Hi, it has been a long time since I have written anything, though there have been some amazing rides. The first one to write about was a ride to "GOA". One would definetly love to be in GOA on the New Year's Eve but then I was so determined to be in "AULI" at that time to continue the Sking session, So it was in late September when the monsoon was almost over and the mercury was also down, ideal time for riding, It was decided to start off on Sep 30 night. The strength was 7 so we had to take WagonR, UniCorn and ThunderBird. There are many routes to Goa from Hyd, most of them have a overnight halt at Sholapur or Bijapur, but its not all that great idea to waste 2 days. So we took a shorter route via Raichur, Bhagalkot and Belgaum to do it in single day. Here's route we took...
It was all set and we started at 2100 hrs, it would be a 16 hours (approx 800Km)journey, obviously with some small breaks, it would all be good till we crossed Raichur at around 0200 hrs from where we had to take some diversions, with the fatigue setting in a bit and lack of signboards we missed one and realised that after travelling 10 km, so had to backtrack which is quite painful at any time. The roads are quite confusing in this part and with no signboards at junctions, it makes life difficult. As we drove along clocking kms, the dawn was setting in and ride had just become much beautiful as the dawn rides are. Had some breakfast and also got the Enfield's silencer rod welded and continued, the road from Hungund to Belgaum was a good 2 lane highway and the in the broad daylight the speeds started to increase and soon crossed 3 digit mark consistantly.
Just at dawn.....wonderful for riding......
We reached Belgaum at noon and had lunch and also enquired about the route to Goa, as there were a couple of them and we learnt that there's a shortcut via Chandgad and Ramghat which would save some 40 odd kms.
On the way......
The Twisties.....simply love them
Soon after the start the twisties started and the adrenaline was pumping in until the road was just gone, yes it was just not there, it was all stones, pebbles and sand, add to that we were on top of hill and had to get down. It was one of the toughest ride we had ever experianced, not that we never encountered such roads but the fact that we had to encounter such roads for almost 30 kms. The decision to take the shortcut was a badone and it had taken more than 4 hours to cover 130 kms.
The Road if one can say so.....
At last after 20 hours of non stop back breaking journey we reached Goa, it was now more than 40 hours since anybody had slept and every one was really tired, but still there was some energy left to go out to the Calangute beach, had a couple of drinks and just crashed. We had settled in a Hotel in Calangute, which had a nice pool, that was the only thing we were looking at and was near the beach. The next day got up late, had some fun in the pool pulling legs of one another and then set out for the Chapora Fort or more popularly known as the DCH point, the last time I had been there it was a remote place and there was not a single soul apart from us, but this time there was a huge crowd up there with everyone reserving a seat on the wall to witness the Sunset, which unfortunately turned in an anti climax as the some clouds came from no where at the very last moment.
The way for DCH Point......
All 7 of us....a rare shot
Eagarly waiting for Sunset....
Best shot we could manage.....
So we returned and went towards the beach to get in to some nice shack and have a couple of drinks and then it struck with a lightning that it was Gandhi Jayanthi and it seems that Goans followed it pretty strictly, but than we always knew that we would find some remote place, and so we found one, it was here we started ordering a variety fo Fishes and had a real taste of goan cuisine.
Really missing them.....
The light house at Aguada Fort...
The next day morning we played beach volleyball for an hour and were completely exhausted, so again went to the pool and relaxed and then it was time for some adventure sports (if at all we may say so), It felt very exciting that we would Parasail, it was near Anjuna that we had booked it for Rs 700 per person and after an agonozing long wait, at last were setting out for it. The main boat on which the parasail is present was a kilometer or an Kilometer and half away from the shore, so there were other small boats which had 6 seats were being used to ferry upto the main boat.
All excited, heading to parasail...........
As we were 7, one of had to stay back and come on the other boat but after much deliberation, he accepted to board 7 of us and to balance the weight, I was to sit on the front deck of the boat. It was one hell of an exciting ride with water splashing on us and it was the only one, yah the parasailing stuff was not as exciting as we had thought before and it was also way too quick, the total time from the start to end was about 2 min. They used to just release the cable till the end and soon after that started pulling back. So for a 2 min activity we had to wait for more than 4 hours.
Parasailing.......where's the cable????
In the night we went back to the beach got some Tequila and Wine and sat there till midnight chatting about the next days plan and it was decided that we would head in the small boats to see Dolphins early in the morning as the boat ride was fun. So we headed out for that thinking we would get a great shot of the Dolphins as we see it in the Discovery, if not that spectacular at least some thing of that sought, but to our dismay, forget about the shot we hardly saw the Dolphins, they showed them from a long distance and that too only the finn.
Going in search of Dolphins........
Can you locate the it..........
This was an utter disappointment as both of the cxciting stuff we had thought of were a flop. The parasailing was just an 2 min trailer and Dolphin saga a 15 min one, neither one of them had anything exiting about them apart from the boat rides for which a heavy sum was being charged. Anyways its hardly a place to expect any kind of adventure sports, its all a commercial sport. We had to start early in the morning the next day so as to reach Hyd by night, so we went back to the beach shack and sat there in front of the beach chatting about various things until we reliased we had galloped all this.
Nice Collection..........
Went back, had a dip in the pool for the last time, had dinner and crashed. Awaiting for us was a long journey back home. We got up early and started by 0300 hrs, so that we could reach Hyd by 2200 hrs, this time we did not take the short route instead we wne tvia Savantwadi and Amboli to Belgaum, the roads were in much better shape but there was a lot dew and the ride was again a challenging and slow one, had breakfast in same hotel in Belgaum and then started ripping off, had to caver a lot distance and this strech being the best to do it.
Just Love this shot......
There were many delays as Enfields fuses were going off and it wouldn't start with out them, so had to cope up with that and also it took almost an hour to find fuses in Bhagalkot, Anywasys its quite a part of any journey that such things happen, infact this all makes an complete Road Trip. Reached Raichur nearly at 1600 hrs and had one of the wonderful lunch at a roadside dabha, I had jowar Rotis with really spicy Bhendi Fry and Groundnut dhai chutney, it ws an awsome treat after a long time, moved on but the progress was slow till Jadcherla but from here we had just burned the wheels of the bike and were back home by 2300 hrs. All in all a good road trip with a tinge of diappointment.........
Next Ride Soon...............
