A ride is something that I always look forward to & with the impending Leh-Ladakh ride next month; I thought that a small ride is essential.
I expressed my thoughts to Pragat Loke, a friend who is also going to join me in the ride to Ladakh & the plans started formulating. The initial idea was to ride down to a small and nondescript fishing village of Dandi near Boisar & spend a night there eating Fish and Chicken. I agree that food is my weakness & I could do anything for food, but we realized that the plan was just the outcome of a lazy mind and decided to spice things up a bit.
Google Maps come in very handy to chart out roads and routes, we reverse engineered & looked for offbeat places close to Boisar which we could explore. We arrived at 2 options: Daman & Jawhar. We did some reading up on both places and settled down on Jawhar which is considered to be ‘The Mahabaleshwar’ of Thane district.
18th June,2011 Saturday we started from Mumbai around 6AM, met up with Janardhan Iyer & my old friend Chandan Manyal at Kalanagar and continued the ride to Kandivali, took a break for Chai at Parag Vartak’s place & then met up with Pragat Loke at Dahisar check naka.
The actual ride started from here, it was a pleasure to see a carpet of green surrounding the vast open expanse around NH-8, popularly known as the Ahemdabad highway. The lane separated highway meant that we could cruise at around 90kmph at ease, but our joy was short lived as we saw a long line of traffic bunched up for almost a kilometer if not more. People had killed the engine indicating that it has been a long wait if not the prudence to Not Waste Fuel.
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| NH-8 |
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| Riding to Manor |
The advantage of being on a 2 wheeler came into use and we used the left side/kerb side to move ahead at a comfortable pace, a couple of cars tried to follow suit, but the area to the left not being much, they were unsuccessful. On successfully negotiating the entire line of traffic, we realized that the bunch up was the result of some work going on the road and people trying to cut lanes lead to the traffic pile up.
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| Traffic Pile up |
The road from here on was smooth & we reached Manor in no time, got off the NH & took the SH to Vikramgarh. The road was a single lane, but a beauty with not a single pothole. There were small settlements after every few kilometers, but green was the colour of the day cos of the rains. We reached Vikramgarh & took a halt for some breakfast of Dhoklas (Least Oily of the Lot) and Chai before ascending the ghats to get to Jawhar. Mid way in the ghats, we stopped at a beautiful stretch of road, parked the bikes and sat down on the road to chit chat.
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| Ride to Vikramgarh |
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| Ghats to Jawhar |
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| Relaxing on the road |
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| U dont get to do this on any road during the day |
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| Chilling out |
A ride up one of the most beautiful ghat roads saw us at Jawhar, a quaint little hill station in the Thane district. Unlike the flurry of activity visible at most hill stations on weekends during the rains, Jawhar thankfully was devoid of city dwellers. It was a welcome change from the hustle bustle that one generally sees at Lonavala/Matheran/etc. We quickly moved towards Hotel Pushpanjali and checked into their Luxury room; clean & carpeted & with a nice large window for ventilation.
After lazing our butt on the carpet for a while, we decided to head for sightseeing to Jai Vilas Palace close by. The palace belongs to the Munke clan who now stay in Pune and come over occasionally on weekends. The palace is a nice clean colonial kind of a structure, for Rs.50 as a tip to the caretaker; we got a guided tour of the inside of the Palace only to be greeted by nothing of great importance (Architecturally as well as in terms of Grandeur).
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| Jai Vilas Palace |
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| Another take |
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| A part of a pillar |
Next on the list was Dhabosa waterfall, around 16kms on the Sylvassa road. The ride was amazing and beautiful, we were even tempted to stop and join a couple of kids at cricket on a wide open Green ground. After a 30 min ride, we got to Dhabosa. The waterfall was a mere trickle in comparison to its full grandeur in July – August when it rains more heavily & frequently.
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| Carefree Childhood |
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| Dhabosa waterfall |
Chandan, Janardhan, & Pragat decided to trek down to the waterfall while I politely declined. I consider myself adventurous & generally don’t give up on such opportunities, but something held me back, I just did not feel like going all the way down to see a mere Pee Type Trickle of a waterfall.
