Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Group Ride to Dhamni Dam | 2014

It was a Sunday ride with the Naked Wolves Mumbai Pune gang. I wasn't sure till the eve of the ride about who was to accompany me. I was still recovering from my injury and was mostly on my cervical collar. I did not want to ride and wanted to go on as pillion. Due to absolute lack of information, I did not know who was going to come. Contacted a few guys, but to no avail. Asked Savio to join and he was ready to join, but with saddle bags and he stayed very far from my house and coming to his house and then leaving for Mumbai would had made things trippy. Finally with a heavy heart, I decided that I would be riding down on my bike.

It was decided that we would start from Pune by 3AM and would meet somewhere on the highway. As luck would have it, Savio got delayed as he was picking up a new member and then had to collect guards also for him. I continued a bit on the old high way and stopped at a roadside stall, waiting for them. They finally made it to the spot at around 4AM. After a short round of tea we continued. Had got the visor changed from Silver to Clear in the morning.

I was asked to lead. Savio's headlight were not supporting him and he had to ride a bit slow. Additionally, due to my injury, I had to make frequent stops to ease the creeping pain. We had expected rain on the ride, as the forecast had suggested. As always, the weather department had failed miserably and there was no rain, although the clouds looked heavily upon us. By 5AM, we had readily crossed Khandala and into Khopoli. The morning sky was gathering itself up. The gaze of the hills were amazing with the backdrop of the rising sky.



Waiting for Mr.Tavadia and company 3AM on the old Mumbai-Pune Highway

We were near Panvel where we were dashing into fogs. Small patches were completely covered in fog. Speed became risky here. At few places, the visibility was less than 5meters.

First glimpse of fog on the highway

The morning sun was just rising among the hills and clouds

2 Chaps on 2 Wheels
Finally after braving through the fog we reached a junction. There was a 2inch prick in my tyres and I desperately needed to get a tyreshop. I had the ingredients (just to save money, else they charge upto 150bucks per puncture which doesn't cost even 15bucks to fix)  but not the pump. We were not sure of the route and baba Savio, as always went ahead straight directly into the heart of Mumbai without even knowing. A few attempts of correcting him or calling him back, failed miserably. Thanks to the mobile network in those areas. However after dropping him a sms, we continued our way through Mumbra. Fixed the puncture for meare 10bucks. Saw a Butane truck crash and escaped the area ASAP in the fear of butane inhalation. This roadside hill had a insatiable view, with the clouds complementing it.
We finally reached Fountain Hotel on the Mumbai-Gujarat road. The entire group was waiting for us. Savio baba had reached earlier than us. He was probably trying to race on the "empty" roads of Mumbai. A short break of 30mins for breakfast was nice and fulfilling. Soon we started for our destination. I was the one who was tailing. The group was enormous. The 5-6guys led by Panchal bhaisaab stopped as it was really boring to ride at 30-40kmph on the truly open Gujarat highway. Well that was a wrong move as we didn't know there was a right turn to the Dam. By the time we started up again, there was no one ahead of us. We 6 guys were riding furiously at 140ish but to no avail. Eventually, we ended up crossing over the Maharashtra Gujrat border and further to the Silvasa chowk. It showed Silvasa 40kms. Using the local Indian GPS of asking someone, we found out that we were quite ahead and there was a turn from under a bridge.



A quick turn and dash to the location was initiated. The location turned out to be very dry and very very hot. There was no water in the dam as it was drained the day before. However, as said, the road is always more eccentrically beautiful than the destination, the same happened.




Had a little chat among friends and group mates. A few people were keen to know about the modifications. Discussions were immense. We could not stand the heat as our skin felt like it was on slow fire. We moved out of there as soon as our machines could carry us. I and Sumit wanted to buy a headphone and went ahead a bit for shopping. The Varni headphones are damn good. Still lasts, even under heavy abuse.

As our marketing was done, we found we were the last ones. We started cruising back. The exhaustion was now starting to take its toll on us. Even the clouds looked promising for a shower that we desperately needed. Stopped for a quick break at the nearby CCD and then continued again.

The road till Fountain hotel seemed very long and it wasn't before 4 till we reached. The sky was still gathering itself with occasional moderate showers lasting not more than a minute. The return roads were good until it nearly ceased to exist at the brim of Mumbra.

By the time we reached Khopoli outskirts the sky was ready to explode, and it did explode. To an extent that the visibility reduced again. Soon, we reached Lonavala. Totally wet, we stopped for a grab at the nearby McDonald's. The rain had intensified now.

We took to the road. The rain was very intense and to make things worse, nearly all the vehicles were using high beam. I was nearly befuddled with the rain drops and the cold. Finally we made it to Dehu Road some how. There was no news of Mr.Tavadia. His  phone was switched off due to fishy reasons.

Even the highway was flooded with water near Pimpri. It was fun to watch the cars drenching the scooty-pep ridernis with the flood water. Even I contributed much to the noble cause :P
 Finally reached home at around 10.

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