22nd Nov 2004 – Trying to implement a crazy plan
As per the rough plan made last eve, alarm wakes me up at 05:05hrs. I start packing up my lugguage for the ride ahead. I come down and chekup from hotel at around 05:45hrs have to wake up the poor guy at the reception to complete the formalities. It is still a bit dark outside. Put the lugguage on bike and top up engine oil and battery water, for one last time on the ride. At 06:00hrs with odo showin 19,449 I start my ride after asking hotel people for the directions to go out of city. City roads are all empty and riding alone in dark in an unknown city is not a good idea. Every time I ride through a lonely small lane few dogs start to chase me out of their area. With hardly anyone to help with the directions, I decide to follow my gut feeling to finally come out of the city on the highway. Road is empty with ocassional truck passing by. Sun has started to come out, making it a bit more visible.
I’m on the road towards Ajmer, to take full adjantage of early morning start I right away start with speeds of 80+ trying to cover as much distance as possible while I’m still fresh. Having ridden on the same route in night while coming from Pune, I’m now able to see the scenery, nothing great to talk about especially after what I have seen in Himachal. As time starts to go by, traffic on road has started to increase, still nothing to make me slow down. I’m easily able to maintain speed well above 80 and going close to 100 at many times, only to drop down to less than 60 while crossing a town/village. As I keep on riding towards Ajmer, land gets more and more barren. After riding for around 90 minutes I start climbing to a small ghat. In this this ghat was feeling a bit scary, nothing of that sort especially when I’m able to see everything clearly. After I cross the ghat, with a bit rough surface, I again come out on plain road with almost barren land on either side. Few km’s later I pass through a few foreigners riding on 3 bullets, who have camped in night on the left side of the road. Initially wanted to stop but thanks to maintaining 80+ before I could decide what to do, I have passed them, so dropped the idea and decide to carry on.
Having not had breakfast, I started to feel a bit hungry so I decide to stop at the same place before Udaipur where I have stopped for lunch while coming. At 09:30hrs I reach dhaba, Bhairu Nath just before Udaipur with odo showing 19,708. So decide to stop for food and let the bike also cool down a little bit specially after a non-stop ride for over 3 hours. I place an order for breakfast consiting of frew paranthas and tea (Rs 25). The cop, whom I have met last time around, Roop Chand, is also here. Seeing me he comes over and joins me over the breakfast. He asks me to visit the city of Udaipur with him (being a cop no need to be in the queue at many places), offer is tempting but I decide to give it a skip for now. We exchange our contact details and I start back after a 35min stop.
It is 10:05hrs and I have managed to shave off 30min from my prev ride between the same points, so I decide to carry on with the same pace so that I can judge the next course of action on reaching Baroda. Right after starting I start coming down a small ghat before taking the bypass to Udaipur city. Right after crossing the city bike comes into reserve with odo showing 19,768, as I enter the lovely stretch of 4 lane road with twisties. Not planing to take any chances I refill at the next gas station.
After tanking up I once again start enjoying the amazing twisties on this stretch. At time while going at 100+, bike feels underpowered with road wanting us to go faster and faster. I start dreaming myself riding one of those big mean machines on this road in near future. With everything coming to an end, soon I crossed Rajasthan border at 12:15hrs. Stop to take a small picture.
Even after crossing into Gujrat road hasn’t changed much but I know soon I’ll be leaving this lovely road to ride on the underconstruction stretch of the road. As expected soon the honeymoon gets over and I’m forced to leave the smooth tarmac to ride on a 2 lane road with lots of diversions and crazy traffic. To get off the hangover of the beautiful stretch I decide to take a small break as a small town called Naroli, odo is showing 19,931 and its 13:05hrs on the clock. I order some cold drink and chidwa for the snaks (Rs 37).
After a small 25min break I resume the ride. Speed has come down a bit as I have to negotiate traffic along with under construction road with lots of diversions. It is some 70km’s of riding on such road before I will reach Amhedabad. Riding at a safe speed, I somehow reach Amhedabad to be greeted by a huge traffic as I try to cross the city via the bypass. Seeing the expressway, I decide to take a chance, in case they allow a two wheeler but the moment I take the turn for the expressway some security guards stop me and ask me to take the normal road. So I come back on the same road and after a small struggle with traffic I come out of city on the highway towards Baroda. It is a bit hot right now but the shades from the road side trees at places are making it feel better. It is around 16:00hrs as I reach the limits of Baroda city. No way that I will be ending my day so early, so I decide to carry on. After crossing the city, I decide to take a small break for lunch. At 16:30hrs with odo showing 20,131 I stop for lunch.
After a 30min break for lunch (Rs 70) I resume my ride. Sun is on the way to rest as I try to cover as much distance as possible in day light. Right after starting bike comes into reserve with odo showing 20,139, so I take a 5min break at the next gas station to fill up fuel. As I resume my ride light start to fade. The road is having a lot of traffic as I continue my ride on NH8. Not able to ride above 60 most of times due to the traffic on the road. As it gets dark enough to put on headlights I start to face problem maintaining even 60 due to the high beam of the oncoming traffic. So I decide to start follow some four wheeler but not able to do so as most of them all are going at 80+, not safe for me to do such speeds. So I decide to slowely ride through for sometume, as I knew that once I get out of city limits, traffic will reduce. So after some time traffic is reduced to mainly four wheelers with ocassional two wheelers to be seen. It is completely dark by now and I’m not able to recognise the town’s I’m riding through. Once the road gets slightly empty and 4 lane, I select a qualis to follow. The vehicle is heading towards Bombay. Don’t remember what time it is and what place but soon I’m on the stretch on NH8 which is still under construction, lots of diversions, one side of road being used by the complete traffic, not able to maintain the speed of qualis and I loose it. So I’m once again out there on my own, wondering why am I doing this, why don’t I take a break at next town, as riding on this stretch with no divider in the middle to protect from the oncoming vehicle on high beams is getting difficult. As I struggle to maintain speed of around 60 I try to follow some four wheelers but they all are too fast to be able to keep up. Finally after struggling for over 30-40minutes, I’m able to get hold of a Thane registered Qualis, the driver is going at slower speeds due to a full family with some aged people sleeping at the back seat. Following this vehicle at 60-80 is not difficult and it is helping me being saved from the on coming traffic.
