The Trip

Day 1, Pune to Dharwad

By Navendu. Additional comments by Doc .

Friday, 13th of June, 2003.

Its 04:00 a.m.; my alarm rang. I cursed it, switched it off and was about to go back to sleep. Suddenly I realized that today was the big day, "Friday the 13th", our trip day. Though outside it was as dark as midnight, I woke up and started packing my bag. I remembered Doc also coming from Pune and called him up. No one answered the phone for the first time. I tried again and this time I got Doc's wife on the line. Doc was up and getting ready.

Doc: Was up till midnight getting my bags packed and gear ready. Awoke at 4, had a cold shower, a mug of the hottest and strongest coffee possible, and got ready, putting on the shin guards I bought yesterday for the first time

I started getting ready as well. Took a cold water bath to kill whatever sleep was left in me and was ready for the ride. I knew we had a long day ahead of us.

05:00: I was down warming up my bike. Tied down the luggage and moved out. Odo said 61228km. Feels good to wish the sun a very good morning. Soon I was at Doc's place. He was ready. We tied his luggage to his bike and moved off.

Doc: strapped the small Pizza Hut tote bag on top of my haversack whose waist strap was secured under the seat, the whole contraption with a covering plastic sheet bungeed with an Octopus to the grabrail and rear shox.

05:25: Fuelled up my bike. Odo said 61236km (8km from start). Filled 10 litres of petrol, checked the air pressure and set off.

Doc: My Pulsar, having a much larger tank than Navs' Fiero, took in 15 liters. We decided not to exceed 70km/h as it would be a long day and high speeds = more fatigue.

We were soon out of Pune on NH4. We saw a Bullet going alone towards Bangalore, thought for a moment to chat with him but then dropped the idea as the fresh air and open road beckoned. In the next few minutes we were greeted with the first of the numerous ghat sections we faced on the way to Dharwad. This one was very nice and wide. With fresh air, blue sky and very little traffic, in no time we reached the point from where we had to move off the NH4 and join the NH17. We decided to break for a minute to confirm the route. It was a perfect timing as I received a call from Ravi and Sanjay (Ravi Kakhandi and Sanjay Poojari coming from Bombay - Ed.).

Doc: Ravi had had a fall due to slick mud and had decided to turn back due to shaken confidence.

Sanjay told he would be riding a bit slowly. Doc and I continued our journey ahead and reached "Bhor" at 07:00, odo showing 61303km (75km from the start). We decided to have some tea

Doc: Tried out the local sanitation facilities as well armed with the tea stall owner's bucket (no charge for that!)

07:30: Tea break over, we started our journey to Poladpur (the meeting point with Sanjay). The road ahead was not what we thought it would be. It was ghats all the way to Poladpur interspersed with some roads on plains. The surface was really bad. On the way, after seeing a very beautiful location we decided to stop for our first photographs. While concentrating on the bad surface we took a wrong turn, which we realized only after riding for another 5km. So had to do that bad 5km section again and rejoined the correct route. The roads in ghats were quiet good with a thick gravel "divider" in the middle

Doc: Navs, the eternal optimist, thought it was a good training course for learning how to keep to your "lane" while negotiating hairpin bends at speed!). On the way we saw more sheep than we had ever seen so far in our whole life, negotiating each herd though was a breeze compared to the poor car and lorry wallahs who must have been having visions of lamb steaks!

At around 09:00 we decided to take another small break for pictures. The ghats looked as if they would never end

Doc: 60 kms of them to be precise, lovely vistas all around - stopped at one such and took a photo with a gypsy boy with his pack mule and 4 dogs - Doc and gypsy boy with their steeds, wonder who would have won in a drag!!!!!).

It took almost two hours before we were finally out of the ghats and were greeted with some very good roads. There was a long section of very straight road with trees on both the sides. I couldn't resists and ripped my bike (Doc: what happened to the 70kmph promise?!!!!!!!). In the next few minutes we were on NH17 and riding towards Poladpur. At about 10:10 we reached Poladpur, an hour late. Odo said 61398km (170kms from the start). We met Sanjay and after the introductions, decided to fill our empty stomachs.

