Mountains to Ocean - Motorcycle Diary (750 km/3 days)- Winter 2017

Staying in Lab for the last one month and saving money worth 3000 ( Rent for PG in Bangalore). I have decided to use that money for worthfully somewhere. I came back to Pune after finishing my project in the 17th of December 2017. I and Prasad have decided to go for a long bike ride for 3 days. So, I started planning the bike route and spot where we can go camping and the route was Starting from Pune - Rajgad ( Sanjivani Machi Sunset and stay ) - Satara- Paithan - Amba ghat- Guhaghar- Anjanwel light lamb (night stay)- Beachside ride to the north till Diveagar - Stay at Prasad's House and Next day back to Pune via Tamhini.

So the plan was to leave the home after lunch i.e. 1 PM. I was ready with a backpack and my tent. Prasad was supposed to come to my home at 1.30 pm with his Bullet 350 cc. As usual, he came at 3 pm. We started our journey towards Rajgad via Pune - Satara Highway. We reached the base of the fort at Velhe village around 5 pm. After having buttermilk at the base we immediately started climbing as we did not want to miss the sunset. 

Rajgad from Velhe Village. 

After riding after heavy lunch and with our heavy backpack we started climbing. Both of us were first time on the Rajgad. As we climbed 30 %, Prasad felt dizzy as he did not have lunch. So we decided to stop and take a rest. I was sure about missing the sunset from Sanjivani Machi, so I have made a mind that we will fill up the gap of watching the sunset over millions of stars and clean air on the top. After having orange and water, we have started again climbing and Prasad was not able to climb. So finally we decided better to get down and pitch the tent at the base. I was a bit nervous as I wanted to summit the fort, but we thought about our next 2 days' journey also. So, the decision of staying at the base was a good decision I feel. We started a decline in the low light and it was a bit slippery and we almost lost 50% visibility. Finally, we reached
the base found a place to pitch the tent. 

I could hear Nightjaar's call in the background and I was explaining it to the Prasad. After pitching out the tent we decided to find woods for fire as it was gone be a cold night (warmer than sanjivani machi though). We put the campfire and around 10 pm we had dinner which we bought from the home. Starry roof, buzzing air, Nightjar call in the back, Campfire, and gossip with a friend- the combination was one of the best. 

Both of us were excited about our next adventurous journey, and we decided to leave early in the morning as we need to cover around 200 km of journey on the next day and we wanted to see the sunset from the beach. That was in the plan. I did some photography and filled my photography quota with beautiful stars on the top, the silhouette of Rajgad on the back, and a glowing tent in the front. I used a mobile torch and covered it with a handkerchief to diffuse the excess light inside a tent. 

Light painting with Mobile Torch. 

We slept around 1 AM and decided to leave tomorrow around 7 Am. At around 4 in the morning, we could hear some noise from outside our tent, and found that there was a group of people from Mumbai has come for the trek and their goal was to reach Suvela Machi before sunrise.

We got up at 6 in the morning and were ready for the next adventurous day. 

We were back on the highway around 8 AM and the plan was to see today's sunset from the beach. With 350 cc bullet, 60 km/hr speed is an average speed on the highway. We stopped just before Satara for our heavy breakfast. We had South Indian breakfast and got back on bike. We reached Paithan around 1 PM. We saw a Neera River and people swimming in the river. We have also decided to have a bath in the river on this hot afternoon. The water was chilled though, we took a bath and head back to the Amba Ghat at around 2 PM. 

Both of us were amazed at the landscape of Sahyadri while passing through Amba ghat. We reached the Chiplun at around 4 pm and decided to eat something. I knew the sunset was around 6.21 pm so we have left the time slot for riding back to the beach before sunset. From Chiplun to Guhaghar was hardly 60 minutes ride. So we were enjoying the ride and we knew We gone get the sunset from the beach. 

We saw some people standing over a bridge, so I asked Prasad to stop. There were two wild crocodiles in the river, that was our first ever wild crocodile sighting. 