I walked around for a while, locked the bike and decided to look around and explore. The beginning of the (Mis) Adventure started by me not listening to my heart (Gut feeling) & listening to my head (What the fuck am I supposed to do here alone while these guys are gone). With no idea of what fate had in store for Me (Us), I started on the trek down to the waterfall only to be greeted by Chandan and Pragat comfortably perched on a huge boulder with a cigarette in hand. How could I have even thought of missing out on the fun of sitting next to a waterfall, Even though it was a mere trickle? United with my buddies once again, I gladly shared the cigarette over some light hearted discussion with another group of around 8 people who had come from Dahanu. Safety in mind, the first thing to be discussed was the depth of the water, got the news that a few steps into the water and it drops down to almost 20-30 feet.
The only thing I did not learn as a kid was swimming, don’t know why but I never got the opportunity. I politely declined having a bath in the water as I did not want to step into uncharted waters. It had just been 5-10 mins of me reaching down near the water, the smoke of the cigarette had disturbed a couple of bees and they were buzzing angrily around us. Not wanting to be stung, I decided to move back up to the road, a decision that took me downhill literally.
My first mistake was to try and keep the bees at bay by waving my hands, it agitated them into an attack mode and the 2-3 odd bees turned to grow into a swarm of 10-15 angry ones. I realized that the only way to keep them at bay would be to cover my head and sit still. Chose a boulder and shielded my face and head and sat down as quietly as I could, got stung on my hands and elbow but managed to keep my cool. The last straw came when I was stung on both my ear lobes, Mind said SIT STILL; Body chose to Not Agree.
With a scream of pain, I moved my rotund ass from the spot and made a mad & blind dash for the water. Even in the state of panic I retained the sense of mind to take off my waist pouch having my Cell phone, Wallet, & bike keys. I ripped it off and threw it to somebody, did not bother to see who and jumped into the water and kept my head down. I could hear the darn buzz of the angry bees over my head even in the water.
All this while; Pragat, Chandan, & Janardhan were enjoying the scene from the boulder with Janardhan even managing to click a snap of me in my predicament. Chandan had a jacket with him which he threw out to me to cover my head and body in the water. With me in the water, fate had a cruel plot in mind for Janardhan, the Bees changed direction & started to attack him instead. By now the swarm had grown exponentially, Janardhan also jumped into the water and in his panic to get rid of the bees, managed to venture into the deep side of the pond. To make matters worse, he did not know to swim and took a plunge into the depths a couple of times, before Chandan shouted out to the guys from the Dahanu group to help get him to the shallow side of the pond. The bees were now buzzing angrily all over the pond; Chandan also had to jump in as he got stung a few times and took cover under the jacket. The darn bees were huge, probably cos of the fresh air & no pollution. We did not dare to look out from the comforts of our protective shield as the buzz of the bees was loud enough for us to hear it from under the jacket. In the meanwhile, the bee attack had turned into a full fledged battalion with the Dahanu group also getting stung and the pond reverberated with the choicest of swear words in all possible languages!
While we cowered in fear, taking care to see that there was not a single gap in the jacket, Chandan happened to mention to me that his cell phone was in the Jacket pocket. By the time we retrieved it, it was waterlogged. There were villagers on the other side of the pond who said that they will charge money to help us, I guess even in their predicament people refused to pay for the help and chose to look out for way to get out of the attack, a few managed to make it outside from the other side of the pond.
We soon heard Pragat’s voice asking us to move out slowly, we managed to peek at Pragat who was standing tall on a boulder with a towel on this head. We could see a couple of bees around and I happened to casually look at the watch and retort to Chandan that it is just 16.15hrs and we still have a lot of time before dark. While we were waiting we realized that in the panic to get into the water, we had abandoned all our belongings, where we don’t know. The collective Mrp value of all the goods that we had left unattended was upwards of a Lakh Rs. We immediately asked Pragat to collect all the camera’s and pouches and move up towards the bike, Chandan and me slowly got out of the water and started walking up the trail. A few of the bees followed us, but this time we walked with the jacket on our heads and without any provocation from our side, there were thankfully no more attacks.
