Panshet Parikrama Cycling Expedition 2015

180km, 120 participants, 2 days, 1 destination this is what describesPanshet Parikrama .   

A journey of going round of Panshet dam covering beautiful backwaters and near by villages crossing uncountable rugged hill , soothing waterfalls, dark forests. Pashet is my favorite place near to Pune, come monsoon and this place crosses beauty of heaven.   I got to know about this from Mera Event website, n on reading the description i was like :

I am Doing this for Sure

Campsite, taken at 10pm night

Even though i dont do cycling regularly i knew 180km wont be tough. And the ride day arrived, came back from work around 3am in morning, collected stuffs i would be caring, and at 6am started for the pickup point, was not able to get enough sleep. But the excitement was so much was not tired at all, when i reached Vishnu ki Rashoi, which was 2nd pickup point, there were around 3 4 people already waiting and soon many others came and soon the area was crowded with people wearing white tees saying panshet parikrama, approx at 7am carry van came where all participants uploaded their bags n other stuffs.   

Before Turning for Panshet Dam

Refreshment time

Riding Hard in some village

Everyone taking break after lunch

So after warm up, we started towards Khadagwasla dam which was first meet point. Riders from all age group came, some college kids, few school kids, many elders above 40 and others youngsters. So it was a group of people of all generation, and it was obvious that they cant stick together,  n that's the reason we had few meet points after specific distance.   The breakfast point was chimbalkar resort, near to Singhagad fort,  reached there around 9am many were already tired, all had stomach full of breakfast, resort was good and was maintained in beautiful fashion.

Small View of Panshet Dam

Bikes were also taking Rest

After breakfast ride started again, roads till panshet are too good to ride slow and I was riding at 40kmph. Soon my honeymoon period ended as i entered panshet,  took left turn for the real journey to start and then it was all sad journey, as the roads are in bad condition and there were hell lots of uphill and downhill ride. Was scared initially going downhill at full speed, but later during the ride, learned to control my bike and drive easily through rough patches taking full advantage of my MTB. Was also able to take turns as the full gripped tyres helped a lot in controlling my bike, that road was truly for MTB, anything else will keep u worrying and wont let u enjoy. Few hybrids did good job, but rides keep complaining about bad road, but then what kind of offroading event has butter smooth roads.   We reached the camping place at 5pm, had few small breaks for lunch and refreshments in between. Upon reached camping place the happiness and tired ness all disappeared only looking at the tents in between hill surrounded by water from 3 sides. Organizers had really done a awesome job the way event was ,managed, there were many newbies also and belive me no one was left out, everyone enjoyed a lot.

Captured while i was trying some offroading near to lake

Campsite in morning time

We had a backup van for repairing of bike in case of damage, a freshment truck with all food and water. More over there was vikash and his raw adventure team on bike to show was n help.  Hats off to these guys. After 80km  of ride all were exhausted, even then everyone enjoyed the campsite and the cool water around it. Consumed our dinner had lots of gossips about biking, cycling, marathon, bullet and went to sleep.    

While returning back to pune , found this place to have fun

This 15year kid did what most of us wont even think.

Day 2, early morning line up and briefing session.

Next day we started around 9am with national anthem and breakfast. The ride planning to complete next 80km n back to pune by 5pm. As the route was same up n down n blind turns. At 12pm reached Panshet Boating club, had our lunch n started back to pune.     Over all it was an amazing ride, if you are not a regular rider then also u wont face any issues, the event was planned perfectly, no was left behind. There was also a backup and refreshment van at the end.

Campsite after while leaving on day 2

Uphill part while most of riders were trying hard

While getting ready to take a dive