My Big Escapade - Destination Unknown...: Day 158 - Aug 13

Aug13 at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: GPS Trip Sharing with Google Maps

244 KMs 22179 KMs

Had moved to my childhood friend prakash's place the previous evening and had party till late in the night. That got me slow to start today. PraveenS had chalked out awesome route and quite a fill for they day. Bid farewell to Prakash and started pretty late and its 11.30 am by the time i leave pune. PraveenS says i can still make it. Since i had to leave the luggage somewhere to see placed around Mahabaleshwar, the schedule was to ride till satara, turn right to checkout toseghar windmills and ride north towards Mahabaleshwar. Sounds simple. With on and off rains, its a pain to get in and out of rain gear. Any way reach satara on the GQ and turn right in search of Toseghar. PraveenS had given simple and effective directions and i surely found my way around. Crossed a tunnel and it was super green on the other side. It was already 2 pm and i kind have to make it quick. Guess will have to skip visiting Sajjangadd fort due to short of time. It was again green every where. Every bit of mud was covered with light green grass. It was beside the road, on the mountains and every where. It glowed when sun escaped the clouds and shined on them. Now i needed ask around bit and i doubted if any would would understand the word 'windmill'. But on trail and error found out the hindi 'pavan chakki' which everyone around knew and directed me towards the place. Could see a few far above the mountain table plateos. The weather is but dull and windy. Atleast the windmills will be happy. As i ride up i see more and more of them. I see a farm to my left and there was a bad road leading to it. The windfarms on the opposite mountains looks attractive and thought of heading there. I head there they were still 10-15 kms with bad roads. Thought would check out the one i passed.

I was told that i can ride into the farm, and after a bad patch there was a decent road leading the farm. It was great up there on the table with lot of wind mills. The farm extended quiet some distance and had drop off on the edge of it. It was amazing up there and the windmills were quite huge. Just rode around lazily and walked around a bit. Could hundreds of windmills far across on the adjacent mountain plateaus. The cloud was playing around and would give glimpses of the huge farms afar. Felt like being in a alien land. It was 4 when i started to ride. Though short of daylight you got the have food when hungry. Come back to the satara town as directed and take a left towards Kaas village. The road again climbed up and with great views all around. Then the road lead to on top of a flat ridge with drop offs on both the sides and there were lakes on both the sides as well. It got windy and it was strange and beautiful place to ride around. An option was to return to satara to stay for the night. But going back all the way was kinda not acceptable. Rode on gazing at he beauty. Wishing i had started early and i could ride at ease taking more breaks. But its not possible racing against the daylight. Get near Bamnoli lake and there were options to ride around the highly designed lake or take a boat. It was already 6 pm and taking a winding road around the lake for not feasible. So boat it is. It turned out to be bit expensive but with time running i had less options as well. Plus there were scares of swine flue even in this remote village. I was told all stuff were closed at mahabaleshwar cos of the same. Called PraveenS to checkout options and re reassured me to continue saying the words "tell them you coming from pune, they will run away from you" hehe. The boat was arranged and paid for.

It was a big metal motor boat with a high nose. Thought it was impossible to put the bike in and it was actually! But their idea was to put the front wheel in with the rear wheel dangling. Now now are we sure? none were. The bike was hoisted nonetheless and all including me used a lil brain to tie the bike to secure it on the boat. It was kinda scary imagining the bike rolling into the water! One person even sat inside just holding the bike preventing it from rolling out. The other wise pleasant evening boat ride felt apprehensive. The half hour felt real long. We make it to Tapola with bike still on the boat and 3-4 ppl gather to bring the bike back. Pretty relieved seeing the bike standing on its own rubber. Mahabaleshwar is still 35 kms away and though just a lazy ride in bit of dark would take me there. Stopped couple of times for some clicks too. It got darker and the unexpected happened. It got misty and i mean misty. With gaining darkness in the twilight, it was getting harder and harder to ride. Would just get blinded if i turn on the lights. It got tougher and challenging as it got darker. Was riding less than 20 kmph with just the pilot light on. Then i saw local biker standing for a break. When i complained about lack of visibility, he suggested turning off all the lights and riding on indicators!! And what do you know it worked! The indicators worked a blinking fog lamps. Due to a malfunction in the indicator wiring it remained on without blinking later! good for me. It still was tough work with my dead tired and hungry. A big vehicle over took and i just stuck to his tail for the last 5-6 kms. Must say it was one scary ride. Any way made it to damp and wet Mahabaleshwar. The power was out as well. Hotels were expensive and found one for 500 bux. settled in the room and breathed a sigh relief. The target for the day was achieved. It was just about finding food and could not work on logs as i was pretty tired.

A few clicks of pune city from the previous day...