Don’t remember how much time it took us but somehow we are out of the underconstruction stretch and back on wide 4 lane stretch of NH8. Thankfully, even after coming on the wide road qualis driver is not going at 100+, so I’m still following him. By now probably some people in qualis has realised that I’m following them, so they keep on looking behind everynow and then, possibly wondering why is someone alone riding at this point of time. For some more time I follow the qualis, until they pull over for dinner, so I wave the driver and decide to continue. By now the traffic has reduced to some extent and once I’m riding on my own, I realise that following qualis on this strech, I was not able to ride faster. So now I decide not to follow any more vehicles as the road is good enough to ride alone.
After some time I check my watch which is showing close to 22:00hrs, so I decide to take a break for dinner, so I pull over at next town to have a small dinner break. It is 22:00hrs on clock and odo is showing 20,403. I order food (Rs 39) and decide to have a light dinner, as there is still no sign of Maharashtra border. After having a 25min break for dinner, I resume the ride. Soon after starting I see the board welcoming me to Maharashtra all of a sudden Pune seems so close. I’m feeling like I have just started the ride. Munching mile after mile, I reach Manor, where I decide to fill up some fuel as I’m not sure how much more I can continue before hitting reserve and with approaching midnight, not many fuel stations might be open.
After filling up at Manor I start and soon I start seeing distance for Bombay getting smaller and smaller with every passing minute. Now I have to start looking for the turn off point towards Thane. Then I realise that the stretch will be very lonely and might be unsafe to ride alone in night. Riding for some more time I come across a police check post at a left turn, so I decide to ask them for directions. There is a constable standing outside, who tells me to that the left turn. I ask him will it be safe to ride on the rode, to which he replies, not a problem. It is 15min into a new day with odo showing 20,501 as I take the turn. The road is lonely with no sign of any light source except for my bike and moon. Ocasionally I see an on coming vehicle. There are some small village through which the road passes. The people in all the villages, I pass, are all inside their houses. But it is nice to realise that I’m not too far away from civilization.
After some time I’m out of this lonely road, riding towards Thane. I recall that I have to take a left turn somewhere before reaching Thane. As I approach Bombay city limits, I realise that Bombay is one city which never sleeps. Even well past midnight one can see people roaming around on roads. So I start asking for directions towards Pune. Following the directions I come out on a stretch which I have ridden in past and will never forget in my whole life. I’m out on the road via Mumbra. I start to feel tired as I try to ride through the road which is nothing but potholes of all sizes. Not able to go above 10km/hr as I try to get pass this stretch as soon as possible.
Dunno how much time it took but finally I’m out of the place on which I’ll never ever ride again, no matter what. Right after coming out of Mumbra stretch, I’m heading towards Panvel, road is much better now and though feeling very tired, somehow I’m able to stay awake, with realising that Panvel is hardly at a distance now. As I reach Panvel I fell much better, as I know that Pune is just a couple of hiurs ride away. Try to cheer myself up and get on the Panvel bypass. After crossing Panvel, while riding towards Khopoli I start to feel sleepy badly. Start shaking my head, open the visor to let cold air hit me, trying all methods to stay up as this is a lonely stretch and I don’t want to stop here. Somehow struggling to stay awake, I reach Khopoli, thanks to the fact that I have ridden on this stretch many time, didn’t face much of problem covering it. As I enter the lonely town of Khopoli, I just stop my bike on roadside, not putting the engine off and close my eyes. As I close my eyes, I go to sleep, don’t know for how long I slept but it was not too long. As I open my eyes, I feel fresh again. I put the bike in gear and head towards Khandala ghats. Thankfully the surface of the ghat is relaid. Fresh after a small cat nap I start my climb on the ghat. With almost no traffic, except for ocassional trucks, it is feeling nice to climb up the ghat.
Right afer crossing the lonely ghat covered in moon light, I enter the town of Lonawala. With Pune just a few tens of kilometers away, I drop the idea of a small stop at Lonawala. After crossing Lonawala I’m out on the 2 lane section of NH4 between Lonawala and Pune. Thankfully there is not much of traffic and I don’t find much problem riding on it. With every passing kilometer, I start to get more and more exicited as my ride is coming to an end. Soon as I reach the outskirts of Pune, I take the Bombay-Bangalore bypass to entry Pune from Wakad side. As I come on the by pass, I just let the bike rip for one last time on the ride. Within few minutes I’m at the Wakad junction as I take left turn towards RTO. A small ride on empty Pune roads and I’m at RTO with odo showing 20,719 and clock showing 04:05hrs. For some day is about to start whereas I’m ending one of my longest ride, I have done in a day. After filling up some fuel, I call up my friends, who are at the end of a night long party. They are shocked to hear that I have just ridden all the way from Ajmer to Pune. So I head towards their house with the sweet memories of the ride.
| Previous Page |