Got back up to the bike, thoroughly shaken, stirred, & stung only to have a good laugh later. We halted at a small school in the village where even the Dahanu group joined us.
It seems there was a small Bee Hive on a boulder on the ground which was disturbed by the cigarette smoke and hence the attack. Pragat and others alike told me that I was a quite a sight, a round & portly guy dashing down to the water screaming. I was termed as the ‘Culprit’ cos had I run up instead of down, none of the other guys would have been in trouble. Running up was not possible for me, as it was a long hike up and I would have panted and died halfway through, going down was the fastest and best option for me plus add to it the safety of water. I remembered all the cartoons that we watched as kids, of Tom being attached by bees and running into the water, it all seemed oh so funny then.
Janardhan Iyer was termed as the “BEE Man” cos considering the number of times that he was stung, we assumed that he would mutate just like Spiderman and turn into ‘Beeman’. It seems Janardhan was so badly stung that inspite of covering his face with his T-shirt, the bees still managed to get inside through a small gap and sting him. Those who saw this happen say that it was just like in all those Tom & Jerry cartoons, a huge swarm channeling itself in through a small opening tormenting poor Tom.
Pragat was relatively safe and stung only twice. He stood around like a Control Tower while the squadrons of bees were taking off towards the targets. There were around 10-15 large hives on the waterfall wall which had also got the message of an imminent intrusion and were already in a disturbed state, we were lucky that they did not decide to join the melee.
All is well as long as it ends well! We decided to have chai along with the Dahanu group, had a good laugh over the entire ordeal with each one imitating how the other reacted, exchanged cell phone numbers and moved back towards our destination.
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| A Chai to unwind |
The ride back to Jawhar was minus any other Adventure, we got back by 19.00hrs & decided to de-stress with a bottle of Old Monk (OM as I fondly prefer to call it). Meanwhile, Janardhan was not feeling good, partly because of acidity and maybe also because of his ordeal. He had a bath and went off to sleep, while the rest of us decided to have dinner & our OM and unwind a rather eventful day.
The next day saw us wake up early, seeing the weather outside, we decided to laze a bit. Janardhan had made up his mind to head back home, he said that the stings were still hurting him and that he would like to go home, persuasion yielded no luck and we had to let him ride back home alone, with the promise that he would ride slow & safe and call us as soon as he gets home (His cell too went down in the water with him).
Check-out of 12 noon saw us waking up at 11 and packing stuff to get back on our machines. We covered the Hanuman Point of Jawhar, which offered a splendid view of the valley from 3 sides and the cloudy weather added to its beauty. After a fulfilling meal, we decided to take the Jawhar – Mokhada – Khodala – Kasara route back to Mumbai. The route was beautiful and passed through small hamlets. We covered the Shirpamal, which is supposed to be the place where Shivaji Maharaj had camped on his way to Surat. The road from Khodala to Kasara was not in a very good condition, but the weather and the view more than made up for it.
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| At Hanuman Point |
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| Shirpamal |
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| The long open road |
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| A bridge on the Khodala Kasara route |
The ride back to Mumbai was rather uneventful, I guess 1 adventure or Misadventure on a trip was more than what we could ask for. Got back home at 6.30PM with the resolve to embark on our next ride again sometime soon.
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| NH-3 |
Logistics:
Route Taken: Matunga(W) - Dahisar - Manor - Vikramgarh - Jawhar (135kms)
NH-8 till Manor & SH till Jawhar
Jawhar - Mokhada - Khodala - Kasara - Thane - Matunga(W) (170kms)
SH/Internal road till Kasara & NH-3 till Mumbai
Sights to see: Hanuman Point, Sunset Point, Jai Vilas Palace, & Dhabosa waterfall.
Stay @ Jawhar: Hotel Pushpanjali - 09270656666 (Mr.Santosh)
Rs.700 for Luxury room (Recommended)
Rs.500 for Regular room
Hotel Sankalp - 09271848169 (Mr.Rajesh)
Rs.800 for Luxury room
Rs.600 for regular room
Food Options: Hotel Shivneri on the Highway (Serves Good veg/nonveg food) Reasonable rates
Hotel Sankalp near Sunset point (Serves excellent nonveg food)
