15th August 2015, 6:00 am.

Started early with little snacks and in few hrs I was out of Maharashtra borders. You can feel you are in Karnataka, roads feel like heaven decorated with lots of trees and flower plants , peacocks and sky get more colorful and dramatic.

Early mornning breakfast point

Bangalore Highways

To GOA, there us a turning after Nipani which we have to follow and it will end up in Goa highways, crossing some of the beautiful terrains, jungles, waterfalls and streams. Before turning  for GOA, I had my breakfast, meet many bikers of Kolhapur who are again on Enfield doing some Independence Day Ride.

Kolhapur Bikers

But most interesting was when I meet one more cyclist who was riding from Bangalore to Leh. We discussed for hours, regarding respective experience on cycle touring. It was cool meeting this guy, he shared lots of information, as he had already done many rides like this. The coolest guy I meet, he was travelling all alone and he was also happy to see me as mentioned " a cyclist after 13 days of the ride".

This is the cyclist, who is going leh from bangalore

Soon we bid good bye to each other and started towards our respective destinations. Goa is not only about beaches, it holds much more, the flora fauna, the beautiful jungles, majestic  ghat sections, and soon it was raining. Even though I was carrying my raincoat, I didnot used it, was not interested to spoil the fun of riding in rain shirtless. Removed my shirt, shoes and was riding as fast as I can in that rain, it was too fun. Kids crossing  were shouting as I waved my hand.

Who says road bikes cant do offroading

Dark forests before Amboli Ghat

Reached Amboli Ghat around 1pm, being weekend, it was overcrowded resulting police had to jumpin for creating space for ongoing vehicles. One of most beautiful and picturesque place to be in monsoon, complete valley was covered with green and colorful trees, with clouds passing by making the place like heaver. I spend few minutes enjoying whole scenario and started , after that it was downhill for 10 to 15km. I had to be cautious of bad roads, but there were none, that 30 min was best moment of the whole ride, crossing effortlessly.

These guys took lots of my photographs

Amboli Ghat Waterfalls

After Amboli Ghat I entered the last city of Maharashtra, Sawantwadi. a simple and beautiful city surrounded by mountains with a lake in between which is a popular place in the city. I spent some time relaxing and enjoying the evening sun going down. It was slowly getting dark I was approx 50km more from Mapusa, increased my speed to reach my destination in time.

But guess my fate was bored of all good things that happened to me. And the real game started. The highway was  too dark and only light I was having was a small torch and the ongoing veichles, adding to my misery  there were many small but very bad patches which are enough to bring a road bike down to earth. I missed one such pothole a  very small one, and then,

"Thud, thud"

And I knew the inevitable had happened.  I was stuck in a dark highway 50km before goa, surrounded by dense forests, with no lights and with my bike gone flat.



But there is always a hope, saw a small restaurant nearby,  went there and started repairing, as I was riding a road bike, so the tyres are different, glad I had one extra tube, changed it, repaired the second one. After 4 to 5  trial and struggle which lasted for 2 hrs I was ready with my bike, but it was not in perfectly repaired. Seems im not jack of all trades after all.

With a broken bike,, plus the uphills and the dark rainy night, I was sure, not even superman can help me to reach Mapusa City

Somewhere around 11pm , I managed to enter goa, found one resturant, had my dinner. After talking with restaurant owner, he allowed me to camp in resturant itself, as I was his last customer and he was anyway going to close. Problem solved. Spent few hrs talking with the cook and guard regarding my trip. Sometime it is really fun to talk and spend time with strangers. That night I can never forget.

16th Aug 2015, 6.30am
Woke up. packed tents and other stuffs, repaired bike properly and after a good breakfast I was again on the road enjoying beautiful morning of Goa. Everywhere it is green and clean, not much crowd, cheap rates and awesome weather. Sun was shining bright as if welcoming me to my destination.

Resturant where I camped at night

Morning Breakfast

In few hrs I was at Calangute Beach, had awesome breakfast, a bear, went to shack and spent rest day  having fish, resting , enjoying beach and cool breeze of sea.

Calangute Beach

Fort Augwada, took my bike inside as there was no security.

In this whole trip I saw lots of ups and down literally, meet so many people, spent best time being myself, enjoyed riding in rain, playing in water stream, eating most tasty food, talking to many people about my self, my trip. Over all , this trip gave me things which I was carving for long. Complete Freedom. Now what can be better way than this to celebrate the Independence Day.

As I am already done with all those Independence Day rallies which happen in Pune city. Most of the groups, be it the motorbike, cycle, running, photography all do their respective Independence day ride.

2015, I wanted to celebrate in some better way. As it is the monsoon, a weird IDEA popped up.

"How about a cycling road trip to GOA, exploring different places and  as per google maps it is approximately 425km, and as per my calculation it would take me 2 days."

Took Leave from Office. Had the call with Viaterra guys, for a cycling bag, they managed to send me a handlebar bag which was big enough for 2-3 day ride.

14th August 2015, 6.00am

When everyone was busy getting ready for office and most of IT guys were waiting at the bus stop, I packed my bag, tied my tent, sleeping bag, raincoat on the back carrier of the bike. Tied the Viaterra Handle Bar bag with some clothes and left. I had already received the road bike from the bike store 1 day prior on rental. And soon I was out of city cruising in highway enjoying music, calm weather as there was no rain, but clouds make the climate cooler. Most of motorcycle, car drivers, trucks were crossing me giving me a weird look. And all I did is smile at them.

This thing continued, captured photographs, selfies, videos. Road where not that good for a road bike, there were many bad patches which forced me to slow down, just to avoid going flat. I stopped at regular intervals, had water and refreshments and again started. There are lots of uphills and downhill, where down last for the fraction of seconds, uphill goes on for hours, sometimes it gets irritating. Anyway I was at the advantage due to my road bike and 27 gear ratio helped me a lot.

The best part of my trip started when I crossed Satara which was 100km from Pune, as the roads after that were in good conditions and I was able to take full advantage of having a road bike. And many times people use to come by and ask same old questions.

Where am I going? 
Where am I from? 
Am I  in some kind of race. and when I mention I am going GOA in the cycle. all of them had some expression. and it was too funny sometimes.

What  I loved is people are not that bad either, many wished me for my trip. Many enjoyed talking with me, some also took my photographs and it was an overall new experience which I never had during motorbike trips. Every solo trip I did it helped me a lot, to learn many new amazing things which I would have never learned.

Soon it was dark and I reached Kolhapur by 9 pm, 200km done for Day 1. Booked a lodge near to highway for 400 bucks. Already was in lot pain and, was dehydrated badly so had my dinner and what an awesome sleep I had.



Hoping for next day to recover and reach my destination in time.