were still hovering.

Foggy Break and the Road Ahead

Few km’s later, climate got better (lesser fog) to click pictures and for first time we saw some water streams coming down hills.

Somewhere on the way, Waterfall near & far

While on one side we had slightly clear hill, on the other side clouds were travelling at high speed covering-exposing hills at regular interval.

Fast moving clouds

Out in wild, High flying water

After riding on all kind of surface, tar road, broken road, road with slush (requiring to balance bike while crossing it), we reached a point where we were seeing weekend tourists in numbers. Later I realised that we are nearing the end of ride as we were closing on to Kundlika Valley.

On the way to Kundlika Valley, The Valley

After we started from Kundlika Valley, we were soon on Mulshi road and we were plugged back into civilisation (or shall I say uncivilised civilisation?). Weekend tourists were travelling on road as if they own it. Its a free country, so I go no problems with that but what I have problem is that when it start to affect me, by endangering my life.

We stopped at a hotel which on a normal day will be having staff out numbering customers but today there was a queue of customers. So we moved ahead for another hotel. After a nice lunch we rode back to Pune which was, like most of ride’s ending, a boring (no rains and drying roads) and frustrating (senseless riding/driving by morons on/behind wheels) experience.