11:10: After a nice food break (Doc: misal pav, which turned out to be our trip staple!!!) we decided to move on. The milestone said Goa was 400km away. We asked the shopkeeper for a shorter route and he suggested that we go back onto NH4 via Chiplun, which would save us around 100km.

Doc: We thought, its just 100km and we can do NH4 on our way back plus NH17 is soooo beautiful yada yada, so we'll continue with NH17. That was the biggest mistake we made on the trip, something we bemoaned on every "butt" break from there to Dharwad!!!!!

So with no plans of any change in the route we start to ride on. The road was great, very smooth and wide, winding gently. We took a small break on the way to Chiplun. The sky was very clear with no sign of rain. As we neared Chiplun it started to get very hot and humid. Around 12:40 we reached Chiplun with the odo reading 61469km (241km from the start). We decided to stop for some water.

12:50: Journey continues. We decided to break for lunch at the next waypoint. As soon as we came out of the city we were greeted with another amazing ghat section.

Doc: Within few minutes of entering the ghat section, black clouds loomed menacingly and before we could say "drenched riders", it started to rain heavily (the fattest, heaviest, coldest raindrops I have ever experienced!).

We were caught totally off guard and before we could stop and take out our rain suits we were drenched. Anyways, it took us few minutes to wear the rain suits and we were ready for moving ahead. Since it was the first time we were riding in rain (on this trip) we decided to ride slowly (50-60 kmph). The rain was getting heavier and heavier with every passing moment but we kept riding with our visors down. By now the water was flowing across the road in rivulets, giving the impression of riding in a river. The rain didn't last too long and once we crossed the ghats it reduced to a drizzle. With one short break for nature's call, we reached Ratnagiri at around 14:40 with the odo showing 61550km (322kms from the start). Now we decided to take a break for lunch. With some missal-pav and tea (Doc: there was a desi daru chi dukan there too ;)!!!!) we were ready to continue the journey. With the distance to Goa now around 230km we were quite happy but by now our bodies were getting tired.

15:30: The journey continues. With no sign of heavy rains (Doc: it was still raining but much lighter, with a white "foam" like substance all over the road - like riding thru soap suds or the foamy stuff the waves bring to the beaches) and clear roads we decided to increase our pace and reduce stops on the way. We were now enjoying the ride with some beautiful scenery, great roads and lovely ghats. After riding for around 100km non-stop, we stopped for a 10-minute butt break. Looking at the scenery we also clicked some photos and continued.

With every passing kilometer, our bodies were getting tired but minds were exhilarated. Once we reduced the distance to Goa to double-digit figures, we were full of joy. By now daylight was fading away and darkness was covering the road. We decided to take a final break with Goa around 80km away. After a break of 10 min we started again but now it was time for rain to create more problems. It was dusky with heavy rains and we were riding in a bit of traffic. While Doc and Sanjay went ahead I decided to follow a jeep (Doc: we saw a scary sight of a Trax overtaking a lorry which was overtaking a truck at high speed with the back end swinging all over the place). Around 20:00 we reached the check post (state border - Ed.) of Goa. We were stopped and our documents were checked (the first of many such similar irritating breaks in our riding). Panjim was still some distance away and we were dying to reach the city. Since my bike was in reserve, I was also looking for a gas station. Around 21:00 we reached Panjim, odo showing 61779km (551km).

Doc: The tragedy of riding to Goa, reaching there at night, and not having the time to enjoy the beaches, babes, feni/beer, and sea food was not lost on three butt sore wet and disheveled riders!!!! Instead, we were asking for directions to go towards Dharwad. Once we saw a decent looking gas station, we filled our tanks noting the petrol prices with glee (fuel is really cheap here, around Rs 5/lt cheaper than Pune).

