Amboli ghat: Two Wheels, Two Nomads, One Thrilling Adventure

Day 11: Jan 1, 2008

As much as we don’t want this trip to end, we are heading back to Pune today. We cover around 450 km of riding through the picturesque Amboli Ghat.

Panjim

I was awake at 6 am and intended to leave early as it was going to be a long day. 450 km from Panjim to Pune. We had calculated 10 hours to complete the journey and be back to our home sweet home. By the time we packed up and were ready to begin the journey back, it was 7:30 am. We paid off the caretaker & wondering how he did not come to know that we had sneaked in; set off from Panjim to get back to the routine.

Sawantwadi – 57 km of the ride and we were at Sawantwadi. From here we were to take a diversion to NH4 and leave behind NH17. It was around 8:30 am and we thought it was the right time for breakfast. We hogged on the delicious poha, idli, sheera & much more. It seemed like we had not eaten for ages.

Amboli Ghat

After the heavy breakfast, we were energized to take up the journey further. I was riding enjoying the beauty of the Sahyadris at Amboli Ghat and narrating the various things that we did on our last visit here.

It had been a joy ride for quite a distance; until we slipped off at one of the turns near the village en route. I was excited and not realizing the sharpness of the curve I was to take kept riding on. The bike was about to go off the road and hence I braked hard. The bike instantly fell off and we were flat on the ground with the bike on us; not knowing what exactly happened. Luckily we were not hurt much and we were in a position to ride back the next minute. But a huge mob of villagers gathered around us to know what happened. I said it was a minor slip because of my mistake but they were of the view that we slipped because of the water which was being spilled by the lorry carrying fish. We had a long conversation and they did not leave us until we promised them to complain against the fish-carrying lorry at the Amboli Ghat police station.

Toward Kolhapur

We rode on and without wasting our time in police complaints and stuff headed towards Kolhapur. En route to Kolhapur, we had to cross the small villages of Ajra, Gadhinglaj, and Nipani. The road was not good and it slowed down our speed. But we enjoyed the ride and the landscape around and I made Akshay listen to my favorite Marathi numbers explaining to him the meaning. This served as a good means of entertainment for us and the road to Nipani was covered in no time. At Nipani we hit NH4 and it was an awesome ride since then. We cruised at an average speed of 90kmph on this road and enjoyed the ride.

Karad

We had planned to have lunch at Kolhapur but when we reached Kolhapur we realized it was around 15km off the NH4. Thinking it would be a sheer waste of time we decided to ride on and halt at a decent dhaba on the way. A few km before Karad, we came across a good restaurant viz. Sai Palace and we decided to take a lunch break. It was around 2:30 pm then.

We treated ourselves royally out here relishing the Kolhapuri Chicken with some accompaniments and ice-creams for dessert which made our day. Akshay called up his parents to inform them that he would be put up at my place that night and come over the next morning and I called up mom to prepare some good food for the night. We started with vigor and with the contentment that we would be home in just a couple of hours more.

Pune

We were at the Katraj tunnel around 7 and it was getting on our nerves to ride on. It was just half an hour more to go but we just wanted to end it. But the end could not have been so sad – with the pain in the back and fatigue riding over us. So we decided to end it up with the famous and my all-time favorite Kondhalkar Mastani.

Kondhalkar’s Mastani

When we landed at Kondhalkar’s our faces were worth a watch and Akshay did try to capture the same. But it was an unsuccessful attempt as the photos did not depict our condition. With our helmets, our huge sacks, and our weary faces we attracted strange looks from the people around us.

We ordered a Kesar dry fruit and Khus mastani and it was over in no time. Then we asked for Chocolate mastani as Akshay was really fond of it.

We reached home around 9 pm tired and weary.  We had a hot water bath, had food, talked about our experiences, and slept off to get back to the routine of life the next day!