Did not miss the chance to click on the journey. (Backlight)

After 30 minutes of the ride, we finally reach the beach, yet we could also see the sunset from the beach. We spend 20 minutes on the beach and enjoyed the dusk light. 

As we were on time today, our journey to the campsite was quite far. I always wanted to camp near the lighthouse, and I found a place on the map near Anjanwel which has a lighthouse on the rocky plateau just beside the ocean. Which was around 60 km from Guhaghar Beach. We left the beach at around 7 pm and decided to take the parcel over their only and go to the lighthouse place spot for camping. We were not sure whether we will get food at Anjanvel or not so we decided to take it from Guhaghar only. 

Finally, after searching and driving we reached our destination finally at around 10 pm. We found that lighthouse was inside a big compound wall and there was no proper place to camp beside the lighthouse. So, we decided to head forward and find a place on the plateau just beside the sea. Then we found one person, we asked them for a better place to camp, he suggested us the Dolphin point. We were unaware of that. somehow we found that place and found out that this was one of the best places we have seen before. The endpoint has a very small trail, we parked our bike and started walking. On all three sides of the cliff, there was the ocean. Slowly we reached our final point and found out that people come here to see dolphins. We could see a never ocean in the moonlight and there were some fishing boats very far from the mainland. We clean the place for pitching our tent. There was heavy wind, we were glad that there was a compound wall on the edge, by which we took support for pitching our tent otherwise it was difficult to camp there in open space due to wind. We also had a lighthouse view on our left. This was one of my personal favorite places for camping till now. We enjoyed our dinner along with the beautiful view and we discussed how the fisherman must be living in the ocean for days and weeks. 

            

I took some photos, enjoyed the view, the whole tiredness for the day had gone within a minute after seeing such a wonderful place. How we have started our day from mountains and reach at the ocean for the whole day. We slept around 2 AM that night and we were excited to see the morning view from this place. 

I got up around 6 Am, the cold windy morning was amazing and the view was fantastic. I wish we had time, I was ready to spend another day at that spot. But, today we had to move to the North till Diveagar which was quite far but the journey was along the side of the ocean and we always wanted to do this ride. We sat for some time, we wished we had a tea or coffee along with this view. We saw a boatman was going towards the ocean for fishing, his day had started, a long journey in the middle of the ocean and then fishing for hours or may he must be going to remove the nets which he had set in the night don't know but the long day has started. We also got ready and headed north along the beach. 

We were driving slowly, enjoying the view. We saw one Vasudeva was singing a wonderful song early in the morning and sunrays were falling on the earth, birds were chirping. 

We reached the Parshuram bhumi in Dapoli. Then we had breakfast over there and moved towards Bancoat. We had to put our bikes on a ferry boat and cross the Creek. This experience was also wonderful. We crossed the two creeks by ferry boat. 

From Anjanvel- first, we cross the Vashisht Creek then- Kolthare Beach view point - Dapoli - Bancoat- Harehareshwar- Shrivardhan-and finally Diveagar. 

Kolthare Beach view from top

Araravi beach before Diveagar beach was one of my favorite. There is a road along the side of the Beach for a few kilometers. You can enjoy the view with the ride. We stopped at Shrivardhan for Lunch at around 3 pm. We enjoyed Fish Thali from one of the famous khanawal. 

Araravi Beach 

At around 7 pm we reached Diveagar Beach, which we thought to be our last point of the expedition. Although we have to drive back to Pune. But, as we had reached Prasad's house in Diveagar we thought this could be the end of our journey. So much was new in this journey. The places, the route, the bike we drove, the beaches, the food we had, almost everything was a new experience for both of us. The flocks of Seagulls welcomed us at Diveagar. 

We went the home at around 8 pm had Chicken, made by Prasad's Mom, and slept. The next day, early in the morning we went back to Pune via Tamhini. 

This was our once in life time experience. We will continue going for more such expeditions in future.