21:10: Out of gas station and on the way to Dharwad. Not sure as to how far it was. Someone said 100km and another said 180km! We thought even if its 200km we can easily do it in 4hrs. So with that hope in mind we resumed our journey. I was ahead of Doc and Sanjay and thinking of food, drink and bed. I realized that there was what looked like water on the left side of road. I ignored this, thinking might be some water deposited due to rain. But it was not so, the shimmering water continued on and on and on till we realized that on the left was the sea and the road was almost at the same level as that of sea. I was a bit scared but then I remembered Marine Drive in Bombay that's also on the seaside (but not at sea level - Ed.). After a few hundred meters I saw that on the right hand side also there is water (to be precise, sea). (Doc: That really freaked me out) . We were riding on a bridge/road that was at the same level as the sea! To increase the fear, there was hardly any decent fencing on either side of the road (Doc: making it easy for bike and rider to go for an unplanned swim in the darkness and rain). If this was not enough I read a board saying that the bridge was not safe for heavy vehicles. (Doc: I actually thought I was hallucinating and found the entire episode to be quite surreal!!!). Now the next thing in my mind was to get off the bridge as soon as possible, so I increased my speed. Next few minutes we were off that scary bridge and now riding on seaside road, inside the city headed towards Old Goa and Ponda. We decided to stop and make some phone calls. So we looked out for a STD booth (long distance phone - Ed.). While Sanjay was making a phone call we discovered that the shop also sold beer (Doc: but like good boys and responsible riders (yeah, right!) we just held off the temptation to have some beer). The shopkeeper was surprised to hear about our plan to riding to Dharwad at that time of the night, and fell to the floor when he heard that we were riding all day from Pune ("bahut stamina hai" - translation - u guys are mad!).

21:40: We were out of the shop and riding towards Dharwad. We were soon greeted by another ghat section and once that was over another, yet another check-post to check out documents (what a pain!). There we decided to take a break for tea (Doc: here I fished out the packet of Royal Bakery batashas and we ate them with gusto on a stomach full up till now with only misal-pav!!!). It was around 23:00. In next 15min we started our journey again. Again we were in another ghat and jungle section. Now Doc asked me to take the lead. The clock said bedtime, but we were far from it. By now it was "mind over body". There was no light except for our bikes' headlamps and the occasional bus or truck passing us in the opposite direction. The road was the worst we had ridden so far on the trip. While leading I was getting illusions of seeing a man in place of a tree and a dog in place of roadside stones. My eyes were full of sleep but my mind was saying just few more kilometers and we will be home. During this phase I thought I missed a couple of turns but Doc and Sanjay following me didn't think so (by now Navs was really hallucinating - it was a single road with no turns/diversions!!!!). Around 01:00 (Sat, 14th) we were stopped at another check post and this time the guy asks me if we are carrying some alcohol. My simple "No" satisfied him and we continued. At 01:40 we were stopped at another check post to check our documents. Here we came to know that we are just 60km away from Dharwad. While Doc and Sanjay showed their documents I decided to take a small nap (?!! - Ed.). Once I told Doc about my state during the jungle it was decided that I would do no more leading (do you blame me?!!!!!!!). As we started to continue, one guy told us not to stop in the jungle as there might be some animals roaming around (the forest was the same as the Dandeli wildlife sanctuary). That was enough to scare all of us and we started to rip on the single laned road with the very bad surface (Doc: we attended to our bladders before starting coz stopping for nature's call in a dark forest with only the 3 of us for long sections of it with multiple hungry(?) wild animals lurking around did not appeal to us in any way!). After riding for around one hour in a state where the body had given up (Doc: total zombies, with eyes fixed to the reassuring warm red glow of the tail lite in front!), we finally reached Dharwad at around 02:52 with odo showing 61951km (723km from the start). Now we started to look for directions to reach the hotel (Doc: woke a few very disgruntled petrol pump attendants in the process!), which we reached after a minor search. With lots of bikes parked in the front we decided to add three more bikes to the lot.

03:05: We were in the room, tired, wet and hungry. I was thinking of waking up the guys sleeping in our neighboring room, then dropped the idea thinking that those guys will also be tired. Doc though wanted to wake all the guys ;-) (for obvious reasons of much needed sustenance!!!). By now I was in dry clothes, Doc and Sanjay were changing their clothes (abbe Navs, we also had a bath, stinker!). The last thing I remember is that Doc was entering in bathroom telling me not to sleep as we need to eat and drink. But I think the feel of dry clothes and a nice bed was good enough for me to enter lala land.

Doc: the one who laffs last laffs loudest - managed to appropriate the blanket for myself from a snoring Navs!!!!!!

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