...pulsarider...

Destination - Bhatye beach, Ratnagiri
Distance from matunga - approx 370kms
time taken one way - approx 8 hours (including an hour of break for breakfast and other stuff)

It was a saturday night.. all of us were laughing our hearts out at Sankets jokes.. and in the talks came the plan to ride in a group after a long time..
all of us there were eager to ride.. Vinod had plans of a 500km ride starting Friday night.. but they had to change all that because of me..
thank you all very much for that gesture..

so it was again deepak who had to find out a destination .. and this is what he sent on the mail..
excerpts from the mail..
"With initial places being decided at Tambarde and Kunkeshwar in Malvan- it would only be possible to leave on Friday night. Leaving on Saturday morning riding for 550 kms and then returning back the next day wouldnt make much sense. So I've shortlisted a place called Bhatye Beach in Ratnagiri. As per info from my colleague who is from Pavas which is close to Bhatye, there are ample and inexpensive accomodation options to stay overnight. Here's the pic of the beach. Googled around for a few snapshots of the beach and got this (seems pretty clean):

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/78/154084585_6411a3a066_o.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/53/154084615_7649676b1e_o.jpg

http://www.konkandarshan.com/tourist/images/bhatye_big.jpg "

so it was decided.. Bhatye beach it is going to be..

Riders list
Deepak -- P150
Revel -- Hunk
Vinod -- P180
Sarang -- P180
Vaibhav -- P180
Dhananjay -- P220
Alkesh -- P220
Glen -- Zma
Arjun -- Zma
Sanket -- Zma
Parimal -- Zma (he joined us later at the destination)

All were to meet at the Palm beach road at 5.00am on the saturday morning and leave by max around 5.15am.. But i got a bit late and reached the vashi toll naka at around 5.25am.. to my surprise everybody (including deepak) was there.. As we were getting ready for the ride.. a silver 180 came near the group and started revving.. no one understood who it was.. and finally after he left we saw the BN sticker.. Vinod chased him and got to know that it was PPS (Praveen Sathaye) who was riding to pune..
Sanket was getting a bit late and we decided that we move on as he could easily catchup the group in no time..

the first break was at the Panvel naka for fuelling the bikes.. Sanket reached there in mean time..
Bikes full, all set.. Vinod took the charge of the road ahead.. Deepak was sweeping the pack.. All riding in harmony were moving in a pack..
Deepak zoomed past me on the Karnala curves.. i could see that he was enjoying them as usual.. he dropped his pace back to join me at the back of the pack..

We kept riding through the beautiful NH17.. to everyones surprise it was really cold on the road.. i was literally shaking inside my mesh jacket.. as the time started ticking everyone started feeling hungry..
We decided to stop at Wadkhal for breakfast but were there pretty early as the hotels had yet to be opened.. so we decided that we stop near nagothane which was around 20kms from wadkhal..
We kept riding at pretty good speeds and reached nagothane in no time.. but the lead of the pack just kept riding..
finally we stopped somewhere on the highway for our breakfast..

Wadapav and missal pav.. garam garam.. was served and a nice hot tea made a really great start to the day..

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Started from there after our tummys full.. and kept riding till poladpur.. this was going to be the next stop just before the beautiful twisting kashedi starts..
keep riding on the beautiful 2 lane highway..
Stopped just before kashedi for a refreshment break.. had gola-sharbat and lemon juice..

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start of kashedi..

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The pack was broken now as everyone wanted to enjoy those 20kms of sheer pleasure of the twisties in kashedi..
by now the sun was beating down heavily and me and dhananjay waited for a sip just after the ghats..

All kept riding to the next stop decided.. the top of Parshuram Ghat.. my favourite ghat on the mumbai ratnagiri stretch..
Some riders were ahead of me and dhananjay and some were behind.. we stopped for a refuelling break and all went ahead of us..
deepak was chasing me and thot that i was really fast.. but LOL he dint know that i had stopped..
we met the group again at the top of Parshuram ghat..
its always lovely to stop there.. but always hazy.. the photos of the Vashistha river never come out good:(

river..

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the lineup at the top..

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the rider..
deepak..

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arjun..

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dhananjay..

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Sanket..

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Vinod and Alkesh..

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I started out in front of everyone so that i could click each ones photo at the curve..

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The sun was really heating up everybody.. the water in the bottles was nearly hot.. we had to stop under the shades for some relief..

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finally reached bhatye at around 1.45pm..stopped again for some colddrinks and nariyal paani..

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Dhananjay, sanket and deepak went for searching the lodge.. found one for 1500 bucks for 10members..went to the lodge.. got fresh and left for lunch.. had our lunch at a ok hotel not before arjun had to fix his punctured rear..

