Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Day 159 - Aug 14 - Mahabaleshwar to Palolem

Aug14 at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: GPS Trail Maps

493 KMs Trip meter 22672 KMs

The sleep was lil disturbing as it felt a bit damp inside the blanket. Never had experienced humidity in cold before. The schedule was a bit tight today with visits around Mahabaleshwar and panchgani and also make it to south goa. Took my 12 snoozes on the alarm before i could get myself out of the bed. Thats a good hour lost. The Lack of sleep acting now. Start lazily by 8.30 for Mahabalewhwar local visit where i should have been done with them by now. Leave the luggage in the hotels reception and i ride towards Kate's point. The whole town is misted out in the morning. Find my way towards panchgani and take a detour to left towards Kate's point. It was a narrow road with tree and plant life on either side of the road. Kinda first visitor for the day and the canteens are just opening up. Luckily there was sunlight and the area was clear of mist. Walk towards the view point and taken aback looking around. IT was a huge area to be seen and just kept looking left to right and right to left. Took plenty of pix. Even shouted a few times the echo point and surely heard the echos. As i start towards aurther's seat i was told that its misty out there and nothing can be seen. I was even given a scare of algae on the road etc. But you gotta ride you see. Half way to there, it began to mist and soon i was deep in it. Visibility was very poor. Rode slowly till the end point. There was no chance of getting any view. ANd have to ride back in mist. Must say it was enjoyable though. Reach Mahabaleshwar and start towards panchgani by 10.30 am. A pleasant ride on the fast smooth road.

Reach panchgani and take the deviation towards Table land. The table land is basically plains high up on mountain tops. Its like huge fields just raised up above compared to surrounding area. After some switch back climbs in the town reach the entrance of the Table lands and i ride on to them. Its flat treeless and majority of area is covered with grass. Thought the concept of high plain i attractive its not quite obvious when on the table itself. But its still fun with grassy meadows. Have to be careful in choosing the path to ride it could be slippery in the rain frequent area. Get quite into the table laned and after a few pix sessions, suddenly the whole table land is covered with mist, nothing of the great views around can be seen. Have to trace back my way too lest i would endup on a slushy path. This is the first time i used the gps in the fone to see if i am back tracking correctly. Track my way out and stop for a long long lunch in panchgani. Ignorantly i spend quite some time there and its only 2pm by the time i start. Suddenly i feel all the hurry, how will i reach a place 400 kms away starting at 2 pm. Its not like other days where i just halted when the sun went down. Cos keerthi is coming all the way from bangalore so that we could party in goa. Seems i have messed up the schedule today. Before getting to fast track riding went till the edge of the Harrison's solly which basically a protrusion off the highway on a narrow plain above the surrounding low lands. I spend some time there too. Now with kinda checking and visiting Mahabaleshwar is over, its just ripping towards goa. Get on to the fourlane highway and try to make up good time by riding at a good pace. Enter Nippani and felt exited about entering karnataka state after a long time. But not for long as i get into maharashtra again riding west of Nippani off the highway. Its already 6 pm and how i wished i was on the other side ofthe hills some 80 kms away. And now i have to ride the winding roads and small villages in twilight and darkness. How i wished i hade atleast a couple of hours. The Route was Ajra, Amboli to Savanthvadi on NH 17 as directed by PraveenS. It felt great riding on the country sides with full of lush green crops. My bike's chain seems to be awfully loose. Its misbehaving just withing 5k kms of its life. On tightening it was seen that the chain had gone real loose and it had unevenly worn out. Man just hope that it last till i get to a next major city. All this take time and Its almost dark when leaving Amboli. Saw a pretty neat lodge at Amboli and was tempted to call it a day there. But it would spoil the weekend plans at goa. So i have to push it today. Its almost dark when i left Amboli and the landscape seemed attractive looking at them in the fading light. Its all dark now and its like 8 pm when i am NH17 and still have 120 kms to go!! Man this is going to be a long evening. There is lot of traffic on the NH17 and slows me down a lot. Looks like one exotic evening is going to be wasted. Get a call from keerthi that he has already reached Palolem. Traffic eases a bit and i gun the throttle to 100 - 110 at some possible places but there are lot of average killers. Reached Panjim By 9.15 pm and The Light starts to misbehave and in some time its gone! the battery is the culprit. Should have changed when i had the chance in delhi. But now more than a hour of riding i am rendered hid less. The 55w halogen runs but if the battery is not supporting 35w then 55w bulb would drain it in no time. So i have to optimize the usage of the headlight with riding on pilot lamps where every possible. This slows and tires me down even more.

Nearing Margoa, i ask direction from a CBZian for canakona and he says he's heading there. I requested that i would follow him. What a paradox, a zma with hid following a cbz torch light !! It was pretty dark with hardly any traffic and was damn lucky to find the cbzian to guide me through. Reach Palolem beach by 11 pm and its pouring rain just when as i had to park the bike and pull out the luggage. Keerthi had ordered food as the hotel was closing down and i wasted the last order with limca and mineral water. Only to realize later that i could have ordered something else! Well will have to be a good boy tonight. Its been a long time since we met so we take stroll on the beach catchup with times and chit chat. And crash for the day.

Misty morning in Mahabaleshwar...


Riding out of the misty city...


Mossy pathways...


Deviation of the main road towards Kate's point


Trees covered in moss


More of them...


some gyan about kate's point


These monkeys came as close as 2 feet from me trying to intimidate and i stood my ground till they retreated !!





The following 10 shots are the panorama of the view point...





























Some Monkey business...


green slopes...


the drop offs...


lemme pose a bit...


Riding towards Aurther's seat..


Trees almost covered in moss


It gets misty enroute..


More so nearing the aurther seat view point..





more moss again


Pick a path but both are misty...


Nearing Aurther seat view point


Have to get down there but there is no chance of seeing anything so i turn back...


it gets mistier...


Strane green trees


Please have your seat!


Buildings in mahabaleshwar covered with these sheets to prevent the heavy mist from entering and making things damp..


Other buildings covered whole..


Leaving the misty city...


Can you please pick my horse?


The Venna lake...


The green mile again...


the grass hardly exposes the brown soil...


A water fall enroute...





An old man and his sheep...


In panchagani town...





Looking up to the edge of the table land...


Bike on the table land.. Its a natural lawn every where....


Locals visit here on their bikes too...


The horse men trading horse rides...


One puts on a show...


Bike on the lawn...


Get on the bigger table..


Could see one more table land ahead...


There's even a lake up there...


The path is bit slippery have to be carefull...


The unreachable table...


Many carriage rides for tourists...


Its a green carpet....


The inviting table...





Harisons solly visible from table land...


All of a sudden the whole table land gets misted out...


Hard to find the less slippery path i came from...


Made it to the staring area...


Its a carnival atmosphere. Some games...


CBZ's faring used to make mini superbike farings!!





The harrisons solly again...


Now on the harrisons solly..


A cycle hawker emptying his own stock, view gazing on the edge...


Bike on the edge of the solly...





Thats not mike bike btw.. had no time to get a pic like that with my bike...


Then i ride towards the GQ


A village house...


Riding the GQ to save some time..


Strange the left lane is concrete and the right is asphault..


Beautiful GQ


Yeay i am in in Karnataka state for some time...


6 laned Thavandi ghat!


Bangalore milestone... kinda can reach home in the next day... but i still have plans...


pretty farming...


Awesome country road...





Just green green..


Green mile again...


Time to get into the rain gear...


Climbing down the ghat in night

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