Road Trip to Harihareshwar 5th - 7th April 2013

It was me who had been given an opportunity to bike a lot ;-) Hell Lot !!!  Calculated roughly - 800kms to bike !!

Since I had opted to ride on my R15, I had to bike to Pune (approximately 200km) on Friday night and had to bike the next day too, along to Harihareshwar with my biker buddy Anupam and his avenger. Though I was super excited thinking about the biking and all, the very thought of getting tired was always behind my mind.

Anyways with all high spirits of another great biking trip I left from office early on Friday (5th Apr) at around 8pm. As per the plan, I had to pick Abinash from his office too. So I picked him up from Andheri (near Mumbai Int'l Airport) and we zoomed our way to Pune. We relished our lovely Mac D dinner on our way. Since it was pretty late, I preferred a speed of  approx 70-80kmph and chit chatted with Abinash all the way to Pune. We enjoyed some breaks at Lonavla, had tea and biscuits watched the train pass by us. After around 4hrs we reached the first destination of the trip i.e. Pune, time was 1am. First things first, I called up my parents to inform them that I reached safely. That is what most of us do quite often :)

Everyone joined in by 2am. By everyone I mean my gang, KB3 as we call ourselves, We were busy sharing jokes and other discussions about tomorrow. We were about to take a cab and two bikes. Me and Anupam were the so called sole bikers and we were suggested to take a good nap before taking the brunt of 4hrs of biking in the hot summer the other day ;)

Next day 6:30am, everyone was ready to leave. The cab had reached as per the time and we were all set to leave for Harihareshwar. We left off Wakad,Pune at 7am with all the checks. Refuelled our bikes and biked our way to SH60. We soon found ourselves riding on the patchy Paud road. While those in the cab enjoyed chocolates , beer , ac and the deluxe comfort, me and Anupam were sweating it out on our bikes ;)

Bright and sunny day

 No complaints, we were the ones loving the cool breeze , lovely hills we were biking besides and we were having our own share of fun. Soon the roads expanded and we were surrounded by crops , hills at some distance and other vehicles whizzing past us.

My R15 with Tamhini Ghats at backdrop

Anupam's Avy and my R15

We stopped at some places, took snaps, shared some lighter moments. Cheers to our friendship !!  As a couple of more hours passed, the temperature started rising. In case you thought that I am boasting about the biking and the palpitations, I am mentioning about the sun that was right over the bikers making us just say ufff.....

Bikerz

As we started riding our way to Tamhini ghats , Mulshi dam, we experienced a variety of roads and superb views. Somewhere we had bouncy roads, whereas sometimes we had to make our way through rough terrains. The flaura and fauna of the hills were amazing. We did stop there for some minutes to feel the silence and peace there. All we could hear were the chirping of birds and the breeze. Thats what we crave for in the crowded and busy cities.

Lovely aint it

Moving forward, it was around 12pm afternoon and we were still some 50kms away from harihareshwar. Within this 5hrs of riding we enjoyed the roads, drove through rocky terrains , whizzed past 100kmph at clean patches and even took sharp turns at the Ghats. Those inside cab were having a great time listening to songs and all they did was eat eat and eat.

We reached Harihareshwar at 1pm afternoon with the scorching sun burning the hell out of us. It was dead end where a good crowd of people making their way in the Harihareshwar temple. To our right we could see the wide stretch of the Shrivardhan beach which was shining all white in the afternoon. We noticed the hotels which were on either sides of the dead-end road. Searched for a hotel nearby and threw ourselves on the bed. After the tiring journey we had to take at-least some rest. After a power nap of 2hours, we had lunch and got ready to hit the beach. We went to distant beach (sorry but I couldn't recall the name). After playing around the rocks and taking some snaps, we decided to move back to the main beach which seemed a better option.

We enjoyed playing football, sat and danced in the beach. While the couples had a good time, we all guys tried our best to go as far as we could and play with the waves. My go word as always - Awesome !!!!! This is what life is all about. Enjoying every moment with friends. After hours of all our activities, we were done with our share of enjoyment at the beach and our pro cameramen Sumit and Sid were all set to capture the sunset. While me , Anupam and Abinash tried our luck with singing. We had coconut water and snacks and made our way back to hotels where we had shower and some rest.

For the night we were had planned bonfire at Shrivardhan beach. No sooner we had our light dinner. We had bottles and hukka ready. Since we had to search for a good place to light up the bonfire, we took our bikes to the beach and preferred using bike headlights to search the spot. It was dead silence at that point of time and I wouldn't hold myself mentioning that the scene looked familiar to some beach horror movies you must have seen sometime in your life. The local residents had already scared the shit out of us by mentioning that the beach had snakes and warned us not to go to the beach. While we searched for the woods, we even noticed a white dupatta(white cloth) nearby which created a spooky atmosphere around us.  Keeping our spirits high and coming back to bonfire, we accidentally got a good amount of wood and some petrol from bike to lit up the bonfire. We started our bonfire and started our party with chicken lollipops and chilly chicken to. Mmmmm that was yummy......We enjoyed the next few hours eating, drinking and singing. That really made up our night.

Hold it guys, we still have our hukka !! Abinash and Sid planned lighting up the hukka when we returned back from bonfire. Kudos to them that they even had some energy left to light up the hukka. After a round of hukka, we finally called it off for the night and off we went to our beds to get up the next and final day of our trip.

The final day was here, and all we wished for is another day to enjoy harihareshwar. But aware of our professional lifestyle, we accepted that its time to go back. We headed to Shiva temple which was located to the north of the town.

It is a devotion center for many devotees all over India and abroad. Situated at the coast of Arabian-sea.

 One side is Bankot creek and other side arabian sea and beautiful around hillock entered in it.  It is really awesome to walk the steps of hillock and then down to the sea.

 After taking the blessings, we returned back to Mumbai with some really good memories and with a promise of coming back and riding Tamhini Ghats yet again...........bye bye Harihareshwar :-)

Accommodations are provided cheap by M.T.D.C. (Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation)
How to get there:
As per our road trip : 173kms from Pune via Mumbai Goa highway
Train: Mangaon railhead on Konkan railways


Do visit Harihareshwar for it has the awesome beach and temple and yes the really superb Tamhini Ghats to bike on.  Kudos and see ya.....will be back with my next trip soon.....

src:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harihareshwar
        http://www.ashtavinayakayatra.com/harihareshwar