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deepak and vinod having some rest while the tyre gets fixed..

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here we had our lunch..

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next destination was sightseeing the Ratnagiri fort (Baale Killa)

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entrance to the fort..

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Kadelot point.. that edge on the right had corner is the point..

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me with the jetty in the background.. where we took our bikes..

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the jetty..

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Bhagavati mandir on top of the fort..

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on the edge of the jetty..

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some posing on the jetty..

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after a long photography session we were back at the hotel.. and the laughter session started which never would have ended had we not want to come back from there..

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Parimal joined us at 11'o clock in the night.. he went to pune.. dropped in wife.. started from there at 5 and reached bhatye which is 450kms from pune at 11.. that is some awesome stuff parimal.. tussi great ho.. !!
thats parimal.. does he look exhausted.. i dont think so..

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We rode to the beach post dinner for some HID photography...
please takecare of the incoming traffic as they might get blinded by these beams..

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that light is of the HIDs..

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came back to the hotel and dozed of to a nice sleep.. initial plan was to start back to mumbai via NH17 at around 7.30.. but we changed the plan and started back at 5.30 to beat the heat.. it was a nice ride back.. reached home at 2.00pm..

awesome ride once again.. one more memory to cherish..

i had not done a ride since october 2008..the itch to ride was too irresistible..and it was a 3 day weekend to top it up..
Darth called up two weeks ago to confirm for jaisalmer..but work pressure now a days is just too much..did not get time to get my bike ready for such a long ride..had to give him kalti just two days prior to d ride..sorry mate..

But d itch to ride is not so easy to overcome..called up moo anus n ghan..n i would be riding..not to the sand dunes but to d beach sand..destination again one of d konkan beach..

moo..

anus..

ghan..

Velneshwar..

The beach is one of d very secluded beaches of maharashtra..325kms from matunga..

route taken: panvel-nagothane-chiplun-velneshwar..

We decided to start at 5am so that we reach velneshwar before it gets too hot..but as expected we started at 5.45am..The weather was chilly..and d NH17 with all d trees around makes it really cold..
We were cruising on d 2 lane highway with d speeds of around 80-90kmph..The chill was doing its job..i had to stop for d bio break..stopped somewhere on d highway..done with emptying d bladders,photosession n suddenly Vroooom -a red coloured hayabusa goes past us..then again Vroooom-its a silver fireblade..

Its 7.15am when we reach nagothane..about 105kms from d palm beach road..we covered d distance in an hour n 30minutes..have idli-wada-sambar n filter coffee..leave from there at 7.45am..

On d highway..cruising towards d destination..mohit dhananjay ride ahead to click a few snaps at mahad..wait for me to reach there..but im about 2-3kms behind them when i feel d rear wobble.. I stop n check..d pressure looks fine.. So start riding but again feel d wobble ..stop n check again..ahh..d tyre is getting flat..decide to keep riding as d tyre is not totally flat..pass anup who is waiting at a spot to take a snap.. Wave him n move ahead.. Mohit waits with d camera for me.. Show him d flat tyre n keep moving.. Find a puncture shop about a km away from d mahad river.. We were there at 9am..it takes an hour to leave from there..

we keep riding passing mangaon roha khed in no time..get down d parshuram ghat n wait to take d right for guhagar..but one scooter uncle suggests that we take d route from chiplun as we will directly get on d state highway..we had to go through very narrow roads of d town..we were told by d locales that after chiplun there r no petrol pumps for 40kms.. Now d r15 would need fuel after about 60kms..

we are about 30kms from guhagar when i c a board which points to d left..it says velneshwar 25kms..we take this road which goes from d other side of velneshwar..d road has absolutely nothing..n i forgot that mohits bike needs petrol..we keep riding thru d narrow road n reach velneshwar at 1.45pm..

had a very heavy home made lunch at d lodge..dozed off til 5..

Went to d beach.. did some photography and a very nice bath in the Arabian sea. The water is absolutely clean.. one can see his feet on the sand beneath..

We were there till the sun set.. Had wadapav for snacks and moved to the hotel.. came back later in the night to check out the beach. Its just too amazing to resist..

It would be Mahashivratri on Monday so the temple was lit up by the bulbs.. it was looking stunning..

Day 2

Start in the morning at 7.00 am and are cruising at 40-50kmph to save fuel. Fill up at Tali which is about 20kms from Velneshwar.. then it’s a free run again back to home..

Keep taking breaks at regular intervals.

Take a food break at Parshuram ghat.. some photography done there.